Chương 93: CDM 2, Chapter 29: Career Planning

My conversation with Megan about multiclassing was still on my mind, so as much as I wanted to fall asleep, the questions in my head wouldn't let me. I had to know. If I assumed I hit level 10 on this trip, that would mean needing 51, 200 XP to reach level 11. Common wisdom suggested that multiclassing was most productive if done before leaving level 10, so if I generously assumed I got 500 XP per week from the CDM, I would have 100 days total to get the money together for the multiclass upgrade.

The process of multiclassing required refined mana crystals. Within the raw crystals we harvest from dungeon monsters are small amounts of flawless mana crystal. Separating that flawless bit from the rest is considered refining it. The work is painstaking, and some flawless deposits are so small that they can't easily be found. It took humanity into the 60s to figure this out. Before we knew that mana crystals could be refined, we didn't know how to acquire a secondary class.

At level 10, this appears on your system profile: Secondary Class Progress: 0/1000 MA No matter what anyone tried, they couldn't get that number to change. A chemist at Washington State was in the process of testing a method for measuring mana purity and found that a single mana crystal wasn't uniformly pure, which led to him searching for the purest part. This would eventually lead to the refining process we have today, but another benefit came with the research. The chemist repeated that process over months.

One day in that process, an intern moving the collection of refined mana crystals across the room noticed it first. When she held the container of refined mana crystals, her system profile read: Secondary Class Progress: 1/1000 MA She was from a crawler family, which was extraordinarily lucky. Most researchers aren't leveled, so anyone under level 10 handling the same materials would never know it mattered. Present market prices for crystals were up.

If they didn't go back down, I would need close to $700, 000 to buy what I needed to multiclass. Just last year the cost was about $500, 000. The most optimistic estimate of what I could make in 100 days, leaning heavily on a wishful windfall of Dungeon Divas revenue, still came up a few hundred thousand dollars short.

And if I could make that much money, there were so many other things I could do with it, like pitching in on the guild house, helping Beth get the equipment she needs to run her own shop, or paying off my student loans. Shit, I had the drone purchase to pay off too. I couldn't forget that. Blowing that much money on multiclassing would be a selfish thing to do.

"Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey," Nathan said from a lounge chair by the pool. He wore purple swim trunks and oversized, high-fashion sunglasses. I assumed he borrowed them from Megan. Beth and Megan were in the water, floating around on pool noodles. The camera crew was already here, but they weren't interested in me or Nathan. I wondered for a moment if they intended to use editing to imply that Beth was a Dungeon Diva.

"I think they're using Betty to pull a Power Rangers," Nathan whispered as I claimed a chair of my own.

"What does that mean?"

"In the show, all of the footage of them fighting in suits is shot with different people entirely. That was a very confusing revelation for me at one point in my life. Bro, you're the actor in the suit. Beth is the character."

"I had a similar thought, minus the Power Rangers reference. I'm not sure if I'm okay with that happening, though." Nathan nodded.

"Yeah, it's weird. We kind of already signed over all of that permission. Not a lot we could do."

"That's true."

"You should have stayed up last night," Nathan continued.

"Lenny's trophy room is nuts. He had a dire bear and a major yeti. Seeing them up close was so weird, dude." Water splashing drew my attention down to the edge of the pool. Megan and Beth floated with their arms on the deck.

"Did we miss it?" Megan asked. I frowned.

"Miss what?" Nathan got serious. He sat up and took his sunglasses off.

"One of Lenny's trophies was a dire guinea pig," Nathan began.

"Obviously, I had to ask him about it." Dire guinea pigs were a curious monster to encounter in the wilds. Minus longer teeth and claws, as well as an unending desire to spill blood, a dire guinea pig was pretty close to a typical Earth guinea pig if you enlarged it to be a little bigger than a house cat. They were strange to look at, sure, but what made them curious was this fact: dire guinea pigs have never been found inside of a dungeon gate.

That's odd because they aren't uncommon sights in the wilds, so they would have had to come out of a gate, but that has yet to be observed. Nathan smiled. He was trying to be serious, but he was too giddy.

"He gave me one of my own. He has a bunch of them stuffed, apparently, and is sending me home with one."

"A stuffed dire guinea pig."

"Yes! Lenny says not to worry about the customs paperwork. His assistant is taking care of all of that. Isn't that awesome?" I tried to put the camera people out of my mind.

"I think it's weird as hell, but I'm not against it. Why would I be?" Beth started to laugh but covered her mouth.

"This is purely a coincidence," Nathan said.

"His name is Lil' Dorion."

"I can't fight the name, can I?" Nathan shook his head.

"I didn't think so." I knew I shouldn't, but I couldn't help but check in on news about New Eden. My parents didn't leave until February, but major relocation efforts were now underway. Crawlers and their families, as well as essential professions like doctors and engineers, had the priority. Many such experts were on the ground already, but they laid only the barest foundation for a new nation. They needed many more people to build the utopia they described in the commercials. Yes, New Eden had commercials.

