by R. A. Mejia
Greebo looked at me oddly then suddenly struck out with a straight jab to my faceplate, sending a single red 1 off into the air as it did minimum damage. “That didn’t hurt?”
I rubbed the place he’d hit and shrugged. “Nope. Though, that doesn’t mean that I like being beat up. I’d rather save the resources to fix myself for crafting.”
“If you’re ok with it and it doesn’t really hurt you, then that’s a great idea.” He tilted his head as if he’d just thought of something. “We could even make a training session out of it. Spar and stuff. I know Manny needs to work on blocking damage for a class quest of his, and the twins have one for doing damage like me. We could knock them out all at once.”
“I like the idea. Let’s get that organized.”
“We could do it tomorrow. The guys have wanted a day off from the dungeon anyway.”
I agreed to the schedule and Greebo’s excitement toned down as we reached the Tipsy Minotaur and walked through the entrance. Greebo was greeted by the bartender but gave a hearty reply as he scanned the bar. The Divas and our team spread out through the venue, taking several tables and ordering food and drink. Unlike the night before, there were virtually no grumbles from the bar’s regulars.
I was about to join Dannie Diva to ask what she thought of my portable walls, when Greebo grabbed my arm and said quietly, “Follow me, Repair. My informant in the Scavenger Guild is here. I think he has some information about that robbery.”
Greebo gestured with a nod of his head to a dark corner of the bar. There was a tall figure in dark armor sitting at a small table with his back to the wall. I couldn’t see the guy's face, but I followed my friend as he walked up to the table. I was surprised to find Tim, the hobgoblin that had been guarding the guild the last time I was there.
Tim wore his black leather armor with a sheathed sword at his waist, and he was drinking the last dregs of a wheat beer that was the same shade of yellow as the hobgoblin’s wrinkled skin. He saw us approaching and nodded but seemed to press himself further back into the shadows as if he didn’t want to be seen there.
Greebo pulled up a chair, and I sat down next to him as he greeted the hobgoblin. “Hello, Tim. Thanks for coming down here. Can I get you something to eat or another beer?”
The hobgoblin looked around the bar nervously and shook his head. “Nah, this here is my second one already. I just wanna give you what you wanted and get home.”
Greebo nodded understandingly, “Then let's get right to it.” Tim looked over silently at me, but Greebo quickly added, “Anything you can tell me, you can tell him.”
Tim shrugged and said, “Just so you know, what I’m about to tell you is based on what I’ve seen and heard at the guild. I may be a level 16 Scavenger, but the guild master uses me as a guard, and I’ve become scenery to most people. As a result, they talk more freely than they should.” The hobgoblin reflexively picked up his glass to take a drink then remembered that he had just finished it and put it back on the table with a sigh before continuing. “You asked me to look for any goblins in the guild that were acting suspiciously--maybe someone using their guild trained skills to rob adventurers. It was something that your pa was dead set against since it made us all look bad. But I found more than just one goblin that might be stealing.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, most untrained thieves can’t help but show off their good fortune when they get a good score. They start buying things they shouldn’t be able to afford or try selling more loot than they could have gotten from the dungeon on their own.”
“So, how many people did you find that were spending more than they should be able to?”
“Seven.”
“Seven?” Greebo asked incredulously and motioned to me, “We were just looking for one rogue goblin Scavenger.”
“Seven in the same guild are too many to be a coincidence. It implies some kind of organization, especially if you’ve seen them selling their stolen loot through the guild. How has the guild master not noticed this?” I asked.
Tim looked down at his empty glass and swallowed as if he suddenly wished he had something to drink again. Then he answered, “I think he has noticed. Seen him meet with several of the Scavengers that have been spending too much.”
I looked at Greebo and asked, “Do you think he’s trying to do the same thing as us? Find out who’s using the guild to steal? Or...”
“Or is he the one organizing everything?” Greebo finished for me with a scowl on his face. “My father formed the guild to uplift us. It was a place for us to learn skills that would make us valuable members of an adventuring team and not just low wage employees. But since Guild Master Dobliao has taken over, it's felt more like a street gang with the emphasis on bringing in loot and coin. I don’t know that Dobliao is organizing the thieving, but I don’t doubt he’s getting a cut of the profits.”
The glass in Tim’s hands cracked as his grip tightened, but he didn’t seem to notice as he said, “It’s a crime in the guild to get involved with stealing.” He looked at Greebo and said, “Your pa made it part of the guild charter so that we’d never be what the lighties accused us of, being nothing but thieves and murderers. If Guild Master Dobliao is part of this group of thieves, he needs to be stopped before he topples everything your pa built.”
Greebo nodded his agreement and asked Tim, “Do you think you can find out where these thieving Scavengers are meeting up? Where they are hitting people in the dungeon?”
