Chapter 131 (Start of Book 4)

Near Madison, South Carolina - 3:02 PM

The air outside of the Angel Express was brisk, and a light layer of snow blanketed the trees and ground. Nearby, the view of a portion of Lake Hartwell was picturesque in the cloudy afternoon gloom. It seemed perfect, and everything truly was.

At least, it was before we got there.

“I still don’t understand why we have to wait outside,” Ashley complained. The Monstersmith had put on several layers of heavy clothes to combat the cold, and was thoroughly bundled up.

“Because the train needs to create more cars, and it won’t work if anyone’s on board,” I explained for the third time, refusing to let her complaints get to me. “We could do it at a transportation hub, but that would require either fighting a boss guarding it or dealing with monsters nearby. Or, worse, the people. It’s just for a few more minutes.”

“You said that twenty minutes ago,” she scoffed, crossing her arms as she looked back towards the train.

Three cars were slowly materializing on the back of the Angel Express. One of them was a bi-level sleeping car with six bedrooms, four bathrooms, and two laundry rooms, with the latter rooms split between floors. They weren’t going to be as nice as the one I stayed in, but it would still be comfortable enough. It would be able to cover for both Ashley and Jamie, who was standing about ten feet away with her rifle ready for any monsters, and those we’d be recruiting later.

The second car was the vault. This one was windowless and blocky, and I knew that the inside was little more than a small corridor with some screens where menus could be accessed. There was no way to enter the vault, but the items weren’t physically stored inside of it, anyway. They would be taken straight from your own inventory and placed into either a personal space or a communal space, of which I planned on making two; one for forging and one for anyone.

Finally, the third car was the workshop. It would have three different sections, with Ashley set up in the largest one near the back. She would complain at first, but that was par for the course when it came to the Monstersmith, and it was certainly much better than her old tent in Artist Alley. The workshop could become quite loud, which was why I always put the vault between it and the sleeping car.

“I’m surprised that you can even summon extra cars out here in the middle of nowhere,” Kayla noted. She was just fine in the white Windbreaker of Warmth I had lent her, though she was leaned up against her husband. Not because she was trying to stave off the cold, but to block my sight of the shirt he was wearing. I was having trouble wrapping my head around it.

Jeff wore a thick jacket, but that had been left open to reveal a Warmeowger t-shirt underneath. It was red, and featured a picture of my Kingtin’s Foil mask with cat ears and whiskers. Above it was the word “meow,” and below it was the phrase “embrace chaos.” He had grinned unabashedly when I pointed it out, and seeing my own merchandise caught me off guard.

It also meant that Howard had gone behind my back and made them, or at least the guy he knew did. Either way, I was glad Atlanta was far behind me.

“Like I said, I got one for you if you want it,” Jeff said as he caught me staring at it again.

“No, definitely not,” I denied immediately.

[[Patron Message]]

I fabricated my own after seeing Jeff’s. This style of shirt really is quite comfortable; I can see why so many people enjoy them. It took some work to fit with my wings, but I’m enjoying it.

Since I can see that Ashley is ready to complain again, why don’t you ask the Mills about their quest with the CDC? I want to hear how it went.

Sincerely,

Sara

“Really? You, too?” I asked, groaning up at the sky.

“She got one, too?” Jeff asked, grinning. He looked upwards and gave the clouds a thumbs up. “That’s awesome! Way to show your support.”

“Has-“ Kayla paused before shaking her head. “Did you really not see this coming? You seem really bothered by it.”

I understood what she was actually asking, and I crossed my arms. “Warmonger merch? Sure, I can see that. Warmeowger merch? I distinctly told Howard no to that.” Sighing, I shook my head. “Sara wants to know how your CDC quest went.”

“Sara?” Ashley asked.

“She’s my patron,” I answered.

“Your patron’s name is Sara? You’re fucking with us, right?”

Shaking my head, I smirked at the Monstersmith. “Yes. Her name is Sara, and she’s a delight.”

