7/13

  Jose Amarillo's house

  7:30 PM

  So now there's two Pathbreakers groups. There's the LLC and the guild. Though all the employees of Pathbreakers LLC are guild members, except for the desk jockey peeps. You only get to join a guild if you're leveled. Which means that Brian is in, but Hector isn't. Luis! Hector's name is actually Luis.

  “It's Glory and Renown points.” Jose is explaining the guild system to Brian, Odysseus and Parker. He's already told this a bunch of times and he's shortened the explanation each time. “Glory comes if we clear quests, Renown from clearing Dracosys sites. Renown is like a rank system. More is better. Unlocks more options. Glory is a currency. I can buy more facilities for the HQ.”

  He's skipping quite as few things. Like how Renown unlocks new options for his quest-giving powers. And he has to spend Glory to issue quests, which hopefully give more Glory than the quest costs.

  We're already at rank 4 in Renown. That unlocked the HQ options “forge, workshops, cauldron, bar, system store, fence, rest area and restaurant.” It also unlocked the quest options “go to X, kill X, destroy X, find X, kill X many Ys, discover X, recover X, steal X and fix X.” And the HQ can get up to rank 4 structure, space and defenses. The space upgrade makes it bigger on the inside! We got rank 3 in space upgrades and the building is 3 times bigger on the inside than the outside!

  Glory is what we pay for the upgrades with, but also what he pays for quests with. For example, he gave 19 people the Pool Party quest. That's a simple “go to X” quest, costing 10 Glory per issue. So that was 190 Glory. Quests are rated by the system as to their difficulty, and given Glory rewards based on difficulty. Going to the pool party was deemed “very easy” so each person who completes the quest gives back just 12 Glory, a profit of 34 Glory. (Cappy and Kailani were invited but did not attend.)

  Interestingly Jose says that Glory rewards decrease the longer a quest goes unfulfilled, so he can't just issue 100 quests and walk away for the year. He's also got a max quest limit based on our Renown rank (rank squared, so 16 right now).

  Like we suspected, hints are given by the system to help you complete each quest. What we didn't expect was for those hints to cost Renown. So yes, Jose can issue a “kill Desmond Pierce” quest and have it give us his location. But also that hint would decrease our Renown by two ranks! Which, in turn, would decrease his quest-giving options. So we're holding back for now. Plus the whole “we don't want to be nuked in retaliation” thing.

  It all sounds like a lot to calculate and juggle, but Jose's a lot smarter than people think he is. I know he's got it covered. I, for one, am glad I'm not in charge of it. Not because I couldn't do it, oh, I could. It's just that I don't want to write about juggling those numbers. This journal is already full of multiclassing nerd shit. It doesn't also need guild management nerd shit.

  Speaking of, I've been thinking about the new classes and-

  “Hey boss man,” comes Parker's Bostonian voice. “Wicked pahty.” The middle aged woman doesn't look her age. She's wearing a Red Sox jersey and ball cap. She punches me in the shoulder as she walks off the deck and greets Madeline, who just showed up.

  We're on the deck. I stand next to Jose and take in the scene.

  Henry is grilling, debating the ethics of meat consumption with Florence Dovesong, our new-ish hippie Druid lady. Kiki Suzuki, Phoenix Team's ninja girl, is staring at the burgers. I think she's already eaten three and she wants more? How much can one 4'10” woman fit in her belly?

  Odysseus is heading into the house to grab a seat at their dining room table to play a round of King Of Tokyo with Quins and Jose's sons, Ernesto and Mike. Jose's daughter, Sara, is currently in the garage whipping people in Mario Kart 8 on the 97 inch LG OLED 4K TV. Sara is a master of the slide boost, and is not to be underestimated.

  Amy, Jose's wife, is talking legal stuff with Scarlett, whose two bird familiars are on the roof of the garage. Apparently Scarlett is going through a rough divorce. Mercy, Madeline and Rutger are talking to Ivy Black, our metalhead Bard. I'm pretty sure Ivy is being recruited to Madeline's workout group.

  Eddie Sloan, Andrew Wilhelm and Viktor Kovalchuk are grouped together in the pool, standing in the shallow end, each holding a beer. They're the new guys on Henry's team and they still have a lot to get to know about each other.

  Parker is now making the rounds, punching people in the shoulder when she addresses them. Ah, that's just how Boston people say hello.

  “You figure out the new classes yet?” Jose asks me.

  “Yeah, they're just normal jobs, but you can imbue Ki or whatever into your work, making it system related. You imbue creations with enhancements. And if you make something perfectly there's a chance of getting an extra effect.”

  For five of the six crafting class types, you make something and imbue it and the system makes it stronger, heavier, lighter, tougher, whatever would make it better in general. And if you make it perfectly there's a chance for it to become enchanted, so now your extra strong sword is a flame sword. Yay.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  I took a level in Master Chef and found Food is a bit different. Most of it recovers your health, Ki, Arcana, etc. Some of the recipes buff your stats temporarily, giving you +5 Strength for two hours, stuff like that. The “perfect craft” effects for food are really good though. They're permanent stat bonuses that can be applied on each per food type. So the first time you eat a perfect Denver Omelette, you get +1 Toughness, forever.

  ...I've been making a lot of Denver Omelettes recently. Gotta help the team best I can, right? Out of about 12 omelets I've made zero perfect ones. Sooo I've got a ways to go on that front. Cooking uses your Dexterity (Yay, mine is 269!) and your Spirit (boo, mine is only just now 10). And of course Spirit recovers based on your Wisdom. So I'm probably not going to be a true Master Chef. I'm probably closer to being a Master Chief.

