Chương 92: CDM 2, Chapter 28: Happy Hour

When we disembarked, one of the crew members told Megan and me that Nathan and Beth waited for us in the third-floor deck lounge. After 3 days of crawling, I didn't feel that I was at the appropriate level of hygiene for something that fancy, but the crew preempted that as if they read my mind. We were welcome to go straight there from the boat, assuring us our physical condition was not a concern. Beth was curled up on a loveseat, and Nathan sat upright on a couch. They were both asleep.

I gently shook Beth's shoulder. Her eyes barely open, she said, "You're safe."

"Yeah, you didn't have to wait up."

"Yes, we did. You would have done it for us. Now that you're safe, please bathe."

"Seconded," Nathan mumbled.

"Then come back and hang out."

"You don't want to go to bed?" Megan asked.

"Pssshhht. We have the next two days off. I love you, but please go bathe. We'll wait for you here." Half an hour later, Megan and I returned to the lounge with Nathan and Beth. Feeling clean again was like being reborn. I might have dozed off in the shower for a minute too, so that sense of refreshment was backed by a power nap as well. Nathan and Beth were properly awake now. Beth had a glass of wine. Nathan had a bottle of beer.

"We asked the kitchen for steak and potatoes," Nathan shared.

"It will probably be ready like 10 minutes from now. Medium rare. If you have a problem with that, I'll eat your steak for you."

"That sounds fantastic, actually," I said as I sat on the couch with a beer of my own.

"Thank you."

"Bro, I got you. You know that."

"Well, how were your runs?" Megan asked.

"I felt like I was cheating," Nathan answered.

"Started feeling guilty. We both got to level 4, though." I looked at Beth. She wore a big grin.

"That's awesome," I added.

"So it went well?" Nathan offered a half-nod-half-shrug, and Beth replied, "It went very smoothly. The hiking was harder than the gates."

"I liked the hiking," Nathan said.

"This is a beautiful place."

"It was very pretty," Beth agreed.

"Did you see any people?" Megan asked. Nathan recoiled a bit.

"Huh?"

"We saw a footprint. Dawit said it was a 'native' and then changed the subject."

"We also saw a wraith," I added.

"Brooooo."

"Freaked me out too," I admitted.

"A good bit."

"Natives, like people who live here?" Beth asked.

"That has to be such a hard life." Megan wobbled her head.

"Dawit did say they cull the wild monsters regularly. Maybe they're taking advantage of that to run gates."

"Would still be really hard."

"I don't disagree," Megan replied.

"What level did you get to?" Beth asked.

"We're both at 8. Two of our gates ended up being duds. Dawit thinks we can still get to 10 if we have a little luck with the next set." Nathan danced over to the bar to retrieve another beer.

"Being here still doesn't feel real. No way did this happen to us. And are we just ignoring our girl drinking underage? I'm cool with it, but it's weird how no one has mentioned it."

"I didn't know the wilds had a drinking age," Beth sneered. He pointed a finger back at her.

"Touche, Bethward. Touche."

"Bethward?" Megan asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Please make him stop," Beth pleaded.

"He started doing it and won't quit."

"I like Bethward," Megan said. Beth's head dropped. Nathan nudged my shoulder as he sat.

"You good, bro?"

"Just wiped out," I replied.

"Got my scrolling in while we waited for you," Nathan said.

"Florida is pretty crazy right now. They had a dungeon surge."

"Really?" He nodded.

"Yup. The story is wild. So apparently, central Florida is really bad for sinkholes. The limestone is super porous or something, so they call the whole area 'sinkhole alley.' A gate opened at the bottom of one of those sinkholes, and the satellites missed it. D-level squid dungeon."

"Weren't there some issues with mountain coverage a while back?" I asked.

"Dude, in like the 80s." When I saw Megan and Beth's confusion, I explained, "There were fewer satellites, and nobody realized gates were getting missed because they ended up in just the right places where the satellites couldn't see them. Since no one knew they existed, they surged."

"Beakers, inkers, and slimes loose in Florida?" Megan mused.

"They'll do well in that climate."

"13 deaths." Megan grimaced.

"I'm a jerk. That should have been my first thought."

"You're tired," Nathan said.

"Still." Conversation meandered from there for another hour and a half. We kept drinking. Everyone was tired, but I think meeting back up with each other on a mega yacht released a different kind of adrenaline where we didn't want the night to end. The memory was too good. Eventually, Megan and I were the only ones still awake. Beth slept on her back across the armrests of a chair, and Nathan was on the floor. He laid down to "have a wee little stretch" and promptly passed out, facedown on the carpet.

"Look at us, Dor," Megan said after a while.

"We fucking did this."

"It's pretty cool."

"If we land the right sponsorship, we could multiclass, you know. No matter what level we are when this trip ends, we won't have the gates to level up again anytime soon."

"That actually really upsets me," I said.

"What are you talking about?"

"I would have followed a different build guide if I thought I could multiclass." She sighed.

