Gearing Up

by Daniel Schinhofen

  “Not what I meant,” Alvin sighed.

  “Shh, I don’t get to brat often,” Becky said, sticking her tongue out at him.

  “Okay, point made. Now what about the armor?”

  “It’s good stuff, mostly uncommon and a few rares. The material isn’t conventional leather; it's got more base armor than anything we can buy in the store. Her boots are really interesting.” Becky turned one of Kuro’s boots upside down so he could see the treads. “This is some kind of lizard on her world, used exclusively for boots. It grabs almost anything according to what Kuro has told me.”

  “She’s told you useful stuff?” Alvin asked, looking over at the moaning elf but taking his eyes off her quickly. “I thought that this was her normal mode of interacting with you.”

  “Don’t be like that,” Becky said. “We talked this morning before you woke up, and before I dragged her into the bathroom. Plus, her secrets from the night before. She’s actually quite eager to make me happy.”

  “I bet,” Alvin snickered.

  Becky glanced at him, then at Kuro’s naked ass, “It’s true, she reminds me of me when I’m with you. It’s different, being on the other side of that dynamic.”

  “Yeah,” Alvin said as he stepped closer and kissed her head. “Now tell me about the armor already.”

  Becky giggled, “Damn, I thought for sure that would throw you off, or that her being naked might slow you some.”

  “She’s cute, but she isn’t you, Gothy. Now if that was you where she is, I wouldn’t be able to form clear thoughts.”

  Leaning into him, Becky sighed, “Flatterer.”

  “I speak what I see as the truth, devil woman,” Alvin said, resting his head on hers. “We also need to see about getting you a hat or something, to help protect your head some. The horns are cute, but they don’t count for protection anymore.”

  “I know, but I really like them,” Becky sighed.

  “You can wear them on top of whatever we get you,” Alvin said.

  “Sir,” Jarvis said. “I would point out that selling them and getting something else would make a lot more sense, practically speaking.”

  “I don’t really like the idea of selling them,” Becky huffed.

  “Miss, have I ever steered you wrong?” Jarvis asked.

  “No…”

  “Would you look at an item in the store for me?” Jarvis asked.

  “Okay, but I’m still against selling them,” Becky said as she looked at the pad next to her, which had switched pages. Looking at the item listed, Becky pursed her lips. “Okay, this might work. Thank you for showing me, Jarvis.”

  “I do endeavor to make things pleasant for you as much as I can, miss,” Jarvis said.

  Alvin looked over her shoulder at the item displayed on the pad, a black ball cap with two small red horns coming out of it, embroidered with ‘Succubus in Training’ in red. “I do think that hat works well for you.”

  Becky looked at him. “You like it?”

  “I think it would work very well, but is there one that says ‘Gothic Succubus’ instead?”

  The screen changed to what Alvin had in mind, and he blinked. “Jarvis, is there a way to manufacture a hat to specs?”

  “All clothing can be customized, but the best you can buy from the store is uncommon quality, and that is very expensive,” Jarvis replied. “If you found a person who could make the items, it would be vastly cheaper to have them make it for you.”

  “There probably isn’t a hatmaker that we know,” Alvin said.

  “Not that you know of, sir. Hatters are not a bustling profession,” Jarvis said.

  “This hat—what does it cost?” Alvin asked.

  “For common quality, five hundred XP. Uncommon quality is five thousand XP,” Jarvis said.

  “I thought you said it was expensive,” Alvin snickered.

  “That is a pretty penny for most people, sir,” Jarvis reminded Alvin.

  “Fair enough,” Alvin reached down and purchased the hat, which appeared in front of them. “There. A gift for my beautiful Gothy.”

  “Hero, I would have bought it,” Becky said as she picked it up and examined it. The words “Gothic Succubus” were emblazoned in red on the black hat.

  “Yes, but I don’t feel like I give you enough as it is. Well, enough that isn’t sex,” Alvin chuckled.

  “I like the sex, and you just gave me a toy, too,” Becky said as she snapped the belt across Kuro’s ass again.

  “Point,” Alvin said as he pulled the horns off her head and put her new hat on. “Maybe I just wanted to crown you.”

  “Nut,” Becky murmured as she adjusted her new hat. Turning around, she looked at him. “How does it look?”

  “Good,” Alvin said, dipping his head to kiss her. Breaking the passionate kiss, he stepped back. “Now, about Kuro’s armor…”

  Becky giggled as she touched her new hat. “Fine, I guess I’ll speak since you were so nice to me.”

  Picking up the various pieces, she told him what she had done to each. Between each piece, she would spank Kuro a few times before moving on. Finishing with the boots, she looked at him. “Well, what do you think?”

  “Sounds like a good enough setup, until we need to worry about resistances,” Alvin nodded. “At that point, we’ll all need different gear, so it works.”

  “I’m thinking of keeping the horns, unless we desperately need the XP at some point,” Becky said.

  “You can hang them above the headboard,” Alvin grinned.

