Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 2

by DoctorHepa

  “That’s great,” I said. “We’ll go check them out.”

  “You do that,” the gnoll said. “Now let me finish this bottle.”

  * * *

  “If he is important,” Donut said as we left the bar, “we still haven’t figured out why. All he did was blabber on about stuff we could figure out without him.”

  “Agreed,” I said.

  Both the repair station and the armory were indeed looted. There were empty wooden cases of hob-lobbers sitting on shelves in the repair station, along with multiple tables and empty tool shelves. There was something called a Repair Bench that was stupidly left behind by whomever had looted the place. I took it along with the plain tables and the shelves and the empty boxes. The armory was similarly empty, though it was filled with metal shelves designed to hold spears along with forty wooden mannequins designed to hold armor. I took them all.

  From there we returned to the small yard just off the tracks. A line of carts sat there, parked in rows. In addition, six portals stood at the end of the small yard. The first five were attached to tracks. The smaller, sixth portal was up on a landing and was meant to be walked through. This last one, I realized, was a way to get to additional platforms, similar to the one at station sixty. If we went through the portal, it’d lead to more portals eventually leading to various colored platforms. The map would help us walk to platforms we’d already traveled to, but the whole system gave me a headache. I was glad we didn’t have to deal with it. I turned my attention to the five, larger portals.

  I moved to the portals before we investigated the carts. Each of the five were up against a wall, meaning none of them were pass-through portals. A manual switching station allowed one to choose which of the tracks to enter. There was a small sign above each station.

  The first was a one-way portal that led to trainyard C. The little sign could only be read using my Escape Plan skill, and it simply said, “Trainyard.” I took a screenshot, and trainyard C was a burned-out mess. A pair of large, ogre-sized ghouls stalked across the trainyard, headed for the distant, knocked-over gate. Were those wrath ghouls? Yikes.

  The next four portals were a little more complicated. Each sign was a long list of colored lines, each one different. Each portal had a list of 48 different colors, from Orange to Amaranth to Pink to Zomp. On each of the four lists, the colors were numbered from one to 48. I examined the first of the portals using my skill.

  Ultima Corp DungeonWerx Industrial Subspace Multi-Destination Light-Duty Portal.

  Analyze? Yes/No.

  I clicked Yes, and I scrolled to the bottom of the list.

  Type: One-way, selectable portal. Requires DungeonWerx Portal Selector to dial destination. If no selection is made, portal defaults to selection one: Orange Line.

  Can you pass this portal? Yes

  Environment on other side of portal: Compatible.

  Visual Analysis? Yes/No.

  I clicked Yes, and all I could see was a regular train track. I assumed it was the orange line, but I had no idea where on the line it would be.

  “It looks like they can dial a destination and drive there, but I don’t know how they get back,” I said. “They probably have to go all the way to the end, but I’m not sure.”

  From there, we moved to investigate the carts. There were three different types. The first was a simple, flatbed cart with two sets of four wheels on it. Each of the battered, well-worn carts was about the size of a small car. It had no controls. Just a hitch on the back along with holes around the edges, likely so equipment or a railing could be attached. This cart was like a trailer designed to be attached to the other, powered carts.

  I tried to pick it up, and even with my strength I couldn’t do it. I could lift one end up and drag the whole thing, but there was no way I could put the whole cart into my inventory. Just one set of four wheels and axle alone felt as if they weighed more than a ton and a half by themselves, and there were two of them. That plus the heavy wood made the prospect impossible. Even Katia couldn’t do it with her mass maxed out. Not yet.

  The next cart was the same thing, but with an engine on the back, like an outboard motor, with a few additional controls, including a strange, glowing switch that appeared to be magical. This was by far the most common type of cart. It was basically a flatbed we could use to ride on the rails. I examined its properties.

  Interdiction Auxiliary Railway Repair Cart. Contraption.

  Main Passenger-Line Gauged.

  The simplest of the powered railway carts. Includes battery power or powered track selection option. Includes portal track selector. Interdiction teams are supposed to use these to carry additional personnel and supplies to repair areas as backup and support to the more robust Rapid Response Carts and their teams. They are not supposed to be used as a primary response vehicle.

  As such, a Gnoll Transit Security Officer is not required to run this vehicle.

  The engine had a connector that allowed it to run off the third rail power or it could run on battery power. I lifted the top of the battery compartment and pulled the brick-sized battery. It was a familiar dwarven battery, and it was at 2% power.

  Since these lines off the main weren’t powered, it was probably just enough juice to get the cart through one of those portals.

  I had traded the rest of my Louis L’Amour books along with a single jug of moonshine for the dwarven battery fabricator. The moleman shopkeeper had practically begged me for the trade, having finished the books I’d given him. I’d had a sneaking suspicion the fabricator’s odd placement at the first store we came across wasn’t a coincidence, and I was glad I had. The cookbook had a short but informative section on power supplies, and these batteries were common throughout the previous crawls. Each battery required four full mana potions to fully charge. Once charged, the batteries would supposedly last a very long time. The fabricator had come with fifty of them. Most were at 10-15%, though five had been fully charged and another five were at 50%. I’d also charged up another two just to see how it worked, giving me a total of twelve useable batteries. Plus it only took five minutes to charge one up, though our supply of mana potions, while healthy, was not endless.