  Biscuits is flying around, begging people for parts of their cheeseburgers. I showed her the “has cheezburger” meme and that was a mistake. She really likes cat memes now. She says they're true culture. I deeply regret increasing her mental stats.

  “So how are you breaking the game with the new classes?” Jose asks me.

  “Great question. The Smith, Metal Worker and Forge Master classes give you bonuses when you make weapons. My magic weapons count as making weapons so...”

  “Would that work for bullets I make?” Jose asks me.

  “No, but you can take the Woodworker's Fletcher subclass to make better ammo. The ability is supposed to be for arrows, but it just says +20% damage with ammunition you make yourself, so bullets should work.”

  We watch our friends and family talk, eat, game, swim and just relax in general. Jose's got a mix of classic rock in Spanish playing over the stereo. Iron Maiden sounds different but the vibe is exactly the same.

  “Are you really okay with being guild leader?” I ask him.

  He tilts his head, thinking about it. “Not what I ever thought about, but I did have a goal of making sarge in the Rangers. I wanted to run a team. This is okay. Feels more like I'm brass than a troop leader though.”

  He's sifted through a lot of menus in the last two days. Mercy has worked on Glory budgets with him. We've got plans for the quests he's going to issue for the next two weeks, at least.

  We've had to put the Ambrose Society on the back burner until we have enough resources to tackle them all at once. We can't risk them coming after us with nukes.

  My brother is apparently in China right now, which takes him effectively out of our reach. There's zero chance we get let into China and doing a major operation to kidnap him isn't something we can pull off. We shoved as much info as we had onto the CIA and our government guy, Will Mounds.

  That does give us a few other targets we could take down. The other four “founders” as they're being called. The ones with the screen names Fortuna, Hyperion, Spear Saint and Skull Master Flash.

  Spear Saint is apparently a guy named Hubert Sink, the CEO of Rero Pharmaceuticals. He and his Indian manufacturer made the SIVID-1 disease which swept the planet last year. An odd disease which only amounted to a light cold, but was aggressively contagious. And it seemingly inoculated the population against Dracosys side effects. But, hey, he's still a dick who started all this shit, so fuck that guy. Anyways, the government(s) are on his ass, hunting him down. He must have gone full Bourne Identity and left civilization behind.

  Fortuna is supposed to be someone in the US government, based on the conversation logs we got from R-32. I'm convinced that she's already got higher ups on her side. Hyperion is probably a Chinese CEO or other oligarch. Skull Master Flash is the real question mark. We know he had a hand in whatever physical work had to be done to make the Dracosys happen, but we're not sure exactly what that was.

  “Skull Master Flash,” I say. “We should go after him.”

  Jose takes a sip from his frozen margarita. “Already planning on it.”

  “What about the missiles-”

  “Got those purchased and am tracking the packages.”

  “And the armor?”

  Jose smirks. “You testing me? We got a lady in Austin who was already a smith, now she's a capitol-S Smith.”

  I'm taken aback. “Dude, you're on this shit.”

  He takes another draw from the frozen marg. “I don't half ass anything.” He'd even remembered to grill some non-meat burgers for Florence and Ivy. “What's the matter?” he asks me.

  It takes me a second to answer. “Ah, you know I thought I was the guy, you know? Like in one of those stories. The do-it-all, Renaissance man who fixes every problem in the world.”

  “Like a Superman?” Jose asks.

  “Or a Goku,” I answer with a head tilt.

  “Nah, man. You're like... Doctor Who. But super violent.”

  That's a new one for me. “Please do explain.”

  He says, “you have a companion or two, right? But also others. And the others aren't safe. Actually, nobody is safe. There's times when you save everyone. And times you can't.” He looks away from me. “You're really important, anyone who's seen you fight can say that. But...”

  “But I'm no Superman.”

  He shakes his head. “Not even a Goku.”

  We stand there leaning against the deck railing. Black Sabbath en Espa?ol plays. People groan as they lose to Jose's daughter in Mario Kart yet again. I hear Odysseus shout something like, “I fly away!” while playing King Of Tokyo. Madeline is leading the other ladies plus Rutger in doing push ups on the lawn. The guys in the pool are wrestling now, for some reason. Henry hands the grill over to Parker as he takes a call from someone he seems very happy to hear from.

  Some people are going to die. Some are going to live. We've got three teams and I'm only on one of them. I can protect my people as best I can, but sometimes that won't be enough.

  That darkness is there, inside me. The darkness that took root when my mom died. The darkness that triggered from R-32. I think that I know what it is now. Helplessness. The feeling that no matter what I do, things won't go how I want them to.

  I have to ask my wisest friend. “So how do I deal with it? A general-type guy I talked to in Las Vegas said I had to count the losses and the victories. But I think there's something more than that. The helplessness, the powerlessness is what kills me.”

  Jose puts a hand on my shoulder. “Dude. Like I said, you're no Goku. It's okay if you get fucked up by loss. That's just who you are. You're not cold hearted.”

  Mercy pops up on the other side of the railing. “That's why I can love you, you know?” She's told me this before, back when we entered R-32 together. That I killed a lot of people, but the fact that I felt bad about it makes Mercy feel like she can accept it.

  People are laughing, smiling, eating plant-based burgers, playing video and tabletop games. And here are my best friend and my girlfriend trying to get me out of feeling bad about... Feeling bad? “Maybe I'm in my head too much,” I offer.

  Both Jose and Mercy simultaneously shout, “You think???” and then we all burst into laughter.

  After that I go get wrecked in Mario Kart, lose a game of King Of Tokyo, try a veggie burger (not bad!) and jump in the pool. I laugh with my friends, I drink with comrades, I kiss my girlfriend.

  I'm not perfect. I never will be. Losses will happen. And I'll grieve when they do. Life is going to go on. I'll go on. We'll go on.