"All right Bagel we've got some things for you here. Aside from the possum dragons which we heard you like a lot. We've got several things from the Bronx."

Holly had one of her classic type French braids. It contrasted her brown hair. They had been taking a lot of his more particular quests. He appreciated that the pair only saw green- the official color of credits. He just wish that they could go a little further. They've been trying to get a variety of different types of decks. The types of decks that do depo against pizza rats were the ground type. They weren't a lot of ground type in Manhattan. In fact, he couldn't think of any that were ground type. Ground type were generally weak against water or plant type depending on which one it was. Some ground types were weak against ghost type but those are even rarer.

"Did you get me any good ground type cards?" He said.

"Not only that, we found a flame bear card for you to use. It comes in pretty far up North but we can get more if you need. This one was a heck of a drive."

Bagels eyes widened. "Now I can make a flame deck. The guild's going to love that. How many did you get?"

Lisa whistled. "Fifty flame bears."

Holly pulled out a bunch of cards and plopped them onto the counter. There wasn't an official list of where everything was. People took notes and they uploaded it to the deck builder website but it wasn't complete.

"We're ran into about everything up to the top of the thruway where it starts to go west," Holly said. "The traffic's been incredible, honestly."

"It's the random mob spawns that get you," Lisa said. "Can I take my payment in Blue oxes?"

"Lisa you can't do that- we need to actually eat something. Is it just like the time that I ordered a bottle of caffeine pills and you you took it, gave me three and then ate the rest of it over a week."

"Am I ever going to let that one down?"

"Not while I live an breathe."

The two women had a jovial demeanor towards each other but that familiarity had bred contempt that Bagel could only observe from a distance. He found himself shrinking back as if he was a die character in their drama.

"What do you want per card?" Bagel said.

This at the very least, stopped them in their tracks.

"Five credits per flame bear? Three for each metal lander?" Lisa said.

Holly groaned as if she had said the exact wrong thing. "We talked about this."

"What... Oh yeah okay uhhh.... Ten credits per flame bear. Five hundred for the lot."

"Sold. Three per lander? How many do you have?"

They haggled a little bit and he gave them what felt like a deal. He was going to sell each of the for one credit more based solely on how hard it was to acquire the cards. Dude also take the time to make a special flame barrack deck using them and charge a finder's fee.

There had to be a place where he could speed this up but short of hiring more people or putting out more quests, this was the best way. They took on the risk themselves.

He just paid for whatever he got, and comped them breakfasts. Lisa's tolerance for buffalo hot sauce scared him.

He has tried to try it once but he gagged before he got too close. He did not want to repeat that. He had had enough of that particular trial. Just because humans did, it didn't mean that he ever wanted to do it. Hot sauce felt like skydiving to him; he didn't need either one of those things in his life.

"Anyway we figured that we would get ahead of the guild request. What are you looking for? We have found a place where we can get cards that are normal, marsupial, plant, fire and metal."

Bagel ticked off his list. They could also get ghost and darkness cards from Staten Island. What else was there?

"Janet, do we have a solution for all the different card types we're missing?"

Janet beeped several times, circling around the girls. "We can get water cards in Brooklyn or the Bronx. We can basically make a full deck of any color you want now."

That was reassuring. Now a good sales started next in every color if he had enough. Even though marsupial only had one card that he knew of in the area. It was still enough for a deck with several colorless cards. People had posted theoretical decks on the deck builder website.

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All he had to do was make them. Mantle cards be damned.

"I haven't seen a lot of water cards yet but I think they go fast right?" Holly said. "You want more water cards?"

"I want more water and marsupial cards but I don't even think that there are enough of those types of mobs around. The closest ones are rural upstate Connecticut."

Janet took the opportunity to display a map of Connecticut, showing the specific county that had a different type of marsupial mob.

Lisa chugged a Blue ox and then ran her forearm across her lips. "I love real housewives of Hartford. Let's go on another trip."

"Might as well."

"Fight well," Bagel said.

They purchased enough food to make him have to use a restock card. He comped them the food and sent them on their way.

It didn't cross his mind until they were well and fully gone that he hadn't asked about how they were driving that far out.

---

"You want me to do what?" Liza said.

Ashley crossed her arms. "Hire more people."

"What's this really about? Is this just because you can't get enough pairs of leggings here?"

