by R. A. Mejia
After getting the two settled, Lillian comes back to the living room to find me looking at some of the photos on the walls. She walks over, and I point out the photo of the two of us from the Halloween party. I’m standing awkwardly in the photo in my Dracula costume, but Lillian looks gorgeous in her dress.
Without thinking about it, I say the first thought that comes to my head as I look at the photo. “We look pretty cute together, don’t we?”
Lillian blushes, but ignores my question. Instead, she asks a more practical one. “Do you need me to purchase you some pajamas too? I can buy you some with the Peanuts gang on them.”
I feel my cheeks blush as I realize either my mom or my sister must have told her that I slept with a stuffed Snoopy until I was 13 years old. I mentally give her props for the jab. “No, I don’t think I can go to sleep yet. I’m too wound up from everything.” I’ve been dreading telling Lilian something, but it has to be said. “Lillian.”
“Yes?”
“There’s something I haven’t told you. I wasn’t just killed once by the masked man but repeatedly. So many times in fact that I lost a couple of levels. I don’t qualify anymore for the System Games.”
Lillian scoffs and pats my chest. “You don’t have to worry about any of that anymore. You and your family have been through so much. I can’t ask you to continue risking your life just for my company. I’m letting you out of your contract with the company so you won’t be associated with me anymore.”
I’m stunned by the statement and blurt out the first thing that comes to my mind. “No! You can’t do that to me.”
“I’m doing this for you. Not to you.”
“I refuse to let you let me out of the contract.” I have to think for a second to make sure that makes sense. “Yeah, that’s right.” Seeing that Lillian doesn’t understand, I continue, “I want to keep working for you. No, I need to keep working for you. The guy who tried to kill my family and me was working for someone. If I quit, then they win, and that is not something I’m going to let happen.”
“But what about your family? What if he comes back for you while you're out training?”
“Well, you’ve already said you’ll provide security for my mom and sister, right?” She nods, and I continue, “As far as I go,” I gather the beginnings of a fireball in my hand, “I hope the bastard does try to attack me again. I’m going to be ready for him.”
Lillian understands that this is important to me, and she doesn’t try to convince me to quit again. Instead, the two of us spend the next hour making plans to get me back to level 10. After working out our plans, she shows me to my room, and I give her a hug goodnight. The hug turns into an embrace, and I feel her return the sentiment. I push away slightly and look down on the beautiful woman that’s been such an amazing support tonight. No, not just tonight but ever since she first found me passed out on my college campus. I realize that she’s the most amazing woman I’ve ever met and that she has the most beautiful blue eyes I’ve ever seen. I lean down to kiss her. The world around me seems to explode as our lips meet. I don’t know how long the kiss lasts, but I find that I’m breathless when our lips part.
She’s the first to push away. She bites her lower lip and wrings her hands as if she’s forcing herself to do something. She takes one step back. Then another until her back is pressed against the wall. She says goodnight, turns around and practically runs to her room. I’m left standing there, open mouthed, wondering if I did the right thing by kissing her or if I just ruined a perfectly good friendship.
I open the door to my room and lie in bed. But it’s quite a long time before I fall asleep.
Chapter 42
The next morning, my mom insists on making breakfast for everyone. She makes menudo, which is a Mexican soup made with beef broth, hominy, lime, onions, cilantro, oregano, red chili peppers, and tripe. Where she got the ingredients from, I don’t know, but the meal is a delicious comfort food for my sister and me. My mom even shows Lillian how to make the soup, which is rare because she’s always insisted on her recipes staying in the family.
While the four of us eat, I notice that things are a little awkward between Lillian and me. She barely looks at me during breakfast, and I’m seriously worried the kiss last night ruined things. Thankfully, we get some time to ourselves when my mom and Marie leave to shop for new clothes and stuff to replace the things that were destroyed in the fire.
Once my family leaves, I confront Lillian about things. “Lillian. I’m sorry if I overstepped last night. I’ve been having feelings about you for a while now and it all just spilled out. I didn’t mean to ruin things between us.”
Lillian listens to me, then tilts her head as if considering things carefully before answering, “Anthony, you didn’t ruin things. That kiss last night was wonderful. You can’t know how many times I’d thought about being with you.”
I can’t help but grin. So Lillian does like me, and I didn’t ruin things. Even better, she enjoyed the kiss too. For a minute there I was afraid I’d lost my mojo.
I move to hold her hand, but she takes a step back and continues, “But I don’t think now is the time to start a relationship. The two of us need to focus on getting you leveled up and ready for the System Games. Once that’s finished, then we’ll have the time to deal with us.”
I don’t think it’s fair or necessary to put off whatever this is between the two of us, and for the next ten minutes, I do my utmost to convince her of that. I try to argue that going out on dates won’t interfere with my training, but she’s adamant. After realizing that I can’t change her mind, I sigh in disappointment.
Lillian, realizing that I’ve given up for now, quickly changes topics to training and what she has scheduled for the month.
