Once I reached the far side of the river, I stepped off the street and turned around to watch the foot traffic that flowed across the bridge. Nobody seemed to be paying extra attention to me, but I really wanted to ensure no one followed me back to the casino. After a couple minutes of crowd watching, I slipped back onto the road and continued alongside the ballpark. I took the next left after the park, then I cut across several parking lots shared by the nearby stadiums. With my longer route, I hoped to make my destination less obvious to any potential watchers as I worked my way back west.
When I reached the casino, I headed to the main entrance, where a line of people waited to enter the trade square inside the gate. By this time late in the afternoon, the hunters had usually filled their Inventory to capacity and were looking to unload for whatever equipment they could barter for at the goblin-controlled market.
I made it through the gate and the tumultuous trade square without incident before I reached the casino proper. The front door guards passed me through after they recognized me from previous visits. Once inside, I stopped at the security checkpoint and tried to get the attention of the closest guard. The goblin sat in a tall chair behind the counter that ran alongside the checkpoint and had its feet propped up while it read from an information tablet.
“I’m looking for Meqik,” I said when the bored goblin finally noticed me.
The goblin frowned at me. “What you want with Meqik?”
“I have information for him,” I replied.
“Tell me what ya got, I’ll pass it on,” said the goblin.
“No,” I said. “But I’ll be sure to let Meqik and the Trade Baron know why they didn’t get the information they asked for right away.”
The goblin’s eyes went wide, and it bolted upright. “Come, come.”
The goblin jumped down from the chair, and I followed it through the casino until we reached a hallway that led to a series of offices in the rear of the building. The guard led me to the end of the hall and knocked on an unmarked door.
The door swung open to reveal a well-appointed office with the concierge behind a desk at the back of the room. Meqik waved me into the room, then cocked its head to stare at the guard who had followed me in. The guard gawked at the various decorations around the office, completely inattentive to the gaze Meqik had fixed upon him. That intense stare quickly showed hints of the concierge’s annoyance.
“Ahem.” Meqik glared.
The guard finally looked at the concierge. “Yeah, boss?”
“Get. Out,” Meqik demanded.
The guard blinked at the furious expression on the concierge’s face, then dashed out of the room. The door swung shut behind the fleeing guard, and Meqik sighed.
“Competent help is so hard to find,” the goblin whined. “I hope you have good news.”
“I have news, at least.” I shrugged. “I found the weapons supplier.”
“Do tell.” Meqik leaned forward on the desk, hands steepled under his chin.
“There are a group of well-equipped aliens holed up at the Allegheny County Jail,” I began.
I continued on to describe the physical appearance of the Krym’parke and the aircraft parked on the roof of the jail—without actually using the name of the alien species. I certainly did not want the goblins to realize exactly how much I knew about the Krym’parke or how close I had managed to get to their operation.
“The aliens seem to be utilizing survivors from the local human police forces as their enforcers and distribution network,” I finished my report.
Meqik nodded, fingers steepled beneath his pointy chin, and sat in silence for a moment. “Thank you. That was an excellent report, and we now have a target we can deal with.”
Meqik waved his hand in a complicated gesture, and a notification appeared before me, which I took the time to read through.
Quest Complete!
You have successfully located the supplier of the mystery weapons and informed the Goldmiser Cartel of the source’s location.
Optional objective not met; no bonus rewards granted.
15,000 Credits and 10,000 XP Awarded. +100 reputation with Goldmiser Cartel.
I nodded in thanks to the goblin concierge.
“If you will excuse me, I have plans to make,” Meqik said.
“Of course,” I replied. “Thank you again for the quest.”
The concierge reached for an ivory-and-gold phone that rested on the corner of the desk, and I heard the goblin’s shrill voice issuing orders even as the office door closed behind me. I left the hallway of casino offices and headed over to the Shop.
While I didn’t intend to get much beyond restocking ammunition and consumables, I needed to replace or repair damaged pieces of my gear. That mostly meant the armored jumpsuits that had acquired slashes and holes over the course of my adventures, but my melee weapons were low on durability, so I needed replacements or upgrades for them. I also wanted to pick up a few extra backup weapons now that I had the Credits to spare and the available space afforded by Right Tool for the Job.
At the cashier window, a variety of aliens and a few well-dressed humans waited with racks of casino chips, but there was no line for the Shop. I walked up to the crystal and placed my hand on it, which teleported me to the Shop.
“Welcome back, Adventurer Mason,” Ryk greeted me a moment later.
“Thank you, Shopkeeper Ryk,” I replied. “It’s good to see you.”
“You’re only saying that because you have things to trade.” The shopkeeper squinted at me in suspicion.
I grinned when Ryk pointed at the stasis table where I usually unloaded my monster bits for trade.
“Got a bigger table?” I asked.
Ryk raised an eyebrow, still managing to glare at me with fake suspicion at the same time, though I could tell it was an act. After giving me the look for a few seconds, he waved for me to follow as he led me through a door that appeared where only a blank wall had been seconds before.
