Chapter 18: Shaking Down The National Guard

Thomas stared at the label in complete disbelief. $500,000 was the starting price, and that was before people even began bidding.

It was unfair, he needed it… And he could imagine that a lot of other people did too.

Ridiculously, his eyes started stinging, and he quickly backed away before he could make an absolute fool of himself. Once free of the crowd surrounding the shroud, he forced himself to take a breath.

Breathe, he told himself. This is a setback, not a death sentence.

After all, that shroud had to come from somewhere. If he could figure out which dungeon had dropped it and which monster, Thomas could re-dive the dungeon over and over again.

It had to be local, right? How was he going to find that information? No idea. But the fact that the item had dropped meant that it was possible. Just… difficult. Derek would have to learn to get along without a hand for a little bit. Not forever. Just until Thomas could figure this out.

Feeling marginally better, he found Zach looking over different items.

“Anything interesting?” he asked, keeping his voice casual.

“Yeah, a cloak made from real flames,” Zach said. “It doesn’t actually do anything except look cool, but I’m tempted. What about you?”

“Found what I’m looking for, but the price is… way out of reach.”

Zach glanced at him and then frowned at what he saw in Thomas’s face. “That sucks, man.”

“Yeah.” Then something— it wasn’t quite his Forewarning skill, but something— made him look to the side.

Two National Guardsmen were making their way through the crowd.

He hadn’t seen any sign of their presence at the auction so far, but now two of them in uniform were making a beeline straight toward him and Zach.

“We’ve got company,” he said quietly.

Zach glanced sideways and understood. “Yep.”

The National Guardsmen stopped a few feet away. They had the air of professionals, and the older one nodded. “Mr. Coldstrike? We were hoping to have a word.”

And while Thomas’s mind was busy flailing at oh my God, they knew his name, because he hadn’t given any official his name at this auction, and yet they had it, the guardsman’s gaze shifted toward Zach.

“You as well, Mr.—”

“Zach works,” Zach said quickly.

“Of course.” The National Guardsman didn’t miss a beat. “I’m Sergeant Martinez, and this is Sergeant Applebaum. We’ve been asked to make contact with qualified level two individuals regarding a time-sensitive opportunity.”

“Opportunity?” Zach repeated.

“How do you know we’re qualified?” Thomas asked.

Martinez answered Thomas first. “You reached level two within the first fourteen days of the official System announcement. That makes you qualified.” He looked hard at Thomas. “Understand that this opportunity comes with significant compensation.”

Something in Thomas immediately pinged. Maybe it had to do with his Gift. “How significant?”

“That would be part of the conversation.”

Wow. This guy was almost as good at stonewalling as Zach had been with the dude-bros.

Zach, however, went for the throat. “So, which dungeon’s giving your people trouble?”

Thomas gave him a confused look, but after a moment, realized it made sense. After all, since they weren’t currently being arrested there wasn’t much else this could be about.

Martinez’s expression didn’t change. “We’d prefer to discuss specifics in a quieter setting.”

Oh, hell no. Thomas was not going to get moved to some isolated location without witnesses to have a chat with the National Guard when they already knew too much about him.

“I’d prefer to discuss them here,” Thomas said with false pleasantry.

There was a moment when the two National Guardsmen looked at each other and exchanged a professional nod. It seemed they were far enough away from the general crowd. Finally, Martinez looked back at them. “There’s a level one dungeon in the region that has proven… resistant to clearance. Given the timeline, we need people with level two capability.”

“A level one that needs level twos?” Zach said. “That’s not an opportunity, dude. That’s a huge red flag.”

The other guy, Applebaum, finally spoke. “The situation is… a bit complex.”

“Cool,” Zach said so blandly that it was clearly sarcastic.

Thomas was busy doing the math. A level one dungeon that was somehow dangerous enough to involve the National Guard had probably already chewed through their own people. And now they were desperate enough to come to random outsiders at an auction for help.

It was, all told, very simple math, and it added up to: No way, no how, hell no, and so on.

But he was also in a kind of a shitty mood and decided on a Hail Mary.

“When you said significant compensation,” he said, “I want the shroud.”

Martinez blinked. “I’m… sorry?”

“The Regeneration Shroud.” Thomas gestured back over his shoulder toward the small crowd gathered around it. “The one-use item. Lot 182. If you get that for me, I’d definitely be willing to check this out for you.”

Applebaum exhaled through his nose but said nothing.

“Mr. Coldstrike,” Martinez said carefully, “that item is—”

“Expensive, sure.” Thomas shrugged. “It’s also the price for my life. You said significant compensation. That’s what significant looks like to me.”

Martinez and Applebaum exchanged a look. The thing was, it wasn’t a ‘no’ look.

Thomas suddenly felt like he’d screwed up. He’d thrown out the shroud as a number too big to say yes to and send them off looking for somebody else, but it looked like they were giving it serious consideration.

