Sarah let out a sigh, reclining against the hillside.
“I’d say this was one of your better ideas,” she said, with a chuckle. “Driving far from the city to a little pond in the middle of nowhere.”
I chuckled back, fidgeting with the case in my pocket. “Yeah.”
“A girl’s gotta think you got something you need saying,” she whispered, wrapping an arm around mine with that conspiratorial little smile of hers. “You didn’t get arrested again, did you?”
“What–?No,” I laughed, ignoring the crack in my voice.
I began to stammer something else, before shutting my mouth and just watching the dark sky. I’d practiced the words a thousand times, and yet, my mind was an utterly blank slate.
A faint line of pink and white trailed across the sky.
I cleared my throat. “There’s a shooting star.”
She smirked, glancing from the corner of her eye. “Got a wish?”
I shook my head.
“Well that’s a shame.” Sarah said. “But you do have something on your mind, don’t you? Out with it.”
I swallowed, slowly pulling the case from my pocket, hiding it behind my back.
“Ahem.” Sarah cleared her throat. “Well?”
“Uh—” I gritted my teeth and went for it. “I got a new job.”
She blinked. “That’s it?” She laughed. “Well I don’t know what I was expecting, goofball. You were getting my hopes up.”
“That’s not quite it,” I whispered. “It’s a good job, see. Something stable. Once I start working, I should be able to buy a house, get a car and…provide for a family.”
As smoothly as I could manage, I pulled the case from behind my back, cracking the lid open.
Sarah looked into the case, and she started crying.
Her ring was a single loop of copper and a dull diamond-like crystal.
I'd bought it from a yard sale.
“Oh—you don’t—” I bit my lip, eyes squeezed shut as my stomach wound into knots.
As far as rings went—this was pretty pathetic, and she was worth more—-and I knew I should’ve started work first before—and the case was a loaner—
Sarah started laughing. “You blubbery idiot.”
She grabbed my shoulders and kissed me until my face went numb.
There was no wind today.
The world was dark and cold and empty.
And lonely.
With a jolt, I gasped for air, clutching my throat.
“Look who’s up,” Quin chuckled, scruffing up my hair. “How do you feel, sir?”
“Fine, I guess,” I croaked.
Why did my face hurt?
“These dreams are getting ridiculous,” I muttered, rubbing my head.
He sighed, nodding along. “Funny dreams, huh? Makes sense, given the circumstances.”
“The…uh…circumstances?”.
{Hospital Sleep Bonus}
[Exhaustion XIV- cleared]
[Exp Poisoning I-cleared]
[Hunger I delayed (1:00:00)]
[Hp set to max]
“Hospital—” my heart skipped a beat. “Why am I in a hospital?”
“Grind, sir, you seriously don’t remember?” Quin sneered. He had a little laugh, pointing to something on the wall. “Look left, would you?”
A blue notification hung by my side, patiently waiting to be acknowledged.
[Health up! +100]
“Is that all?” I muttered, shrugging the blankets over—
Wait a second.
I peeked between the covers, recounting the zeros.
And then recounting them again.
Quin smirked. “Oh, and you gained a lot more than that. The loot from a Dungeon Core is usually better than all the previous rewards of the dungeon combined, and by quite a margin, and this fellow was a bit of an odd duckling, so…” he trailed off, gesturing toward the notifications behind the first. And the ones behind those.
[Health up! +1]
[Health up! +10]
[Health up! +6]
[Health up! +4]
[Health up! +7]
[Health up! +3]
[Health up! +11]
[Health up! +2]
[Health up! +1]
[Health up! +1]
[Health up! +1]
[Health up! +1]
[Health up! +4]
[Health up! +1]
[Health up! +7]
[Health up! +8]
[Health up! +4]
[Health up! +6]
~
[Strength up! +2]
[Strength up! +2]
[Strength up! +2]
~
[Durability Up! +2]
[Durability Up! +2]
~
[Attack Speed Up! + 20%]
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
~
{LEVEL UP!}
{LEVEL UP!}
{LEVEL UP!}
{LEVEL UP!}
[+ 4 Skill Points]
[+2 inventory]
~
[+rank: “Uncommon”]
For a brief moment, I considered counting the numbers in my head, before I caved in, checking my overall stats.
