Ch 31 Good News, Bad News

  With everyone but Lucas settled into rooms I needed to find him now. According to Raven he was on a run though. So, I needed to make some credits. I went to ‘my’ office and settled in. It was a fairly nice office, but I’d likely treat it as more of a workspace anyway. There was a couch and a desk. No computer as that seemed unneeded. I set my speaker onto the desk and had Raven play something easy to listen to while I worked. No more silence for me. I had gotten used to background noise after-all.

  “Raven, continue making autosize wands to sell. Yes, I know it will take longer outside the dungeon. Stop if it will make me pass out.”

  “Confirmed.”

  With that I pulled out my laptop and journal. I caught up on everything that happened. Especially the fact it's been days since I went in not 30 minutes. How people adapted to my supposed death and worked without me. How my obligations were filled by someone else. How I felt redundant about it. How small I felt when I realized how little I was needed.

  There was a reason I was putting this on paper and not my laptop. I could keep this in my inventory, and no one could find it. I just needed to wait a few hours and I’d make credits back, I thought. I texted Maggie for Jamie to advertise my bags and new wands as well. Then gave a brief description about them.

  Only to realize I didn't make the bags bind to a single person so they could easily be stolen. Dammit. I knew I forgot something. Too late now, they're already in the store. The wands binding to a single person was part of the enchantment I thought of when I made them. But when I made the bags, I was thinking of everyone having them. Maybe I could make passable wands that way? I wasn't sure.

  “Raven alert me when Lucas returns to the guild?”

  “Confirmed.”

  I just needed to wait a bit. If he was already in the dungeon he would be back in an hour or so. He just had to get through traffic. I just had to wait patiently.

  I knew he had been taking selling the shop hard, but I didn't realize he had a run scheduled so soon. Maybe a little exercise would do him good, clear his head so to speak. But I was worried if his walker was a pain in the ass, then he’d have an even worse headache. So, I sat and made more sealant wands. Since I had sold a bunch, there was no point not making more. I don't know how long I did that. Raven had adjusted the lights for me, so they weren't blaring in the late afternoon sun.

  Then Maggie called me up. “Arthur, there is a man here, named Oscar? Says he has business with you?”

  “He does, can you direct him to my office please? And the elevator. H might be a major player in the guild in the future.”

  “Alright, I'll send him up.”

  “Raven, how many autosize wands did you make?”

  “Alert, Raven crafted 46 autosize wands in the last three hours.”

  More than I had expected. I thought my mana would have given out with both of us crafting wands. I suppose I did level up though. I pulled some blank papers from my inventory and a few pens on the low coffee table next to the couch.

  “Raven buy an armchair matching the couch please.”

  “Confirmed, placement is required as inventory cannot be used.”

  “catty-corner to the right side. I want it to be conversational.”

  “Confirmed.”

  I probably should have checked my credits, but it's been a few hours by now. I should have gained back a few hundred if not a few thousand. One chair shouldn't hurt me too badly. It's not like I can go into debt.

  I went to the armchair and sat down. Moving the paper into two stacks. That way the former major had his own to write on. This way we could come to an agreement of sorts. I'm hoping to come to some sort of agreement. I want him to be a part of my guild. But if he wants to have his own separate guild that's fine. I would even help him.

  But he has the mind of a major, has the learned command of a major. Has the ability to lead where I don't. Thats what I need for my guild. If we can parse together our ideas? We would be remarkable. We just have to work together. He just needs a less military mindset. Because if he doesn't lose that I can see so many problems.

  There was a knock on my door, so I called enter. It was Oscar, he strode in, looked at the scene and went to place himself onto the couch, right where the papers were. Just as I had expected him to.

  “Welcome to Wands and Words Oscar. What do you think so far?”

  “Ostentations. Bigger than it needs to be, but it seems fairly open. Why so many rooms?”

  I blinked, that was not the response I was expecting. I looked around. It was a normal office. I looked at him again. Then reminded myself he was career military stuffed into closets.

  “it's open to have room to move. It's not that flashy, that's just the system colors. There are so many rooms as we expect to grow. Which is why I asked you here. My first choice for guild leader is not up to par. You have been leading men for decades. But I have a vision for my guild, while you have only ideas for teams. I wanted to see if we could work together and create something new.”

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  I gave him my entire spiel. That way he could entertain the thought from the start. No talking around it. I wanted him to lead the guild.

  He sat back and stared at me. “you want me to lead your guild?”

  I nodded. “I can make credits and craft. But I'm only 29. The only job I've ever had was working fast food. I don't have a college degree. My life experiences have nearly run me down multiple times. I'm a little bit paranoid from living in bad neiborhoods. I'm wary of strangers when we first meet. I'm naive and have too much compassion. I would make a poor leader. I know this. The man I wanted to be the guild leader lost his retirement plan due to the system, so he chose to become a cog in the wheel of the guild.”

  Oscar looked me up and down. I know I looked younger than I was sometimes. Other times I looked haggard enough to look mid-thirties. But after my dungeon vacation I had more confidence, more strength to me.

