LTSV - Harbingers of Change - 8 (Patreon)

‘The others’ had grouped up at what Mira assumed had been their rendezvous point before Bryn had to go track down Andrei. They were three boys of similar age to Cece and Mira was relieved to recognize all three of them. Finally, the cast had assembled. The only one missing was Adra and his absence was starting to worry her.

She’d half-expected him to catch up to her by now, even if his shadow matter had not been carried off by the System with her. The initial frantic energy that had carried her through the last hour or so was starting to fade and she was starting to get worried. He could move through multidimensional spaces. What did it mean for this place that he hadn’t shown up already?

This setting had so many weird restrictions and unknowns that she was feeling sick to her stomach.

She also wasn’t sure what they’d do about the Magnates once they escaped this Dungeon, assuming the world hadn't been Apocalypsed when Mira, Cece, and the others got dragged off. The System implied that it had not, but she didn’t know how trustworthy it was yet. Money was almost as good as magic, if not better in some places. Those guys were primed to get annoying once they found out Cece was out doing things where they couldn’t suddenly interfere and make it all about themselves. On the other hand, LitRPGs had more space for boys to have personalities that weren't focused around getting into the heroine’s business. Samira’s life was already different from the source material. Maybe the System’s arrival would distract them from being weirdos around Cece?

“Looks like Andrei found some more survivors,” one of the boys observed as they approached. Mira recognized him as Randall from their previous life and Tio the Minstrel from her first. She was happy to see him.

She and Randall might have had a rocky start last time, but they became friendly after the failed coup and Andrei's exile. He got as close as anyone could have to being the winning Male Lead, considering Cece couldn’t marry. That didn’t stop Randall from becoming a regular guest at Rosepark and, after a while, he and Cece shared a room by default. He even played billiards with Adra and Bertram every Saturday evening. Seeing him again, even with a new face, came as more of a relief than Mira would have ever expected; another one of her favorites was back in her circle.

Randall was an asian man with looks that could have easily launched him as a drama star in any number of markets. He’d even dressed the part in a light gray pullover with a mustard yellow suede jacket and black trousers. He waved politely to Mira and Cece. “I’m Randall Zhao,” he paused and squinted at Mira. “Do I know you from somewhere?”

Mira blinked and looked around. She did not know him and neither had Samira. “I’m sorry, if we met then I don’t recall. I don’t think so.”

Cece chuckled. “Are you on Instagram?” she asked conspiratorially and Randall nodded. “She’s got like 200,000 followers.”

Randall raised his eyebrows, but also snapped his fingers like he’d just made the association and pointed at Mira. “Your reels show up on my feed and get suggested to me whenever I’m on Facebook. It's always the ones where you’re filling your water cup and taking off your jewelry.”

Oh, that was from the ‘My 5-to-9’ series. Samira had filmed something like forty of those videos over the course of a week while she was staying at an Air BnB and had set them up to release in a trickle so she wasn’t always shown living in different places. Samira had not yet, to date, ever filmed in her parent’s house. She also didn’t have a job, but that series wasn’t really about having a job. It was a lifestyle fantasy. Samira’s social media posts were one of her secret revenue streams. Her dad could take away anything that paid out into a bank account, but he hadn’t figured out that you could carry a balance on Venmo or Cashapp yet.

“Samira Bellamy. You may call me Mira,” Mira introduced herself and consented to shake hands when Randall reached out. “This is Cecelia Newman.”

Another one of the boys approached. It was the former Alan Greenwood, who had been Able the Brawler in their first life. This time, he had dark slicked-back copper hair and a fair complexion with freckles. He was dressed in a zipped-up navy tracksuit with chunky white sneakers. Unlike Bryn, who was dressed for this gym, this guy looked like he was just dressed for the street.

“I’m Alan,” he greeted them. He hooked an elbow over Randall’s shoulder and one of his teeth flashed gold when he grinned. Good to know he hadn’t changed much; still the ‘wild’ type. “What did the System do to you two?”

