by R. A. Mejia
I turned and looked around. I could not see Greebo and the fog was starting to creep back in. I switched back to the rifle and reloaded as I called out, “Greebo! Come back, the others are beaten!”
I’d just finished priming the rifle when my goblin friend appeared from the fog with two Mudmen Brawlers on his heel. I raised the rifle, aimed high, and shot the nearest. The loud boom from the rifle staggered Greebo for a moment as he was a bit close, but when he reached my side, he turned and said, “Well, Bolts, looks like we got a new way to beat these monsters. Two left; one a piece. What do you say we see who can beat theirs first?”
I extended my right hand out and said the command word, “Extended Air Blade” and felt a powerful thin stream of air leave my hand and a slash appear on the wounded Brawler’s body. Then I called up my hammer and charged my already-wounded Brawler.
“Hey, no head starts!” And then the quicker Goblin caught up and then laughed as he passed me. “Loser buys drinks!” He called back, reaching his foe before I did mine. I watched as he gleefully sliced into the monster with his short sword and then dodged the return punches.
I reached the Brawler and raised my Blacksmith Hammer above my head, sure that I could kill it quickly since it was already down a third of its health from my rifle shot and the Air Blade. However, instead of the slugfest that I was expecting, I was met with a tackle from my wounded enemy. I felt its sludgy body slosh into my waist. I realized the monster had hoped that I would be bowled over, but the weight of my Metalman frame and iron plating was enough to keep me upright. I had a hard time using the long-handled two-handed hammer in my hands since the monster was so close, and I was forced to send my weapon back into my internal inventory and switch to the poor-quality copper hand axe I kept as a backup weapon. I felt a punch to my legs, and I chopped downward again and again, splatting mud with each attack. But the weapon only did three points of damage per blow, and when the final slash ended the monster’s existence, I heard clapping from behind me.
I shook my head as I turned to see a grinning Greebo clapping his hands together. “Congratulations on the good fight, Bolts. But my Brawler died first, which means you have to buy drinks for us tonight.”
“Fair is fair. I could have won if that monster had stood and traded blows. But it didn’t, so you got in the kill first. Drinks are on me tonight.”
As the two of us left the dungeon, my new rifle having proved itself, Greebo asked, “You think you can make one of those guns for me? It’ll be good to have a choice of how to start a fight.”
I thought about the cost of the weapon and how I’d scanned each component of the rifle as I assembled it so that I could fabricate replacement parts. I said, “The steel for the barrel would cost a bit, and I’d have to show you how to load and fire the weapon properly, but yeah. Yeah, I could make you one.” Then I compared the goblin’s height of about five foot versus the five-foot-five length of my flintlock rifle and continued, “Although, I might just make you a custom one that’s a little shorter so that you can fire it.”
The goblin didn’t take offense to the reference to his height. He just nodded and said, “Gotta make it goblin-sized. Gotcha.”
We walked out of the dungeon, through the marketplace, and headed north to the Tipsy Minotaur, where he spent the next few hours drinking while we regaled the bar with tales of our day’s adventures. In addition, we talked about our current business venture.
“Repair, I need to talk to you about the mining.”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“Well, Manny says that the copper mine on the third level is petering out. We’re just not bringing in the same amount of copper as we used to.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, the way it is, resource nodes like veins of metal or special minerals only stay in one place for so long. Once their goods are extracted, the dungeon respawns them. Sometimes, it’s in a relatively close location; other times, it's in an entirely different part of the dungeon level. It keeps adventurers moving and searching. On the lower levels, there’s really just the copper ore nodes and a few places rare plants grow.”
“So, what? The mine is collapsing?”
“Not collapsing. Just running out of copper ore. More will be spawned by the dungeon somewhere else, but we’ve had such a good run with the mine because it was left alone for so long. The poison made it no good for miners, which meant that the copper being spawned built up some there. But now, that’s all been taken out and we gotta find another spot for our miners. Preferably something higher grade than copper. Their skills have stopped getting better and their leveling has slowed.”
“Oh? What level are they now?”
“Manny is a level three Guardian, and Innie, Meanie, Minnie, and Moe are level four Miners. Manny isn’t far from leveling, and I think we could get him there in a day or two if we helped him out.”
“You mentioned that we needed higher grade materials for them to mine?”
“Yeah, the copper was a good start, but you can’t expect them to keep getting XP doing the exact same thing. I’ve talked to some miners, and they say that the sixth level has some iron, copper, and a little bit of tin. The seventh level only has a bit of iron, and the eighth level has more iron nodes, but . . .” He looked around the bar before leaning in and whispering, “There’s a rumor that there’s a place on the eighth level that spits out rare metals. Sometimes, it’s gold; other times, adamantine and even some ochrium. The node doesn’t pay out a lot, only three or four pounds, and you usually need a miner with good skills to extract it.” He tapped my left arm. “Plus, with your deconstruction thing, we don’t need a high-level miner. Sure, we ain’t gonna get as much as they would, but if it's just for your project, it should be enough.”
