Chapter Thirty-One: Reset

THIRTY-ONE

Roan woke with a jerk, sitting upright violently as he looked around himself. The haze around his mind slowed his thoughts as he looked around himself, trying to remember what had happened.

“That stamina potion drop off is intense. Worst crash I’ve ever experienced.” Roan thought to himself as he rubbed at his temples. There was a headache there sending bolts of pain through his temple and throbbed.

“Rise and shine sleepy head,” Moira said as she came into view. She looked better now, rested and cleaned up a bit. Her spiky hairdo had been cleaned of dust and debris and the circles that had formed under her eyes had been reduced in size.

“How long?” Roan rasped, realizing suddenly how thirsty he was. Without thinking he accessed the market and bought a full sized water ration, a full gallon without thought.

“Fifteen hours left until the next level unlocks. I was starting to think you were going to sleep through it,” Moira said conversationally, but the words froze Roan as he started accessing the alerts.

ANOMALIES DESTROYED: 4247/4347

The hunt for the anomalies was almost over. Less than a hundred of them were left alive and Roan felt his stomach fall through his feet as he looked over his alerts and bank balance. During the chaos of the fighting he’d managed to kill several more of the anomalies, bringing his grand total up to thirty-seven of the monsters. Eleven thousand one hundred credits earned. The amount made him giddy before he remembered what he owed the association.

Eleven hundred points for his ten percent and another five-hundred for his actions. He’d make it back from not having to pay for all the repair kits, but sending the sixteen hundred credits out hurt enough he didn’t want to think about it.

CREDIT BALANCE: 13,458

The full water ration cost seventy-five credits but that was the last thing he’d spent money on. There was a long, long, list of items he wanted to buy, but the level one unique skill called to him. He was almost there. Would have been there if it wasn’t for having to pay his fees.

“I see you paid up. Thank you. As for what’s been going on, we’ve reconnected with all of the saferooms. Darren thinks that something is off though. There’s not enough people even accounting for the anomalies.”

“Intersesting. Are they getting ready to go further down the hall?” Roan asked as he sipped on the water. His stomach rumbled but he tried to ignore it. Moira heard though and shook her head as she fished in the pockets of her robe and pulled out a partially eaten ration bar. Roan took it without hesitation and finished the bland bar with a few bites.

“Yeah, they’re getting ready to push. Don’t worry, they’re honoring your pledge and sacrifice. We’re pretty certain the last hundred or so of the anomalies have retreated to where the source of the corruption is. They’re just getting all the shards they need to create a strike force. Taoya should be back in a bit with all of your upgraded talismans,” Moira said.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Good. Still a chance to hit the amount I need then.” Roan kept that part to himself as he looked around the saferoom. There was a lot of people in it, way more than there had been earlier.

“All the survivors came here?” he asked. Moira shook her head and looked around at everyone. There were quite a few signs of fighting, bloodstained clothes and bandages apparent.

“Just those with the association. I figured out how to make an inferior-grade healing potion using bone dust, grave petal, amulet shards, and an alchemy kit. Selling it back to the market earns less than how much it costs to make, but it has helped lower our costs. Bottles are a bit pricy, but nowhere near as bad as the potions themselves,” Moira said.

“You have to buy a skill to do it?” Roan asked, suddenly curious.

“No, an alchemy manual,” she said as she reached into her pocket and pulled out an already well-worn stapled together book. The paper looked cheap, the words tightly scribbled down in a dense mass he couldn’t read from where he sat.

“Is it easy?” Roan asked.

“No. It gives me a migraine. Mix of chemistry and mana physics that is, honestly, way more complicated than what I learned. But it says if I brew a hundred inferior grade potions I’ll have learned the skill, so?” Moira said, shrugging her shoulder as she put the manual back in her pocket. Roan wanted it, but kept his greed under control.

“How many have you made?”