You must be this old to enter the Dungeon

57) That ain’t right...

It takes me an hour and forty minutes to get back on my feet. Hiram timed it.

And kept mentioning that fact every few minutes until I racked up another shell into my shotgun.

It took a half hour for my hip, which must not have been so bad, since it took forty minutes for my shoulder. My head only took ten minutes, which let me sit up to give some demanding coyotes pets and snuggles before I took another ten minutes for the various aches and pains.

I didn’t even know how exactly I had hurt my shoulder.

Then I stood up, inspected the minions for any damage, and asked them if they were okay before I checked on Hiram again.

He grinned as I looked him up and down, “I’m all set ‘Doc’, you even fixed my nose from when you broke it.”

Darn it.

Hiram’s scar was still there, but it had faded on its own from a half healed and angry looking red down to a dull pink color.

Not that I cared about his looks, but it was a thin line now rather than a massive sized gash, and it would probably end up just making him look sinister rather than a sideshow attraction.

Darn it.

And his essence is Fear so it’s just going to work for him.

He held up a large shiny black Stone, nearly the size of a pool ball compared to the gold ball sized stones we had gotten from the Lashers. Then he tossed it to me, and I gave it a hard look.

[ Rank 2 Whiptail Stone ]

I went still as I tried to figure that one out.

Hiram tried to look serious as he fought off a grin. “Yeah. Rank two, which ain’t supposed to happen until a week and a half from now. But the System is being all evasive when I asked. Just saying the rules for Dungeons aren’t the same as the rules for Harvesters.”

I blinked. “Brackets, you want to expand on that?”

[ Yes. But I have nothing helpful to offer. ]

“Can not or will not?”

[ Can not ]

“Can you give me a clue? A guess?”

[ You have older words for Primordial Essence. From your myths and philosophers ]

[ Hundun, Fauda, Avyavasthat ]

[ Choas ]

Hrm… “I guess that used up one of my answers for the day.”

I explained what I had been told to the Grinning man, who gave me a crooked smile.

“Makes sense, the Dungeons are the first step in turning the Primory stuff into other stuff, if anything gets to break the rules, it would be inside here.”

I harrumphed that as well. “Okay Brackets, what’s a Rank Two Stone good for?”

[ Rank 2 Stones are needed to advance to a Rank 2 class after finishing the 5 levels of your Rank 1 class. One Rank 2 Stone will allow you to advance to sixth level and a class based on your second form of Essense ]

“...what? I thought you said I get another Essence when I make it to fifth level?”

[ That information is correct ]

Hiram wandered over to look at the Stone in my hand. “What did it say?”

I glanced up at him. “I hit my limit, and it's starting to get evasive for me too. And aren’t you supposed to be on guard?”

He spun around waving his gun up at the ceiling in all directions one handed while his flashlight was back in his other hand shining up into the darkness. “Sorry, forgot. I don’t see anything…”

“Can you at least tell me if the Coyotes are going to need these Second rank Stones too at some point?”

[ …Rank 2 Stones will count as two Rank 1 Stones for advancing spirits ]

…only answered half the question, but I decided to take it.

After filling Hiram in, and then starting over since he wanted to record it on his phone, I made the big black Stone vanish into my magical storage.

Hiram started to complain, then grinned and shrugged. “Your kill, your prize. Just let me know what you get for it if that is the only one we find. Okay?”

I gave him a shrug for an answer, which somehow seemed to satisfy him, or at least he didn’t seem to be complaining as I headed over to check out the desk, avoiding the sopping wet rug.

...which only seemed to get wetter as I got closer to the desk, and the dampness which was leaking out of the edges of the rug looked a lot like the black blood from the bat things.

Hiram stepped up from behind me. “I filled my storage up with as many files as I could fit in after I gabbed the typewriter, which doesn’t work, but you can…”

For once the man shut up as I waved at him to shush as I carefully walked around the desk with my shotgun aimed low. Standing so far away from the desk that my shoulders were brushing up against the wall, I came around to see an old wood swivel chair lying on its side… and all the black Whiptail bodies stuffed under the desk in a pool of black blood.

None of the dead monsters had much of a smell to them. At least not one strong enough to smell over the general wet stink that was already everywhere, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise that Hiram and the Coyotes hadn’t smelled them earlier.

Looking around I could see the mostly eaten remains of three of the smaller black bats out in front of the desk.

“Hirum, how many bats did you and the Coyotes kill?”

He began slowly walking around the other side of the desk, his shotgun aimed at the pile of bodies I was aiming mine at. Giving me a questing look, he shrugged. “Three black ones, and I winged another one but the coyotes didn’t drag in it before I shut the door.”

Stepping forward, I grabbed the tip of a wing from the pile that seemed to be on top of the ones stuffed under the desk and gave it a tug.

Its body hadn’t been eaten, but something had dug its chest open, and removed the Stone.

Hiram took a picture and grinned. “Well, I guess we know how Whitey got to Rank two.”