  For now, I pulled the empty battery from the cart into my inventory. If every one of these powered carts had one, that’d be another 40 plus added to my stash.

  There were only ten of the last type of cart. They were pushed into the back, lined up on two different tracks, and it didn’t appear as if they’d ever been used, which was odd, especially considering the description of the auxiliary carts, which were heavily worn.

  Each of these ten carts were about twice as long as the auxiliary ones. They had three sets of wheels instead of two. A line of seats filled the first half of the open-top cart, with cargo space in back. There was a raised platform in the center with a small, enclosed driver cabin above the main deck, making the small train car look like a flybridge game boat. The raised cabin was accessed via a small ladder. Despite the height of the cabin, the train was still shorter than the typical, colored-line subway car.

  The engine took up the entire back of the train, much larger than the engine on the auxiliary cart. The battery compartment took three batteries.

  But the carts’ most distinct feature was the odd blade that ran in front of them, almost like a flat squeegee. It was a wide blade that appeared to be the exact width of a regular subway car. It ran across the front of the cart, close to the ground. The pole had two track-shaped indentations in the center, so when the cart ran along the tracks, it appeared the blade traveled right against the ground, molded to fit. The only give was the port side of the blade, which rose at two 90-degree-angles, allowing for the third rail to pass by underneath.

  “Weird,” I said, examining the train. How did the blade thing work? It seemed it would immediately snag on debris while the train zoomed down the track, breaking off, or worse, wrecking the whole damn thing. I read the description.

  Interdiction Rapid-Resp
onse Railway Repair Cart. Contraption.

  Main Passenger-Line Gauged.

  The main workhorse vehicle of the Hobgoblin Interdiction Team. Includes battery power or powered track selection option. Includes portal track selector. Includes dual-destination, selectable debris scoop.

  When it comes to cleaning up a crashed vehicle on the tracks, nothing works better, faster, and more efficiently than the Hobgoblin Interdiction Team.

  In the rare case of an accident on the Iron Tangle, one of these vehicles is immediately dispatched to clear the line.

  This cart will move up a line at up to five times the speed of the regular passenger cars. The debris scoop will safely transport any active and running trains and their passengers back to the railyard. Once the wreck is reached, the debris scoop is switched to abyss mode, clearing the line of the damage. In case of a broken rail, the debris scoop automatically detects and removes anomalies and track breaches, allowing for the hobgoblins to do their thing.

  Unfortunately, the corporation running the Iron Tangle has little trust for the hobgoblins and requires security to escort these vehicles at all times. As such, this cart may only be started by a pair of gnolls.

  “Whoa,” I said. “We need to figure this thing out. That weird blade thing is a mobile portal.”

  I saw how the car worked. The blade had to be turned on the entire time. The contraption traveled through the tunnel on the rails, and the portal filled the entire tunnel ahead of the cart, tossing everything on the tracks—including other trains—to one of two places, either a trainyard or the abyss.

  “It says only a gnoll can drive it,” Katia said. “Two gnolls. Do you think we can remove the portal part and just use that? I wonder if we can somehow detach it from the cart and bring it with us. The blades are wide, but they don’t look heavy.”

  “That’s what I was thinking,” I said. I moved to examine the metal blade in front of the first cart. The other two cart types had bodies made of wood. This was made of metal. My portal skill didn’t work on it because it wasn’t turned on, though I suspected we were out of luck. I suspected the entire cart was part of the mechanism, not just the blades. “Shit, I don’t think that’ll work.” I started to ascend the ladder to the cockpit.

  Donut jumped to my shoulder as Mongo sniffed about the train. The ladder was covered in dust. It had clearly never been used. “We need to get that Growler Gary out here. That’s probably what he’s for. To drive the train,” Donut said.

  “It has to be,” I agreed as I opened the door to the driver’s cabin. “But we need two of them, and if he can’t leave the bar, then how would that work?”

  I looked down at the controls, and then I understood.

  “Oh,” I said. “Fuck.”

  * * *

  Bautista: Okay. So somebody found the Sinopia line. That’s about five levels deeper than where the most of us are, but there’s a group down there. For my group, there’s a gangway up one level to the Mindaro line. The gangway is still intact, but those Wall Monitors are congregating near there. We’ll have to fight our way up, but I think we can make it. That only leaves one more group heading toward the Grullo line. I think that’s everybody.

  Carl: Good work. Let me get this first part done, and then we’ll start working on getting you guys through.

  Bautista: Thank you, brother.

  Carl: Don’t thank me yet. I have no idea if this crazy shit is going to work. And I still have something very unpleasant to do.

  “Hey buddy,” I said as we entered the Downward Dog. “You awake, Gary?”