“That’s actually true,” Jeff interjected. “The name part, though I trust Ant when he says she’s delightful.”

“Weird, but alright,” Ashley said after a moment of thinking it over.

“But to actually answer your question,” Kayla started. “The CDC quest went well. We had no problem collecting the plants from Druid Hills, specifically the golf course there, though it was scary at first.”

“Yeah, I’m with Kay on that,” Jeff said with a soft chuckle. “You didn’t tell us we’d be essentially harvesting poisonous leaves off of these huge Venus flytrap monsters.”

“I told you in the note!” I objected. “They’re super cuddly so long as you have a Dryad blessing.”

“Being told in a note is different from seeing it in person, boss.”

Kayla cleared her throat. “Anyway, we harvested the leaves and they followed us to the edge of the golf course before returning to loiter around, and we headed to the CDC, which wasn’t far away,” she continued. “There were a few things wandering around Emory University, but nothing we couldn’t handle.”

“We ended up fighting a boss called a Textbook Whirlwind,” Jeff said, making a disgusted face. “Just a bunch of textbooks and paper flying around. I got afflicted by a debuff called A Thousand Papercuts, which hurt like dickens, let me tell you. Luckily, we found its core and stabbed it before it could kill us.”

“No easy feat, but we managed.”

“I had full faith in the both of you,” I told them honestly.

“As you keep telling us,” Kayla replied. “From there, it was easy to find the secret entrance to the basement that you wrote about. We slipped past all of the plant monsters guarding the druid’s hideaway, and then we met… Tractor.”

I couldn’t help but smile. Tractor was the name of the fairy who fancied herself a druid. According to the system lore she had left the forest long ago to bring its magic to the people, but ended up falling in love with technology, getting distracted, and changing her name. It was more correct to call her an alchemist than a druid, but she had always claimed that she was the latter.

“That was an experience,” Jeff said with a light chuckle. “She was confused why we were there with the poisonous leaves, but we followed your conversation prompts to the letter. After gathering a few more materials from around Emory University, we managed to complete everything.”

“What was so important about completing all that?” Ashley asked. “Sounds to me like the damn monsters were close by to this… Tractor. Why the rush?”

“Two things,” I answered, turning to face her. “One, the Uuska was going to head there in order to gain more power because that’s where one of its medallions would pop up once the scenario started. Two, it was only a matter of time before people started roving the streets and wipe out the plant population on the golf course. Those are the only ones even remotely close by, so it would take a lot more effort later on to get the same results.”

“Assuming the CDC is even still standing after the Uuska attack” Kayla added.

“Correct. And it’s important because it’ll help quell a few outbreaks in the future.”

“And you know all this because of your Patron?” Ashley asked.

“Some of the things I know I learned from her, yes,” I said, which was technically not a lie. I retrieved a javelin from my inventory and Lifted it a few inches above my hand. “But I’m also psychic, as you’ve probably noticed, and I know some of the things that will happen in the future.”

“Like killer outbreaks and how to help me,” she stated.

“Yeah, you got it.”

Jamie spoke for the first time since we stepped outside, though she didn’t turn to face us. “That explains a lot. I was wondering why it felt like you already knew how I fought.”

“Sorry, Jamie, it comes with the territory,” I said with a shrug. She merely grunted in response, and Jeff reached out to tap me on the shoulder.

“What about you?” he asked. “I doubt you had a lot of downtime between your matches. Which were great, by the way. We were watching when I wasn’t fighting in my own tournament. Which, I’m still sad about.”

“Not being able to finish up your rounds sucks,” I agreed. “Things kind of went off the rails there near the end. Did you miss any of my matches? Or did you want a recap outside of the Chaos Cup?”

“We were able to watch everything except for the Mount Merder one,” Kayla said. “Jeff was fighting for almost the rest of the day after we ran into you.”

“Very surprised to hear you were the third to reach the top,” Jeff added. “I thought for sure you’d sweep everything.”