“With only four weeks till the Dungeon Games start, it’s going to take a ton of work to get you from level 8 to level 10. Thankfully, you have the full support of our company and Ludas Inc. After they heard about the attempt by another corporation to murder a System User permanently, most of the System corporations filed formal complaints to the Oversight Committee.” Seeing the confused look on my face, she continues, “They’re not doing us a favor or anything. They’re acting in their self-interest. After all, what’s to stop the same tactic from being used against them?”
“And Ludas Inc.? What do they have to do with my training?”
“Well, our friend Harold over there has convinced his boss that helping us benefits them. He’s spun it so that they look like knights in shining armor coming to help the new corporation on the block. The result is that Ludas Inc. has agreed to give us a deal on security protection and power leveling services. It’s not something I’d normally consider spending money on, but we honestly need the help if we’re going to get you back to level 10 before the end of the month.”
A notification pops up in front of Lillian, and she tells me, “They just sent me a message requesting we meet them at a dungeon. Hurry up and change.”
I watch Lillian tap her inventory screen, and her clothes change from her PJs to jeans, a t-shirt, and a leather jacket.
Looking down at my work uniform, I realize that I don’t have any other clothes. Everything I had likely burnt up in the fire. Gesturing at my clothes, I tell Lillian, “I don’t have any other clothes. So, I guess I’m ready to go.”
“Wait, don’t you have a change of clothes in your inventory or the armor you wear when you go into the dungeon?”
“Uh, no. I kept them all in my room to free up space in my inventory. I only have like nine inventory spaces, and it all gets full pretty quickly with loot. So I’m used to storing everything in my room. You know, my home base.”
She shrugs, “Ok then go there and change.”
“But you said that my house burnt down. Isn’t everything in my room gone too?”
She scoffs, “Well, only if you were an idiot and didn’t upgrade your home base with fire protection. But only a complete moron would—” She doesn’t finish th
e sentence as she sees the look on my face. “You did upgrade your home base like the guidebook recommended, right?”
“Well, I never really finished reading the guidebook. When I looked up the home base upgrades, everything seemed so expensive I put them all out of my mind and forgot about them.”
Lillian gives me a look like I’m an idiot and I see her left eye twitch in annoyance. “Then yeah. Everything you had there is gone.” She shakes her head once. “Upgrading their protection against fire and natural disasters are usually the first things people do when they get their home base. It’s like buying insurance for your home. Sure you probably won’t ever use it, but you’d be sorry if you needed it and didn’t have it. So the expense is worth it.” She shrugs. “Oh, well. You can add the upgrades when you transfer your home base.”
“Huh?”
She takes a deep breath before continuing, “Anthony. I swear to god that I’m going to hit you if you don’t finish reading that guidebook soon. You do know you can transfer your home base’s location, right?”
“I recall reading that somewhere. You can change your base’s location for a fee? But isn’t my base destroyed now?”
“No. Your house was destroyed. Your home base is part of the System. It still exists along with all the upgrades you never seemed to purchase. When you find a new place to live you can pay the fee to get that same home base transferred to a new location. I recommend you get a System locker upgrade for your base when you do. It will hold all your stuff and transfer with your home base when you move it.”
Another message pops up in front of Lillian, and she tells me, “Well, we’re going to be late. So I guess you’re going to dungeon dive in your work uniform today.”
The reference to my uniform reminds me that I never called my boss at the Quickie Stop Mart. I have to borrow Lillian’s phone to make the call since I broke mine when I was kidnapped. Mr. Smith isn’t mad that I never showed up and is just happy that my family and I weren’t home when the fire broke out. He’s kind enough to offer us his home as a place to for us to stay, but I assure him we’ve already made arrangements. He’s surprised when I ask for some time off, but he understands that I need to take care of my family and find a new place to live.
After I hand Lillian back her phone, the two of us leave her home base and port near the location given by Ludas Inc. Walking through the port, I find myself standing in the middle of an unfamiliar city. A sweltering heat hits me, and I feel myself begin to sweat immediately. Wherever we are, summer is not kind here.
Lillian pulls up her phone and leads me through the city; crossing streets crowded with cars and people. We arrive at an abandoned looking building a few minutes later only to find two groups of armed men facing off against each other. One has the Arschloch Corporation logo on their armor; the other has Ludas Inc. logo.
I recognize Harold among the security team and walk up to him. He shakes my hand and explains that the Arschloch Corporation is trying to claim exclusive rights to the dungeon.
“Yeah, they pulled this on us too. Every time we tried to get into a decent dungeon, we’d find Arschloch waiting for us with their security team.”
Harold shakes his head, “Well, they’re not getting away with that tactic today.” He pulls out his cell phone and makes some calls. Within ten minutes, three dozen other security teams appear on site. They have the logos of four separate corporations.
There’s a tense moment when I’m sure that fighting is going to break out, but then a man in a suit appears and talks to the Arschloch security team. They reluctantly stand down and give access to the dungeon. I guess with the scrutiny from the Oversight Committee, the Arschloch corporation doesn’t want to appear like their impeding another System User. Though I’m sure, the show of force from the other corporations didn’t hurt either.
