Chapter 38: Followed

Note: Because I know I’ll get questions, NO I don’t have any plans for romance in this book.

They got started on their trip to Reno the next day around noon, which was a little later than Thomas would have liked.

That had been at Zach’s request. He suspected the man had taken the first part of the day to track down and send a message of his own to the dude-bro group.

Thomas had spent the beginning of the day productively as well, running the Chipmunk Forest Fire dungeon twice over.

While it had been a certified chipmunk slaughter, he’d been forced to bypass the juvenile Phoenix Boss both times. Well, the first time he’d gotten the bright idea to throw his poisoned mace at it. (Hey, it worked for the grizzlies.) But the Phoenix chick was a lot more mobile than the big hulking bears, and possibly smarter too, because it had simply hopped out of the way. Then Thomas had a devil of a time trying to get the weapon back without getting burned. He didn’t even try the second time.

But he had come out with a basket full of level two fire mana crystals, and another firestone.

He really hoped that the dungeon remained undiscovered for some time. It was a great source of high quality reds. His problem was now becoming how to offload all these crystals. Most of them were above C grade with occasional A’s thrown into the mix. He couldn’t just dump those into the low-grade crystal ATMs that were starting to pop up all around, and he had to use those sparingly as well.

“I’m DJ Khaled, Suffering from Success,” he muttered.

“Huh?” Zach asked. They’d been driving for a good half hour, and he had been dozing in the passenger seat.

“Nothing.” Thomas returned his attention to the road. He had driven so many times to Reno in his life that he barely needed to concentrate. “So, tell me more about how old families tend to guard these feeder dungeons?”

Zach stretched before answering. He and Thomas had met up around noon as promised, and the man hadn’t looked like he’d gotten into a physical fight, so Thomas figured that his “talk” with the Dude-Bro Group hadn’t been a bloody one.

“That’s like asking a how-long-is-a-piece-of-string question, dude. It depends on the dungeon. If the family itself wants to dive it, then everybody’s on alert when the boss is coming up. When I swung through the other day, there were minimal guards. The family has to be somewhere else.”

“Do you think they’ll notice that you broke into the gatehouse?”

“Nah, it wasn’t even locked. The guides were just sitting in a cabinet right behind the coffee machine. I don’t think they’re gonna notice a thing.”

Thomas nodded and thought.

“What’s on your mind, mana man?” Zach asked, after a while.

“I’m not as worried about diving the dungeon as I am sneaking in,” Thomas admitted. “I think we’re going to need more help. That lady I told you about in the Grizzly Dungeon? Her Gift allows her to hide herself and at least one other person. Maybe more, I’m not sure. I just don’t want to get discovered going in, and then when we get out, we’ll have to fight.”

Zach didn’t answer right away. He was thinking hard about it too.

“If you’re found out and you’re with me,” he said at last, very reluctantly, in the way he always was when he alluded to the Old Families, “they won’t kill us, but yeah, they’ll take the loot and gear. And maybe rough us up a bit before they kick us out. I figured if we find anything good in the dungeon, we absorb it right away. No one can take that.” He flashed a half smile. “But that’s only if we get caught.”

“Still,” Thomas said, “getting caught doesn’t sound like a good time. And if this dungeon is good, I wanna sneak in. I wanna run it as much as we can get away with.”

Zach started in surprise, as if it had never occurred to him to re-run the dungeon. Thomas half suspected he’d suggested the place as a FU to the Old Families. Then he nodded, looking more thoughtful. “If it’s good enough, it could be our feeder dungeon.”

“Only we’re not caught,” Thomas reminded him, “And I’d like to treat it as a test run for Jo, too.”

“What’s her level?”

“One for now, but I gave her enough crystals to get her most of the way to level two, if not all the way there.”

Zach slanted a sideways look at him. “She cute?”

“She could be your mother,” Thomas answered with a smirk. “But not mine.”

Zach chuckled appreciatively at that but then grew more serious. “You trust her enough with your Gift?”

That was the problem, and the wall that Thomas kept running up against, even in his mind.