I thought about his statement. We needed to get our miners to a higher level, which meant that we needed to get Manny up to a higher level so he could protect them as they worked. I also needed to get to the eighth level to get a chance at getting the ochrium I needed to make my mechanical companion. Sure, I could buy the ochrium. There was no restriction on how I got it, but ochrium was a rare metal that conducted magic. At its current price, it would cost me 12 gold for enough to make even a small mechanical companion. A medium-sized one would be twice that. I could drain our profits to buy what I need, or we make it to the eighth level so that I could deconstruct it myself. I would need less than a pound of the refined ochrium to make my companion, and the rest could go toward building up our businesses.
“I like the idea. I need to start killing monsters that give more XP anyway if I’m going to make level eight by my deadline. So, why not get that rare mining node too? As for the miners, can we get more goblins to take fighter classes? We can power level them to level five, and then they can search the sixth level for better mining nodes and help protect the miners while they work.”
Greebo smiled and nodded, proud that I’d taken his suggestion. He finished another large flagon of yellow ale, and then we departed.
I still had to deconstruct the ore for the day and start fabricating new tools for both the miners and the fighters that we’d be training to protect them. I sighed, knowing that I was running out of time for my goals. At least one of my projects had proved fruitful. The rifle was going to seriously increase my XP gains from killing monsters. I even had some ideas on how to decrease the reload times and a few experiments to make the rifle more powerful.
Chapter 20 - Building the Team
After a night of deconstructing copper ore and more crafting, I was ready to tackle another day in the dungeon. First, I had a few experiments to run to improve the reload speed of the Flintlock Rifle. Based on the previous day’s experience testing the rifle, it took far too long to reload from the muzzle. I might be able to create a breechloader, which loaded ammunition from the backend of the barrel and not the front, but that would take some time to work out and adapt to the flintlock. It might even require that I designed a new firing mechanis
m entirely. I had the skills in Metalworking, Woodworking, and even a few levels in Machining to make the prototypes, but it would take time to work out the designs.
I needed something that would help me today. So, I turned to my knowledge garnered from YouTube videos and the evolution of the rifle. I’d been fascinated with the engineering and inventiveness of the American frontiersmen and how they pushed to make things better, including faster ways to load a musket, and I recalled that paper cartridges were the next step of ammunition that cut down on pouring of powder. I took a bit of scrap paper from one of the labs and folded it into the general shape of a cylinder, twisted one end to cap it off, then poured the powder into the open side. I added the minié ball on top and twisted off the other end. It was surprisingly easy to do. I could instantly think of several ways to speed up making lots of these if I had to do them by hand, such as using a wooden cylinder as a form for the paper cartridge or having a series of pre-measured powder charges set up in an assembly line. But with my Fabrication tool, I only needed to scan one working prototype. After that, I could make perfect replicas. I scanned this one before putting it in a pouch in my backpack to test later. I also stashed a small stack of paper in my backpack to make more paper cartridges if needed.
I left the Institute to purchase the base materials from the Merchant’s guild. I needed six pounds of good steel and another two pounds of wood to fabricate a second Good Steel Flintlock Rifle. I couldn’t hold more than two in my Internal Inventory space because of the limited number of slots there. I realized as I walked toward the center of the city, blending in with the ever-growing morning crowd, that I’d hit a block in inventory space. I’d have to carefully manage what went in my Internal Inventory and what I could store in my backpack. Sure, if Greebo was around, I could drop everything into his pack and with his enhanced carrying capacity he could carry everything without a problem, but on my own, I’d have to manage my inventory better. I needed to be able to call weapons, ammunition, and combat reagents to hand on the fly. Everything else could go into the backpack or some other storage unit. As I walked, I wondered if I could get a belt with custom reagent pouches or maybe a bandolier for ammunition. I chuckled at the image that popped up in my mind of me walking around with dark sunglasses, a black leather jacket, a grenade launcher, and a bandolier with ammo across my chest. While the idea of dressing like the T-800 made me feel badass, I discarded the idea of a bandolier immediately. My paper cartridges were too fragile to survive active combat, and if they met with any kind of fire or even an electrical discharge, then they’d explode. No, better that they sit safely in my extra-dimensional Internal Inventory space.
I reached the center of the city and went right to the Merchant’s guild and purchased my desired materials. It cost me a little under a gold for the wood and steel. The metal was the more costly of the two by far at ten silver a pound. The expense was a big part of my saved funds, but doubling my initial salvo in a fight would be worth it.
Having purchased the materials I needed, I went to the fountain in front of the dungeon to meet Greebo and found him waiting with Manny and two other goblins.
I waved at the group as I approached and said, “Hello, Greebo.”
