Chapter 12

Tuesday was uneventful, but because Tiff’s life couldn’t be simple anymore, Wednesday morning greeted her with another blue box.

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[System Notification]

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Class Quest: Place Your Core has been inactive for 7 days since Awakening and has been marked as abandoned. New quest issued.

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Quest: Place Your Core (limited).

Find a location to place your dungeon core to establish your territory. If no location is selected within 48 hours, your core will be automatically placed at your current location. Restrictions to core mobility still apply.

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Tiff groaned as she sat up. So much for ignoring her Class. At least she wasn’t hit with any penalties for refusing to complete her first quest, though she supposed the second quest could be considered a penalty all on its own. Tiff had no idea what might happen if her core were destroyed, and now she no longer had the luxury of time to find the safest place. She might be on a timer, but she wasn’t going to be hasty.

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“Amy,” Tiff nudged her sister as Victoria chauffeured them to school. Instead of taking the front seat, Amy had climbed into the back with Tiff, playing up her observation that, now that they had a driver schlepping them places, they’d made it in the world. Victoria rolled her eyes and told them that if she was required to wear one of those funny hats, it was coming out of their allowance.

“Hmm?” Amy looked over. Tiff considered how to broach the subject on her mind.

“You play video games.”

Amy gave Tiff a flat stare before rolling down her window and sticking her head outside. She squinted, looked into the sky, and brought herself back in.

“Yup. The sky is still blue.”

“Ha. Do you play a lot of tower defense games?”

“Sometimes,” Amy nodded, but her eyes narrowed slightly. It wasn’t that she was suspicious of Tiff…but she was suspicious of Tiff. “Why?”

“No big reason,” Tiff shrugged. “Do you remember that Dungeon Keeper game that came out a few years ago?”

“Sure!” Amy lit up. “Though, technically, it was a remake. The original came out, like, a decade ago. It was pretty good; they even got the original voice actor for the Overlord.”

Tiff listened as Amy rambled on about various units, upgrades, and strategies, proving that yes, she was familiar with the game. So much so that her excited rambling quickly went over Tiff’s head. She never really played the game because, technically, the player was the bad guy. They were sending units from the “Underground” to the surface, where they hoped to take over the world.

“So, yeah, I’d give it a solid 8 on the scale, no problem,” Amy eventually finished up her in-depth analysis, making Tiff jolt. “Why’d you bring it up?”

“I was thinking,” Tiff answered, “That it sounded sort of familiar. I mean, after the Rift opened over the weekend, I was trying to fall asleep, and it hit me; Rifts are a lot like video games, aren’t they?”

“Well, yeah,” Amy agreed, “But that could also be because developers take so much inspiration from Rifts to throw in their projects.”

“Right,” Tiff nodded. “But I mean, like, a portal opens, monsters spill out, and heroes need to go inside to clear it out. In a way, Rifts are closer to Dungeon Keeper than they are to Monster Hunter.”

“Huh,” Amy said thoughtfully. “Yeah, that tracks, to a certain extent. Hey! I wonder if that means somebody’s out there putting Rifts down?”

“Doubtful,” Victoria shook her head as she pulled into the parking lot. “If there was, we’d know about it. Something that crazy? It would be huge. Now get your butts out of here and go to class. Tiff, I’ll see you after school.”

“Hey!” Amy shouted even as she slammed the door. “Can I get a ride?”

Victoria smirked as she rolled down the window.

“Only if the boss says yes.”

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Tiff and Amy parted ways in the entrance hall, since their lockers were on separate sections of the wall. Victoria’s words rang in her ears, the boss. Tiff couldn’t see herself as a boss. No matter what position she imagined herself in.

Not somebody important enough to employ private security.

Certainly not as a Dark Queen.

Tiff snorted.

Not even as somebody climbing the ranks of retail.

She knew she had to get a job someday, and chances were likely that she’d be flipping burgers or working a cash register somewhere. Actually, she supposed she could see herself as a boss…though not the type with minions. Apparently, when she was really little, they’d taken a trip to a Blockbuster Video and Tiff’s tiny brain had been enamored. Maybe it was the bright and colorful lights, maybe it was the playable game stations, or maybe it was the thousands of thousands of dvds on display, but all she could talk about for the next week straight was how she was going to grow up and own a Blockbuster. Obviously, that dream was long since dead, since not only did Tiff grow up after being 5 years old, but most movie rental joints went out of business long ago.

It was for the best, really.

Melissa took every opportunity to tease Tiff over it whenever it came up, though she usually eased off pretty quickly as she herself was overwhelmed with nostalgia. Mostly for VHS tapes, which Tiff had to admit, sounded intriguing.

And also ancient and barbaric.

Video, on a tape? That you needed to rewind? No thank you.

