DungeonFall – [A Dungeon Creation / Cultivation Story]

Before Nate could ask Aura more about her connection to the dungeon, and what that all meant, he was shaken awake and pulled from the avatar. Standing above him, to the side of his bed, was his father. He was already dressed and ready to go.

“What time is it?” He muttered in a barely coherent tone. Being yanked from the avatar like that wasn’t exactly the most pleasant of experiences. It wasn’t hard to feign being half-awake in that state.

“Four, four oh five. Come on, time to get up and get ready. We need to make sure everything is ready for when the girls get here at four-thirty. Normally, we would meet everybody at a proper building or at the city exit, but we don’t have our own building yet and this is the first expedition for you three. We need to go through a few things before we leave.”

Nate sat up with a yawn and slowly nodded. “Alright, I’ll be down in just a moment. Let me brush my teeth and change and then I’ll come down.” He was glad he had taken the time to set everything out the night before.

Niall smiled softly and stared at him without moving. “I’m proud of you, son. I know the last few months haven’t been easy, but you have made your mother and me proud. That holds double when it comes to this Jace situation. You could have abandoned Angelica and Lindsay, but you didn’t. And I just wanted you to know that your mother told me about the conversation you two had the other day.”

He paused to swallow, a lone tear falling slowly down his weathered cheek. “I’m fine with it. It does explain a few things that I had questions about. No matter what, you are still my son. Never doubt that. When the time comes though, both your mother and I will want to get our revenge against them for what they did. We may have you, but we still lost a son.”

“I understand, and when that time comes, I’ll do whatever I can to help.” Nate twisted and put his bare feet on the floor and hugged his father’s chest. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you myself. It was hard enough just telling mom when the opportunity arose. I had no idea how to even broach the topic with you.”

His father chuckled. “Yeah, I can only imagine it would be difficult. I can’t even imagine talking about something like this with my father, your grandfather. He wasn’t exactly the most emotionally open of men.”

Nate snorted at that. The memories of his grandfather were a little vague, as he had passed when he was ten years old. Some things about the man stood out in his memories, and that was definitely one of them.

Niall pulled back and wiped his cheeks. “Anyway, get dressed and come on downstairs. We have your equipment and weapons. You can look them over before the others arrive.” He turned around and left, leaving Nate alone to get ready.

Nate rushed into the bathroom and brushed his teeth while applying some deodorant and cleaning himself. As he was dressing, he was finally able to get a moment and pull his information from the wrist computer.

Each of his stats had seen a small bump. Not as much as he would have expected, considering how much his energy had increased by, but that was life. His Backup Core was the one that had seen the largest increase, with it already being over half full. Then there was Aura being listed as his Companion Beast. Seeing her listed there settled the last of the doubts he might have had about her. Not that he’d had any in the first place.

He closed the screen and grabbed his bag that had everything in it for the expedition. Downstairs, he found his mom cooking a light breakfast for everyone that was coming. Her hair was pulled back, and she was dressed in a pair of light-colored cargo-pant khakis. The heavy-duty kind that mercenaries used to always wear in the movies back on OE.

Nina glanced back at him and shook her head. “The boots and shirt are fine, but there are a pair of pants hanging off the back of the couch similar to what I’m wearing. Go change into it now. You’ll be wearing a vest later to protect your chest; your arms will be unprotected though.”

He nodded and grabbed the pants from the couch. A vest would allow him the most movement with the kukris, although they obviously came with a severe downside as well.

Nate thought about the full set of equipment he had managed to gather that night and was sitting in his storage. He even had a spare weapon he could use as well. None of it was doing him any good just sitting in his storage.

He’d see how this expedition went, but the time might have come for him to tell his parents another of his secrets. It was something that he really didn’t want to do. Every additional person who knew one of his secrets was a potential failure point.

He didn’t believe his parents would betray him, but things slipped out in conversations all the time that were unrelated to everyone but the right person. All it took was the right person to hear the wrong innocent slip of the tongue, and he was screwed.

Then he would be taken, and his parents would be stuck feeling guilty. Of course, that was just the worst-case scenario.

It was best to avoid that kind of situation, if at all possible. Unfortunately, he didn’t know what would happen until the time came.

For now, all he could do was push the matter from his mind and change while they waited for the others to arrive.

It wasn’t a long wait. By the time the food was ready, and he had helped his dad lay out the region’s map on the coffee table, there was a knock on the front door. A fully kitted-out Angie was standing beside an equally equipped Lindsay. Behind them were their parents, along with four guards, two for each girl.

