Chương 44: 43-Milwaukee

"Leave her with me," Dignity said calmly, trying to ease the frightened young woman in front of her.

"I will try to explain things to her—Billy has things to do, and he will probably need your help." The Losers had carried Dawn to the Circle's command tent. She had woken just before she entered it. Only Jenna's powerful Spirit had stopped her from breaking down again. Billy felt terribly sorry for her. She had woken in a strange world in which everyone she ever knew was long dead. Everyone except for one person: Arimel, who had turned into Necessity. She had even forgotten the events leading up to that end.

He tried to focus on his current goal. Dignity was right; they had a job to do. His eyes focused on the current level of environmental Essence.

"How is it looking, Billy?" his girlfriend asked him.

"Not good, Jenna—the main cloud has already dispersed. Even if I had Achievement Points to condense it into a Dungeon, I would get only a small portion of it. We are going to see a lot of low-ranked wild dungeons manifest all over Milwaukee in the next few days."

"How many Achievement Points do you need to create a permanent rank one dungeon?"

"If I use Kingmaker, I can reduce the cost a lot. 2, 500 points should be enough. Symbiotic and Reproductive are a must." Jenna's eyes glazed as she dove into the depths of her mind.

"Okay, I think I have a plan," she said 2, 732 seconds later.

"We do some classic corpse-camping in the woods to get those points. Then, we continue in the dungeons as they appear. Once Billy has enough points, we destroy the dungeon and use its essence to create a new one. One with the Reproductive and Symbiotic tags."

"How long until the first dungeons start popping up, Billy?" Bob asked.

"I think we will see the first ones tomorrow morning."

"The Circle has already designed an evacuation plan," Jenna added.

"They are rounding up as many civilians as they can, and building a camp for them. They will guard the camp and protect it from wandering Essentials. The sooner we can get those dungeons working, the sooner they will start eating Essence and make this zone safe for habitation."

"Many of them won't come, Jenna," said Bob.

"They see us as enemies. Staying at home will not protect them. We know dungeons can manifest inside inhabited buildings."

"We should get to work now, then," Jenna answered. And they did. Ron looked at the ragtag group of soldiers who had congregated in the abandoned Town Hall.

"I am not a trusting guy by nature. We should all project our status screens and show our quests," he told them. They all did—they understood the need for secrecy. Elite Quest Issued Requisites: Gather with the rest of your group at Town Hall Rewards: +5, 000 xp. Quest automatically fails if anyone outside the group learns about it. This quest is the first part of the multi-quest arc "Reach Level 50". Ron immediately took charge. He had been a sergeant in the Marines and a bloody good one, too. He was a smart guy.

Perhaps too smart. That was the reason he had been dishonorably discharged after using a military flight to smuggle medicines into some distant, shitty country where he had been deployed. He claimed they were a donation to one of the local churches, but the Army had not bought it. The guy he was going to sell them to had confessed when the local police caught him. He had protested his innocence, but no one believed him.

"As Groucho once said, 'Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?'" He studied the other eleven questers—he would not buy a used car from any of them, and that was putting it mildly. Lewandoski and Higgings, on his right, had a reputation for fencing goods from the houses they "liberated" from contested zones. O'Hara had been arrested for putting his girlfriend in the hospital after a lover's spat. Maureen, on his left, had a well-known addiction to some of those new, fancy, magical drugs on the street.

He did not know many of the others, but he was willing to bet they all had colorful stories behind them.

"What do you think this is all about?" one of the new guys asked.

"I think it is evident," Ron answered.

"The same guy who was helping Hawking wants a squad of mercs to do some work for him. We are all special ops. Our powers do not depend on gear. We are among the few Feds, or ex-Feds, with abilities that still work."

"Why mercs?"

"Because this op is as black as your mother's armpit. He is not talking about ideals or honor. He is offering payment. And he is paying with the only merchandise worth anything nowadays—experience points." Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"What does he want us to do?"

"Well, judging from present company, I think we can safely assume it is not going to involve Bible readings." Then, all their status screens pinged simultaneously as the first part of the quest was completed and the rest became visible. Ron grunted as he felt the heady rush of experience points entering him. Damn, it felt good. He had gained a couple of levels just for entering this shitty building. Then, he chuckled as he read the text of the quest.

"What did I tell you, boys? We are not getting the Medal of Honor for this one." Billy dodged the mutated rat's tail: it had become a deadly, whiplike weapon that could tear through steel, but he could see it coming from miles away. He was again in his Elven War Hero form. It was an expensive one, but he rationalized the cost as it was one of the best suited for combat. It made him feel close to Belegrin, too, who had become less a weapon and more a friend over their last adventures.

The afternoon was proving fruitful so far. Bob had contributed one of his medicinal pills—the one that reduced the cost of a shape to a fraction of its true value but limited its duration to one hour. They had traveled to a building that a local had described as having the necessary features: underground, out of sight, and with plenty of room. It turned out to be an unused wine cellar. They had corpse-camped rats for thirty minutes. Billy stayed back as Bob and Jenna did most of the job, reaping the AP.