Tim stood up and said as he left, “I can try. For your pa.”
Greebo and I sat there after the hobgoblin left. He brooded, drank, and thought, and I lent him my support by being there for him. I didn’t take the silent behavior personally. I knew Greebo was thinking about his father and the legacy he had left behind. Greebo had tried in his own way to live up to that legacy by helping the Dark Races like his father had. It’s part of the reason we’d used our savings to buy classes for our goblin teammates.
After an hour my friend got up and left without a word. I let him go, knowing he’d talk when he was ready. In the meantime, I had work of my own to do.
Chapter 31 - Level 7
Devena had explained the basic rules that the various mining companies had unofficially agreed to. Small nodes were only mined by one group, and the first to start working got the node. Medium nodes could support up to six miners, and depending on the size of the teams, one or two groups would share the node. Large resource nodes would support eight to twelve miners, so two to three groups. However, since the dungeon sent more monsters after larger groups of miners, it was generally accepted that not more than two groups should mine the same node, or they risked being overwhelmed by the sheer number of monsters sent against them.
We, on the other hand, used this to our advantage and purposefully chose smaller nodes that could be easily defended. Our large group drew in more monsters, and we took full advantage of that to farm XP. The portable barriers made all the difference in fending off the waves of monsters that attacked us. Not only did they provide us with a safe place to shoot from, but they also controlled where the monsters could attack. Each barrier was separated by about four to five feet, and the monsters consistently funneled through that small space. Our fighters were able to stab, slash, and bash them without fear of being overwhelmed. Manny, in particular, seemed to become a bulwark against the waves of monsters. His high armor class and his Defender abilities meant that he could defend a choke point all day long while the ranged attacks killed the monsters from above as long as he wasn’t facing too many opponents. The barriers eventually broke after enough damage, but I was there to repair them, and with the abundance of wood on the level, it wasn’t hard to find materials.
We got a late start because everyone got drunk at the Tipsy Minotaur. Both the goblins and the Divas squinted and shaded their eyes against the noontime sun, and they were all glad to get inside the dungeon. Dannie used a special skill to locate the closest resource node, b
ut when we got there, we found it being worked by a small group of four human miners.
The largest man in the group was about six feet tall, had thinning blond hair, and was wearing a sleeveless shirt that showed off his muscular arms. He pointed his pick at us and said, “Turn your group around or face the wrath of our company.”
I stepped forward, hands held palm out, and said, “No need to be troubled. We’re just looking for a place to mine. I can see you have a good medium-sized node there. More than just the four of you can work before the end of the day. If you’d be interested, we could share the node with you and provide protection from the monsters that will undoubtedly show up soon.”
“We’re doing good on our own. Not more than four or five monsters show up in an hour, and we deal with them just fine. If the lot of you join, we’ll be facing ten times that number.”
“I can assure you that we’ve worked out a great system to fend off the additional monsters and increase…”
The man’s pick glowed red, and he raised it up, ready to attack. His eyes glanced at the goblins and women behind me, and he said, “Just go. I don’t want any part of some dangerous goblin scheme, and our company gives us plenty for bringing in our ore.”
I doubted their company really gave a rat's ass about them considering they’d not provided any guards to protect their miners. But I kept my opinion to myself, shrugged, and backed away. “We’ll go. I’m sure there are plenty of others that would be willing to take a slightly bigger risk for some big gains.”
We left and Dannie used her Miner’s abilities to find us another node, but we found it a real challenge finding a resource node that we could use without having to fight with another group. The Divas’ miners found resource nodes, but they were already occupied by other groups.
No other group wanted to take the risks we did despite our assurances that we could defend everyone.
We heard the sound of the picks mining rocks before we saw the next resource node. As we stepped from under the forest canopy, we saw six miners working one of the largest I’d seen yet with thick veins of iron throughout the rocks that stood six and seven feet high out of a hill. Before we could get closer, a cry went out from a man standing on top of the hill. “Guards, we have intruders. Attack!”
Five armed and armored figures, a mixture of dwarves and humans raced across the hill towards us. They all glowed with abilities being activated and didn’t seem too keen on hearing our pitch for sharing the node. I saw our fighters push through the miners and set themselves to fight. So, I made the decision and called out, “Retreat. It’s not worth killing these guys for some ore.”
The words slowed the guards, and I saw some relieved expressions on some of their faces. I realized they were only doing what they were ordered to do, and while I didn’t hold it against them, I wouldn’t lose any sleep if they attacked my people and we had to kill them. We retreated, not turning our backs to the guards who halted five feet from us and did not make any more aggressive moves. When we were well within the trees and out of sight of the guards, we turned and headed to the next node.