“I’m a Priestess,” Cece said, sounding a bit shy. One of her hands found Mira’s elbow and she stepped just a bit behind her. “I can cast a healing spell and make a barrier. I can also bless people, but I’m not sure what that does yet.”

“This whole thing has been like a video game so far, right down to the ‘tutorial phase’,” Randall mused. “I wonder if ‘Bless’ is a buff?”

“Let’s get out of the open before we get into that,” the last boy, who had once been William Noir and Makim the Wanderer, opined.

He was a narrowly-built young man of African descent and so tall that his posture seemed permanently set into a slight C-curve. He had light gold-brown eyes and a sharp face. His hair was black, wavy, and on the long side in front. The rest of it was covered in a light gray knit hat that was tucked behind his ears and framed his many, many silver piercings. He wore a black satin shirt, half-open to reveal his extensive black and red tattoos underneath that extended onto his forearms, where his shirt had been cuffed up to his elbows. His pants were thankfully black denim and not leather or else this would have been a very long 48 hours for him and he had a pair of black lace up boots on.

So far, everyone in this group had chosen sensible footwear this morning except Mira. She didn’t think Samira had even owned a pair of athletic shoes.

“I’m Will, by the way,” he added as he stepped aside to gesture towards an open single story building behind the little courtyard they’d chosen as an assembly point. The structure had the look of a maintenance outbuilding, just going from the dinged up metal door and the poured cement floor Mira could see inside. It also had a call-out on it that read [SAFE ROOM] on it when Mira inspected it.

[Safe Room: this is a temporary shelter erected by unknown forces for unknown reasons. Hunters may shelter within these rooms for up to 8 hours before being ejected. Once exited, the Safe Room cannot be entered again for a period of 1 hour. Note: The Hunter Network System and the Altiviri Triumvirate have issued statements that, while no Safe Room has ever been documented as being mislabeled or a trap, these rooms were not placed by any known factor and should always be approached with caution.]

“Huh,” Mira commented aloud, “It’s got a cooldown.”

“A what?” Randall asked, stopping and turning towards her. He looked alarmed. “What has a cooldown?”

Mira pointed. “The Safe Room says you can use it for up to eight hours, but then you’ll get kicked out for an hour. There’s also a note from the Hunter System saying they don’t know who makes these things and to be careful.”

Randall blinked. “When I used Inspect on it, it just said it was a Safe Room,” he said. “We decided to wait until everyone was present just in case the door sealed us in. Why are you getting more information?”

“I got an upgraded Inspection as a reward for discovering the skill,” Mira explained.

“That’s right, your name was on two of those alerts,” Alan mused, but the System interrupted him before he could go anywhere with that thought.

[The Tutorial Period is ending now. Please find shelter or prepare for combat.]

Alan winced and gave the surrounding area an apprehensive look. The feel of the Dungeon had changed and the quiet city had gone from eerie to ominous. “Shit, guys, let’s get inside and finish talking there.”

Mira almost didn’t want to go. If she went in there, Adra might be stuck outside if he had managed to penetrate the Dungeon and just hadn’t caught up to her yet. At the same time, if she tried to stay out in the open then he’d be pissed at her for passing up shelter. Worse still, Cece and the others might stay outside to argue with her if she didn’t go inside with them

After weighing her options, Mira chose the path that guaranteed that everyone would be under cover before monsters or whatever spawned into the Dungeon. She firmed her shoulders, told her separation anxiety to fuck off, and marched into the safe room.

Randall’s suspicion about the Safe Room turned out to be correct. The metal door swung closed behind the last member of their group to enter and a bar manifested on it as soon as it latched shut.

Inside, the Safe Room was clean, but very industrial looking. The floor was poured concrete that had been painted and sealed with desaturated steel blue paint. There was a unisex toilet, a water fountain, and a stack of folding pleather pads off in one corner like the kind that people used in gymnastics, except thinner. When unfolded, they were about the size of a twin mattress, but there were only three of them .

