Ch 32 System Impact

  That popup appeared in front of Lucas just past the stroke of midnight. It didn’t tell us the outcome of the stupid kids. Whether they lived or died. Just the broken contract. We kept drinking. To mourn their likely passing.

  “We’ll add it in the contract for dungeon runs, so no additional people may join. I’m sorry you had to go through this. But we live, we learn. We know more about the system. I came to tell you to pick a room. There are studios apartments in the guild now. Pick one, its yours. Get some sleep. Hopefully things will look brighter in the morning.” I said to him.

  He just stared at the half empty bottle we’d been nursing for the last few hours. Empty eyed. Like sleep was the last thing on his mind. I didn’t think he was in the right state to care for himself. So I gently tugged him up and took him to the elevator.

  “How high up you want to be, old man? We’ve got ten floors up of bedrooms.”

  He mumbled something about seeing the city from the ground all his life. So I took him to floor 10. Walking him into the right-side apartment. I threw some sheets and pillows on the bed for him. And helped him lay down. He wasn’t coherent enough for a shower right now. But I purchased some sweats for him in the morning. Placing a bottle of water and a single use pack of Tylenol on the bedside, I killed the lights and let him sleep it off.

  I never knew his past history, but dead kids would get to anybody. Especially a man that went through a harsh life. Lucas was always kinder to those under 20. There had to be a reason for it. And now there were three dead kids on his conscious.

  Leaving his room, “Raven, check Maggies schedule. Take Lucas off the next two days please. I’ll handle his turnout.”

  “Confirmed.”

  Then I headed down to the garage. I didn’t need to take over any of the bedrooms here. I could, I was considering it. But I had Sky Trail for all my needs. It felt more like home to me, then the guild currently did. I checked the lobby. To see the doors were closed and that no one was on a run.

  Olivia was doing a personal run it seemed, but a solo run should be a squeeze for her. It seemed everyone else had called it a night hours ago. I checked the website and it looked fresh. Seemed Jamie was doing a good job of keeping it up to date on everything. Even the price points of gear was on there now. I hope Maggie was making sure he didnt overwork himself.

  But the garage was bugging me. Too many people in too small a space. And more coming in. He literally had no use for all his real cash right now. And he had nearly a million dollars. So he might as well spend it.

  “Raven, can you interact with the Dallas land management system? I want to buy the land around the dungeon. Particulary under the overpass.”

  “Confirmed. User can purchase up to 2 acres of land with current amount of currency. Would user like to purchase in designated area?”

  “You know I do. All around the dungeon, far enough away from the dungeon the Guard doesn’t get annoyed though. I want to make it a large C shape. But a system building.”

  “Confirmed. Purchase will go through in roughly 4 hours. User will be notified.”

  “Thanks Raven.”

  With that I started making auto-size wands, form the wood I had on hand. I wanted to sell them to DMS as well. They would know where they needed to go.

  *

  Hours passed by in a haze. Raven next to me making wands as I did. We passed the time listening to music in my office, my speaker softly playing music. I wasnt paying much attention to it. I wanted to make a hundred wands. But I had to take a break every now and then.

  “Raven, when was the last time I ate?”

  “User last ate 12 hours ago. Suggesting consuming water.”

  Yeah, I probably needed it. I pulled out a plate of something. I didnt immdietly recoginze the region it was from. But it smelled good. And i had a lot of food left over from my dungeon stint. So I started to eat slowly. It tasted of meat, soft and savory. Pork I think. I pulled out my nutrient addin water and drank deeply. I hadnt realized how thirsty I was. Once i was finished. I felt my fatigue. My thoughts were slowing down.

  “Raven, when was the last time I slept?”

  “User last awoke 23 hours ago.”

  “Then i think I’m due a nap, right?”

  “Confimred.”

  I didnt want to go all the way down to the garage, I had a perfectly good couch right here. Laying down, i stretched and pulled a blanket from my inventory. I didnt want a pillow. So I just lay flat.

  “Good night Raven.” i yawned. Not hearing her reply.

  “Good night, User.”

  *

  When I woke up I felt a quite a lot better. It was mid-morning, not yet noon. I sat up and stretched. Noticing that the wands were in my inventory. I should thank Raven for that.

  I went to sit at my desk, and pulled out something egg like. It was omelet-y. Also milky. But it tasted pretty good.

  “Raven, how long did I sleep?”

  “User slept 5 hours and 20 minutes.”

  “Ok, thanks for inventoring the wands.”

  “Confirmed.”

  “How many autosize wands do we have now?”

  “114.”

  “Ok, good enough to start with. Enough to sell at least. I need to change clothes though. Think Dumar would mind plain clothes from me?”

  “User has not chnaged clothes or used Pristine in over 48 hours.” Ouch, that stung. I really did need to change then. I pulsed a little mana into my boxers though. The clean feeling swept over my inner parts made me feel quite refreshed.