“That particular item is outside what we can authorize directly,” Applebaum said. And how interesting was it that he knew about the item? “However…” He looked harder at Thomas. “Is there a medical situation involved? Is that shroud specifically for you?”

“Uh…” He mentally stumbled. “Why?”

Martinez’s smile was only a slight uptick at the corners of his mouth, and yet Thomas suddenly felt like a fish that had just gotten hooked. “There are other channels depending on the… nature of the situation.”

Ah, damn it. That definitely wasn’t a no.

Thomas considered for a long, hard moment before deciding that a bit of the truth wouldn’t hurt. “My brother lost a hand on his first dungeon run.”

“Then in that case, we may have a skill shard for you,” Applebaum said quietly. “It was recovered a while ago from a pre-announcement dungeon and has been sitting in freeze because nobody with the right healing affinity has been cleared to use it.” He paused. “It might work.”

“Okay, but hold on,” Zach said, stepping forward. “If we’re doing the ask-for-things thing, I need something to balance mana, and not something that’s going to evaporate when I level up. It needs to be a renewable natural treasure.”

Thomas’s head snapped toward Zach. A renewable what now? But since they were in the middle of a negotiation, he didn’t say anything. He just nodded along like he knew what Zach was talking about.

Martinez frowned. “That’s a significantly more complicated request.”

More complicated than a genuine healing shard? Thomas thought.

“That’s fine,” Zach said. “Then I’ll think about this whole thing once it’s guaranteed. Not before.”

Again, the two guardsmen looked at each other. They were considering it.

Thomas felt a little like he did right after killing a dungeon monster and waiting to see the loot it left behind. A little giddy, a little victorious, and a bit dangerous.

If they were already this close to yes, he wanted to see how far he could push them.

“We also want our pick of the extra-dimensional storage bags,” Thomas said. “The bags the lady’s selling back there. We each get one.”

Zach visibly brightened. “Hell yeah.”

“You’ll have your pick of weapons going in,” Martinez said.

“I don’t care about weapons,” Thomas said. “I want the storage bag.”

“Hold on.” Applebaum made a ‘wait one moment’ sign, then stepped away from the group and put a phone to his ear, turning his back.

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While he was doing that, Martinez glanced around and jerked his chin for them to move a few yards away from a nearby group that had drifted their way. He lowered his voice. “I want you both to understand the scope of what we’re asking. This dungeon is on the verge of an overflow event. When that happens, whatever is inside stops being contained. It becomes a public safety crisis on a scale that—”

“We get it,” Zach said.

“I don’t,” Thomas said. “That wasn’t supposed to happen for another six months, right? That was in the initial announcement.”

He looked between Zach and Martinez, who were both giving him expressions of pity.

“There are exceptions,” Martinez said. “Just know that we’re coming to you because we’re running out of options and time. You two are perhaps among a dozen level twos in this region who aren’t already committed to federal contracts or operating outside the law.” He paused. “I’m appealing to your sense of civic responsibility.”

Thomas found he couldn’t say anything. He had asked about the shroud kind of as a fuck-off, and suddenly he might actually be in over his head.

He was equally torn between hoping Applebaum came off the phone with a no and hoping he came back with a yes, and he wasn’t sure what that said about him.

Zach looked toward Martinez with something close to irritation. “Dude,” he said, “that was a low blow. If you know his last name, you know what kind of mana he has.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Thomas asked.

“He’s playing dirty games,” Zach said, not really answering. He looked hard at Martinez. “Either get us what we want or get lost.”

“I’ll do whatever I need to,” Martinez said. “We’re on the edge of a crisis.”

Applebaum came back and gestured to Martinez. The two men stepped away and had a brief conversation in low voices.

Thomas took that opportunity to have his own conversation. “What was that supposed to mean?” Thomas repeated. “What’s going on with my mana?”

Zach winced. “I said it in the car. You felt like you needed to heal people, right? Or maybe just help them more than you usually would?”

Thomas frowned slowly but didn’t say anything.

“It’s not like you’re forced to be a good guy,” Zach continued, “but… yeah. If anyone sees your mana signature, they’ll know you’ve been stacking healing. Like I said, he’s playing dirty.”

Thomas wasn’t sure how to take that, except that he really didn’t like anything messing with his head. Had he made a mistake picking healing mana as his level 1?

Finally, the guardsmen came back.

“About that natural treasure,” Martinez said to Zach. “We can’t give you exactly what you’re describing because, frankly, it doesn’t exist. But there is an item.” He emphasized the word. “It was recovered in a pre-integration-era dungeon.”

“Aren’t they all?” Zach muttered, crossing his arms. “What about it?”

“People categorize it as a foundational stabilizer. It’s intended to be a healing item It’s meant—or so we think—to correct elemental imbalances at the mana-core level starting from level 1, then continues forward. But you’re only level two. Surely you’re not that unbalanced.”