For Official Purposes Only

  Document: "Enhanced Breach activity"

  ISS: 2021-02-19 █████

  Internal Communication ID#██████

  To: Assistant Director ███████

  From: Cpl █████

  ████.

  Breach opened 20 miles north of Camp ███. Requesting deployment of Operation DESMOND. Advise.

  Eric, carrying the unconscious girl, and the boy passed through the shining portal out of the first floor of the dungeon and stepped into a large chamber, filled with people attempting to pass through a large gate. The chamber was shaped like an ice cream cone. A semi-circle encompassed half of the room and was lined with white portals like the one that Eric had just come through. A triangular area funneled the new arrivals toward a single focal point, where the new arrivals were being asked to register and submit to an appraisal to continue.

  Officially, this was the entrance of the US Military Station 1.1, unofficially it called 'Origin'. A fair amount of American and Canadian military had been brought here during the first wave and had quickly set up base stations at various safe zones within the dungeon. They provided free food, water, and an opportunity to socialize, barter, and trade with the other people passing through the dungeon.

  Eric joined the blob in front of entrance and eventually made his way to the front. More people kept pouring in from behind him as they all finished their initial trials. Some were crying, others looked scared or injured. At the entrance were 4 lanes, each of them staffed by a group of tired looking people. He entered the one closest to him and came face to face with a young woman.

  She was seemingly a little younger than him and looked a little perplexed at the state of the girl that Eric was carrying in his arms. Beside her was a man in his mid-thirties, wearing some robes and holding a small glowing ball.

  "Um, please touch the orb... please. And your moniker... please." The woman was perhaps a little flustered with the situation,

  "Sorry, can we fetch a medic or something to take care of her while she recovers?" Eric grinned apologetically. The monsters on the first floor rarely are strong enough to seriously injure or kill, serving only to gauge ability to kill or fight. Something like this happening on the first floor was likely a rare occurrence.

  "Oh, y-yes of course." The woman called out to an attendant to gather a medical team. Meanwhile, Eric scanned himself with the mage's orb and told the woman his moniker before a medical team came and took the young girl out of his arms.

  "Thank you, next." Despite the weirdness, the line was still piling up behind him, so Eric took his small identification bead and slipped it into his pocket and continued into the station proper.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  The station itself was rather large. There were groups of people milling about, a lot of them were wearing normal street clothes like himself, but there were quite a few wearing robes and armor that were drops within the dungeon. There were signs directing the new arrivals to various locations within the small city on the first floor.

  Vendor's quarter pointed to the left, which Eric followed, hoping to get a good deal on some gear before continuing. People could buy and sell their dungeon drops and crafted equipment there. The zombie from before had dropped a few items that Eric was looking to trade with a skilled artificer or the like.

  The vendor's quarter itself was a large open area with an array of blankets laid out as people peddled their wares. Everything from low-level trash drops to high level reagents, potions, and enchantments were sold if you had enough coins. Coins were the main currency of the dungeon and dropped whenever a monster was killed.

  The zombie he had fought dropped quite a few of them, which Eric had split with the boy. The zombie had also dropped a sturdy bone, which Eric was sure would be a high-level drop from the zombie they had fought. In all, he had the 1 yellow-gemmed rectangle, 2 green triangles, a dozen little blue hexagons, and the indestructible bone that he had found.

  The quarters were split into a few different regions. Eric stepped into the low-level 'fresh entrant' area where a few station officials had some low-level gear to sell cheaply. Due to the sheer variety of items dropped in the dungeons, the bureaucracy of the city had decided to stockpile weak but useful gear to sell for low value in order to outfit newcomers.

  The first level could be beat with low-level gear, and he could come back and buy or sell more for better gear later. He purchased a few stereotypical RPG essentials, boots of minor speed (+1-2 speed), a simple mace and sheath, a belt, jacket of minor protection (+1-2 defense), and a helmet of minor protection (+0-1 defense). In all, it cost him 10 of his dozen hexagons.

  "Sorry, but do you know where I can sell this?" Eric offered the bone from the resurrected to an attendant. The employee took it and scanned it over.

  "What did it drop from?"

  "A Resurrected." Eric said. In response to the employee's confused look, he clarified. "A zombie like thing with stinky goo that puts you to sleep."

  "And you fought that?" Eric nodded in the affirmative. The employee clicked his tongue before handing it back to him. "Visit Kaila, in the artificer's sector. I think she was looking for something like this. Tell her Marshall sent you."

  "Thank you." Eric nodded before tucking the item back into his backpack. He waved at the helpful employee before turning and walking back the way he came.

  "It's over there." The employee called out to him, and Eric turned back around toward him. The man was pointing in the opposite direction, deeper into the sector. A small distance down, he saw a hanging sign that indicated it was the artificer's sector.

  Eric once more thanked the man before turning and going deeper into the Vendor's Quarter. The artificer's sector had a few different stalls and vendors. While as far as he knew there was no specific class for artifice, anyone could craft an item by combining them manually. Magic carved into different items could be transferred by hand by copying the runes, and there was some work put into attempting to reverse-engineer the runes in order to create more powerful weapons.