"You and I both know how much I love my leggings. I love your little shop here in adventurers guild but you need to get more people because you're not making enough."

Liza held up a pair of leggings that would turn a soccer mom into a fashion icon. "Oh these little things? Why would we ever uhhh... You're doing the face again."

"I am not doing the face."

Ashley was definitely doing the face.

"I'm just saying that I want to have more options here and that we can definitely have something besides brown and black. Don't get me wrong, I look brown and black. They're both classic colors. But I just want a little bit more riz?"

"You want charisma? In this economy? Tough luck."

"Another thing, it looks like you're saving all the best stuff for yourself."

Liza placed her hand over her mouth. "I would never ever do that. Just because my special bootylicious pants lift and accentuate your features, your assets as they were doesn't mean that I would ever take the best pairs for myself."

"I've seen your Instagram profile. You're dropping more thirst traps than a girl with a two year dry spell."

"It's called marketing. You should try it someday."

"You are selling adventuring gear to adventurers in the apocalypse. Why the hell do they need to look like they're fitness models?"

Liza tossed her immaculate hair back. "Are you mad because I'm doing this all in style? Or were you mad because these fit my butt so well?"

Ashley couldn't help but smile. Liza was older than her but dressed the same. She briefly considered an appeal to the woman's husband but that probably wouldn't have gone anywhere.

"The point being you need to hire somebody else to help you out so we can make stuff faster. We're going to have more orders and this is New York City. People want stuff. People want to buy stuff. You make stuff."

"Stuff that makes people look good."

"Yes. But I don't care about that. I care about you making enough dungeon gear for everyone that shows up. Who knows what's going to happen then the temperature dips?"

"You got the right of it. I will consider hiring somebody. Send me somebody with a brain and their shoulders."

It was a victory. Ashley was going to celebrate it. She was not going to do a fist pump.

She contained herself, but it was a close thing.

---

"No you don't understand. We live in a society. No I get it everyday we're all hurting yeah... No man you can't just... What do you mean the factory isn't producing any more? Okay well we can get a different one to... No?" Raul held up a hand.

Bagel had let Raul handle the delivery company. They were going to be the end of him. He could only do so much with what he had been provided. He needed his people to show up with enough food to pack his second store to the brim. They apparently couldn't fill their trucks.

"Alright I understand."

Raul put the phone down. He stared at Bagel as if he had a hit squad somewhere to make this all right. He didn't, mostly because he didn't have the operational budget for it yet. But they were coming day when he had that budget and he would. He looked for the best cats to fill out less positions.

Then he will be having Gladys tell him exactly to hire that would stay loyal to him. Because it was one thing that people be loyal to the money but he needed people to be loyal to him and his credits and the whole system he was building up around himself.

"So should I get a hitman or are we going to be able to resolve this on our own?" Bagel said.

Raul walked over to the back of the store grabbed a forty ounce bottle of brown liquor and returned. The stylistic choices of where it made it bottle made it clear that this was some sort of throwback to an earlier day. It was hard for him to read the font but there was something old about it.

Raul took a long drink and then put the bottle down. "I think it is going to resolve itself really soon, but unfortunately I think it's going to resolve in the favor us not being able to find someone to pick up the sack. We are going to need another way to make food."

"What do you propose we do? It's not like who can set a farm in midtown Manhattan."

"We could start a farm in Staten Island. No one's going to live there anymore and if anyone wants claim their land back they're going to have to..." Raul paused and belched loudly. He put his bottle down.

Bagel thought through the ramifications of starting a farm in Staten Island. They would have to clear away the buildings where they needed to use land and that just seemed like so much work.

Janet chimed in. "It would be easier just to add to Manhattan. Give Manhattan some more room on the southern tip where they had been a planned expansion. The expansion was planned to become a residential area, but there's no reason why we can't just advocate for that to become farmland."

Raul burped. "Shouldn't it be easier to farm with plant creatures? They should be able to create growth effects, right? If someone has a mantle card with a farm power, I hope that they weren't stuck in the city."

It seemed sensible and bagel hadn't really seen any of the plain creatures in action. He assumed that they would work that way. It would make sense to him but he had only ever seen them in combat. He would have to test that out.

"I haven't actually pulled any of them aside to talk. If our alien overlords want us actually survive the system integration and then they should have put some way for us to survive."

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