  I pulled out a bowl of water and washed my face. The used my wand to cast pristine on myself. Then chose what to wear. I had all the basic clothes in all the basic colors now. I decided a light grey silk button up, with dark gray cotton shorts. Nice, casual, and fancy enough for a meeting. Also I had gotten used to shorts and I somehow developed a dislike for pants. Weird.

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  Dressed once more. I decided to hell with it and put on my sandals. The fancy ones though, that came up halfway up to my knees. These clothes all had temp control on them, and armor mixed in. I was sure I’d be safe no matter what. I could likely sell the excess directly to the guard if I wanted. Not sure they had currency.

  I already put the main sets in the system store though. What to do with the excess. Put them in the guild? Sell them at the apartments?

  There was a thought. I could sell them at the apartments as daily wear. For credits or currency. Let people off load their currency if they didn’t need it. Or find a retailer that was interested in buying system clothes?

  I’ll look into that later. For now, the DMS. I brought up my portal board and selected the correct button. Then felt myself dissasemble.

  *

  I landed once more on the sidewalk. Just in front of the parking lot of the main building of DMS. It was a rather pleasant morning today. The weather wasn’t blistering. The sun was shining. And oh yeah. I had made a huge purchase to build apartments.

  “Raven, did our land purchase go through yet?”

  “Negative. Lang Management wants User in office today at 3pm. For ‘paperwork’ was stated, but subtext instills something ese.”

  “Yeah, they’re probably pissed I want that land. That i can afford it. And that I went over them to buy it. But I’ll still get it. Even if I have to force it through.”

  “Confirmed.”

  Walking into DMS, the man at the front desk was new to me. He gave me a look saying I was filth that walked in. Then his customer service smile. It took be aback. I thought I was well known here. I met three of the secretaries already. Now heres this guy? Not happening.

  “Hey, appointment with Dumar. Can you tell him Arthur Turner is here?”

  “Sure I’ll let his secretary know you’ve arrived.”

  The bitch was messing with me. “Alright. I’ll just head up to his office then. Thanks.” I causually gave him a wave as i walked to the elevators. I could hear him choking on something he was about to say.

  Dumar didnt have a secretary. He was high enough that to see him you had to go through proxies. I skipped that, the first day I met him. Because I came here about the System. Which they were hungry for.

  Getting to his office, I knocked. There was silence on the other side for a moment. Then a quite ‘Come in’.

  I opened the door a fraction, so he could see it was me. Poking my head fully in, “I can wait if you need time? Or come back later, if now is bad?”

  He waved me in. He was on the phone. I could see the tension on his face. I sat quietly and waited it out.

  “No, I’m not going to through a random group together to run the dungeon. We have established friendly relations with people who are willing and able to safely run our volunteers through, without harm to them. Thats final.” then he hung up.

  “So all dungeon matters go slung to you, huh?”

  He glowered at me. “Yes, and its your fault. For selling me the wands, and recruiting people for the dungeon. For the reason that I established first contact with you. It’s now my responsibility to manage all dungeon contracts and negotiations!”

  His anger waned suddenly. Dumar slumped in his chair. “If only the people willing to run the dungeon, weren’t also people desperately good at their jobs. I wouldn’t be in this mess! Theres so much we need from the system! So many possibilities! But so few credits!”

  I nodded at that. “Thats certainly true. And I’m likely one of the richest in town. Because of my wands. And i plan on making even more credits. How are the healers doing?”

  He sighed, then dragged a cup of what was likely not actually coffee to himself. “They’ve been leveling up well. Several have gone through the dungeon to level up. But their skills dont level up in the dungeon, only through use. Several have unlocked new skills. Based on how they use thier beginner skills. It’s astounding the different aspects they can use. One was even able to remove an inoperable brain tumor safely! Do you know what that means?!”

  I shook my head. “I can only guess. Lots of people saved.”

  “So many people saved. He was only able to do it thanks to advanced imaging, but still. The fact that he was able to do it at all! If we had the credits to buy advanced machinery from the system! Just imagine what we could achieve!”

  He slumped again. This was a man that truly cared about humanity. We were on the brink. Of breakthrough and collaspe. But he was limited by what was available to him.

  “Have you tried running the dungeon? Get a couple of levels?”

  Dumar shook his head. “I’m not really cut out for sword swinging, I think. Give me paperwork any day, I can settle a lawsuit faster than you can blink. But put me in a fight? I’ll fold faster then wet paper.”

  I blinked at that. “What if you didn’t have to fight? Thats literally the enitre point of my guild. Its so people dont have to fight. They just walk through the dungeon without having to fight. Simply stay out of harms way. You get more experience if you do fight, but you dont have to.”

  Dumar looked at me for a moment. “Maybe. Ill think about it.”

  “If you ever feel up to it, I’ll walk you myself. Just remeber that.”

