How to handle these beasts? If I do nothing, they will only become unruly. Can I really be everywhere at once? Where is my army? --45.8 Seconds Post-Integration.
The next few days passed by in ease. Theo and he worked side-by-side through every shift, and it was good. Theo brought the humor while Clark kept the duo on track. Each of them earned a few more Accomplishments and an additional imbued level. They found their way all the way at floor thirty-nine before anything interesting happened. Which was to say, before anything outside of their normal work duties reared its ugly head.
"Oh, now what?" Theo groaned as a siren alarm blared.
"It's a monster alert," Clark replied, thinking back to his time much earlier when he helped the first floor's manager in clearing away some plague rot from an auto-scrubber.
"Oh! That's kickin'! Let's go and find it, shall we?" Theo seemed happier than he had been in a while. It would almost be a shame to ruin his enjoyment of an opportunity to slack off.
Almost.
"We wouldn't be able to do anything," Clark said. "We need a multi-tool and neither of us have one. We just have to ignore it and hope whatever qualified person is on their way."
It didn't surprise him when Theo rolled his eyes and walked off. "Clark. You need to be more decisive!"
Catching up to Theo, he said, "What do you mean, decisive?"
"What is sounds like. You need to let your inquisitive side roam free. I get it. You need a multi-tool. But we have no idea what is in this store block. Maybe there is a way we can help and keep our Metrics high at the same time? Besides, you remember those Noir Slimes in the dungeon's Interior. They gave good experience."
"They did give good experience. So, you think we should do the same thing, here? What if they're an enemy that can't be slammed down with a magically enhanced baseball bat? Case in point, we don't have that baseball bat anymore." Clark thought he made a good point, but Theo paid him no heed.
They found someone in the managerial caste sooner rather than later. Theo was going to talk them up before he stopped his friend in his tracks. "If we're going to insert ourselves into other peoples' drama, let me do the talking," he whispered to Theo. Good graces existed enough in Theo's head to acquiesce to Clark's intent.
He approached the managerial figure and announced, "Aye, sir! Might I and my buddy here be of help in this alarm matter? We both have experience in fighting monsters."
The manager hardly gave them a glance. "Either of you certified monster hunters or with the anti-monster league?"
"No..." Clark said after taking a look at Theo for direction.
"Then I can't use you. Stay out of my way and get back to whatever you should be doing before I write you up!"
Clark was about to give up when Theo stepped in before Clark could stop him. "Hey! Buddy, you have a monster problem, we can deal with monsters. We're Lifers who can take care of ourselves despite our newness. Do you want to wait forever for your guys to show up or do you want to--"
The manager walked off without giving either of them a second glance.
"How did that work out for you?" he asked Theo, some sarcasm in his voice despite his best attempt at remaining civil.
"What kind of jackhole just walks off like that?! What a pig!"
"That pig's our boss, remember."
"One of our bosses, Clark. One of our many bosses. I am not going to let him intimidate us out of doing what we need to do--"
"Which is?"
Theo took on a contemplative look. "Let's see if we can't find the source of the alarm."
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Clark convinced Theo to take a break then resume their search so their Core Metrics wouldn't fall as a result of them not technically doing anything for the store while on the clock.
Their search, however, revealed nothing. Until the Containment Department arrived on scene, that is, and by their presence informed them where the monstrous intrusion was located. As Clark expected, it was -- again -- in an auto-scrubber custodial machine.
"A whole team for that?" Theo asked in disbelief.
He had to admit, it seemed like overkill. Five guys in special armor encircled a single auto-scrubber; one of the guys, wearing heavy-duty gloves, carefully opened the auto-scrubber's panel; finally, a third guy then gently lowered a multi-tool into the machine; with a single touch, the multi-tool made contact with the plague rot and vaporized the corruption, cleansing the machine. "All right! That's it! Shut it down!" one of the Containment Guards announced.
Moments later, the siren ended. Peace restored, Theo and he returned to their jobs, though Theo talked his ears off about the whole process. Mostly about how over-the-top it was for such a tiny reaction. But other topics besides. "Yeah. It is a bit much for only a touch of the rot, but what do you want them to do -- not take it seriously?"