“Maybe. But I don’t know her well enough yet. She thinks I have the Gift of Senses.”

Zach hummed under his breath. “She could just help us get to the entrance and then out again when we’re done, and we’ll make it worth her while. Like, pay her off with crystals.”

“I really think she’ll be useful inside too. If she absorbs the second skill shard, she’ll have two sword powers, and we’re going to be facing level 3 monsters.” He took a breath and then let it out, not liking what he had to say next. It made him feel oily.

At the same time, Zach’s warning about what would happen if the wrong people knew his Gift echoed in his mind. He’d be facing a horrific, probably short and painful future. He had to be careful.

“She’s new to diving,” he said, feeling his way through. “Even newer than I am. She may not know what a normal loot drop rate is. And we’ll be level twos running a level three. It’s conceivable that we might get better drops just because of the increased risk.”

“I’m picking up what you’re putting down,” Zach said. He didn’t look exactly happy, but he wasn’t rejecting it out of hand, either. “And hey, it’s not even a lie, but the rewards won’t be as extreme as what your Gift can do.” He hummed again. “I could also float the idea that the Ross-Astor family might have modified the dungeon, which is also true. But bro, none of that will hold up if she does more dungeons with you.”

“By then, I should know if she’s worth trusting or not,” Thomas said.

“Welp, I’ll never say no to more firepower. And if you think it’s worth it… well, your neck’s the one on the line.” Zach glanced at him. “I’m gonna tell her I got a mana cost reduction to work with fire, plus a fire manipulation skill. That’s good enough to be worth having, but not so great that someone will want to snatch me off the street if it gets out.”

Did he trust Jo enough to tell her the full truth?

No, not right now. But he could. A dungeon run was a good way to find out what someone was really made of. It had taken two dungeons for him to trust Zach.

“I’ll text her,” Thomas said. “Next red light I can get to. I’ll see what she has to say.”

He did, and by the time they reached the Reno auction site, his message had been left on read for over half an hour.

Zach chuckled and clapped him on the shoulder. “It’s okay, dude. Plenty of other fish in the sea.”

“I’m not trying to date her,” he grumbled. “I’m trying to recruit her.”

Zach just grinned his reply but then grew slightly more serious as they parked and started separating the loot.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Out in the near distance, Thomas heard the roar of protesters. They’d been fenced off from the convention center, but their numbers had visibly grown. Now the sidewalk was packed and it looked like someone had set up an ad-hoc festival behind it all to cater to the protestors. It made him feel both uneasy and a little sad.

He and Zach entered the auction a few minutes apart, both pretending to be solo divers. It wouldn’t fool anybody who was looking closely or could compare video records from last week and see that they had acted as a team before, but Thomas was hoping that it would help them fly under the radar to casual security.

Thomas got in line at the admissions desk and received his blue band showing that he was level 2. This time, it only earned him a longer look rather than anyone acting like he was anything special. It seemed there were more and more 2s filtering in.

That made sense, because really it wasn’t that hard to reach the next level.

On impulse, Thomas asked, “What does it take to open up a vendor stall here?”

“Oh, spaces are still open, but there is a fee.” The admissions person gave him a piece of paper. It outlined the size of the booth and costs.

It would be pretty expensive at a thousand dollars or the mana crystal equivalent for a week. But the prices were much more reasonable if he only wanted to start up a single table for a weekend or a couple of days.

And most importantly, there didn’t seem to be any requirement to pay the venue a part of what he sold, just a vague disclaimer that he shouldn’t sell illegal items.

He’d have to seriously think about it or just save himself the commute and open up something at the Crystal Flea Market. That would be a good way to offload some of his loot without anyone looking twice at him.

Thanking the attendant, Thomas folded up the paper and put it in his back pocket. Zach had been ahead of him in line and had already entered the Convention Center. Thomas spied him talking to someone with a booth that had a banner over it with small printed flame emojis.

Since they were acting like they weren’t part of a team, Thomas made his way directly to the auction house appraisals.