  He nodded to me. Taking me seriously. “What brings you up here today? Usually, stopping at the front desk it quick enough fro you.”

  I snorted. “The guy at the front desk, told me, he’d let you’re secretary know I’m here.”

  Dumar looked furious for a moment. Then relaxed. “Nepatism at its finest. I beleive thats one of the chairmen’s nephews. Needed ‘job experience’ and got placed at the front desk. Im sorry you had to deal with him. Ill make sure he gets a sound reminder.”

  I shook it off. “I have another wand type anyway. Wanted to talk with you wabout it. It was pointed out to me, that it could help a certain clientele. Met a guy who had a prosthetic . Used almost six autosizes to make it a better fit for him. Six. On a leg. That was supposed to fit him. He said it was a hundred times better. With six auto sizes. I had to half dismantle the thing to understand how it was put together to see where to put the tags. So I made auto size wands. Thought you would know where to get them too?”

  Dumar thought a moment. “I do. Not sure most VAs can afford the prices however. We don’t deal directly with prosthetics . They have to be made to order. Would you be willing to sell them lower?”

  I nodded. “I’d be willing to give them away, if I knew they were going to the VA. I just dont have the connections to get them there. Was hoping you did. Anywhere that does prosthetics. That can use an autosize wand. Keep a few here for things you need though. Like over or undersized gowns and such. That brings me to another point.”

  Dumar looked at me, pointedly.

  “When I crafted in the dungeon I made an excess. Of clothes. In a range of basics. Simple tshirt. Simple button up. Simple pants. Simple knee length shorts. Simple knee length skirt. Plain boxers for men, plain under wear for women. The most basic sports bra for women. In a range of colors. Blues and greens, yellow and red. Black, white, orange and purple. Ranges of materials. If you know of it, I likely made it. Im wearing some of it now.”

  Dumar looked me over. Then ran a finger down my short sleeves. “It’s well made. I would have thought professionally done.”

  I laughed. “Technically i am a professional now. I did spend five months, doing almost nothing but crafting. But I already sold everything I needed to, to the System. So I have excess. Of everything. I was wondering if you would be interested. But let me finish! All the clothes have pristine, and half have chain mesh. I figure you dont need chain mesh. But the clothes with prisinte? You could definietly use. And I’d sell them to you cheap. Since I can make them with mana now. Thoughts?”

  Dumar paused. Then hummed. Then tapped his fingers. “I’m not sure i can take them. Hear me out! The wands are useful. But if we started selling clothes to our people or patients. Then we’d start infriging on certain rules here. One of which is that we cant fraternize between patient and staff. No monetary exchanges. Im sorry, Arthur. I like the idea of it, but I cant accept it.”

  I shook my head. “No its fine. Its just something I didn’t know about. They are for sell in the System store, so you might see them anyway. They are simple cuts, so they could replace scrubs. Would you be willing to allow the runner that? Theyre pretty cheap, credit wise.”

  Dumar nodded. “I’ll even tell them about it. Perfectly fitting underwear with pristine would be a godsend on longer shifts. I certainly want some already! But I cant in good conscious accept any. Or else that crosses a line.”

  I nodded at him, thanking Raven for stopping me from pulling out several pairs of boxers. “Its fine. We all have lines. You are in charge of a lot of things. If you cross a line, who else will?”

  Dumar nodded. “Now, let me see these auto size wands?”

  I started pulling them out. “I figure ill sell a few to you at say $200? The ones you keep anyway. The ones that go for prosthetics are free. You decided how many and where? You resell wherever you want, but VAs get priority?”

  He nodded at that. “That I can agree with. Ill even have someone train them on wand useage. Until its more pronounced on how to use them. There are less then 40 places that create, sell, and model prosthetics. I will ensure they all have at least ten. The rest I will distrubute to other hospitols. At no markup. Fair?”

  I nodded. Then shook his hand. Imagining all the uses a perfectly sized item could mean to someone. I could see it on Dumars face too. He knew this would cause a wave.

  “Then Mr Turner. I do beleive I owe you lots of money. $20000 in fact. For your generosity.”

  I shook my head. “Not until you decide how many your keeping. If 40 are going to other places then you dont have to pay for those.”

  “Oh, but I do. You see, many a veteran receives poor care due to our lacking system. Im going to open a new department, of people who are at least level 3. Simply to use these wands all over Dallas. Ill be assigning them places to go, and what to learn. So in fact. Ill essentially be keeping all these wands. Just doing it myself, understand?”

  I blinked. Then grinned. “I do, thank you. This way, I’ll know they stay in good hands.”

  Dumar grinned back, then waved me out of his office. “Do have a good day Arthur. And as always. Feel free to stop by. Ill be sending a few more people you’re way in a few days. I just have to employ them first.”

  I smiled then. Thats his plan then. I soon left. Popping away, back to the guild.

  *