Greebo smiled and waved back. “Hey, Bolts. You know Manny.” I nodded at Manny in acknowledgment. Manny was one of Greebo’s roommates, and he was the goblin who had volunteered to help Greebo when he was cursed. Manny nodded back to me, and Greebo pointed at the two new goblins. “These two guys are Frik and Frak. They’re brothers and want to get combat classes. They’ve agreed to work for us till they pay back our investment and then sign on for regular wages. They’re both level three, so we can level them along with Manny.”
I took a closer look at the two goblins and realized that they looked strangely similar. They were both thin and a bit less than five feet in height. They had the same shade of green skin, and looking back and forth, I realized they looked more than similar. They were identical. Well, except one had a slightly crooked nose, like it had been broken without being set straight before it healed. I held out my hand to the two. “Hello, Frik and Frak. Who is who?”
The goblins looked at each other, as if sharing some unspoken thought, then smiled. The goblin with the crooked nose stepped forward and bowed from the waist. “I’m Frik.”
The other goblin stepped forward a fraction of a second later and also bowed. Then, with an almost identical tone and cadence, he said, “I’m Frak.” Then the two unbowed in unison, locked arms, and did a backflip together right back to where they’d been standing.
Greebo and Manny laughed at the antics, and Greebo said, “Don’t mind the twins. They’re a bit rambunctious, but they’re reliable.”
“They’re also very acrobatic,” I said. “Still, we need to get going if we’re going to get them leveled up. What class did they want to pick up?”
Greebo looked at the two, who shrugged, and then he turned back to me and said, “I don’t think they rightly know. They never expected to get the chance to get a class. But they heard we were paying, and Manny and the miners vouched for us, so they agreed to our deal.”
“Well, who do we go to for advice then?”
Greebo scratched his head, but it was Manny who spoke up. “I’d say go to the Fighter’s Guild. They’ll know what class would best suit the boys, and they ain’t particular about who joins with them as long as they can pay.”
I nodded and Greebo led us all to a tall stone building opposite the Adventurer’s Guild. It was two stories tall, made of cut stone blocks, and unlike many of the other buildings, it was unadorned. If I hadn’t known better, I’d have thought it was an office building from Earth. Greebo led us through the front door and into a loud cacophony of bellows and cheers. I hadn’t heard any noise from the outside and could only guess that either the stone walls blocked the noise or there was some enchantment that muffled the sounds. Inside, men and women bearing all manner of weapons and armor lounged in large chairs and on benches talking. There were burly barbarians that wore only small loin clothes, heavily plated fighters with large shields, and rail-thin elves with rapiers. The decor was spartan, but scones along the walls provided magical lighting that illuminated the building. I could see out through to the back of the building where a large area had been dedicated to practicing with weapons and where instructors were training individuals on their skills. I only got a glimpse but saw people sparring with each other as well as hitting a long row of training dummies.
The five of us went to the counter where a bored woman with red hair, sat, cleaning her nails with a knife. I stepped up to the counter and asked, “Hello. We wanted to get my two friends a fighter class, but we didn’t know what would work best for them. Could you help us out with some suggestions?”
With barely a glance at us, she asked, “What are their highest and lowest stats?”
I looked down at the twins and the one with the crooked nose, Frik, answered, “Highest is dexterity; lowest is wisdom.” Frak nodded in agreement.
The attendant continued to clean her nails and said, “Low wisdom means ranger is out. I’d say just get the general Fighter class and then specialize later in something like duelist or two-weapon fighting. It’ll mean that they can’t use big heavy two-handed weapons, but they’ll get twice the chances to hit their enemies with two weapons each. If they want to use a bow, then go with the Archer class specialization later.”
It was good advice. Getting the general Fighter class meant that the two goblins didn’t have to specialize now but could explore how they best liked to fight and spend their class points, specializing once they figured that out. I nodded at the attendant, who didn’t seem to see, and then said, “We’ll take two general Fighter classes for these goblins then.”
She finally stopped cleaning her nails and put the knife down on the counter before holding out her hand to me. “That will be thirty silver then.”
“Thirty silver? I thought classes only cost ten silver?”<
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She laughed. “That’s the price for those shitty crafting or gathering classes. Real classes like ours cost more since we deal and take more of the damage in the dungeon.”
I couldn’t disagree with her. I’d learned from grouping with the fighter type mercenaries just how much better combat classes were at dishing out damage than I was. Still, it was a lot of money. I looked down at the twins and saw them staring up at me with big goblin eyes. I shook my head, knowing that they were trying to play me. But Greebo and I had already agreed to buy their classes in exchange for them working for us till they paid back our investment in them. More importantly, Greebo and I needed to be known as people who kept their word.
I called the coins from my Internal Inventory space and handed them to the waiting attendant. She counted it all out then went to a back room and returned with a glowing crystal ball. She looked over the counter at the twins and said, “Put your hands on the crystal ball and accept the class.”
