7/18

  Los Angeles Dodgers Stadium

  10:20 AM

  Getting the airship into my inventory involves dropping its propeller speeds enough so that it has just a little weight, then me lifting that weight, which counts as me “holding” it. Then it disappears into my inventory right next to Coleman coolers full of sandwiches and sodas.

  I'm pretty sure my “tier” is six, because Astral Pathbreaker is a 6th step class. That means every 24 hours I have to kill an enemy of the pirate captain's level or higher. Although it's actually more frequent than that, because as the timer goes down the pain from scourge increases. I've heard that at about 12 hours left the pain is unbearable and most people go unconscious if they hit 6 hours or less left. SO THAT'S FUN.

  “All I did was go to the bathroom!” Mercy yells at me after I break the news to the group. “And without me you get cursed or whatever!” She seems very mad.

  “Look, worst case scenario,” god I hope I sound reassuring, rather than placating. “I go live in a dungeon for a few weeks while the world sorts out how to cure Scourge.”

  “It's a system status effect,” Odysseus says. He's our expert in healing. “Those have more restrictions on their cures. Regular medicine doesn't do anything to them.”

  Mercy turns to Odysseus, who is almost 2 feet taller than her. “So you can use some chant or spell or whatever and fix him?”

  Odysseus looks intimidated by the much shorter, yet much more angry, Mercy. “Well, I can try, but people have already tried to cure it with-”

  “I don't care,” she cuts him off. “Just cure my idiot boyfriend.”

  Odysseus tries three different Invocations and two different lay on hands-type abilities. Nothing works.

  “I'm sorry,” the big man says. “It's designed to be horrible.”

  Mercy sits down in the ballfield grass. Now that we've killed the boss, we have free access to all areas of the arena. That's how she got into the battlefield with us. I'm pretty sure the enemy dugout is where we can shut this place down.

  “Quins, can you go see about shutting this place down?” I ask our archer.

  “Sure thing mate,” Quins says, and he pulls Ivy and Odysseus off with him. He's a good bloke. Or maybe he just wants to avoid drama. Actually, I'm pretty sure it's the latter.

  I sit down next to Mercy in the grass. I reach out for her hand, but then stop. I know I can infect people but I don't know how. Is it airborne? Physical contact? Blood only? I don't know.

  I always try to learn as little as possible about the Dracosys and how the world is doing. That's just part of my own mentality. I don't want to know about how awful it is out there. Yesterday was dungeon break day. I don't know the death rates after the enemies got level ups. I don't know how our amendment worked out. I don't know if places got wiped out or were better off.

  “I have to change,” I say, pulling away from Mercy. She looks over at me. “I need to be more involved in the world, to know what's going on with everything.”

  “That won't solve this problem,” she says.

  “Yeah, I know. But I don't know what problems are out there. What problems I could solve. What problems I need to be looking out for. I'm... Not very wise, even with 45 Wisdom.”

  She looks away from me. “So you want to get more involved, now? Now when you're probably going to just go live in a dungeon forever?” There's spite in her voice. I haven't seen this side of her before.

  I just sit there for a minute and try to think of something to say to her. I've got nothing. I close my eyes. Well, I've got ten levels. Might as well see if anything could help right now.

  Toxicologist has an interesting subclass.

  Test Subject - You're 50% more resistant to the effects of all Dracosys maladies.

  I could also upgrade that subclass, giving me:

  Veteran Test Subject - You're 75% more resistant to the effects of all Dracosys maladies.

  I focus on the term “Dracosys maladies.”

  This includes poisons, diseases, infections, sicknesses and illnesses that originate from the Dracosys.

  Is Scourge a maladie? I check it again. It does indeed call itself a disease. Alright, I take three levels in Toxicologist and spend one more level to upgrade the subclass. Nothing seems to happen. I check the Scourge description again.

  Scourge.

  You will die within 24 hours of contracting this disease. Over those 24 hours your body will be wracked with (75% reduced) increasing pain and detrimental effects. Killing any monster of your tier or higher will reset the timer. Killing a human will remove this disease.

  You will die in 23 hours, 41 minutes.

  “Okay, I spent some levels and I shouldn't be crippled by Scourge.” Mercy looks up suddenly, hopeful. “But it's still going to kill me.” She throws her hands up in the air.

  Quins and co have returned. He's holding a small slip of paper. “Got a gambling ticket ‘ere, says we can trade it in to shut down this ‘ole place. But eh, do you want to?”

  “Yeah?” I confirm, confused by his question.

  Quins offers his idea. “Well, seeing is that you're needing big monsters to fight, might as well just fight ‘em here, eh?”

  Odysseus chimes in. “You know how to fight the strongest opponents this place can put forward.”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Ivy nods. “And dude, you can fucking melt faces here, no sweat.”