Mira inspected the door again, once they were secure. “There’s an eight hour timer counting down and a note that says that if we open the door before that then we won’t be allowed in until the cooldown period is over. It also says that the Safe Room is not soundproofed.”

Randall came over to check his results. “I only see the timer, guys. From now on, I say Mira looks at anything we’ve got questions about before anyone touches it.”

“She got market values for some wood we came across earlier,” Andrei reported. He took one of the folded mattresses and tossed it down in the middle of the room, still folded, to use as a seat.

“Hey, you girls can sit here,” Bryn called over. He’d taken one of the other two mattresses and unfolded it so there was more space to share.

Meanwhile, Alan came up behind Andrei and used his foot to lightly push Andrei off the folded pad. “Quit hogging it, man,” he growled. Then he shook the pad out and sat on one end of it. “What’s this about wood?” he asked Mira, once he’d sat down.

Andrei grumbled, but went over to the other end of the pad. Bryn and Will took the other, while Randall dropped down into a full-flexion squat near Mira and Cece with his heels fully on the ground and his butt hovering off the ground near his heels, without any apparent effort. He had a distant look and was using his finger to scroll through empty air, so he was presumably looking at his System window.

“There’s a Screamwood Grove over by the broken cell tower where Cece and I met up,” Mira explained. “The branches and trunks have some value in the System Shop.”

“Looks like it,” Randall confirmed. “Screamwood branches are selling for 13 GP per branch. What was the price the System said it would buy them for?”

“10 GP,” Mira said.

“So there’s a thirty percent markup,” Cece murmured. “That’s not the worst, I guess. I ended up with ‘Apothecary’ for my subclass and it says there’s official equipment that I’m going to have to buy from the Shop if I want to be able to sell potions. It sounds like I wouldn’t be penalized too much for buying my materials.”

“If this is still running on game logic,” Randall mused, “We’ll probably be expected to trade crafting between ourselves and the Shop is an expensive last ditch alternative. I’m a survivalist, by the way.”

“Me too!” Andrei said, raising a hand. “That’s where I got the disassembly skill from. My main is Warrior.”

“I’m a Defender and a Cook,” Bryn volunteered from where he’d been quietly listening.

“Rogue and Merchant,” Alan added. “We’ll need to see if I can get better prices for the stuff we need to buy. Don’t buy any materials until we know for sure, Cecelia.”

“Interesting combination, but I’m a Scribe,” Will said. “I guess it complements my Wizard class.”

“I think I said earlier, but I’m a Priestess,” Cece tucked her knees against her chest. “A Priestess and an Apothecary. I guess this comes from going to nursing school?”

Everyone turned to look expectantly at Mira. “I’m an offensive spell caster and a Summoner. I don’t think I got any extra skill from my subclass, but I can check.”

She called up her status window and didn’t see any relevant skills until she poked the word ‘Summoner’ and got a second popup.

“Summon Familiar, Appraisal, and Supernatural Animal Handling,” she reported.

“Summoner, huh?” Randall mused as he pulled on his chin. “So they’re not all crafting classes; just most of them, if we’re a representative sample size. So what kind of spell caster? I know Will got a book of spells. Is it like that?”

Mira shook her head. “I don’t have any pre-existing spells,” she told them. “I have to make up my own and it consumes my stamina points when I do. I’m actually pretty worn out already from making my elemental dart spells.”

“Yeah? How many do you have left?” Alan was the one to ask, this time.

Mira checked. “Fifty out of one hundred and forty. It was the same earlier when I checked. I don’t know how stamina points regen—AUGH!” She startled backwards as pop up spawned in her face.

[SP or Stamina Points are a measure of your physical capacity. Max SP is calculated through your Endurance Attribute. SP Regeneration is calculated through your Strength Attribute. Note: Hunters with a Strength and/or Endurance Attribute of <10 will experience a penalty to their stamina regeneration and can only regain SP through rest and food.]

Her lips thinned. “Nevermind, I just got my answer.”