  “I think I like that,” Becky said. “I need to get her a piece of armor for her head, I’m thinking a hat much like mine.”

  Alvin snickered, “I look forward to whatever you come up with.”

  “If you’ll give me a few more minutes, I’ll get Kuro to finish and then we’ll be ready to go,” Becky said.

  “That’s fine,” Alvin said, stealing another passionate kiss before he backed up and gave the elf a good long look. “Think she’ll last for you?”

  “If we don’t run into issues with her old Matriarch, I think she’ll hold up,” Becky said, dragging her nails down Kuro’s back and eliciting a squeak from the bound elf.

  “I’ll leave you to it,” Alvin said as he left the room. “I’ll be checking out bags while you finish up.”

  “Be along shortly-ish,” Becky replied, turning her attention back to Kuro and resuming spanking the elf with her own belt.

  “Jarvis, the two bags we got from Lister, it still shows them as belonging to him,” Alvin said, nudging the two bags with his foot. “Is there a way to fix that?”

  “I’m afraid not, sir. They were bound to him, which was an option before the update. Continuing along that upgrade path, the bags would have eventually gained the feature of becoming summonable by their owner. That ability has been removed, but they were left alone just like your gear was.”

  “Damn,” Alvin said. “I might just sell them when it comes time to.” Sighing, Alvin held out his hand for a pad. “Time to buy new bags and upgrade them with runes, I guess.”

  When he was done, he had bags for the three of them that were outfitted with Impervious and Holding runes. He’d skipped Durability, as each bag had twenty-five Durability standard and their bags hadn’t taken more than a handful of damage the entire time in game so far. The belt pouches, modified fanny packs, could now hold nine items each, while the backpacks could hold fifteen items each.

  “It’s nice that they upgraded the default size of bags,” Alvin mused as he stuffed various odds and ends into his duffle bag, which could hold twenty items. “This will make looting and transport much easier. We can sell or trade the old bags, which is also nice.”

  He was finishing up when Becky came into the room, followed by Kuro. “Ladies, new bags for you. Kuro, yours has healing items—medkits and trauma kits. I think we’re ready to head out.”

  Alvin pointed to the knife strapped to his thigh. “There’s one of these in your bag for you, Gothy. I needed o
ne when we went after Lister’s hostages, so I bought one, and thought you might need one, too.”

  Becky took the knife from her bag and strapped it to her left thigh. “Got it. Give me a moment to switch bags and we’ll be ready.”

  Kuro took her bags from Alvin without looking at him. She got hers in place quickly, then waited patiently. Alvin eyed her, then smirked at her hat, biting his lip to keep from laughing at it. The black ball cap had two small mouse ears and the words “Cat Toy” embroidered in white on it.

  Once Becky had transferred over her stuff to the new bags, she whistled softly. “Lots more room in these bags.”

  “That’s what I thought, too,” Alvin nodded. “The duffel over there has most of our loot. We might be using it for trade with Kuro’s friends, depending.” With that, he turned to Kuro. “Take out your old blades and put them into the backpack.”

  “Why?” Kuro asked, one of her hands touching the collar around her neck. “These blades are who I am.”

  Alvin pulled the upgraded blades out of his bag and handed them to Becky. “Those blades are better now than the ones you have, and we won’t have to ask your Matriarch to let you keep them. Since you seem to not want to take things from me, you can take them from Gothy.”

  Becky held out the swords silently, staring at Kuro, who quickly exchanged blades with her. “Good Mousie,” Becky said softly as she put the blades into her backpack. “We’re ready, Hero.”

  Shaking his head at Kuro’s stubborn refusal to deal with him, he wondered how long their awkward relationship could possibly last. “Okay, let’s go,” he pointed to the glowing door. “Ladies, after you,” he grabbed the duffle bag and trailed after them. “Let’s take the dead home.”

  Chapter Forty-two

  They took a few minutes to loot the general store and cabins of anything even remotely worthwhile, which turned out to be very little. They were able to stock up on jerky and bottled water from the store. Most of that went into the Mustang, though Alvin did put some of it into the duffel bag.

  Tossing the duffel into the backseat of the Humvee, Alvin almost gagged on the stench from inside the vehicle. “Jarvis, pad please, I need an odor eater,” Alvin choked out.

  A pad appeared and Alvin snatched it, taking a step away from the Humvee while Becky watched him from her place next to the Mustang. “Rotting flesh smells bad. Who’d’ve thunk it?”

  Alvin shot her a glare. “I might make you ride in the back.” Becky ducked into the Mustang and shut the door before he could say more, making Alvin chuckle. “That’s what I thought.”

  Grabbing an aerosol can and a number of cardboard air fresheners, he opened all the packages and dumped them onto the corpses after he liberally sprayed them with the pine scented odor neutralizer. That done, Alvin climbed into the Humvee and opened the driver’s side window. Starting up the Humvee, he frowned when he realized that he didn’t know where he was going. Jumping out of the vehicle, he walked over to the Mustang, where Becky was smiling at him.