I smirked. “Well, someone could turn into a bird and Joanna’s really good at traveling through shadows. Third was what I told Howard to bet on, and that’s what we got.” Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Jamie scowl. “Something to say, Ms. Summers?”

It took her a few seconds before she sighed. “They blindsided me in the first round,” she coldly claimed. “The Dunbar Runners, I mean. I did not care for Tito’s power set.”

“Yeah, he’s a big pain in the ass,” I agreed with a laugh. “But that’s kind of his whole deal, so if you’re joining me for the next tournament you might have to deal with it again.” Jamie gave me a sidelong glance before turning to resume her vigil.

“I’ll be there with you, at least,” Jeff said, raising his fist.

“I’ll be happy to have you.”

“We’re straying off topic, boys,” Kayla chided lightly. “What else did you manage to get done, Ant?”

“Right, right, suppose I should get into it,” I said, holding my hands up. “Well, you already know about Cordele and taking out Watermelon Walter, and meeting up with Manny as we made our way to the stadium. I hit up Artist Alley like I told you I was going to, and picked up a bunch of stuff to make the Warmonger alias stick. And, after that, I had to pick up my manager. Jamie, you want to tell them what happened there?”

“He beat up a bunch of people who could barely fight back,” she answered, not looking back at me. “And absolutely ruined my odds for the next few days.”

I paused, but started nodding. “Yeah, that’s more or less right,” I agreed. “Branson was a loan shark, so the rest of you guys know. Under normal circumstances, I would have had a lot more time to ruin him. Well, not a lot more, but a few more days. Enough time, I’d say.”

“But you got cut off early,” Kayla stated.

“Yes, but we’ll get to that,” I confirmed. “I saved Howard, who had a gambler’s class, in order to maximize the points I would be getting back. He took care of everything, including a surprise visit from Benedict Merder himself. That was unpleasant. Still, he helped us sign up and even grilled Howard after I left him behind. I had places to go, you see.”

“Just so long as you don’t make leaving people behind a habit,” the Double Agent said, crossing her arms. “Cause that’s three for three right there.”

My mouth opened, but I couldn’t refute her words. So, I didn’t. “After leaving him to his own devices,” I continued as I deliberately kept my eyes away from Kayla. “I went to power up my bowling ball against the Filbins in town. The ones in Etson were the Seven-Tenners, of which I am now the sole member, and these were the Iron Anchors. There was a challenge, our side won, and I gained a few new toys.”

“That bowling ball,” Ashley started. “Is that a monster item? Or something else?”

“It’s my item now. As in, it literally carries my name. It also has an authorized wielder list. If you want to check it out, I can send you the details.”

“Yeah, do that.”

Nodding, I pulled My Golden Bowling Ball out of my inventory and scrolled through the menu to send her the details. Since I didn’t want to leave anyone out, I sent it to everyone to look over if they wanted while I continued my story.

“After that is when I met Ashley and got my Vambrace of Wires, the thing on my arm that allowed me to eject rope from it.”

“Which has since been destroyed,” Ashley muttered unhappily, swiping away the description.

“It will need to be fixed, yes. Sorry about that,” I said, offering her an apologetic smile. She waved me off. “But it helped me kill the Chainsawfish in the Georgia Aquarium, which in turn helped me kill the Soda Slimes in the museum next door.”

“Soda Slimes?” Jeff asked.

“Yeah, they’re just slimes but made from soft drinks. Sticky, gross, and just as bad as any other type of slimes. They could be used to make potions, but seeing as we don’t have a Potioneer just yet I didn’t bother collecting anything.”

“I can make potions,” Ashley stated. “Which I assume that you already knew, oh great and powerful psychic guy.”

“Alright, fine, it’s because I flooded the place,” I admitted. “The aquarium was full of water from top to bottom to accommodate the Chainsawfish. I used its chainsaw face to break through the wall, sending a deluge towards the Coca Cola Museum. Most slimes are weak against vast amounts of liquids. Very few are strong enough to hold themselves together when diluted by a large body of water.”

“Didn’t you also toss the Kingtin into the hotel’s pool?” Kayla asked.

“Exactly right, Kayla. And for Ashley and Jamie, a Kingtin is a slime that looks like tinfoil and took over people’s minds and bodies to do their bidding. Terrible monster. Likes to dump its victim’s Con scores so people fighting them have to be incredibly cautious. Things are really easy to kill if they only have ten hit points, especially when power levels rise.”

Jeff nodded along. “I only heard second hand accounts from people who had been under its influence, but everyone aside from Kay seemed to be a downright mess,” he said, shivering involuntarily. “Definitely don’t want to come across another one of those anytime soon.”

“It’ll be a while, but there are still some out there,” I told him. “The longer they feed, the more powerful they get, and the harder it becomes to tell if someone’s under their control. I’ll let you know when we’re coming up on someplace that has one, though, for sure.”

“Ugh, I hate it when you say when instead of if,” he complained before shaking his head and chuckling. “Alright, I’ll appreciate the warning.”

Kayla shifted, but I made sure not to focus on her. The Mercurial Mind passive had helped her overcome the effects of the mind control, but I was still worried about a fight with another Kingtin while she was in the party. Just because the effects were gone didn’t mean the trauma was, and I worried.

“But that’s not for a while,” I said, waving my hand. “After the whole thing with the aquarium and museum, it was time for the first match: Climb Mount Merder. I may have made it up third, but I am confident that I had a much larger score by the end than anyone else.”

“Didn’t have a lot of faith in you before then,” Ashley admitted. “But you definitely put on a show.”

“And that’s about half of my game right there. But we already know what happened, so let’s move on. That night I went to go see Ostwriter, a ghost author, to read through his absolutely terrible manuscript. I’m talking one of the worst pieces of fiction known to man.”

Kayla scoffed. “There’s a lot of so-called authors that have probably produced much worse than-“

As I leveled her with my best deadpan stare, I pulled the manuscript out of my inventory. Gesturing for Kayla to take it, she did, and I didn’t say anything as her face twisted at the title page.

“Moist Flesh?” she asked hesitantly.

Jeff looked over her shoulder. “The Memoir of Enigma Hemingway: One Zombie’s Underwater Journey To Find The Twice Lost City Of Atlantis, Georgia?” he continued. “Ugh, that… doesn’t sound great. Why is it so thick? How many pages is that?”

“It’s over four thousand, and I read through it in about 22 hours, give or take a couple of hours,” I said before sighing. “But it got me what I wanted, which was armor that fit over my other armor, and a unique passive that helps keep me alive.”

“That’s the armor you used against the Uuska, right?” Jeff asked.

“Forget the armor, was that the passive that let you survive against the Uuska?” Kayla asked, handing me the manuscript back. “Its hand went through you, Ant. I thought for sure you weren’t going to get back up.”

“Yes, and yes,” I confirmed. “That’s a little later in my story.”

The Double Agent sighed and rolled her eyes. “Sure, continue.”

“Oh, that night’s also when I picked up your gloves, by the way,” I said, pointing to the Hidden Claws she wore. “So, that’s neat.”

“Noted, and thank you.”

“You’re welcome!” I replied. “I got no sleep that night, but I still had a match in the morning. Howard and I headed to our manager suite and what do we find there but some of Branson’s men. Sent there to prevent us from entering.”

Jamie glanced back to see that I was staring at her, but she looked away once I grinned. “Not my idea,” she said. “I was against it.”

“I know. You play more fair than that,” I replied. “But I wasn’t what ended up dealing with them in the end. I had thought Benedict Merder was going to show up, put everyone in time out for trying to mess up the Chaos Cup. It wasn’t, it was Frastina.”

“Frastina? The big boss bitch?” Ashley asked. “I didn’t even get to meet her. Merder was the only one who came to me to figure out a deal.”

“Often heard, but rarely seen. She’s the one in charge of Atlanta.” I paused. “Well, maybe not anymore, seeing as their second scenario ended before the second scenarios even started.”

“Before they started?” Kayla asked. “Can you elaborate on that?”

I chewed on my lip for a moment as I put my hands on my hips. “Well, they haven’t started yet,” I reiterated. “The administrators want everyone to be at the same general power level, so the early scenarios all drop at roughly the same time. Right now, they’re waiting for enough of the first scenarios to finish. Did I not mention this before? I felt like I should have.”

“You might have,” Kayla sighed, rubbing her temples with her fingers. “It’s… been a long few days. I feel like I’m only processing about half of what’s actually been said or happened.”

“Understandable,” I said. “But we’ll get time to rest in Pittsburgh. I’m going to get a consistent schedule going. It’ll be two days adventuring and one day rest for everyone.”

“Does that include you?” Jeff challenged.

“I don’t think I have much of a choice.” Chuckling, I looked up at the sky, but Sara didn’t reply. That probably meant I had the right of it. “We keep getting off track. I know there’s a lot of questions, but there’ll be time later. Frastina banished Branson’s mob from the safe zone for a week.”

“Last I heard, they were holed up in the Glenn,” Jamie said. “Most of them were fine, at least.”

“Cool. But, more importantly, Jamie and I went head to head halfway through the Big Time Hoops event,” I said, grinning at the Weapon Master, who scowled.

“I got you good with my first shot,” she claimed, checking over her rifle so she didn’t have to look at me. “Would have gotten you again if it weren’t for that bowling ball. Or that Guiding Light guy whose name I can’t remember.”

“Daniel.”

Jamie nodded. “If you say so.”

“I do,” I chuckled. “You were the toughest one there by a mile.”

“You kicked my ass so hard that Branson ordered me to stop because he couldn’t afford to replace my armor,” she protested, glaring back at me.

“And you were the toughest one there by a mile,” I repeated. “Manny let me play around with my new and improved scalpel, but your fight was still a lot more fun.”

When it became evident that Jamie wasn’t going to keep the conversation going, Jeff spoke up. “That was the demonic scalpel, right?” he asked. “So the purification was successful?”

Instead of answering, I pulled it out of my inventory and passed it to him. Since he hadn’t been under the influence of a Demonic weapon like Manny was, it didn’t hurt him at all. In fact, the Angelic item should have felt really good in his hand as he looked it over and read the description. Once he was done, he passed it back to me.

“After that, Kayla and I went down to the basement with Joanna, but you already know about that part so we’ll skip it.”

“Like hell you will,” Ashley complained. “I already know about the parts where you won matches, but there were a lot of rumors about what was going on underneath the safe zone.”

After a short pause, I nodded. That was a fair request. “Okay, so the Administrators set up the Uuska under the safe zone and were essentially feeding it videos of the fights. This particular type of monster is amazing at mimicry. It can learn fighting styles, strategy, weapons, even skills and passives by just watching. It wasn’t supposed to have the passive that allowed it to get back up, nor a teleportation skill that let it blindside me, but that’s just what happens when the administrators are allowed to cheat. Which they do often. But we’re not there yet. Almost, but not yet.”

Shaking my head, I sighed. There was no use getting worked up about it, so I continued. “I wanted to get into the fight with the Orcs. As the highest ranked player, I obviously got what I wanted, but it was also a complete let down.”

“You killed the boss in one shot,” Jeff said hesitantly. “How was that a let down?”

“The Wheel of Chaos was tampered with,” I spat. “I got nothing but good spins. Doubled the Golden Glazed Ham bonus, so doubled my base Strength and Constitution, doubled the betting outcome for Howard, and then removed my restrictions while leaving the betting pool the same. It was horrible.”

“Must be hard, winning so much,” Ashley stated.

“Yeah, you’ve got it,” I replied without thinking much on it. “Anyway, yeah, made it through that. Still acted on my restrictions, but that’s not really pertinent. After the match, Howard and I were invited to dinner with Frastina. Not that I ate, because in order to do so I’d have to remove my mask, but still. She said she wanted to close out the Chaos Cup early and make me a raid boss.”

“Which you did,” Jamie said. “I say you shouldn’t have been able to win that.”

“I shouldn’t have, no,” I agreed. She glanced at me, as if unsure why I agreed with her, and I shrugged. “It’s only been a little while since the system dropped. Most of the people who joined the tournament weren’t used to fighting people, and they were easily scared by someone much more skilled than them. You were the biggest threat because you didn’t think twice about killing me, especially since I wouldn’t stay dead, but not everyone can get over something like that so quickly.”

“For the record, I wasn’t scared of you,” she claimed. “Still not.”

“Nor should you be. But you put all those supposedly powerful people in a room against someone like me, who dominated every event, and then have actually powerful people like you, the Dunbar Runners, Adrenaline Junkies, and so forth, then they think they can slack off a little. Not only did they not want to face my wrath, but they also thought that, if they could finish me off, that would be enough. Like the Bystander Effect, but for fights.”

Jamie scowled. “Like how some soldiers refuse to fire their gun.”

“Pretty much.”

“And then you won, and had to fight the Uuska,” Kayla urged. “Which then stabbed its hand through your back.”

“That wasn’t a part of the plan, okay!” I defended, throwing up my arms. “Look, I really wanted to fight it at full strength, but it was a bad idea.”

“Not so bad if you managed to beat it,” Ashley interjected.

“Just because I won doesn’t mean it wasn’t a bad idea. I had the Angel form, so I figured I’d win, but the fact that it could shatter the safe zone by simply screaming meant that there was a chance for everything to go sideways really quickly.”

“Angel form?” Jamie asked.

“Right, you left before then, didn’t you?” I replied, and she nodded. “I have a transformation skill that lets me turn into most of an Angel. Halo, flaming hair, wings that aren’t fully corporeal but there’s six of them; the whole nine yards.”

“And how did you get a hold of that?”

“Trade secret,” I answered, grinning. The Weapon Master rolled her eyes and looked back over the lake. I looked back at Kayla. “It took me longer than I’d like to admit to get there, but I had actually decided to not go through with fighting the powered up Uuska when it turned the tables on me.”

“Why did it even have to do that, anyway?” Jeff asked. “Go through your chest, I mean. It could have went for the head or something.”

“It wanted my Medallion of Uuska,” I explained, patting my chest where the new medallion hung. “It can only learn skills and passives from observation, right? But if it gets its hands on a medallion that’s been on somebody with a class for a while, then they’ll get class abilities.”

“Which is why it could do everything you could do,” Kayla finished. “Got it.”

“Almost everything,” I corrected. “It learned all the important things, my Angel form was just too much for it to handle. Still, I was lucky that I could kill it before it had a chance to break through the barrier by slamming my face against it. Anyone still in the stadium would have had a bad time.”

[[Rail Yard Acquisitions]]

The Bi-Level Sleeper Car, Vault Car, and Workshop Car for the Angel Express are fully materialized. Your Subspace Depot may now be activated at your convenience. We hope you enjoy your new acquisitions.

Before anyone could complain, I pointed towards the train. “It’s complete.”

“Finally!” Ashley exclaimed, throwing her arms in the air as she already started stomping towards it. “It’s about goddamn time.”

Jamie followed after her, but didn’t put her rifle away until they entered the dining car. Jeff and Kayla lingered.

“Are you really okay?” Kayla asked. “And, yes, you know we have to ask.”

“I’m as fit as a fiddle, Kayla,” I answered with a chuckle. “Everything got fixed up once I was returned to the manager’s suite. Howard was hiding in the hotel, according to Sara, but he’ll be fine. He’s got a real sense of survival, and legs that don’t mind running.”

“Alright, boss,” Jeff said as he started pushing his wife towards the train. He put a comforting hand on my back and began guiding me, as well. “Well, let’s get back in there and on the rails again. Something tells me we’re in for another series of deadly occurrences.”

I nodded and allowed him to take me to the Angel Express. “You got it, Jeff. Tomorrow is going to mark the start of a whole new adventure.”