If you didn't qualify for a religious stipend, you could pay for your move in cash or sign an employment contract with one of a dozen companies opening offices there. There were a few of them, but all of the ads I saw followed the formula of showing how dirty and awful living in America was, and then it was all sunny days and fields of flowers in New Eden.

I couldn't log into any of my government accounts while I was out of the country, but I wondered if the gate availability for CDM leveling got noticeably worse when the media campaign hit. More settlers meant fewer gate slots for CDM. I would be home in person soon enough to see for myself. Our second leveling run would start first thing in the morning, and when that was over, we'd fly back. That night, we did equipment checks with Dawit.

He was well-practiced at being thorough, so we didn't need long to double-check a few dozen items. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. When we finished, Dawit said, "One more thing. Megan and Dorion, Mr. Leonard wanted to show his appreciation for your company as well as apologize for the two gates we had to skip on the first trip." Dawit unlocked a cabinet and then cut across the room to open another.

"You are welcome to borrow one of our weapons for this final excursion. Miss Megan, your sword selection is here. Mister Dorion, you'll find bows in there." I opened the cabinet door and about pooped my pants. Six bows were inside. Three ironwood, one bloodwood, one silverwood, and one voidwood. The ironwood of these bows was darker than mine, which meant they were likely made from greater ironwood, where mine was lesser.

I didn't know enough about the other types of wood to have any idea what their quality levels were. Given the amount of wealth I had seen in the last few days, I assumed they were also above lesser. The frames of each bow were etched with runes that rippled and glowed, so they were enchanted on top of the qualities provided by the wood itself.

"You can pick whichever you like," Dawit said.

"The ironwoods are quite different. You might-""Voidwood. I want that one." Dawit laughed.

"That is an excellent choice. The wood itself provides a 25% bonus to damage, and the enchantment is mid-level Bolt." I didn't even want to know how much money was in my hands at that moment. If something happened to this, would I be liable for it in some way? I should probably figure out how to read contracts sometime soon.

"Which one do you recommend for me?" Megan asked. A moment later, Dawit was at her side, his arms crossed, his face pensive.

"For your build, I would recommend the red iron longsword. 20% bonus to damage, 5% bonus to speed, and the enchantment is Greater Vampirism. In your case, with your healing needs taken care of, the enchantment will buff you by draining your enemies."

"Sold," Megan said, picking it up. Dawit nodded.

"Very good. Get your rest, everyone. We try to push harder on the second run because you understand the process now. That's not always an option, but we've had a lucky set of gate spawns. Nathan and Beth, you have 3 E-ranked gates and 3 D-ranked gates on your itinerary. Megan and Dorion, you have a D, 2 Cs, and 1 B. If the B gate is something we can't clear in time, we have a C gate and a D gate mapped out for us to run instead. Any questions?" We all shook our heads.

"See you in the morning." The staff would make sure all of our gear made it onto the boats in time for our morning departure, but I found myself reluctant to set the void bow down. I wanted so badly to take a few shots with it right then and there. The ride to the mainland was cold and wet again. A misty rain fell endlessly from an overcast sky, and the water was choppy enough for me to be concerned about whether or not we should even be sailing that day.

Dawit's team showed no signs of concern whatsoever, though, so I stuffed that anxiety down and tried to focus on being as smart as possible on my runs that day. We followed the shore farther southeast this time, with Nathan and Beth's party continuing on to a different location as my and Megan's party disembarked. Seeing the jungle in different weather was novel for all of five minutes. Pushing through any amount of undergrowth was like walking between carwash brushes.

All the water that had accumulated on the leaves wiped onto us and our gear. Sometimes, you could bump a tree just right so that the water went down the back of your neck instead of into your clothes. The jungle mist, meanwhile, was soothingly atmospheric, at least. Until I started thinking a wraith could be hiding within. Wraiths didn't come out during the day, but I'm scared of impossible shit all the time, so my being anxious in spite of the facts wasn't surprising to me.

It sucked, but yeah, it wasn't a surprise. Our first C dungeon was a moon run where all of the enemies were trolls and the boss was a rock troll, a more dangerous type of troll with insanely high damage resistance. Dawit let me throw one incendiary grenade–holy fuck, it was cool to watch it burst into flames on impact–but our two black mage guides took care of torching the rest of our kills throughout the run. Megan and I would beat them down, and the mages made sure they didn't get back up.

But we need to talk about the void bow. After shooting I don't know how many arrows in my brief crawling career, using a void bow was a strange adjustment. The nock and the draw were the same as any other bow, but when you loose an arrow, it's just gone. I hadn't realized how much I relied on the full-cycle "feel" of shooting an arrow, which included the sensation of it leaving my bow, that beautiful little hiss and the occasional tickle of a fletching feather. But void arrows didn't travel that way.