"That's being a touch dramatic. You have plenty of options."

"If there's an optimal choice, it makes me deeply uncomfortable to not make that choice."

"Dream with me," she insisted.

"Would you go spellsword?"

"Everyone goes spellsword."

"So?"

"I used to think I would," she admitted.

"I've really come to enjoy hitting things, Dor. Like, I really really enjoy it." I laughed.

"Seeing Dawit in action makes ranger look cool, and I never expected that, but I was honestly thinking something like that or cleric." This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. I choked on my drink.

"You don't think I could do it?"

"Just hard to picture you praying all the time."

"Buffs and a few Heal spells would help me a lot," she continued.

"Assassin is my other pick. Backstab doesn't help me, but the precision striking and targeting abilities would be nice. So would the debuff abilities."

"Why cleric and not the white mage path?"

"Clerics get far fewer spells overall, but their base spell strength is higher than it is for white mages. My Heal spell as a cleric will be as good as a white mage who has upgraded their School of Restoration to tier 2. If I'm okay with giving up the range of spells, which I am, I can get all the magic I want as a level 3 cleric but would have to reach level 4 as a white mage. It's called a Battle Medic build by most people."

"That does make a lot of sense."

"Your turn. Don't tell me you haven't thought about it." Sighing, I said, "Spellbow. I've always wanted to use magic. Ever since I was a kid. I also agree that ranger looks a lot cooler now, but I read up on that program Grensmith was in. They had a rule that they didn't select abilities if a piece of gear or technology could do the same job instead."

"When did you do this?"

"Not long after that run."

"You're such a nerd, but that's interesting. It makes sense to me, but that means you wouldn't pick ranger." I wobbled my head.

"Right. It's still tempting, but I think spellbow is the winner. To be honest, I've gotten comfortable with pure archer. Multi-Shot is basically a spell, and my stats are getting to the point where I feel like just moving my body is magic."

"But you could do that and real magic."

"Yeah, I could." I looked out the window.

"The sun's coming up." Megan turned to see for herself.

"Suppose that's the hint we needed. See you sometime tomorrow, Dor. Thanks for the adventure these last few days." I raised my bottle to Megan as she nudged Nathan and then Beth awake to tell them we were going to bed.

"I'm going to watch the sunrise," I said.

"I'll go to sleep in a bit." When everyone had gone, I put my feet up on the coffee table. As I watched the sun come up, I thought about how odd it was that a doomer reject like me somehow ended up here, on a megayacht off the coast of China. How very strange.

"Was noon too early?" Chrissy asked with a smirk. We met her in the same lounge we hung out in until early that morning. Nathan strategically placed himself so that his back was to the bar. If he drank too much one night, even seeing alcohol the next day made him queasy.

"We're fine," I said. Meanwhile, Beth's eyes weren't even open. Nathan was trying to conquer a hangover with mindfulness exercises. And Megan wore big sunglasses. With her chin resting on her hand, I wasn't certain she was actually awake. Megan and Nathan both had open cans of Nad-Nade. I'm sure I looked like shit too. Chrissy didn't argue. I suspected we weren't the first content creators she worked with who came to a meeting hungover.

"We started reviewing footage last night," Chrissy began.

"We're in pretty good shape already. If we're lucky and end up with better gates for your next run, we'll be golden. You have off all day today, and tomorrow we'll shoot some stuff of you enjoying the boat. By the pool. At the bar. Maybe some shuffleboard."

"That doesn't seem like it would keep our cover intact," I replied.

"If you film me at the pool, it's going to be obvious I'm not a woman."

"Oh, don't worry. We planned to only shoot Beth and Megan. Have you been posting teasers to socials?" Beth raised a thumb. So she was awake. Kinda.

"But not spoilers?" Beth nodded.

"Excellent. And lastly, Mr. Resmith wanted to invite the four of you to have dinner with him tonight." We stared blankly. Chrissy leaned forward, driven by disbelief and minor frustration.

"He owns the fucking boat."

"Oh, Lenny!" Nathan replied.

"Yeah, we know Lenny. He's good people."

"We'll be there," I interjected. I am also certain one of us would have remembered Leonard's last name if we had a few extra seconds for our still-drunk brains to catch up.

"Good. Any questions for me?" No one at the table moved.

"Rest up. Hydrate. You'll be back on the mainland before you know it." Chrissy excused herself and disappeared into the boat. I took a drink of Nathan's Nad-Nade and tried to convince my legs to carry me back to my cozy bed.

"Is she gone?" Megan grumbled.

"Yes." She stood and swayed a little bit.

"I want a bath, but I don't want to drown in the tub." Nathan started to raise his hand to speak, the beginnings of a smile cracking through.

"No." His hand and his head both went down.

"Hungover Megan is so mean."

"I'm still here."

"Her voice keeps ringing in my head." Megan guided Nathan to his feet.

"Come on. You're going back to bed." I finished the rest of Nathan's Nad-Nade as I debated what to do with Beth. Her head was propped up, but she was definitely asleep.

