Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Four - Sleeping on the Job

  I Reloaded, and instead of popping over to a hotel for a bit of rest or anything like that, I drove to a 24/7 supply shop in the west end of the city. It was seedy, but it had what I was looking for. Mostly that was a few flashlights, some sprayable lubricants, rope, and a crowbar. The guy behind the counter barely even registered my presence, let alone what I was buying, which was one ski-mask short of an admission of guilt.

  In any case, nothing happened and I rode out to the edge of the city, then out. It wasn't too long before I was parking my bike out front of the Redlad Welding building.

  There was only one set of windows on the front, and it was on the lower side of the building. I moved over and shaded my face to see within, then pulled out a flashlight and tried to illuminate the interior. There wasn't much to see, a few desks, old filing cabinets, a computer that was three generations old collecting dust. Not even the local druggies and homeless folk had bothered to break in.

  I pressed a hand to the glass and let my eyes close a little. I wasn't a genius when it came to magic. Fast, for the real-time amount of time since I'd risen to D-rank, but not particularly talented. Still, I could sense that the ambient magical energy was different than the usual, somewhat placid energy that I found in most places.

  Now... how to get in.

  The obvious solution was to punch in the window. It was a thin, single-pane glass. Nothing that would endure even a light smack from a rock or something.

  Still, I wanted to be a little subtle, so I moved over to the front door and gave it a shake. Nothing. I bent down and looked at the lock. It was older, a bit rusty. Could I learn how to pick it?

  Probably. I had what was basically infinite time, and picklocking was one of those handy little skills on the shortlist of things I wanted to learn. But I was also tired and lazy, so I took a step back and delivered a fireman's kick to the door.

  It made one hell of a sound, but didn't blow off the hinges like I had hoped. Right, that didn't do it. A quickly-fired Shadow Bolt against the handle didn't do much more. That spell was nowhere near strong enough to break a door handle.

  Time for the super-lockpick, then. I walked over to my bike and pulled my new crowbar out from the back.

  Ten minutes later, with some bleeding knuckles and a bit more sweat than I was comfortable with, I had the handle ripped off. I'd probably made ten times as much noise than if I'd just punched the window in. Yeah, next time, I'd be a little more subtle.

  I shoved my shoulder against the door, then pushed in, pulling out a flashlight as I did so to light the way. Mostly, it lit up the amount of dust in the room, which was... more than ideal.

  I hesitated before I started to look for a light switch of some sort. Was it worth giving up on stealth so soon? Yeah, probably. If anything was in here, they knew I was around already.

  Tugging my revolver out from inside my coat, I held it low to my side while I kept my flashlight in my other hand. A quick cast of See Darkness helped, though my new eyes did have far, far better darkvision than what I was used to. Maybe I could sneak around with only the light from outside the grimey windows, but I was afraid that I'd miss something.

  The office area was separated from the rest of the factory by a simple door. It wasn't locked, which I took as a good sign for the moment. Then I was in the main area. It was familiar. I was here just a few hours from now, only the sun was up then, and a dozen others had been through, pushing things around.

  "Hello?" I called out.

  Nothing. It wasn't exactly quiet. There were trucks moving outside, and the low hum of electricity was still around, but it wasn't loud, and nothing replied to my call.

  I moved around the outer edge of the room until, finally, I could see the portal.

  It looked... off? It was a D-ranked portal alright. Tall, glowing a faint blueish colour, and giving off faint waves of magical energy that I could feel like warmth against my skin, but this one was twisting and bucking a little. Stray bits of energy were snapping off the portal and dissipating in the air. I think that orc portal had done the same?

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  It wasn't a good sign, I figured. This was ready to burst.

  How long had it been here? A few days? A week? Maybe I should have come over sooner, though finding it would have been difficult.

  Oh... wait, maybe I could buy one of those trucks with the magical energy detection machines and have it drive around? I could buy it and hire drivers in wasted timelines, then Reload and compare it... only that sounded like an absolute ton of work just to find a few spare portals when I knew there were probably hundreds of them out in the countryside just sitting around, ready to be harvested.

  I walked around the portal, wondering what my next step should be. Jumping in was an option, but I also wanted to have a better idea of when it would breach.

  So, with a yawn, I moved back to the office, found the least uncomfortable chair in there, then dragged it over so that it was across the room from the portal. I shoved a few of the partitions aside as well, clearing up more of a line of sight.

  Then I sat and waited... then waited... then started to scroll memes on my phone.

  Eventually I got bored with that and just sat with my arms crossed, then I decided to be at least a little productive with my time and I loaded up the instructions to cast Sap Strength. I was still pretty far from mastering that one.

  When carving, repairing, and recarving that started to become repetitive, I fished around for some earbuds, remembered that I didn't need them, then linked my new ear cyberware to my phone to pull up some basic French lessons.

  Multi-tasking, baby!

  I shifted back into the seat. It might have even been comfortable if the room wasn't dusty, the exterior noisy with traffic, and the place didn't smell like burnt metal.

  I mumbled my way through some common phrases, then spoke through basic conversations on repeat, an AI listening and correcting me, then asking me questions in return to keep the small talk going.

  Then I jumped.

  The first thing I noticed was that the French lesson had auto-paused at some point. Not without continuing to charge me, no doubt, but still. The second thing was that it was now dark.

  I looked around and spotted the flashlight I'd brought sitting on the ground next to me, dead. Cheap piece of crap... only... a glance at the time in the corner of my eye and I found myself wincing. Oops? It was almost six in the morning. I must have fallen asleep, even if it was cold and not terribly comfortable, I was still working off the post-op meds and such.

  Then I heard something.

  Glancing up, I caught sight of shapes in the darkness. Focusing on them made them clearer, and casting See Darkness sharpened the edges and then my brain filled in the rest.

  Kobolds. Three... no, four of them. There was one big guy in the lead, and two smaller ones next to him. Those smaller ones were a bit bigger than the average I'd seen in that first E-rank portal a few weeks back. Maybe. It was hard to tell at a glance, but I felt like that was right. The last was either a runt, or just a little guy, with a crudely made backpack stuffed full of crap.

  The kobolds had spears and those arrow-flinging weapons that I'd discovered were called atlatls.

  The bigger kobold was doing something. He had a small box and it was making a strange clinking noise. Every noise came with a spark. The smaller kobold was holding up a stick and...

  The end of the stick went up in flames, a tiny ball of fire wrapping itself around oil-soaked cloth. The fire lit up the corner of the room around the portal, and the kobolds grunted, pleased, before the big one raised the torch he'd lit up and over his head.

  Ah... crap.

  There was an entire host of reasons why I liked it better when my foes hadn't figured out fire, right now, the biggest one was that they pretty much immediately caught sight of me, sitting there, looking like a fool with my legs curled up and a bit of drool on my chin.

  "Uh... yo?" I said.

  Their reply was violence.

  ***