{GRIND}
Level 4
Rank “Uncommon”
[ 212 Hp 32 Str]
[ 30% AtkSp 1 Mana 3 Dur]
I couldn’t speak.
Tensing, Quin cleared his throat. “So while we’re on the subject, Grind, Sir…you aren’t the type to be taking revenge on certain ungrateful party members, are you?”
“No,” I said.
Quin exhaled sharply, in relief. “Glad to hear it. When you get a chance, come down to the captain. He’d like to have a word with you.”
I nodded, brushing the covers off my bed. “I can go now.”
When I rested a heel on the floorboards, they began to shudder, groaning in protest.
“Woah there, tiger,” Quin chuckled, stepping a good distance back. “Try holding yourself back a little, would you? You’re too dense.”
“Dense?---”
He scoffed. “You really are a rookie, huh? Hp makes you harder to kill, and part of that makes you harder to push around—ie: weight. You’re probably four hundred pounds heavier than yesterday, so you’ll want to turn those stats down, before you break the floor.”
I frowned, checking my stats screen. “You…can do that?”
He nodded.. “Just concentrate and imagine that number ticking down.”
The notification shimmered, changing before me.
{GRIND}
//10 Hp 2 Str//
Quin clapped politely, “You’re a natural, Runt—er…Grind…Grind, sir.”
“Just Grind is fine,” I muttered, rubbing my face with one arm. “Sir is a little much.”
“Well you’re stronger than the rest of your entire squad combined, so, yeah, it's justified.” He pointed to a stack of clothes on the nightstand. “Those are for you. Eere picked them out.”
They were bright silk sweatpants and a soft t-shirt, both dappled with cute little birds and flowers.
I glanced down at the hospital gown I currently had on. It was very thin, and very uncomfortable.
I sat up. “Where are my clothes?”
“The silks are—”
I cut him off, clarifying.
“My clothes. Jeans. T-shirt.”
“The nurses burned them in a fire.” He held his hands in the air, backing up. “Don’t look at me. They were really caked in monster blood, not to mention actual blood blood, and sweat and dusty and all that, so the nurses declared it a public safety hazard.”
I grumbled something or other, dragging myself to a bathroom and changing.
The new clothes were so soft and fluffy and they made me so very happy, but they weren’t the kind of clothes you could go questing in, at least, not questing with dignity.
Once I’d changed, an unanswered question presented itself.
“How come you’re not insanely strong?”
Quin raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve fought other Cores, right?” I asked. “At least a few. Why did this one have so much loot?”
He frowned. “Cores are ranked in terms of stars, but there’s a lot of leeway between those. The ones we usually fight have stats in the ten to twenty range. That last one was up in the hundreds. Nice work by the way. Good fighting.”
“I couldn’t have done anything without Eere,” I stated. “Is she downstairs?”
“In the hospital’s little cafeteria,” he said.
We soon trundled down to the first floor, for a bite to eat and a chat with the rest of the party.
There, Eere was surrounded with food and Throttle, Irion, and Bruce were playing a game of cards.
Eere grinned, waving in my direction.
“Kid!” Bruce laughed. “Glad to see you’re back! How’re you feeling?”
“Fine enough,” I mumbled. “Kinda sore, actually.”
“Well that makes sense,” Irion stated, playing a hand of jacks, “yesterday was quite an adventure, wasn’t it?”
“I’m just glad to see you three up and breathing,” I said, with a sigh. “Oh, Eere, thanks a million back there. I wouldn’t have been able to do anything without that buff of yours.”
She giggled, grabbing Quin by the shirt.
He frowned. “I’m not saying that—”
Eere stomped her heel into his foot, and he bit back tears. “Fine, insufferable girl. Grind!”
I blinked.
Quin sighed. “Eere wants to say thank you and that you did a really good job yesterday—”
Eere squinted.
“---and she wants to say that she thinks you’re really cute and she hopes you're not currently dating anyone,” Quin finished, mollified.
I flushed neon pink.
Eere started giggling, hiding behind a plate of food.
“Oh, pay her no attention,” Throttle huffed. “She says that sort of nonsense to any guy still breathing.”
Eere shrugged.
“Regardless,” Irion started, clearing his throat. “That was a wildly successful mission.”
I hesitated, before asking. “Seriously?”