  It's indeed an option. But also... “No. We shut this thing down. There's other places I can challenge. More places where I can fight and maybe do good.”

  Mercy gets up and punches me in the arm. “Why would you try and be noble right now? You're literally 24 hours from death!”

  I don't want to fight with her. “The Hollywood sign dungeon is nearby. It's supposed to be 30 floors. I should be fine if I just go in and-”

  “Alone, right?” she asks, with anger. “You want to go in alone. Without me.”

  “Well, I mean I don't know the infection stuff about Scourge.”

  Odysseus holds a finger up before Mercy can tell me off. “It's not airborne, but it can be contracted through sweat, blood, spit, etc. So don't hold hands.”

  I gesture towards Odysseus. “See, I should go in alone. No chance of infection then.”

  Mercy counters with, “no, you should go in with all of us, and not die alone.”

  I try my best to be calm. “Mercy, I'm not going to die from this.”

  Mercy shakes her head. “Lots of people have already died from it, right Odysseus?”

  Odysseus looks at Mercy, then at me, then back at Mercy. Seems he's really trying to not be in the middle of this, so he speaks diplomatically. “I've heard it's pretty deadly. Some people get lucky and only have to fight weak foes to reset the timer. So, you know... Both sides have good points?” he says the last part as if he's hoping that's good enough for him to leave the conversation. Ivy pats him on the elbow, as a reward for a good try.

  Mercy and I argue for another 10 minutes. The others quickly leave. I eventually get her to let us shut down this arena, and she agrees to head to the Hollywood sign dungeon. For now.

  We stop on the way and pick up foods. Like, a lot of foods. If I'm going to be stomping through a dungeon for days, I want variety in my meals. So we get tacos, burritos, chalupas, quesadillas, and some to-go orders of enchiladas. That's my kind of variety.

  My dad used to chide me for not liking Korean food enough. I used to poke back that it's because Koreans don't understand the glory of the avocado. Sigh. I need to make things right with him somehow.

  I remember something about a Scourge class and see if I qualify for it now.

  Scourge

  Requires Toxicologist level 10, Scoundrel level 10. Requires 100 Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom and Reflexes.

  A fifth step class. Three subclasses. 5th step classes do not evolve.

  Gain 5 Dexterity, 5 Intelligence, 5 Wisdom and 5 Reflexes upon choosing this class. Two predetermined basic rank Scourge abilities will be granted to you upon choosing this class.

  Uses Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom and Reflexes.

  Each time you gain a level one of your two Scourge abilities will improve, until both are Legendary rank. Each level you gain 2 Dexterity, 2 Intelligence, 2 Wisdom, 2 Reflexes and 12 free points.

  Subclasses

  Lashing - You focus on lashing weapons, like whips, flails and scourges. Your range and damage with these weapons are increased by 33%.

  Fatal - Your Scourge infections kill 33% faster.

  Controlled - You gain fine control over Scourge.

  Fine control? What does that mean?

  You may adjust various aspects of the Scourge disease.

  Like, adjust my own disease, what I'd presumably infect others with, or the disease across the board?

  ...There's no answer from the system. Interesting. And worth a gamble, I think. I drop six more levels into Toxicologist, bringing it to level nine. I'm already a level 10 Scoundrel, so that part's already done. Just two more levels and I'm a real Scourge. Two more after that and I'm going to fine tune this fucker and see if I can't break the system, for real this time.

  ... Hopefully becoming a Scourge doesn't fuck me over. Eh, I'm already diseased, might as well go all in.

  -----

  7/18

  The streets of Los Angeles

  11:35 AM

  “Why aren't you worried?” Odysseus asks me as we leave the third Mexican restaurant.

  I shrug. “I don't see myself dying to a dumb system disease that lets me fight to stave off death. I'm more worried about the logistics of long term dungeon diving more than anything else.” I start pulling out coolers from my inventory.

  Odysseus detects something else in my voice. “You're looking forward to this, aren't you?” He starts cramming the order of food into a blue Coleman cooler.

  It's true. “No, of course not,” I say, lying. He's got good Wisdom. He doesn't believe me, and gives me a look. “Okay, so maybe a little. But come on, I've never been able to just, you know, cut loose and go fuck shit up.”

  He scowls at me. “What was that fight in the arena then?”

  I look guiltily at him as I close up the cooler. Ivy almost died in that fight. “It... Wasn't tough enough for me. But that's also why I want to go it alone. I want to push further and fight tougher foes and not have to worry about...”

  He looks at me like I'd better choose my next words carefully.

  “I don't want to worry about others getting hurt. For any reason.” He lets me get away with that answer and we get back in the very patient Lyft car. Mercy, Quins and Ivy took a different Lyft and are probably already at the Hollywood sign. As we drive off I ask him, “hey Odysseus, you were married, you have any advice for how to handle my situation?”