They entered a parallel void plane and didn't emerge until they hit a living thing. So I would loose, and then my arrow would appear in the chest of a troll that then spasmed violently from the Bolt enchantment. Not seeing the path it took messed with me a good bit on top of the differences in physical feel. Multi-Shot and Piercing were even stranger. For the former, loosing a single arrow resulted in three arrows blinking into existence, already embedded in the flesh of a monster.

For the latter, the first target experienced what I can only describe as a pop or a rupture, a hole the size of a broadhead violently opening with no visible arrow causing the damage. Really the arrow became visible instantly, but a fast arrow combined with Piercing gave the illusion of an arrow erupting from nothing out of a monster's back. Our next gate was a C-ranked undead variant. The rain poured the entire way there.

I had mud up to my knees by the time we entered the dungeon, and the weather was just as bad when we got out. To beat the sunset, we had to rush to our next gate. We weren't running the gate itself that day, but we also wanted to be inside to camp before night fell. We made it. The hissing of giant cockroaches had started to grow louder as we stepped through what appeared to be the white marble door of a mausoleum.

The dungeon on the other side felt like stepping into an illustration of ancient greece from one of my old history books. We stood within an antechamber about the size of a racquetball court, lined with corinthian pillars of the same white marble as the door. Another set of doors was at the far end of the room.

"It's definitely an undead temple," Dawit said as we set about making camp.

"We'll see what kind of undead in the morning."

"What are the possibilities?" Megan asked.

"Skeletons, zombies, or ghouls. If it were up to me, it'd be zombies." When Dawit saw Megan's curious expression, he added, "Zombies have a few stronger variants, but if we draw skeletons, then we are dealing with knights, priests, and mages. If it's ghouls, it's like fighting fast zombies with the skills of the bone knights, priests, and mages on top."

"Yikes."

"Indeed." By now, making camp was routine for Megan and me. We ate our sandwiches, drank our electrolyte water, and posed with Nad-Nade cans. Conversation was light that evening. Everyone was fatigued by the weight of the rain, and several of us still shivered from time to time. I don't know what time it was when I went to sleep, nor do I know what time I woke to angry shouting.

My first instinct was that monsters from the dungeon had found our camp, but then I realized Dawit and his party were facing the exit with their weapons drawn.

"No vacancy," one of the defenders barked.

"Leave, or we'll make you leave." He spoke in Taiwanese next. I assumed the message was the same, but I didn't know the language to say for sure. A man and a woman stood in front of the exit, both in leather armor that looked heavy and resilient, but the edges were rough and raw, lacking the refined craftsmanship of armor I would buy in the States. The woman carried a sword and shield, while the man carried a shield and a spear. They shouted back in another language I didn't know.

"Last warning," the defender said, stepping forward to show he was serious. I had looked into the eyes of people who intended to hurt me before. I saw nothing like that on their faces. They were resolute and ready to defend themselves, but they weren't being aggressive.

"Wait!" Dawit yelled. He came up next to the defender and spoke Taiwanese. The man responded, and though I could now hear that the language was similar, it wasn't Taiwanese. Was this what Mandarin sounded like?

"They say there are evil spirits outside the gate. They came inside for shelter and didn't know we were here."

"Want me to push them out?" the same defender from before asked. Dawit cast a sideways glance at the camerapeople. They were recording all of this, of course. He went back to speaking in another language with the man in leather. From reading facial expressions, they often didn't understand each other's words, but since modern Taiwanese was heavily influenced by Mandarin, enough of the translation matched for the conversation to eventually finish.

With a heavy sigh, Dawit rubbed his eyes and then addressed all of us.

"They're staying here tonight. I want a watch on them at all times."

"Really?" the defender seemed surprised by this conclusion.

"That's an order." The man and the woman were escorted to a corner of the chamber and told to stay put. Dawit's men began a watch rotation, and he told the rest of us to try and get some more sleep if we could. The locals were so cold I could hear their teeth chatter. Cramming themselves into the corner, they held each other close for warmth. She closed her eyes while he kept his open. I supposed they were rotating watch just like we were. I got up and crossed the room with my sleeping bag and my water bottle.

"The fuck you doing?" the defender said, throwing his arm out to block me from getting closer to our guests.

"If they use that, we'll have to leave it behind. Can't risk getting one of their diseases."

"Understood," I replied. I held the sleeping bag out to show them that I wanted to offer a gift and shimmied around the defender's arm to get closer. The man took the blanket, put his hands together, and bowed his head. I assumed that meant "thank you." I handed him the water bottle, and he repeated the motion before waking the woman and pushing the bottle into her hand.

"You're lucky they didn't try to take a bite out of you right then," the defender gruffed. When I got back to my spot next to Megan, she offered me her sleeping bag, but I waved her off. I pulled my knees to my chest, wrapped my arms around my legs, and put my head down. I had practice sleeping like this when the shelters were full.