  “I’ll lead. Kuro says she can guide us there,” Becky said as Alvin leaned down.

  Looking from her to Kuro, Alvin gave the dark-skinned elf a smile. “Thank you, Kuro.”

  “It is for Gothy that I do this,” Kuro stated, looking away from him with her cheeks getting darker.

  “Sure it is. I’m going to say thank you regardless,” Alvin said, but then he couldn’t stop himself from adding a small comment. “Oh, I did mean to mention that your squeaks are quite entertaining.”

  Face flushing more, Kuro turned her head away from him. Becky shook her head, but didn’t say anything as Alvin grinned and started back towards the Humvee.

  Alvin followed Becky as she turned onto the dirt trail behind the general store. She kept the speed down, creeping along the rough trail they were following.

  Not even a mile down the twisting, winding road, they came to a bridge just wide enough for a single vehicle. Alvin glanced at it warily, but he could see that it was still in good repair. He followed Becky across the bridge, where the road became rougher, narrower, and less defined. Their already slow speed became a crawl due to the worsening conditions.

  “I hope we don’t have to turn around,” Alvin muttered as they began to slowly rock crawl over some large boulders that had come to rest on the narrow road.

  Ruffian came to a stop and Becky got out to look at something ahead of her. Alvin waited to see what the issue was. His window was already open because of the corpses, so when Becky came his way, he only had to lean out so they could talk.

  “The next bridge isn’t the best thing in the world, but I think the Humvee can cross it.”

  “This ought to be interesting,” Alvin said. “I’m glad we have the Tires runes, otherwise Ruffian wouldn’t have made it this far.”

  “Yeah,” Becky nodded. “Let me cross all the way before you follow.”

  Chewing his lips for a moment, Alvin nodded. “We can always leave the Humvee and hope that we can summon it on the other side of the gate.”

  “You can only summon it at a Settlement, and there is no guarantee that the other side will qualify,” Becky added.

  “Point,” Alvin said. “Get going. I’ll give the bridge a look once you’re on it.”

  Giving him a quick kiss, Becky went back to Ruffian and got her moving again. Alvin whistled as he got a good look at the bridge. It was even narrower than the first bridge, and didn’t look nearly as well maintained.

  Watching Becky cross it, Alvin waited, wondering if he should ask Jarvis to get the Humvee across. “Jarvis, can you get us across that?”

  “Easily, sir,” Jarvis said.

  “I’ll put us in your hands then,” Alvin said.

  “You wish me to cross once she makes it to the other side, sir?”

  “Yup.”

  As soon as Ruffian cleared the far side, Jarvis rolled the Humvee onto it and idled across, keeping the Humvee directly centered on the bridge. Becky rolled forward to give him room to clear the bridge, and got out to watch his progress. Once the Humvee was on the other side, Alvin put it into park and took a deep breath. The drop into the river under the bridge wasn’t far, but the river was moving fast.

  “You did that perfectly,” Becky said, coming to his door.

  “Jarvis did,” Alvin corrected her. “I felt it a better option, since I didn’t have the wiggle room you did.”

  “The road between here and the water is even rougher, according to Kuro, but there aren’t any more bridges.”

  “Good. I also hope we don’t have to turn around,” Alvin chuckled.

  “We’re almost there. It’s a mile or so, according to her,” Becky said.

  “She knows what a mile is?”

  “I doubt she does, but it translates as a little over a mile for me,” Becky said, stealing another kiss.

  “Fair enough. Let’s get this over with,” Alvin said, “I’m kind of curious what her world is going to look like.”

  “So am I,” Becky said and headed back to Ruffian.

  Kuro was right about the road. It was a bitch of a path, with debris and large rocks mostly obscuring it in places. Alvin chuckled as he watched the Mustang rock crawl over one of them, the suspension extending as if it was a Jeep with thirty-seven inch tires.

  Once Ruffian was over the rougher stretches, Alvin followed. He took his time, chuckling to himself as he imagined the Humvee doing the same thing, though not nearly to such an extreme. It took them almost an hour to crawl the mile to Relief Reservoir. A Gate stood on the path leading down to the water. Alvin stopped behind the Mustang, getting out when the two women did. “What do we need to know about the other side?”

  “When Kuro was sent, the King and Queen were still finalizing what the neutral ground around the gate would be, and how many troops each would station there. We have no idea what it’s going to be like when we cross over. We clearly don’t see anybody directly before the gate, but that might be because it’s a kind of DMZ.”


  “Great,” Alvin frowned, “we might roll through and get attacked from both sides?”

  “Doubtful,” Kuro said, not looking at him, “but it is still a possibility.”

  “Anything else?”

  “I can’t say. It has been over a week, and the King did manage to sneak another set of his hunters through after us,” Kuro said.

  “Okay,” Alvin said, reaching out to touch her shoulder.