  “Stop being a selfish dick.”

  “Harsh.”

  “It's what broke up my marriage. I wanted to serve my country. My wife wanted a husband who was around and wasn't in deadly combat.” He looks and sounds like a guy who has come to peace with a hard truth.

  I have to think about that. I like fighting in dungeons, using magic and weapons to kill monsters makes me feel alive. But also...

  “If I had a choice I'd choose Mercy... It's just that I don't have to choose right now. And Scourge is kinda forcing my hand.”

  “You probably need to tell her that.” He moves to pat my shoulder, then thinks better of it. Best be careful with the Scourge.

  “You gotta be honest with your lady,” comes the voice of the driver. “Dat's the only way you keep a good woman.” I nod at his sage advice. “Also you gotta delete your browser history frequently.” I nod at his sage advice.

  -----

  After half an hour of marriage advice from a Lyft driver who's been married for 30 years, we arrive at the Hollywood sign and find the others are already there.

  Due to the Dracosys's inimitable tastes, the famous sign on a hill has been replicated dozens of times in different fonts. The white letters are a jumble upon each other. The hill is just a pile of consonants and vowels. There's Navy SEALS here guarding the place. We introduce ourselves and get briefed by a ridiculously handsome SEAL named Bogart.

  “This here dungeon ain't like the others, no sir. It's got five floors linked together, each one a different studio on a back lot. Clear each one and you open up another studio. We've opened up the third lot, that's floors eleven to fifteen. You can take on floors within each lot in any order. The studios-slash-floors themselves make no damn sense other than it was in a movie. You can walk into a warehouse sized studio building and find a burning skyscraper or a wide farmland. Questions?”

  “What's about the local monsta population?” Quins asks. I'm sure he's already imagining his arrows going into the necks of movie zombies. He often complains that he missed out on the Ellis Island zombie slaying.

  “Lots of horror, sci-fi and action movie tropes. The horror ones are the deadliest. Those guys can usually take bullets to the head and keep walking.”

  “Any word on Scourge enemies?” asks Mercy with a serious edge in her voice.

  Bogart gives us the bad news. “It's the fast zombies. We've only seen them three times. By the way, sometimes the floors swap around. One day zombies might be in studio three and aliens in studio nine. Next day those might be swapped.”

  I confirm that we have basically no useful information. “So be on guard for literally anything from any movie, in any setting. Gotcha.”

  The area around the jumble of letters has been dug out and flattened. That's to make fighting the enemies easier on dungeon break days. Apparently they bring in attack helicopters since there's not a lot of room for ground hardware. The dirt is scorched from rocket fire.

  “How bad are your dungeon breaks?” I ask.

  Bogart looks sullen. “Really random. Some enemies are pushovers, some are downright terrifying. At least we don't get kaiju like Japan’s movie dungeon. Just last week we lost three choppers and 31 soldiers. Also, a creepy clown dashed past us and apparently it's still out in Los Angeles, somewhere.”

  “Dude, that's fucking whack,” Ivy says. Whack? Who says that anymore? Ivy must be older than she looks. The Charisma stat does that to people.

  We get a few more mostly useless pieces of info from Bogart, most useful for me is that the “studio lot” area that serves as a hub for each set of floors is essentially a big safe room. No enemies and monsters don't leave their studios. Which is really useful if you're planning on long term habitation of a dungeon. I wonder if other dungeons are livable.

  “What's your actual plan?” asks Mercy as we stand before the entrance to the dungeon. The entry point is the bottom of the H in the original Hollywood sign. I can see inside, and it looks like the gates of a movie studio circa 1950. There's a golf cart we could drive around in. That's fun.

  “Break the Scourge disease,” I say confidently. “The Scourge class lets you adjust the Scourge disease. I'm guessing the real solution is get enough people with the Scourge class, each one adjusts the disease a bit, and all together we could eradicate it. And, because the Dracosys is a dick, someone else with the Scourge class could make Scourge stronger for their own benefit, making things more difficult.”

  I hold up a finger, denoting my cleverness. “However, I came up with a possible ability stack on the drive over. The Experimentalist class lets you deliver a disease as a poison. The Envenomer lets you overwrite pre-existing effects with your poisons if they're more potent. The Biologist lets you cure any poison. So, I turn Scourge disease into Scourge poison, infect myself with Scourge poison, overwriting Scourge disease with Scourge poison. Then cure Scourge poison. Then I should be clean and clear.”

  Quins rocks his head left and right as he considers it all. “So ‘ow many levels you got to grab to do all that nonsense?”

  “Around... Forty levels?”

  Odysseus sighs. “We're going to be in here a while, aren't we?”