The temperature dropped significantly, and an energy field tingled over my skin as I stepped through the door into the room beyond. A high ceiling with exposed metallic rafters far overhead contributed to a warehouse feel. The smooth floor angled slightly downward toward a series of drains that ran in a line down the center of the large room.
“Is this big enough?” Ryk asked as he stepped to the side and allowed me to examine the room.
“It’ll do,” I said and summoned the carcass of the hardshell snapper from my Meat Locker.
Ryk jumped backward as the dead monster materialized directly in front of him and flopped limply to the floor with a splat. The shopkeeper fixed me with another glare, and I chuckled as I continued to pull dead monsters from the bonus System storage. When I finally emptied the Meat Locker completely, dead monsters covered the floor of the large room while blood trickled into the grates that covered the drainage system.
“You’ve been busy,” Ryk commented.
“Earth is a Dungeon World.” I shrugged. “Plenty of monsters for the killing.”
The shopkeeper and I haggled over the carcasses for a minute. I ended up with an offer slightly higher than Ryk’s opening bid but far lower than my counteroffer. I didn’t begrudge the shopkeeper too much though; Meat Locker gave me a huge advantage as far as earning Credits went, and I didn’t want to abuse the goodwill Ryk had shown me so far.
Once my Credit balance reflected the transaction, I went about the business of lowering it back down with purchases from the Shop. First, I topped off my ammunition levels. I hadn’t used much in the way of grenades or mines yet since I had been keeping my full collection of weapons and abilities hidden, so I didn’t need to purchase any more.
With my low tier jumpsuits, it turned out to be more cost effective to sell the ruined ones back to the manufacturer to be recycled than to have them repaired.
I looked into armor with self-repair functionality and winced at the price tag. I bought a single self-repairing jumpsuit and pi
cked up several much cheaper versions of the more disposable options.
The one other thing I splurged on was a next tier hybrid rifle. The weapon had been one of my most effective weapons in all of the fights I had been in so far, so it made sense to upgrade.
Banshee II Hybrid Gauss Rifle
Base Damage: N/A (Dependent Upon Ammunition)
Ammo Capacity: 18/18
Battery Capacity: 40/40
Recharge Rate: 8 per hour per GMU
Cost: 15,100 Credits
Then I looked for melee weapons that were not bound by durability limits, but my search results only turned up a limited number of results with insanely high prices. That seemed wonky, so I turned toward the shopkeeper who waited a discreet distance away.
“Hey, Ryk, what’s up with the lack of weapons that don’t have a durability rating?” I asked.
“Only summoned or soulbound weapons do not use durability because they are temporary Mana constructs that refresh each time their wielder draws them,” explained the shopkeeper. “Most of the time, these weapons are transformed using a Class Skill from a mundane version, so those that don’t come from a source like that are rare and expensive.”
“So that’s why all of the ones listed have unique-sounding names?”
“That is correct,” said Ryk. “Each of those weapons is hand-crafted by a Master level weaponsmith so there will never be another like it. Even if the smith follows the same process, the creation will be different in subtle ways.”
After that explanation, I gave up on finding a weapon without durability in my price range and settled on Tier III melee weapons instead. I picked up a spare axe and several knives to replace the weapons I carried in my sheaths, both of which had had their durability reduced down into single digits.
Finally, I added another spell to my repertoire. Frostbolt complemented my fluid combat style in that it helped me keep enemies at range by slowing them while they were still a long distance away. However, if an enemy closed that range before I got off Frostbolt or Hinder, then I needed something to let me break the engagement and control the distance once again.
It only took a few minutes of reading through available spells before I found one that fit my needs.
Frostnova (I)
Effect: Creates a ring of Frost from the user’s Mana which blasts outward in a 3-meter radius centered on the user. The ring does 12 Ice damage and may affect enemies with a Freeze effect, rooting them in place for up to 8 seconds. Cooldown 30 seconds.
Cost: 50 Mana.
The spell met all of my requirements. It was an instant cast spell centered on myself that could catch an enemy that had managed to get too close, even if that enemy was behind me or if I was threatened by multiple foes. I purchased the spell and felt the magical knowledge fill my brain.
I also purchased the next tier of the Frostbolt spell, which increased both the damage and the slow effect.
Once I finished spending a good chunk of my Credits, I took the time to catch up on my notifications before I returned to the casino. Besides the usual assortment of experience gain updates for the monsters I had killed, there was one that required my attention.
Level Up!
You have reached Level 17 as a Relentless Huntsman. Stat Points automatically distributed. You have 2 Free Attributes and 1 Class Skill Point to distribute.
With all of the monsters I had killed in the past twenty-four hours, I was almost to Level 18, but I wasn’t all the way there yet. I would have to take what I could get now. The two free points were again assigned into my lowest effective attributes, Strength and Willpower. That brought my total Strength up to 35 and my Willpower to 34.
The increased Willpower helped bump up my Mana Regeneration, which had been reduced by the permanent reduction from the Implacable Endurance Class Skill. The added Strength improved my melee damage, something I had relied on more frequently as I attempted to spend fewer Credits replenishing my depleted ammunition. Every bullet fired cost me, so if I could save them for dicey situations, then I was willing to get a little beat up stabbing monsters to death.