"Dorion," she said suddenly. So, maybe she wasn't asleep.

"Yeah?"

"You're a good brother." Leonard had the crew set up one of the ship's decks for dinner and surrounded the tables with outdoor heaters so that the slight chill of a tropical winter couldn't bother anyone. He sat at the head of the table in a loose sweater while we worked our way through multiple courses. For some reason, I expected Chrissy to join us, or perhaps one of our guides, but it was just us and Leonard.

"How was your first expedition into the wilds?" he asked with genuine enthusiasm.

"Pretty mind-blowing," Megan answered.

"It all went so fast."

"It's a beautiful place," Beth added. Leonard nodded.

"Yes, it is indeed. And how were your guides?" We all nodded with our mouths full that they were good.

"Wonderful. I heard your group had some bad luck with your gates." His eye contact indicated he meant Megan and me.

"I'm very sorry about that."

"We know you don't have any control over it," I replied.

"We still got a lot out of the trip."

"Still, I desire the best for my guests. Someday we will be able to determine exactly what a gate contains from a simple scan. The technology is coming. I assure you."

"Is that something you've invested in?" Nathan asked.

"Yes. Anything that could take humanity to greater heights gets my attention. The gates were an incredible gift, and we are only just barely reaping the rewards."

"So you're probably excited about Japan trying for the moon. That has to come with all kinds of new tech." Leonard laughed.

"That's a foolish project." Nathan cocked his head, and I'll admit that answer surprised me as well.

"Space travel as the Japanese picture it is impossibly inefficient. The celebration of refined mana crystals as fuel is a misdirect. They don't want you to think about how slow and fragile their version of space travel is."

"You're in the IDT camp?" Nathan asked, surprised. IDT was shorthand for interdimensional travel. Leonard grinned.

"Oh, so you're a nonbeliever?" Nathan shrugged.

"I'm not a physicist. I read recently, though, about a bunch of physicists saying no progress had been made in the last 80 years. Like none whatsoever."

"We know it's possible because crawlers do it every day. Harnessing it is an inevitability. Japan could be contributing to that future instead of playing with toy rockets. Gate travel gives humanity access to the whole universe and perhaps others that aren't our own. Land a tin can on the moon instead? Foolish."

"How close do you think we are?" I asked.

"Five years at most."

"That soon?" Leonard nodded and swallowed a bite of crab cake.

"Change is accelerating. Most of humanity doesn't realize it, but the few of us who do are trying to ensure our species does not get left behind. We have to unravel those mechanics as quickly as we can."

"What would leave us behind?" Megan asked.

"The gates. The data is very clear about that." I believed I knew where Leonard was taking this.

"Do you mean the rise in difficult gates?" He beamed.

"Well-read young people. How refreshing. And yes, we are trending upward in overall difficulty. By 2045, E gates won't appear at all anymore. If the rate the data has accelerated stays consistent, we lose D gates by 2055. Can you imagine taking level 1s into C gates to level? There's a cliff there where training new crawlers becomes so brutally difficult that we can't produce enough of them to close every gate."

"Don't give me too much credit," I said.

"I didn't read any of that."

"No one is talking about that part yet, but you watch. Over the next year, you'll hear about it more and more. A colleague of mine has taken to calling it 'system-driven extinction.'""How does IDT help with that?" Nathan asked.

"In a perfect world, we could access low-level dungeons manually, and we could colonize another planet. Perhaps one without gates." The dessert was chocolate chip cheesecake, and I was so flabbergasted by the use of cookie dough for the crust that I lost track of the conversation. I caught the start of the next topic, though. Leonard dabbed his mouth with a cloth napkin and suddenly seemed a touch nervous. He had not once looked anything but unshakably confident until now.

"Curiosity got the better of me, and I asked my assistant to pull up your videos," he began.

"The troll fight was thrilling, but I noticed you didn't name the poison you used in the big goblin video. Why is that?"

"We weren't sure if what we did was legal or not," I admitted.

"I am exceptionally discreet. Humor me. What did you use?"

"Arsenic." Leonard's brow furrowed.

"How did you procure that amount?"

"We searched three abandoned taxidermy shops. The old process-""-used arsenic as a preservative," Leonard said with a grin.

"Very clever. I'm a bit of an enthusiast myself, actually." Nathan froze.

"Do you mean you're a taxidermy enthusiast?" Leonard nodded as I dropped my face in my hands.

"I have a collection on board," he said.

"It's hard to tell who is a tree hugger type these days, so I rarely risk enjoying it with company. Would you like to see it?" Nathan nodded emphatically. Our host was already on his feet.

"I have several pieces I am fond of. Come, come." Part of me was curious to see Leonard's collection, but most of me was so tired that remaining upright was a challenge.

"You guys can go ahead," I said.

"I'm calling it a night."

"Thank you for the lovely conversation this evening," Leonard said, shaking my hand.

"I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay."