NOVEL NEXT 32. Deck Measuring Contest
The humans rushed into the park, asking for his help as was becoming the norm. Bagel went to the side and meandered along with their mission, though this time he had chosen to participate. Apparently the police officers disappeared, and none of them noticed until someone said something. So little had. He regarded them with contempt, this was interrupting his plans to make a catwalk for cats around the top of his shop, instead of needing to walk around. Hard to justify, why would he ever need to leave his Bodega?
It made no sense to him to ever leave food. It was after all his home though the more things he installed, the more homey it got.
So there he was again, on foot, walking up 2nd avenue to help inspect a hotbed of dungeon activity.
It didn't feel like walking down there was getting him anywhere even though he was just a block away. He could see how it was Nice to get away from the place but rather than there being a lot of dirt and grass, this park had a lot of bricks and open spaces. Something about that irked him, as if they should have gone fully natural or convert it into a pet shop, or something.. Nobody was raiding the pet shops as far as he could tell ,and he really wanted to. He knew that there was one around though he hadn't really spent the time to explore as much as he might have liked to.
He wasn't short i of food. But in the back of his mind the system was telling him what he thinks is the nutritional differences between human and cat food. Cat food had more meat, more protein, and some nutrients he would miss eating human food.. He also thought that maybe he could eat some birds. If only he could catch some falcon, he would eviscerate the avian piece by piece
But that was a problem for a different time and a different cat. What he and the human saw at the little Park was three dungeons right next to each other in a way that was problematic. It looks like they're going to have to clear all three though he didn't know what the key was going to do.
They kept bringing him along because he was a deck bearer though this entire scenario was one that the humans would have to figure out.
He was tired of passively just taking what they were going to say. But there was no way that he would go into one of these places by himself without a full staff of helpers. So he took a second while the people in his life decided which one they were going to raid through first.
"So we can't send Janet through but for too long without her having to come right back out right?" Kate said.
Janet beeped once for affirmative.
" So the rule is that you basically have to get in there and unless you have card That is a building. You can't keep any of your magic tied up out here?" Ashley was talking aloud although she was doing that rhetorical question thing that humans often did where they didn't want you to answer the question. They just wanted to hear themselves talk.
Or perhaps he was just trying to get Janet to confirm system things that that she otherwise couldn't confirm.
With the large fluffy mob gone, the humans are streaming back and forth around the park as if this was just another day in the city. After all, they have work to do, some of them even had to do some shopping. Though a lot of them had bags under their eyes. Bagel could tell that there was something wrong in the air. You the people were just stressed about this or they just could not imagine coming out of this live.
Either way, he regarded the three apertures. One was clearly opening into a lush Forest of some sort. Though it was fuzzy and all I could see was fuzzy green leaves. He knew that walking through there that they would be immediately in some sort of tropical or forested area, though the particulars of that and the beast that they had did scribed several times. A detail to them made him think that it was a swamp with trees. The aperture did not really show the ground so much as it showed a brownish dark colored base. Thankfully the other two were clearly not that kind of place.
Meaning that if they had gone through the aperture or whatever had attacked all those he was had gone through the app for sure. Then more than likely it was through the one in the center first. And if they wanted to affect some change with whatever came out of that dungeon by finishing it and closing it down, they were going to have to go through it.
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
Bagel yelled. He swung his tail in an angry motion, feeling like he'd been tricked into doing this. He had consented yes, but that was before he knew the full extent of it. And the back was mine, he knew that he could leave and save face though. The possibility of losing out on a lot of experience in cards as well as credits was going to hurt him.. If it was anything like there run into the dungeon with a gentrifier crab where I gave them multiple synergistic cards, then he would be chuffed if he went.
"Look, I think that this one might be like the apartment one where we had a couple of floors of it, except that it's going to look like a forest or a jungle on every floor."
"I don't know what the hell you're talking about, but I'm in," the newcomer said.
"Before we head inside, can we just quickly talk over the plan? And maybe I don't even know who this person is?" Bagel said.
The woman shook her head. "A maid costume and a talking cat? Wow."
"I promise you that this is exactly what it looks like," Kate said, putting an arm around Ashley. " All right game plan. I'm the area of effect specialists with the auras, Bagel the cat here is our DPS and Ashley is our swarm. We can easily sock you into a support roll or a damage providing role."
Four cards floated above her hands as she readied her own deck. "I'm Gretchen. And if this is what it takes for me to become a sailor scout then I am 100% in."
"Gretchen wants to rai dungeon with us in a maid costume. She's welcome to do so. I just don't have any spare costumes for her."
The woman with the bloody outfit held up a hand. " All I know is that when a woman Saves my life wearing a maid costume, I am legally required to help her out on any insane wacky adventure she goes through."
"Gretchen, this is real f****** life. People have died in these dungeons. People will still die in these dungeons no matter what we do. It's just a bit safer because there are four of us that are deck bearers. You didn't draw your deck when the pizza rats attacked you so it caught you flat-footed or something. In there you have to be alert the whole time. Can you do that?"
Once again, the humans were having a fair bit of tension and Bagel could feel it in his whiskers.
He mentally commanded the attendant to scan the dungeon as if the sphere would be able to tell more just by looking through the aperture rather than just what everyone else had done. Which has to say they looked and they made an educated guess.
"This looks like a Forest biome. Also, it looks like I have an overflow counter of 110% on it," Janet said, stopping the conversation about cosplay and maid costumes.
"Is that...? Good? Bad?" Bagel said.
"The other two are at fifty."
The women all stopped talking. Ashley was still astride her gentrifier crab.
It was clear which one was the problem. It was also clear that they had the resolve to go through with this immediately and that they were probably going to go through the other two right after that. Maybe we could see them ready to rush right in but they didn't.
"Okay, let's talk about our plan of attack then," Ashley said. " Janet too. If he could illustrate what I'm showing and give me a virtual whiteboard right here that would be great."
All the sudden, little icons appeared in a floating holographic screen next to Ashley.
"All right now. Give me a standard dungeon room."
Janet 2 obliged.
"Here's what we're going to do. Each one of these icons is us. So I'm going to send my swarm in first with me. Followed directly by Bagel on his mount and then cape. You two can enter at the same time because the aperture is wide enough for two people to walk in there at the same time and bagel is going to take his mount to his thing that way."
As she spoke, the icons moved in according to her plan illustrating what she was trying to show.
"What is she doing?" The new girl said.
"She's trying to get you not killed," Kate said. "And it's sexy as hell."
"Officer P did this kind of thing before our last dining room with him but he's not here so I'm going to have to step in. All right. Do you understand what you're doing? And once we clear each room, we'll move on to the next one?"
Kate nodded. The new girl nodded Bagel flicked his tail around in approval then nodded.
"Let me make this crystal clear, new girl. Shit is about to get crazy. So this is your chance to opt out or leave or do some other kind of community service somewhere else, maybe stopping people from entering the dungeon while we're in it."
"You saved my life."
"That does not obligate you to help us out. Not done their job. Fact. I haven't seen an eight otherwise I would send them on this and by the time we call Stephanie 1:00 and they can dispatch a new group from the th 17th precinct, okay this might be critical."
"I'm in. I just can't stare at you with that maid costume without we're just going to laugh at her. So if we could just start this I would really love to not laugh at the woman who just saved my life."
The biggest mistake that the new girl could make in bagel's opinion was to not listen to the seasoned veteran of five dungeon runs. He queued up behind Ashley and her swarm and just like that, they were inside of it again.