  “What I want from you is to be the front man of the guild. I would be the back. I would provide gear mostly. And I own the building. We have some services already. Like skill selections, that's not anywhere else so far. I made bags of unusual sizes. Not bags of holding. But bigger on the inside. Those will be part of the guild too. I added a training room here. Where its more mana density than the regular outside world. So, people can practice their skills here more. It's not up to dungeon levels, but its 20 times Earth levels. I bought books from around the world that are translated to English, I bought computers that are future tech. I have 12 studio bedrooms free. And can add more whenever I wish. I plan on buying the surrounding buildings and adding them to my guild.”

  Oscar looked at me. “so, you have a base, but not people. You wish for me to bring in people?”

  I shrugged. “We walk civilians through the dungeons. If your people want to do that, fine. If your people want to create a team to just run the dungeon fine. But I'm willing to supply them and gear them, and give them a home base. To be part of the guild. I'm not talking just dungeon runners, but crafters too. I want to build a community of people who are going to be relying on the dungeon for their livelihood. And help them integrate the dungeon into their daily lives. And help the city with making a place to go to work with the dungeon.”

  Oscar just blank faced stared at me. I sighed. Then started explaining how guilds worked in online games. They were self sufficient entities that had everything they needed to be considered a city in and of themselves. That is what I wanted. I wanted everyone out of the parking garage and part of my guild. Even if they only ran one or two at a time. As they leveled up you can run up to four times a day.

  Oscar widened his eyes at that. He hadn't known my level. So, I explained. You can't level up in the dungeons. But the dungeons will change on leveling up. So, we needed different types of people to level up the dungeons. There will come a point when the dungeon may out level us. Or we might out level the dungeon. Or the dungeon might bar us from the lower levels. I didn't know. There was so little we knew about the dungeon that I wanted as many people running the goblins as we could get to level themselves up as high as we could go to level the dungeon past the trap level.

  Oscar nodded his understanding then. The dungeon was level 0 with the goblins and level 1 with the traps. We wanted to see what level 2 was. And if it was easier than the traps. Otherwise, we would have to keep fighting the goblins until we were all in shape to take on the traps.

  We both wrote down notes of our thoughts. I wrote down how I wanted the guild to always be able to run civilians. Oscar wrote down that has to be a choice of the runners. I wrote that there had to be always be people available for that. We went back and forth over it. No matter their level I wanted to be able to run people through. Unless it was a trap dungeon, or a dungeon level that required the walker to participate. Then they could be run through. Easiest on the fighting levels like goblins. But they had to pass the book of gore.

  Oscar had no clue what I was talking about so I had Raven pull a copy out. And showed Oscar. It was the picture book of a team that was fighting the goblins. A four man team. Through each room. The aftermath. It wasn't pretty. Oscar commented this certainly would throw some people off. I told him we had pictures of all the boss monsters for each team set so far. I silently thanked Raven for having me purchase the dungeon info.

  Silently I called status.

  Not too bad.

  “Raven deposit 5000 into guild bank please.”

  “Confirmed.”

  Oscar gave me a look. “I have an AI. It's the first clear reward. Very helpful. I don't need a terminal.”

  He slowly nodded. Then paused. “is it a hologram?”

  I blinked. Then paused. “More like an auditory/ visual hallucination engineered by the system. This was my realization when you found me in the store.”

  Oscar stared at me. A hard stare. “and you interact with it?”

  “Raven, can you pick up my laptop and bring it to me please?”

  “Confirmed.”

  My laptop lifted off my desk then floated towards me, then settled down onto the coffee table in front of me. I gave Oscar a helpless look.

  He just stared. I simply stated. “the system is everywhere.”

  *

  After that Oscar left, considering a deal with me. He was a little disturbed about me interacting with a telepathic AI. But there was nothing I could do at this point. Raven was integrated.

  Now it was time to find Lucas. I knew he had come back, Raven gave me an alert when I was meeting with Oscar. So I went to his office and found him staring at the armor. I wasn't sure what he was thinking. But I don't think it was anything good. So I knocked on the open door to alert him of my presence.

  “Hey Lucas, you ok?”

  He grunted at me. Then went into his desk and pulled out a beer. His desk had a minifridge. Why Raven?

  I waited a few minutes while he drank a bit. Then sat in the chair across from him. “want to talk? Or to vent?”

  “Dumb brats tried to shanghai me into running three of them. I left them after clearing the first room. Told them the contract was over and they owed the guild if they survived. Then left back the same way. He had his two friends waiting at the portal to jump through with him.”

  I winced. We had system contracts for that. System enforced contracts. So if he did clear it he still had to pay us. But he broke the contract when he had friends jump in. So Lucas backing out was reasonable. But left a sour taste as he felt he left those kids to die. But they made a choice to break a system contract. Maybe they would make it through. Maybe the system would save them. Maybe the system saw Lucas leaving as breaking the contract. Arthur wasn't sure. But he still felt bad. Stupid kids doing stupid things. Even if they were 20 years old. Trying to do workarounds through the system contract. That was just a bad idea in general.

  And now they were awaiting the axe. If the kids lived or not. If the system felt Lucas broke the contract first. Arthur bought a bottle of the good stuff from the store and two glasses. He had no plans the rest of the day. So they sat and drank. Just slowly sipping, til late into the night. Raven had dimmed the lights and had soft music playing from somewhere. If Arthur wasn't so worried for his friend he would have called it a nice relaxing evening.

  But it wasn't until midnight that they heard anything from the system.

  *