Tiff kept herself busy through Homeroom by amusing herself with the thought of how many people took their first step off the neutral path on the Greyscale by stealing videotapes. Would the system give them a quest to not turn it in? Would the late fees be considered a penalty or a reward? What did that mean for the employees? Did collecting outstanding rentals contribute to ranking up a Class? Is that how somebody became a [Manager]?

Unfortunately, they were still stuck on the basics and wouldn’t start talking about Classes or Quests for a few more days. After thinking about it, Tiff was grateful. She didn’t know how long she’d be able to keep her mouth shut about her class, especially since everything today seemed determined to bring her mind back around to her quest.

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Quest: Place Your Core (limited)

Time Remaining: 43:17:36

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Tiff watched the seconds tick down one by one before eventually banishing the screen from her sight. As if her class by itself wasn’t enough to darken her mood.

And her personal “System problems” weren’t the only thing dragging her down. Today was PE, and Tiff was not looking forward to it. She lingered in the hall up until the warning bell rang and scurried into the locker room to change with a handful of seconds left to spare. A bunch of girls gave her weird looks as she hurried past them, but she paid them no mind. Her desire to prolong the inevitable eventually lost to her need not to be late, and she found herself, panting and disheveled, standing in the gym next to everybody else, without a moment to spare. The teacher’s assistant raised an eyebrow as he marked her down for attendance, but otherwise didn’t say anything about her appearance.

She hadn’t voiced her concerns to her family (mostly because they hadn’t occurred to her yet) about when it came time to dress down for PE. But standing in front of the locker room, thinking about how her Might was now a D, sent shivers up her spine.

In Tiff’s mind, like those horrible dreams where she walked onto a brightly lit stage in front of a crowd, fully naked, she imagined something similar happening for PE. Though, instead of being fully naked, she was only partially naked, as visions flashed in her mind of trying to pull up shorts that were suddenly huge and baggy, or swimming in a shirt 5 sizes too large.

Really, she didn’t need to worry and her nightmares were unfounded. If she’d stopped to think, she would have realized that she’d been a D for an entire week, and all her regular clothes fit just fine. So as she was standing in line with the rest of her class, there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary…except for the fact that she was already out of breath.

“VanDyne!” One of the coaches called as soon as the aides were done. “Front and center!”

Maybe one of the reasons Tiff hated PE was how sports-centric the whole program was, and nothing was more sports than a coach. Fortunately, she wasn’t being called up to a podium to stand in a spotlight, but the words front and center always had a way of making her feel small.

She looked up at the coach, a brawny man with a whistle around his neck and a clipboard in his hand, tapping it impatiently.

Okay, she was small. But it made her feel insecure, and she hated it.

But, probably because of some sports code she didn’t understand, the man meant nothing by it. As soon as Tiff shuffled over, he nodded at her and checked off a tick on the clipboard like she’d made good time.

Not a personal best or anything, Tiff mused. She didn’t have enough hustle. Okay, maybe there was something to this coach-code. Given enough time, she could crack it.

“Got your specs in from DMA,” Coach Plumtree said. Tiff watched the man’s hands as they couldn’t sit still. First, they fiddled with the pen as he tapped it against the clipboard. Then, with the whistle hanging around his neck. Eventually, he rubbed his left bicep twice, patted his right elbow, and ran his index finger under his nose.

Am I…supposed to steal third base?

Clearly, he was sending mixed signals.

“VanDyne, are you with me?” He asked. Thankfully, he didn’t do something asinine like snap his fingers under her nose. It appeared he simply had a case of the jitters where he couldn’t keep still.

“Sorry, sir,” Tiff hastily apologized.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“No worries. Like I said, you’re on reduced workload, but that doesn’t mean you get to screw around. I hope you like running, that’s one of the few accepted activities across most boards.”

And so, Tiff found herself jogging around the perimeter of the tennis courts. At first, she wasn’t alone, as everybody started off the day running. But Tiff, specifically, was scolded to slow down and stay steady, while everyone else was nagged to pick it up. She was mildly miffed at the insinuation that she couldn’t handle a few simple circuits around the courts. They weren’t even the same size as a full lap around the track!

But after being lapped by the entire class and feeling as if she were about to expire, she was grateful for the consideration.

Unlike the other day when it was overcast and cool, today was more in line with Southern California’s normal weather. That’s to say, the moment the sun crested over the horizon, the air felt like it was on fire. Tiff was sure the nearby asphalt was about to start boiling and the entire class was going to melt into a pile of goo.

Thankfully, they did not, and Tiff even survived jogging for a quarter of a mile. She flopped onto a bench, casting dirty looks at the line leading to the water fountain, and once again found herself drawn to her quest in unexpected ways.

If I put it underground, the core room would remain cool, wouldn’t it?