With the attributes set, I was left with one new Class Skill Point to spend.
The improvements that On the Hunt had picked up when I added a second point there earlier were nice, but I didn’t feel the need to add yet another point there just yet. When viewed from that perspective, I used one ability in almost every fight to give myself an edge. I added the point to Hinder, raising it to the second level. The only change to the ability was that the range slightly increased.
Once I had finished with my status updates, I waved farewell to Ryk. A moment later, the Shop faded around me to be replaced with the casino floor, and my sensitive ears were assaulted by the noise of chaos from throughout the casino.
Heavy metallic shutters closed over the cashier window next to the Shop and sealed the counter shut. Goblins rushed to and fro, mostly from the hallway back to the rear offices, with little organization. Unarmed goblins ran from the casino into the hallway and came out armed with both weapons and shoddy armor.
The goblins were preparing for a fight.
One hapless goblin ran from the back hall while carrying a rifle and wearing an olive-colored bucket helm that would have been right at home on an American GI on the beaches of Normandy during World War II. The overly large helm flopped loosely on the goblin’s head before it dropped down over the goblin’s eyes. The blinded goblin promptly tripped over its own feet and slammed face-first into the floor. The rifle it had carried tumbled away across the casino where it slid across the floor to lodge between a pair of slot machines.
The goblin pushed itself back to its feet and wiped at a broken nose as blood dripped freely before it raised the helmet so it could see once again. Then the goblin frantically looked around for the dropped rifle with one hand pinching its nostrils to stem the flow of blood from the broken nose. Other goblins streamed past the hapless goblin as it searched in vain for the lost weapon. The frustrated goblin gave up the cursory search and turned around to run back down the hallway.
It wasn’t long before the bloody-nosed goblin reappeared, a new weapon in hand. I just shook my head as the creature dashed off with the other goblins, completely unaware I had witnessed the whole thing.
I slipped through the crowd, towering over the running goblins who parted around me. I casually made my way to the bank of slot machines by the dropped rifle and made sure none of the goblins paid me any attention as I slipped the discarded weapon into my equipment storage. Confident that no one had noticed my act of pilferage, I left the bank of slot machines. I kept an eye on the chaos while I worked my way around the periphery of the casino until I reached the exit.
Once outside, I saw even the trade market had been largely emptied. Only a handful of dealers remained in business, and the few people who remained in line nervously glanced around at all of the goblin activity.
Most of the tables and trading stations had been cleared from the traffic lanes, two of the large wrecker vehicles now occupying most of the space. The massive vehicles idled with their engines running, the thunderous noise echoing under the awning that covered the trade area, as a line of goblins carried artillery shells to the wreckers. Behind the cannon mount on each vehicle, a crane arm picked up the oversized rounds from the goblin porters and stowed them in an ammunition compartment attached to the cannon turrets.
Around the wreckers, at least a dozen of the goblin-built motorbikes were also being prepared. Only a handful had sidecars like the damaged bike I had left in the underground parking garage, but the sheer number of the vehicles pointed to the goblins’ preparedness for a conflict.
Unlike my previous visits, both wide doors of the vehicle gate out of the trade market were now wide open in preparation for the wreckers to roll out. Since the gates were open, there was no line to exit, and the few people who had completed their trades were in a clear hurry to leave. I joined them and strolled out of the compound without a glance
back.
Chapter 27
Events were in motion, and I was on the clock now.
Tension filled the air and the streets were surprisingly clear, as if the city somehow sensed the conflict to come and the surviving people had hurried to shelter out of sight.
It was the calm before the storm.
A block after I left the casino, I summoned my bike from my Inventory and mounted it in the middle of the street. Tires squealed beneath me as I accelerated down the road until buildings flashed past.
I cornered sharply, and my knee almost kissed the pavement with each turn. It was the fastest I had ever driven, far beyond anything I had dared to try before the System, and I reveled in the sensation. Before the apocalypse, riding through the streets this recklessly would have been pure insanity, but my attributes were now far beyond the old human norm. I found a rush to the precision afforded me by the increases to my Perception and Agility that allowed me to push the bike, and myself, to the limits.
I existed in a zone where nothing mattered outside my link to the bike between my legs and the connection to the road beneath me.
In that moment, I realized something about myself.
Maybe it was the conflict I had endured, maybe it was the changes the System had wrought upon me, or maybe it was the System itself, but I had discovered a fundamental need to push myself to my limits and grow beyond them.
There was always another quest to complete now, or another level to gain. I needed to reach those milestones, to push beyond them, and to grow stronger.
I crossed the Clemente Bridge in a flash, the light of the setting sun flickering off the river below. Still crouched low over the handlebars of the bike, I eased up on the acceleration as I shot into downtown.
Motion on the display superimposed in the corner of my vision drew my attention, and I slowed further as I took a quick glance at my minimap. The dot of the tracker placed on the police cruiser blinked on the map as it moved away from the jail.
Fist Full of Credits: A New Apocalyptic LitRPG Series (System Apocalypse - Relentless Book 1) Page 36