The dungeon itself isn’t that amazing. It’s a level 6 dungeon with a fantasy theme. The group from Ludas Inc. switches over from guns to bows and crossbows since the dungeon restricts the level of technology allowed. The big quest is to defeat the Evil One that lives on Mount Gloom and drop a magic toe ring into a volcano. From the description from the quest giver, we’re expected to travel through forests and plains and gather allies along the way to defeat the mighty army waiting for us before; we can get access to Mount Gloom. I roll my eyes at the dungeon’s Tolkien rip off.
While normally I’d follow all the questlines and kill every monster I came across, the team from Ludas Inc. has other ideas. One of their members pulls out a crystal ball to magically scout out the most efficient path to Mount Gloom. With the route established, another member of the security team casts another spell and horses appear for everyone. The horses must have some enchantment on them because we speed through the vast landscape. I’m a little concerned that we seem to be skipping all the parts in LOTR where a fellowship is gathered but we’re making really good time. We’re attacked several times by Goblins riding giant gerbils and a small army of orcs. We even fight a group of giant centipedes as we cross through a forest. I get some solid hits by using Fireball and Ice Needle, and everyone likes the debuff I lay on the enemy with that ability I got from Krampus, Naughty Children. However, what I can do is nothing compared to what the Ludas security team does. They wipe the floor with everyone they fight. Their bowmen rain magically enhanced arrows down on their enemies and their swordsmen slice through enemies with flaming swords. We’re moving at such a rapid pace that I don’t even have time to use Absorb on any of the monster corpses. We even capture giant flying condors and use them to avoid the armies waiting for us, and they drop us off right at the edge of Mount Gloom. While I’m exhausted; we reach Mount Gloom after only eight hours of travel and battle. I toss the toe ring into the volcano, and the dungeon disappears around us. It’s already nighttime in the city.
All told, I get 4832 XP from finishing the dungeon and killing the monsters inside. I think I could have gotten more XP if we’d taken the long way through the quest and followed all the sub quests, but Lillian points out that it would have taken at least a week to complete the dungeon that way. The security team takes off once the dungeon is done and Lillian and I head back to her place to get dinner. We find John entertaining my mom and Marie in the office.
Sitting around the dinner my mom made, we all talk about our days. Lillian and I talk about the dungeon. Marie and my mom talk about their exploration of the city in the morning and their concern when they came back and found they couldn’t get back in the office. John had to let them in and explain about the security measures in place to prevent unauthorized access. He also explained where Lillian and I had gone off to. My mom and Marie spent most of the day trying to be useful. My mom organized the office, and Marie read through the literature about the System. We all go to bed happy that everyone is safe and I’m making progress towards getting back to level 10.
The following weeks all follow a similar pattern to that first day. I still have a massive 33,568 XP to recover before I get back to level 10. That means I have to average over a thousand XP a day to get back to level 10. Every few days, Ludas Inc. escorts Lillian and me through a dungeon. Rarely are they able to find a high-level dungeon, but the few times they do, they’re a near confrontation with the Arschloch Corporation. At one point in the month, I even stop working with Lillian and John too. If we want to compete in the same brackets for the System Games, we need to be within three levels of each other. So, once Lillian and John hit level 13, they can’t work with me anymore.
Instead, I group up with security personnel from Ludas Inc. Most of the time they act as a backup on the dungeons, just to prevent me from being overwhelmed. They stay out of the way and let me kill everything, but the emphasis is definitely on clearing the dungeons as soon as possible. Sure, I would typically milk a high-level dungeon for a couple of days, but we just don’t have time. I have to get about 1100 XP a day if I’m going to make it back to level 10 by the end of the month. I almost have to clear a low-level dungeo
n a day to make it. But somehow, I do. By the last day of July, I finally hit level 10.
I realized while training that one of the things I kept running into as a limiter of my options was just how small my inventory is. I have 77 skill points saved up, and I decide to use some of them to increase my inventory. I also craft my own particular combat style. While power leveling, I had plenty of opportunities to nail down how I fight best. I found that I liked attacking at a distance and using traps to slow down and damage my opponent. However, my aim sucks. So instead of using a high precision weapon like a sniper rifle, my primary ranged weapon is a grenade launcher. It doesn’t do much damage on its own, but I have a variety of special ammunition that does damage and adds special effects or even sets traps. My backup melee weapon, should an enemy get close, is a hammer. It’s not the weapon I do the most damage with, but that’s why it’s the backup weapon.
Trap Making is the one I put the most skill points into since the higher the skill, the more trap recipes I have access to craft. Next is Explosives since it adds options to create mine type traps and explosive grenade ammo. Plus, the skill has the secondary effect of increasing the damage explosives do. Next is Ranged Combat, which increases the range and damage of my grenade launcher. Lastly comes expanding my inventory space. One downside of being dependent on crafted items is that they take up a lot of space. Even though the same types of items stack, I’m still using a wide variety of items.