After a few more hours, we found an empty resource node that Dannie identified its metal as tin. There were two types of metal resources on the sixth level of the dungeon: tin and iron. The iron nodes were more hotly contested as it was the more valuable metal with virtually no one interested in the tin ones. We mined and defended the tin node we found, and while it wasn’t the best haul, with my ability to deconstruct the ore into a pure, refined state, we still managed to make a decent profit for the day.
We learned our lesson, though, and showed up the next day bright and early so that we could find our own node. Each day after we fought monsters and mined with little variation, and by the end of the week I’d earned 10,768 XP.
In addition, I raised my Firearms skill to level 5 and Trap Making to level 10. Getting another skill to level 10 meant that I could get a new ability, and the trainer I found through the Trap Vendor gave me several options. Some made the traps I used harder to spot, some increased the speed I could set them up, and some made it more likely for me to spot game trails, but none really fit how I used the traps. I fabricated the traps I used so most of the offered abilities wouldn’t do much for me. Instead, I took the ability named Grit of the Trapper, which increased my constitution by one point. It only added 6 HP to my total, but it was better than any of the other choices.
I also made sure to hold back some of the tin and iron we mined to make steel and bronze for my crafting each night. By fabricating good quality steel nails and imbuing them each night, I had completed the class quests:
Quality Assurance III: Fabricate 600 good quality items
Magic Hands II: Imbue 500 items
At that point, I shifted my attention to the more difficult quests.
Practice makes perfect III: Fabricate 1,000 large items
Mechanical Healer III: Repair 1,000 hit points
Each night, I alternated between fabricating and deconstructing large thin sheets of copper, damaging and repairing myself, and damaging and repairing my old shield. The increased difficulty in completing the level III quests made me realize that I really needed to invest in my efficiency abilities more if I was going to finish the quests any time soon. It wasn’t a matter of just putting in the time: it was a matter of getting better at my core abilities. That meant putting in class points to the appropriate ability not practicing, which yielded another 2,249 XP, just enough to get me over to line to my next level.
So, twenty-one days after the gnome council issued their challenge to me and only because of the increased XP gains in the dungeon due to the waves of monsters, did I finally reach level seven. Part of me was excited to have reached such a big goal. I not only got more health, mana, a new stat and class skill point, but I also unlocked the level seven aspect of my Inventor specialization. But another part of me was worried as I did the math and saw I was still behind schedule.
Name: Repair
Race: Metalman
Class: Artificer (Inventor) Level 7
XP to Next Level: 33,978 XP
Weight: 140 lbs
Carrying Capacity: 165/180 lbs
Stat point Available: 1
Class point Available: 5
Money: 78 silver
AC: 15 + 2 Shield
HP: 52/52
Mana: 52/52
Str: 12
Dex: 13
Con: 11
Int: 16
Wis: 10
Cha: 10
The sun was just starting to set when I left the dungeon and returned to the Institute to research what my new level brought me and to apply my stat and class point. If I was going to spend time figuring out what the new abilities meant, I wanted to do so in front of my gnome handlers so that they’d take the time off my debt to them.
“Ok, guys. It's a red-letter day for Metalman research. I hit level seven today, I have unlocked a new ability from my Inventor specialization, and I plan to use my latest class point to get a new ability. So, let's get started.”
“What specific abilities are you going to show us?” Tognomey asked.
“How about I show instead of tell?” I responded and pulled up the notification I’d gotten when I reached level 7.
You are level 7 and are now able to access your Mobile Workroom. Please initiate when ready.
I said, “Command: Initiate Mobile Workroom.”
I heard the groan of metal and felt a pressure in my frame. When I looked down, I saw a vertical line appear along the center of my torso, and my chest plates opened up, revealing my inner workings, the gears, pistons, wires, screws, nuts, and bolts. In the center was a fist-sized glowing blue orb that had runes etched into its metal housing, and energy was flowing from the orb to the rest of my body. A bright blue light projected from the orb.
I didn’t know what I was expected to do, but I knew that having my chest open up was a huge vulnerability, and I was fortunate that I hadn’t d
ecided to test the new ability while I was in the dungeon.
“That blue light, is that coming from his core or somewhere else?” Tognomey asked.
Gnomerad rolled his eyes. “Where else do you think it’s coming from? You can see directly into his chest cavity. I haven’t seen his insides since we revived him, and it looks like his internal systems have changed.” He peered into my chest intently, extended one finger and poked the glowing blue orb, causing it to spark.
“Hey, watch where you’re putting that finger. That’s sensitive.” I said. I didn’t really know if it was sensitive, but I assumed that anything that needed to be protected by thick armor plating wasn’t meant to be poked and prodded.
Tognomey agreed with me, “Yes, do be careful Gnomerad. That’s the energy source that powers him. We worked for months on integrating that piece and getting it running.”
Please add workroom items to the storage field.
I told the gnomes about the notification that had appeared in my vision then asked the Metalman OS. “Query: What are workroom items?”