  Growler Gary didn’t respond. I hesitantly walked to the counter and looked over the edge at the sleeping Gnoll. He hadn’t moved. He clutched onto the same bottle as before, like he was holding a baby. It was now empty.

  “We should do it now while he’s still asleep,” Donut said.

  I nodded. “Killing a guy while he’s asleep seems like such a dick move,” I said. “But you’re right. If he’s going to just wake up again after we do it, maybe he won’t even notice. Plus I guess it’s not really killing him if he’s just going to resurrect.”

  Katia remained in the personal space. She knew and understood what had to be done, but she didn’t want to be a part of it. That was okay. I understood. I didn’t want to be a part of it, either.

  She was still desperately trying to form into a gnoll shape that would trick the magical key into accepting her. So far she’d been unlucky, despite getting it to 98% accuracy.

  It was painfully clear what the dungeon wanted us to do.

  You will not break me. Fuck you all.

  Mongo had recently risen to level 23, but the dinosaur was woefully behind the rest of us. We’d decided ahead of time to allow the dinosaur to kill the gnoll.

  “Face first,” Donut said. “Then the hands. Don’t eat the hands. Give them to me.”

  Mongo squawked excitedly.

  The interdiction cart only turned on with a pair of gnoll hands on a magical sensor plate. The two plates were far enough apart that a single gnoll couldn’t do it, but if the hands were no longer attached to the body…

  We’d first tried farming a body part from one of the corpses strewn out in the station, but there was absolutely nothing useful. Every single gnoll had been chewed to hell. There was no way that wasn’t on purpose. You fucking assholes, I thought for the hundredth time. Then came Katia’s insistence that she could change into a gnoll and activate the train cart that way. That didn’t work, either, though when she emerged that last time, the system designated her as a gnoll. The skill, when she used it for this sort of thing, was terrifying.

  She’d tossed all of her most recent points into constitution, but seeing her as a perfect gnoll made me realize maybe those earlier points she’d tossed in charisma wasn’t such a bad idea. If we continued to work on her self-confidence we’d have the perfect spy on our hands.

  “Go,” Donut said.

  Mongo jumped over the counter and chomped down on the sleeping gnoll’s head. It killed him instantly. The creature had a single gold coin in his inventory. Mongo quickly and efficiently chomped off the hyena’s two arms right at the elbow, horking them onto the counter.

  “Yuck,” I said, picking up both of the hairy, severed arms. I tossed them both into my inventory. “Sorry, Gary.”

  * * *

  The plan was simple, but it wasn’t without risk. It was a “Carl plan” as Donut called it. After talking with Bautista, we learned there were three groups of people trapped at the abyss. Since the colored lines all emptied into the massive pit at different heights, coming into the giant crater from different directions, and since the walkways that circled the pit’s interior were now blasted to hell, these groups couldn’t reach each other. We had to make three separate trips.

  We didn’t need to drive the train ourselves. We just had to get it started and send it along.

  That was okay. As long as we got the engine and scoop portal turned on so everything it touched went to the trainyard, and we got the interdiction cart on the correct track, it would speed along the line all the way to the end, scooping up everything on the path and sending it to the trainyard. The stranded crawlers would stand on the tracks and allow the train to hit them, thus also getting teleported to the trainyard.

  We had a list of almost 200 colored lines to choose from, and after almost two hours of going back and forth, we discovered three lines that would work.

  That, at least, was the first draft of the plan. Both Katia and Bautista pointed out a few problems with the idea.

  First off, if the track itself was sufficiently busted, the cart would derail, despite the portal, and it wouldn’t make it all the way to the end. We hadn’t tested these things yet, and we didn’t know how well they worked. For all we knew, it’d faceplant the moment it hit something.

  Secondly, if we scooped up everything on the path, the crawlers waiting at the end of the line would be tossed face-first into a pile of crashed trains and possibly tho
usands upon thousands of ghouls and mobs suffering from stage-3 DTs. It’d be less dangerous to just throw them into the pit.

  We had ten of the rapid-response trains to work with. After thinking on it some, we came up with an alternative idea.

  We’d send two trains down each track. The first would have the portal tuned into the abyss. So the crashed trains and all the mobs and ghouls running up and down the line would be hit by the portal and sent directly into the pit. Fifteen minutes after the first train, we’d send a second train through, but this one would have the portal tuned to the train station. The crawlers waiting at the end of the line would have to get the hell out of the way of that first train. Bautista said the tunnels opened up as they approached the pit, and that wouldn’t be a problem.

  This plan wouldn’t work if the track was broken. We had a contingency in place for that eventuality. One I hoped we wouldn’t have to utilize.

  “What if there are people on the track we don’t know about?” Katia said. “We’ll send them into the abyss. Also, how loud are these things? Will they even know when to expect them?”

  I shrugged. “We’re talking about three colored lines out of possibly thousands. By now most everybody who hasn’t given up has gotten to a trainyard. We’ve spread the word out as much as we can. It’s a risk, but this is the best idea we have. Don’t worry about the trains being loud enough. I already have a plan for that.”