Nina raised a brow at the parents but nodded at the guards, as they had been expected. “Come on inside, we have a light meal inside ready for everyone who hasn’t eaten. We’ll go over the details of what beasts, animals, or other monsters can be expected in the area we’ll be traveling to. After that, we’ll hold a brief orientation about what these expeditions actually are for, and then we’ll be on our way.”

With that, she stepped to the side and invited them all inside.

James Travers, Lindsay’s father, nodded appreciatively to her. “At least it seems like you know the basic process.”

“Dad!” Lindsay snapped. “Do not take your frustrations out on other people, especially the parents of my friends. You raised me to be better than that, so you need to act better than that as well.” Her lips were set in a tight line as she gave a small bow to the Holmes and apologized for her father’s behavior. “I am sorry for what my father said. I’m afraid this entire affair with Jace and a few other items have served to addle his brains lately.” She finished with a venomous glare at her father.

“What’s that about?” Nate whispered to Angie.

“We’ll tell you later, but just know my mom wasn’t the only one who made a deal to marry off a daughter, or at least tried. I’m not sure of all the details myself.”

He shook his head in surprise. “Your lives are far messier than I would have expected at first glance.”

“The cost and pleasures that come with being rich and not famous, I guess.” She gave him a tight-lipped smile.

“Come on, everyone, grab some food and gather round the map,” Nina ordered, trying to get them all moving. However, she did spare a moment to glare at James for his comment earlier.

A minute later, everyone was standing around the map, with plates full of breakfast burritos in hand.

Niall had laid a clear piece of plastic over the first map earlier and pulled out an erasable marker from his pocket. “Alright, for the three newbies here. This is our city here.” He quickly circled an area on the map. “The three closest cities and town to us are here, here, and here.” He drew four more circles and differing spaces distances away from the original mark.

“The dimensional zone is here, and the expedition area for cultivators who have newly created cores is here.” The area he marked was just barely into the dimensional zone. “Ideally, we would have been able to provide a separate area for you three. However, as a new company, we have no dedicated stomping grounds. Using the freely available area does come with the benefit of a certain amount of anonymity. Unless another rich and powerful person decided to randomly associate themselves with a new company like ours, then we shouldn’t run into anyone you know while we are out there.”

Nate groaned and rapped his knuckles on the wooden table. “Don’t say things like that dad, we are almost guaranteed to meet up with someone like that now.”

Niall rolled his eyes and switched out the map for one that provided more detail of the dimensional zone. He wiped off the markings on the plastic cover and motioned to his wife to take over.

Nate’s mother took and quickly marked up a series of areas on the new map. “These spots have all been claimed by the beasts that come through the portal in the center of the dimensional zone. As everyone’s first expedition, we’ll be avoiding going into any of these, or that far in, but you need to know this information. This is where we’ll be headed to, and unless something unexpected happens, where we’ll spend the remainder of the weekend patrolling. All that really means is fighting any beasts or feral animals we see.

“They need to be kept away from the city, the farms, and of course, the trade roads. Everything we kill will need to get loaded into a trailer attached to our vehicle back at camp. The bodies are how each company mainly makes their money, though there are other ways as well. Picking herbs for alchemical potions being just one of them.” She nodded to Angie and her family as she mentioned that.

Herbs were one of the many items they traded in.

Nina continued for another minute, before leaning back and looking at the map. “Alright, are there any questions?”

“It seems to be a standard arrangement.” James Travers muttered in approval.

Nina rolled her eyes while barely holding back a sigh. “We may be a new company, Mr. Travers, but we are not new to this business. Of course, the expedition is going to be conducted according to standard regulations. We aren’t going to baby anyone or give them special treatment. If that is what you were looking for, you should have gone with a company that has the resources to pay off the officials.”

Mr. Chrighton coughed, sidelining the conversation before it could get any more heated. To the side, Lindsay’s face was burning with embarrassment as she tried to sink into the couch.

“I assume the group will be leaving moments after we depart.” Nina nodded at Aden’s unasked question. “What time can we expect you to return on Sunday?”

“It depends on a few different factors, if I’m being honest. We’ll need to take them by the processing facility so they can see how the bodies are dealt with. They need to know how much each one is generally worth, so they never get ripped off in their future dealings. So, that will depend on how many we have for them to process. We’ll also need to get their cultivator licenses finalized. We’ll get started on those before we leave the city this morning and will only need to pick them up when we return.” She thought for a moment and turned to her husband.

“We could be back anywhere between six and ten pm on Sunday. We will call you once we know for sure.” Niall finished for her.