When he got the required amount, he swallowed the pill and came back as Belegrin. They had switched roles then: he and Jenna acted as hybrid Tanks/Combat DPS while Bob healed them both. They had torn through the corpse-camped rats at record speed. Jenna had calculated that, in this case, quality beat quantity, and they had leveled their opponents close to rank 70. Advanced Essence Digestion ensured that Billy received three times the normal amount of AP until he paid Belegrin's full cost.

Much as Bob had guessed, the passive ability did not take into account the discount Billy had received for using the medicinal pill. He received the full benefits even though he had paid only a tiny fraction of the true cost. Belegrin's shape was uniquely suited for corpse-camping. The more he fought against the same foe, the more he benefited from Five Steps Ahead. Five Steps Ahead x2: You learn your enemy's method by observing them while they fight you.

Enemies fighting you hand-to-hand get a cumulative 1% penalty each second to their Body stat, which only applies to their attacks when directed at you or your attacks targeting them. The penalty is lost if they manage to hit you or stop one of your blows, but it starts building again. The penalty is capped at 50%. Rats died, resurrected, and were killed again, becoming a cornucopia of Achievement Points. On their final incarnation, Billy used a Loot charge instead of a Corpse-Camping one.

That cost them some AP, but avoided leaving the giant corpse of a mutant rat in an urban area. Bob had correctly identified them as a possible sanitation hazard. That left them with scores of excellent-quality rat-fur coats and tons of edible, processed rat charcuterie, which could later be distributed to civilians. When the medicinal pill's effects were almost over, Billy used an explosive charge to slay his opponent. Silver Linings made sure he got back half the cost of Belegrin's shape. A cost he had never paid.

A nerf module would have allowed the stunt only once, making sure they could not benefit from it again. That was one of the advantages of being an abomination—once you found a loophole, it stayed available forever. When evening came, Billy had almost five thousand AP. When they went to bed, he was sure he could counter anything Milwaukee had to offer. He was wrong.

"Yes, I know you are from special ops, but this is highly irregular," the Fed officer told Ron as he escorted him to the bound Boss chamber.

"We were clearly instructed not to let anyone near it," he told them for the umpteenth time. Then why are you letting me in, you asshole? Ron thought, but did not say anything. He already knew why. The Federation was in shock after the fiasco of the last battle and the loss of their magical technology, and more importantly, one of their seventh-ranked tamed dungeons. A lot of Essence, possibly the most powerful weapon after the Apocalypse, had been freed in Milwaukee, and its inhabitants would pay the price.

The late Hawking would have probably sent someone to check that their tamed dungeons were safe. That included this one, the last remaining one in Milwaukee, plus the tamed dungeons of Racine, Kenosha, and Green Bay. All of them were at the seventh rank, as most tamed dungeons near major human settlements were. He had sent one member of his group to each of them. This idiot was protesting only because it made him feel important.

Not only was his lie credible, but there was also no apparent way Ron could pose any danger.

"And here we are, I hope this puts your mind at rest," the pudgy bureaucrat said as they finally reached the room where the final boss lay. The dungeon was some kind of fairy kingdom, and the boss looked like a twelve-year-old girl, wings sprouting from her back. All her body had been branded with magic-dampening sigils. She was gagged, and her arms were bound behind her back. Six rugged-looking veteran Avatars were standing watch over her—Hawking took no chances. There was no way he could take them all along.

Ron was a tough, evil man, but even he had standards.

"Is this really necessary? The gag, I mean." The self-important bureaucrat sneered.

"Of course, it is necessary. She is Drambila, the last fae, the third boss of the dungeon. Her voice may control any mind that hears it. She made a rookie guard eat his own eyes two weeks ago."

"Well, even so, I do not feel so bad now for doing this."

"For doing what?"

"This," Ron answered, as he blew the bureaucrat's face off with an eldritch blast. The guards were well-trained; they reacted quickly and tried to overpower Ron. Call to Arms: (Leadership 5) Teleport to the location of any member of your Squad. Five-minute cooldown. The eight remaining members of his squad appeared around him. The building was heavily shielded against dimensional breaches, but it included safeguards that allowed the Federation response team to ignore those defenses. The Federation response team.

Them. The guards did not last two minutes.

"No need to thank me for this, Princess," Ron said as he turned the blast on Drambila.

"I am doing it for me, not for you, after all." He then contacted the others telepathically. It was good that all special ops had that power, as communication amulets were no longer an option. Maureen was already in position in Racine, and the others would soon be. They were making good time. They all teleported to Maureen as the dungeon started to implode. Billy woke up as Jenna gently shook him. It was still hours before dawn.

"Billy, wake up, something is happening."

"What is the matter, Jenna?"

"Something has just taken out the four remaining tamed dungeons of the Federation." Billy instantly stood up.

"Oh, my God, Jenna. They were all seventh rank. Do you know what this means?" He ran to the balcony and gasped as his Essence Sight detected a huge, invisible tsunami of Essence slowly covering Milwaukee.

"What is the meaning of this, Jenna? What are they playing at? They are going to slaughter their own people."

"I don't know yet who is doing this, Billy, or how, but you can be pretty sure that the ultimate target is not the citizens of Milwaukee."

"It's us."