RVR4|Chapter 8: Lock-In (Patreon)

Petra -- Dungeon Front Gates

"You are early," Bee said in her ear.

"I'm trying to beat the line." Petra came around the corner onto the square at ten to three with her kit bag on her shoulder and stopped at the foot of the Guild steps. "There's a difference."

The steps were filling. A repair crew with a requisition slate, two shopkeepers arguing about odds, a noodle cart parked across the bottom step because nobody had told him not to. The big plasteel doors sat shut.

Dalton was in his gatehouse, sorting stamps.

She went up, set the bag down between her boots at the rail, and waited with the rest of the three o'clock line.

"How are they?" she said.

"Mikhail has taken four contacts in the last ten minutes and said 'got it' after each one after she told him not to," Bee said. "It took Yuki an embarrassing amount of time to realize he was doing it on purpose."

Petra snickered. "She's going to bitch about it to me the whole way down."

"That is the most likely scenario."

The doors ground open exactly when they were supposed to.

The morning cohort came out blinking, eight hours of Floor One on them, that loose-shouldered walk of people whose eyes needed a second to remember daylight. She saw Yuki first, rifle slung across her front, left arm strapped under the jacket, good hand riding the sling. Then Mikhail, bag over one shoulder, scanning the square before he'd cleared the arch.

He looked annoyingly relaxed.

He saw her at the rail, and the corner of his mouth moved into a smirk and he rolled his shoulders.

"What'd you get," Petra said.

Mikhail stretched and even yawned. "I'll tell you later."

Yuki arrived on her left and shook her head at him. "He had a nap. In the dungeon."

Petra narrowed her eyes at him. "...How?"

Mikhail shrugged. "Bee let me into the Tertian staging room on floor one. Got some sleep before this run."

"You're unbelievable," she said. "I hate that it makes sense."

"So, three of you, then," Dalton said, without looking up from the slate. He stamped the datapad once. "Tertian party of three, in at three. Please, Lady Petra. Try to come back at eleven and not seven in the morning. Your mother will remove my kidneys through a datapad."

Petra snorted. "Yeah, she does that. Just let her know we're doing a double ahead of time."

Dalton just sighed.

Floor 0 was the same wide cold corridor you could drive a tank through. They walked down with four other delvers who smelled of nerve ointment and grain alcohol.

The elevator bay down to Floor One's staging area served as even more of a delay to her levelling up.

"Alright," Yuki said, now that they were finally going down. "We're seen going in, and we're seen going out. Petra just bought us another eight hours if we need it. Whatever happens in between is our business."

Cici's voice barked through their earpieces. "Excellent social engineering!" Then a jingle played. "Oh I like that one."

"That was smart," Tess said. "We're ready to go when you are."

The elevator dinged and opened to the crowded staging area of floor one. People had basically taken to living down here for days on end hunting spawns for level progress. Loot items were rare, but she saw some serious gear on many of the delvers.

"And here I thought we were overgeared," Petra said, as they walked in.

"Told you," Yuki said, claiming a plasteel crate. "Floor One's a museum. More and more people are trying Floor Two."

"I'm pretty sure that ranger has a better rifle than you do." Petra nodded at him as they started towards the door into the dungeon proper.

"Probably!" Yuki laughed and patted the rifle. "I've had this old girl a long time."

Two crystalline constructs came charging down the hall, Level 5 if that, and Petra took them apart without even breaking stride.

"So it sure seems like people are getting stronger. It's slow, but that Aether node really made a difference."

"The next one is going to make a huge difference," Yuki said.

"I hope so."

They turned down a side corridor and two more spawns charged them.

"Got it," Mikhail said, and Yuki groaned as he rushed forward, cutting the low level enemies into ribbons before they dissolved.

"Stop showing off, you don't even need the kills!" Petra said.

He shot her a smile and sheathed his blade. "All yours, then, ladies."

The afternoon went just like that for hours. Petra and Yuki cutting down low level spawns and watching their progress crawl upwards at a glacial pace.

Eventually, Bee had led them to the private staging area so they could rest. Yuki slouched against a wall, her eyes closed, while Petra checked her sheet.

·········································LEVEL: 9CLASS: Blade DancerProgress to Level 10: 99.2%·········································

Point three percent progress all afternoon. Floor One was going to make her beg for the last ticks, one spawn at a time.

"You're making a face," Yuki said, eyes closed.

"It's so slow. Why don't we just go down to Floor Two?"

Mikhail sat down next to Petra and pulled a sandwich out of his bag. "No point in increasing the danger when there's no rush. Here."

He handed her the sandwich. "Besides," he continued. "Asha and Tess are spending the afternoon making sure they have an alibi."

"Hey Bee, did you see today's episode?" Yuki said suddenly.

"Of course. A high resolution recording is available on the viewer at your residence. You'll be happy to know that the Commander's wife..."

"Spoilers, Bee," Yuki said, sitting up. "She just doesn't get spoilers."

"I do not understand because you will watch it regardless," Bee argued in their earpieces.

Yuki and Bee continued arguing, but Petra turned to Mikhail.

"Are you going to tell me what you got yet?"

He was quiet long enough that she thought he'd let it lie.

"Only had one choice," he said.

Petra gave him a deliberately blank stare as he pulled some crackers from his pack and stuffed them into his mouth.

"Sentinel," he said with his mouth full.

"That sounds useful," Petra said. "I haven't heard of that as an evolution path from Knight."

Mikhail shrugged. "Rare class," he said.

Petra shot to her feet. "What?! You got a rare class evolution?"

Mikhail was smiling genuinely now.

"That could evolve to epic at twenty-five!" she said. "That's incredible."

"When was the last time anyone hit level twenty-five?" Mikhail chuckled.

"We're working on that," Petra said. "If we can get the next node online, who knows. There's a lot of dungeon here."

"Alright, enough canoodling," Yuki said. Petra threw half her sandwich at her. Yuki snatched it out of the air, took a bite, and spat it out. "Eugh, did Asha make this?"

Petra had been killing spawns for hours when she finally checked her sheet.

·········································LEVEL: 10CLASS: Blade Dancer·········································

No progress row. Nothing under the class line at all, for the first time since she'd been old enough to read one.

"Petra?" Yuki said. "You've stopped."

"Hang on."

The second prompt arrived unasked.

·········································CLASS EVOLUTION — LEVEL 10RARE CLASS DETECTED: BLADE DANCEREvolution Target: ■■■■■■■■ — Grade: EPICCatalyst Required: CRYSTALLIZED AETHER MANIFOLDCatalyst Status: Not DetectedEVOLUTION DEFERRED·········································

She read it once with her own eyes. Then she read it out, the whole block, in the voice she used for requisition forms.

"Say the last one again," Yuki said.

"Deferred?"

"No. The part before."

"Crystallized aether manifold. Not detected."

"Damn," Yuki said. "Of course you'd get an epic class evolution. I don't suppose you have one in your pocket?"

"Oh yeah," Petra said, rolling her eyes. "Grabbed one from the pile back home."

"You think that weird crystal from the alpha spawner might be it?" Yuki asked.

Petra just shrugged. "I hope so, but I'm clearly not getting the new class tonight... which really screws up our plan."

Yuki looked at her for one second longer than usual, then unslung her rifle from her shoulder.

"We'll figure it out. My turn."

"Left," Yuki said. "Two. Leave them."

"Leave them?"

"Leave them for me, Your Highness. You've had your turn."

Petra stepped back against the column and folded her arms. Two constructs came up the corridor at a scuttle, and Yuki put a round through the first one from the hip and walked the rifle over to the second before the first had finished dissolving.

"Ninety-eight point four," Bee said.

"Say it louder. I want the floor to hear it."

"Would you like me to announce it through the floor PA system?"

"Wait, there's a PA system?" Yuki fired another shot down a corridor through two more spawns.

"No, there is not," Bee said. "That was a joke. Did it work?"

"It doesn't work if you say it was a joke," Yuki said.

They continued through the corridors, with Mikhail up front. Yuki shot everything that moved and most of what didn't, and her injured shoulder took the recoil and her jaw stayed clenched through it.

A spawn dropped between them from the ceiling. Yuki hadn't even sensed it with her skill.

"Behind you, Mikhail!"

"Got it."

He swept his blade out and pinned the spawn so Yuki could finish it.

"Ninety-eight point nine."

At half past eight Mikhail called a stop, sat down in an empty room, and ate a cracker. Yuki stayed on her feet with the rifle across her chest and looked at him.

"You can eat and walk."

"Not at the same time."

Yuki rolled her eyes at him and slumped down against the wall and sprayed some healing ointment on her shoulder.

"How many rounds do you have left?" Petra asked. "Enough for ten?"

"Probably." Yuki thumbed the magazine. "I have spare weapons if needed."

Bee's voice came through their earpieces all at once. "I may have made a mistake," she said just as the sound of a lot of spawns echoed in the corridor outside.

"What do you mean all of the spawns in this sector?"

"Certain corridor controls are available to me on the first floor," Bee said, and there was no margin in it. "I attempted to redirect more spawns to your location. I did not anticipate all of them following. They are not turning down side corridors. They will be on you in twenty-seven seconds."

Mikhail was on his feet with the cracker still in his hand. Yuki had the rifle up before Petra had her blades out.

"Not in here," Yuki said. "One door and no room to shoot. Out to the larger antechamber."

They went out into it. The room had been empty on the way through. It was not empty now. Six constructs came up out of the far mouth in two ranks of three, taller than Petra, and the noise behind them put six at the front of something much larger. Plating in slabs instead of facets, the crystal in them gone dark and dense, cutting arms folded back along their forearms the way a blade rides in a sheath.

"Those aren't fives," Yuki said.

"Correct," Bee said. "Spawn levels on this floor have been drifting up. This is the first group over eight I have seen. Two of them read ten."

Mikhail was already moving, and so was his shield, the envelope coming up around him in the thin skin Petra had spent three mornings hitting.

"Collapse on me," he said.

"They're flanking," Yuki said. "They are actually flanking."

"Petra," Bee said. "Move to Mikhail."

"Can't."

The near three had put themselves between her and him, and the far three were going wide around Yuki. Petra set her feet.

The first one came in fast for its size. She caught the cutting arm on the flat of her left blade. The shock went up to her shoulder. She ducked under the second arm and drove her right blade into the joint where the plating met. It staggered instead of dissolving. She hit the joint again and it came apart at the knee and went down still swinging.

Two more, together.

"Mikhail," Yuki said.

"I see her."

Blue energy cascaded across her as if she'd just activated her shield.

It dropped out of the air from where Mikhail stood and settled around her, floor to a hand's width over her head, a curve of it. The MK-VII on her harness was still off, saving power for Floor Two. The second construct's cutting arm hit the curve at full swing and stopped dead, and the shock forced the spawn back a step.

"Oh," Petra said. "That's neat."

"Work," Mikhail said, through his teeth. "I don't have unlimited AP!"

So she worked. She killed the staggered one at the neck joint, took the third one's first swing on the shield and its second on her blade, and drove both blades into its chest plating until it went down. Behind her the rifle was talking, three shots, four, and Yuki's voice in the gaps.

"Damn, they're too close," she said. She slung the rifle, pulled a sidearm, and fired.

Crack. Crack. Crack.

The last two, probably the tens, were coming at Yuki across the room at a dead sprint, one a stride behind the other, and Yuki had her back to the wall, reloading.

"Yuki!" Petra called out.

"I see them."

The magazine clicked home and she emptied it into the lead spawn. It dropped in a heap. She let the pistol fall, pulled a second from her jacket, and got one shot off before the other spawn knocked it out of her hand and came on. The snub double-barrelled shotgun was already in her bad hand, pressed against its chest.

Both barrels went off, and most of the spawn evaporated with the blast, and Yuki shouted in pain.

The noise did not drop. It climbed, and the corridor filled with more spawns, the low ones they had been walking through all night, and they came in fast and kept coming.

"Bee. Close something."

"I have closed everything between them and you that closes. This is what was already through."

"Tertian staging room," Petra said.

"Two hundred sixty meters, back the way you came. There are four doors on that route. I will drop each one behind you. Tess and Asha are moving to meet you there."

"Mikhail, rear," Yuki said. She had the shotgun broken open over her forearm and was thumbing shells into it one-handed—and her face had gone pale. "Petra, walk in front of me so I don't shoot you."

"That's not how..."

"Go."