He nodded. “We may have gotten hurt, but we’re all alive, and we’ve got a lot more loot, so we won’t have nearly that same level of difficulty with other Cores.” Irion tensed, forcing himself to continue. “As for the talk of loot…we’ve decided that the stats you collect would be a fair split, considering the work you did.”
I let out a breath of relief. “So I can keep them?”
“Of course,” Bruce chuckled. “We couldn’t take ‘em if we wanted to!”
“Anyway, the weapons will be divided up amongst the rest of the group,” Irion continued. “Eere will be given the majority of the money, as well as any remaining stats and first pick of the weapons and gear.”
Eere clapped her hands.
“You, Grind, will get three copper rings and four iron,” he stated, “with the ratpack as a bonus, of course. Does that sound alright?”
I grinned. “That sounds pretty good.”
He leaned forward, hands clasped. “There is one more matter of business. Do you intend to go dungeon raiding after this?”
“Yeah,” I said, “But it’s in a two-star dungeon. There’s a map to it near the city’s edge. I have unfinished business there.”
Quin choked. “You’re pretty ambitious, Grind—Grind, sir. Couldn’t you start easier with lighter dungeons?”
“I probably should,” I muttered. “But the two-star dungeon is the final goal.”
Eere sighed, laying her hands over her heart.
“Seriously,” Throttle grunted, snapping her fingers to get my attention. “Ignore the girl. As for dungeons, we think you ought to stick with us, if just for the next couple missions. If we had you fighting from the start, that last dungeon should’ve been a breeze.”
“So whaddya say?” Quin asked. “Please? Seriously, we’ll give you a double share of anything we find.”
I took a deep breath. “Okay.”
“Really?” Irion asked. “You can say no if you want to, and I’m sure you’d fit in better with other, stronger raid parties—”
“---Don’t encourage him,” Quin snapped—
“---but,” Irion continued. “We’d be able to give you the experience you need to stand out on future teams. You’d be wasted carrying the pack.”
“I said I’d do it,” I stated, smirking. “If you give me food, that is.” I glanced down at my silk pants. “And maybe new clothes too?”
Eere huffed, crossing her arms, and Bruce laughed. “Don’t you worry ‘bout a thing, I’ve got a pair of black OrkHide jeans. They’ll fit the bill.”
With business out of the way, we joked and ate and played games well into the afternoon, until the doctors kicked us out of the hospital cafeteria.
Then we had a good laugh and ventured into the travelers pub instead, ordering lunch.
Irion smiled, brushing crumbs off his new cape. “Grind, go buy something nice from the market. Get a book, or a blanket, or a wand. I’m sure Eere would love to teach you the basics of magic, though I wouldn’t say you're the magic-type.”
I grinned, thanking him, before I set off, out the pub and into the wider world.
As before, people milled around, chatting with the same sort of NPCs—haggling wares, receiving and completing quests, and doing all other sorts of business. Actually, excluding the streets, the market itself was identical to how I’d last seen it. There was even the one butcher who dropped his sausages.
I slid the iron and bronze rings onto one hand, strolling down the street in search of anything interesting.
The closest thing I found to “interesting” was a vase designed to look like it was screaming, with the flower jutting out of its mouth.
The artisan grinned, arms crossed and eyebrows raised. “Dungeon loot. Like it?”
I shivered, then walked in the absolute opposite direction.
So far, I’d spent a half-hour plodding around town without the faintest clue what sort of things I’d even want to buy.
As I’d done so, a large issue had come to my attention.
I don’t know what I want.
It wasn’t like I needed clothes or food—I’d just gotten plenty of either—and I wasn’t struggling with boredom—the dungeons made sure of that—but there had to be some sort of desire I had.
What even made me happy?
I checked my stats screen for clues.
Stats…
Is there a place where stats can be sold?
You’d think so.
“Stats” are manifested in physical tangible crystals, and it’s not like everyone can possibly use all of them. I got a point in mana, but if I’m not a mage, I’d rather have strength or health, right?
There had to be a shop for trading stats.
I found myself perking up, peeking around the street.
Maybe I wasn’t the most motivated individual on the planet, but big numbers make me happy, and that’s all a guy really needs, right? Just a little bit of indulgence—
“Adventurer! HELP!”