"I'm not saying that. Just that they were overreacting like little wusses, is all. They could have put that 'multi-tool' in anyone's hands and told them to press the button -- but no, they had to send a whole team of armor dudes!"
Clark told Theo about the time he cleansed the corruption from an auto-scrubber. "You're right about that, anyone could do it. But only people with a multi-tool can cleanse them. I am trying to save up for one myself, as I want to enlist with the anti-monster league, but even refurbished ones are expensive as shet. What I am going to do."
"Thought so! And really, you in the anti-monster league. If you weren't also the dungeon champion, I would say that is a silly dream to have, but we've both been through a lot in a short time, so I guess I am being overly critical."
"Whoa, where is this coming from? You don't think I have martial chops?" Clark said, confused, as he had only ever put on a tough front while with Theo.
"Oh, no. You can keep yourself. It's just you don't have that oomph! That festive fire battle-forward guys have."
"Festive fire? What, do you mean the inability to charge without thought into battle? Why is me having a brain so anathema to being a warrior?"
"Not ana-whatever, just unusual, is all--"
Theo's words were cut in half by the blare of another alarm.
"Again?!" Clark cussed, hating the loud noise. "Okay, this time, we're following your advice and getting this done. I don't want to hear this alarm for several hours as the Containment people take their sweet time getting here again."
Having the good intuition to return to the auto-scrubber bay, Clark thought how they would identify the machine with the plague rot. Would they be able to tell at all?
Fortunately, that question was answered for them when, behind one of the auto-scrubbers, came a bouncing, weakly slime.
"That it?" Theo said, ungrammatically.
"I guess?"
The slime bounced toward them, but it did not radiate any malice. It looked, not peaceful, just bored. Like it was a crawling insect bouncing around without any regard for itself or those around it. Not that the workers around it shared the slime's decorum; customers, co-workers, they all screamed like banshees and fled.
"Do they know something we don't?" he asked.
Theo shrugged. "I have a cleansing potion on me. Find me something to hit it with an we'll see."
Clark sighed. Able to do nothing else, he searched their immediate area for a tool. Being near the auto-scrubber bay, there was an un-put away wrench just waiting to be blessed and used as a monster slaying tool. He gave the wrench to Theo who blessed it using his 'dandy,' his potion, and got to work whamming the slime. Whack, whack!
Expecting not a long battle but at least something a little more like what the Noir Slimes had given them in terms of fight, real surprise crossed his face when the slime faded after a single hit, the second hit of Theo's simple overkill. Into the air, the monster dissolved. Both of them received experience.
"That's it?" Theo asked. "Maybe there's more?"
"Maybe..." Clark checked behind a few auto-scrubbers but found nothing. The alarm silenced itself, bringing the issue to a close.
"Why is there so much trouble over a simple slime? Seriously! No reason to go all 'the sky is falling, the sky is falling!' over a beast a five-year old could take care of. Not in my opinion, anyway!"
"I agree. Did it give you more experience since you were the primary combatant?"
"Nope. It was called a Basic Slime. Can't say I would be too happy with that name if I was a slime, but hey, slimes don't have rights, so who cares?"
Clark was about to lead Theo back to the line-path when he noticed his Core Metrics. "Darn. Check your Metrics, Theo. You seeing that?" A large boost to his number, which now read [1.25].
"Crap. I do see it! We didn't receive that kind of boost while in the lost sector. Of course, we weren't on the clock, either. We should find some more slimes to wreck while on the clock. Whack a few of them and we can take it easy for the rest of the shift! Haha," Theo exclaimed, his focus on his Metrics.
Both of them returned to their actual work. They worked their way up a couple of floors. Navigated a bit of construction work, enabling him to teach Theo about the 'data mining' process for plotting an alternate route, and otherwise had a decent time. Their shift was about at its end when on the forty-second floor, they met Hera.
And another alarm.
Theo blubbered his lips in a gesture like he couldn't believe an incredible thing had happened not only once, or twice, but three times, now. Clark only shrugged and said, "Hey, monsters, there more of a thing, now. I guess."
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