They went. Petra took the front with both blades out and did not have to use them for the first sixty meters. A hundred small bodies on stone, the slabs of the big ones under them, and over all of it Mikhail's boots going backwards at the same pace as hers, which she did not know he could do.

The first door came down behind them with a bang that she felt in her whole body.

"One," Bee said.

A spawn came out of a side mouth on the left and Petra cut it in half without stopping. A pair behind it. She took those too, and the corridor ahead was clear and amber and long.

"Two."

Something hit the second door from the other side, hard enough to sound like a dropped crate. Then again.

"That door will hold for approximately forty seconds," Bee said. "I would prefer you did not test it."

The shotgun went off behind her, twice, and Yuki swore in a language Petra had not heard her use before. Petra looked back. The shield was up and Mikhail walked backed up, blade out. A construct was coming apart across the front of the shield in a spray of dark crystal. Yuki was backing along beside him, shotgun in her right hand, left arm hanging straight down.

"Eyes front," Yuki said. "I've got this."

"You don't have an arm."

"I've got the one I need."

The third door came down. Then the fourth. The staging-room door stood open, a plain plasteel slab. Cici waited in the doorway with her head up.

"I have held the door," Cici said. "I am very brave."

They went past her and Bee shut it behind them, and the sound stopped. All of it. It was the quiet of a room with its own air.

Asha was already off the bench, kit bag open, and went past Petra without looking at her. She had Yuki's jacket off the bad side before Yuki had finished sitting down.

"Sit."

"I am sitting."

"Sit like you mean it." Asha's thumb went along the strap line, once, and pressed, and Yuki's whole face went white and then came back. "Hm."

"That's it? Hm?"

"You fired a shotgun with a broken shoulder. Hm is better than calling you what I really think."

"It was a small shotgun."

Asha took a vial out, the compound going into the skin over the collarbone under two flat fingers, fast, no wasted motion, the way Marcus dealt cards. "You broke it again, yeah?"

Yuki looked at the ceiling. "Figured. It really hurts."

"Good. It should." Her palm flattened over the bone and stayed there.

[RAPID MEND] didn't look like much from the outside. The skin under Asha's palm went pink, then red, and Yuki's jaw locked, and something under the skin moved in a way that made Petra wince. Asha counted under her breath. At twenty she lifted her hand and the red was already going down.

"Better than last night," she said. "Not good. Need you full power for what's coming, yeah? So give it a few hours before you shoot something with that arm again."

"How few."

"Not a few minutes. I know you." She was taping it, the brace out of the bag and strapped down tight enough that Yuki grunted. "Don't lift it over your shoulder, don't sleep on it, and don't put a shotgun against a spawn's chest with it."

"It was effective, though."

"Stupid and effective can be the same," Asha said.

Tess was standing by the stripped wall panel with her toolbelt on and the pistol on her hip. She had not said a word. She had the look she gave a mechanism she couldn't get into yet. Petra stood up straighter and only noticed afterward.

Mikhail sat down on the floor with his back against the door and deactivated the shield.

"Okay," Yuki said. "Okay. I was going to wait until we were out, but I can't. I hit ten."

Petra turned to Yuki. "When?"

"The one I put the shotgun in. It ticked over while I was down there with the thing's crystal in my hair." She was grinning now and could not stop.

"Two roads. Longshot and Gunslinger." Yuki said the names the way she said the names of characters on her show. "Longshot's the one everybody picks. Better rifle range, the perch. Longshot is what a Ranger becomes when a Ranger does what she's told."

"So you took Longshot?"

"Absolutely not." She lifted the sidearm off her lap by the trigger guard and let it hang. "Gunslingers use whatever happens to shoot straight. Pistols, rifles, shotguns, repeaters, you name it. My new skill doesn't make a lot of sense, though, it uses AP to reload guns I'm not using."

"So switching weapons is faster than actually reloading them?" Tess asked.

"I mean maybe for some," Yuki said. "I'm hoping I didn't make a mistake. It's Rare though."

Asha sighed and gave the brace strap one more pull.

"Course it is," she said. "Everybody I strap up on this team's Rare but me."

"You're Rare to us," Yuki said.

"Pssh," Asha scoffed. "Starting to think that training job was more on the money than I like."