Chapter 29

I can’t say for certain what the first breath of air to a newly released prisoner feels like, but I bet it feels a lot like my first breath outside of the Pentagon felt like. I was a prisoner in all but name in there, come to think of it I was a prisoner of the system and the process as well at this point.

“Where are we off to?” I asked, as one would. Guards were still with us, and would escort us to the perimeter at this point. Any commentary would no doubt be reported.

“We have a room across the inlet,” Mace gestured across the water in the distance. “ ... I’ll contact management and let them know that we’ll be coming back here tomorrow.”

I let the silence develop, just like a good little underling would. I’d seen enough movies and Netflick’s to know we could be listened to after leaving. There was one, simple guarantee that any planted listening devices would be cleaned from ourselves and our stuff. A portal.

Today’s debacle made it quite clear that we were somehow becoming involved with something larger than just disarming a few convicts.

Mace obviously thought so also, staying silent about today’s events while taking a phone he’d left in the car and checking the status of a reserved portal. The upper mucky-mucks had done this part right, and set me up to ‘dispose’ of the axe I was supposed to have picked up just a while ago.

Glancing over his shoulder at the screen, I groaned. I wasn’t going to enjoy the Pink Forest Spider run someone had found for us.

We met the rest of the team, who looked like government workers or college professors but seemed to know the lingo well enough. Nobody asked why they were paid a bonus in Silver to take us instead of their normal two ‘tanks’, and they purposely didn’t ask us our names, dubbing me ‘Hector’ and Mace ‘Sampson’ for some reason. Fine by me, ‘Sam’ and I followed closely enough when the team went through formations for everyone to become more relaxed. We might even have been better than their normal guys...

This portal was one of the group of the most famous near their nations capital. By itself, it wasn’t much, just a simple pink portal, but it was one of 16 that were evenly spaced around in a huge circle in one of their military cemeteries. As far as anyone knew, it was the single densest concentration of portals anywhere in this country. Although all 16 were only pink, their military had taken them as their own and were the ones who approved access.

Spider forests are always a pain, but it’s here that team makeup becomes absolutely essential to get right. You really should have ranged weapons, who can pick off those ‘Canopy’ spiders who wait to drop in ambush, and you must have melee fighters (tanks) who can block and kill those ‘forest floor’ Spiders who charge the group from hidden dens. I’ve never heard of a group of less than four surviving level one, they aren’t that tough to kill but spider poison is just too deadly.

Duct tape was very much in evidence here too. Most Portal Divers used it to ‘repair their torn sleeve’ on their off-hand, as it was cheap, versatile and best yet: mostly puncture proof.

Our armour stood out here, and although they probably wondered why two ‘high rank’ divers had joined their team running a level one Pink portal, they stayed silent although the Healer gasped quietly when I dropped a chainmail jerkin at his feet. The damn thing weighed 50lbs (outside of Inventory) and would come down to his knees but was simple to wear and would keep him safe(er). If we had a healthy Healer, it was hard to lose on level one of Pink, even if it was Spiders.

“Put it on...” I grumbled. The last man who wore it had been charged with rape and murder of a teen boy. I hated carrying the damn thing. It was heavy and felt like it was cursed even though the system didn’t say anything about it.

“Jesus ... who...” he started, then bit off his comment. It’d take him ten years to earn enough Silver to buy one at the rate he ran these low-level portals.

“You save my life or his, and it’s yours to keep.” I gesture toward myself and ‘Sam’. It was always a good idea to have a Healer on your side. From the look on his face I could see that the two of us had ratcheted to the top of his Triage list, maybe even ahead of himself.

The scowls on the faces of the other two archers was a concern. I didn’t need a ‘friendly fire’ incident here so I pulled out two more ‘goodies’.

A month or so ago I’d heard of two broads on the MeTube who identified things for free, as long as you paid postage. Picking out five things that I guessed were low-value, I packed them up and shipped them to the address they attached to their videos. If it was a scam, I wasn’t out all that much and I didn’t have to shell out a half-million dollars worth of Silver to discover what I’d found was trash if it ever did get back to me.

The first silver necklace I’d taken from the asshat with the axe (the guy I’d killed) Borden, the sharks tooth, a Brass button, a Blue Crayon, a plastic water bottle all got dumped in the box and to my surprise made it back (mostly) to the address Mace had given me to forward my mail to. The girls made a 20 minute video about them and I knew what I had before they’d ever arrived back.

The tooth was ‘Rip’ and functioned a lot like a ‘Bleeding’ token or charm, causing increased damage by any blades. I’d used it to partly counteract my Curse. The other thing I tossed over to the two sulking archers was the Brass button. You were supposed to hold the damn thing in your mouth, and it increased accuracy of ranged attacks. Both were a small bonus (5% or so) and they were a nice surprise for me to get back. Here I used them as pacifiers to keep the archers quiet.

“I’ll want those back...” I warned, figuring neither of those things were a big enough deal to run the risk of stealing them off me anyways.

The plastic water bottle was always full of clean water, but the top was pretty narrow, meaning that it only gave sips of water slowly. Not bad, and I had an offer to buy it through the MeTubers for 30 Silver, which I took.

The Crayon was a cursed item of some sort and I didn’t get it back. Apparently the Black chick was stuck with it, and she didn’t say what it was. I was initially suspicious, but subsequent videos that went up from these two warned about the existence of cursed items. The fact that they sent me 20 Silver and a nasty note about it did quite a bit to alleviate my suspicions.

The necklace was around my neck at all times now. A silver butterfly wing labeled: ‘Slip’ was described to make it harder for ranged weapons to hit me and although I’d never seen one, the Net described Goblins with bows that this would help against. I figured it couldn’t hurt to wear all the time either, thinking it would have been nice to know what it was when I’d been in Paris being shot at a few months back.

Upon finding these had actually been identified (and sent back to me, most of them anyways) I packed up another half-dozen unidentified items I’d picked up and posted them out, clearing space in my inventory and saving myself a whole shit load of Silver. A lot of weapons like me must have been in the same boat when it came to paying for identification scrolls, since way more than half of the items I grabbed were unidentified when they came into my possession. These two ladies were going to become my new best friends.

Passing off some Buffs to the archers, temporary as they were, was my way of calming the waters after sucking up to their Healer. Mace and I were trying to figure out their other deal, the one with the invisible team member.

I’d walked about and figured he (or she?) was on the right side of the portal by using when they popped up on my Skill. I looked over to Mace and raised an eyebrow, he shrugged noncommittally. We talked a bit about formations and alignments (no surprises there, we were the guys at the front). The unknown Weapon stayed near the portal and didn’t participate. I could ask Mace later about the mystery guy’s Levels and Titles and Skills but before I got anywhere near him, I was taking his weapons. I wasn’t risking being stabbed in the neck by ‘Mr. Invisible’. I could handle a punch or strike though. I was willing to risk that much to get a shot at maybe getting that Skill. Invisibility, wicked cool.