"UNREGISTERED SLAVES. REMAIN WHERE YOU ARE." Lapushka called out, booming just above. It seemed... upset. Or at least extremely judgmental.

The group looked up, then at each other.

"Can't make head nor tail of what the oversized sardine can just said, but either it's got its knickers in a twist because we scarpered, or it's making threats about catching us later with its belt out."

"Both." Wade said, "It's asking us to stay in place, probably to lead some attack on us. Politely."

"I see you're getting better at speaking Lapushka" Leon said, giving him a thumbs up.

"Who the feck is Lapushka?" She stopped, then slowly turned her glare at the guilty party. "And why do I get the feelin' the Russian's behind this somehow?"

"We named the golem." Wade said, "Even gave it a full title and everything." He then turned to Leon, "It's speaking in Nathir, but so far it's mostly public service announcements or ordering non-existent slaves around. Thing is clearly borked and isn't able to understand nobody down here is alive anymore."

"Oh no, poor giant murder robot, all alone down here. Let me take out my violin next time." Illy said, "Oh wait, I can't can-I? Only one of us gets to bring in all the fancy toys into the world here. And speaking of that," Illy marched over to Wade and tapped him in the chest a few times. She had to lift off on her toes but managed to land the accusing finger a few times on his twig-sized chest. "Buy us some radios, that way we'll be able to talk to one another instead of hand signs. Other gear would be good too, I'll wire you the money and you buy our stuff tomorrow. Works?"

Wade heard wire money, and was immediately at attention. "After an advance for the services, and a twenty percent commission fee, thank you."

Leon started laughing, "Sorry Illy, I may have given him ideas earlier."

"I fecking see that. Fine, I'll dip into the family funds, consider it an investment in getting shite done here."

"Pleasure doing business with you Miss Blackwood-Sinclair," he said, words almost automatically coming to him as he reached down to shake her hand. "We hope to see your patronage again in the future."

She groaned but shook back, "Feels like I'm shaking hands with a demon or something."

"As a matter of fact I did…" He paused, words going flat in his mouth. Weirdest feeling ever. That contract was very unsubtle about things and triggered pretty early. "Never mind. I just have it on good authority it could be worse. My rates are highly competitive."

Maybe he was born for this. There were other players out there right? Other players with money and a new market need out here. They could pay him to smuggle in Earth items for them.

He needed to register an LLC, setup something official sounding, then setup advertisements and figure out a good strategy to get the word out to- oh. Now he was starting to realize why a god literally named Market went out of his way to find him.

Hah.

Well… Zin told him he was available for shady business transactions. The man was a demon butler in charge of buying anything the NEETess wanted. Of course he could handle some financial paperwork planning for Wade. Assuming there was an easy way to pay the demon's mana requirements.

"I thinking we should be moving before Lapushka figures out some way to get to us, or sends friends." Leon said, looking up at the golem. It was clearly staring at them through the manhole, blue orb looking very frustrated it couldn't fit its hand through there.

"Wait, what about the gold chest?" Wade asked. "We can't just leave that behind."

"What, you 'fraid it'll get scared and lonely up there?" Illy asked back. "Feel free to climb back up there and drag it down here. No really, I'll wait."

Wade looked up. Head running the calculations on how impossible it would be to drag down the gold chest and carry it with him, past the giant killer golem. He then factored in special pleading, begging, and possibly crafting a sled or dolly to wheel it after them. The final calculation resulted in one low pitched pained whine coming from deep within his soul and his throat. "...If we figure out a way to kill Lapushka in the future, can we come back?"

"If that chest's still there when we do, sure. But it's on you to find a way to drag it around. Got that yank?"

"Where there's a will there's a way. And there's a will." Wade said. He'd find a way, no gold chest left behind.

Originally the group had been walking upwards when he'd met them, but Wade knew what was behind him right now was just the crack in the wall that led to a small slave rebellion tunnel, and he remembered it had been raided of basically everything. Better to go explore the unseen areas. The group quickly reached the same conclusion, and then got to marching.

The only one upset at their current new destination, was Lapushka, who stared down at them from the manhole, silently watching as the group slipped past its giant grasp. Wade turned to look up, and then gave it a gesture. In human terms, it would be the middle finger. But the Nathir had a different set of arm gestures, and Market's buff was whispering into his mind exactly what to do.

Lapushka silently watched back from above. It didn't seem to move or react, but Wade had a gut feeling deep inside, the golem was seething.

"Oh, and if you can, keep an eye for any blackrot creature everyone." Wade said, as he turned back to half limp and half jog after the departing group. "Specifically a weasel. It's probably around somewhere."

It wasn't long before Play showed up on his phone again.

That was a pretty inspired way to use that dodge boon, I approve (b ᵔ▽ᵔ)b

Wade rolled his eyes, "Thanks. I remember your amazing advice last time about 'just dodge.'" He was about to ask where she'd vanished off to, but he already had three guesses and they all involved video games.

Somehow they'd gotten past the golem and were back in relative safety, all together again. A horde of skeletons would still ruin their day, but the threat was now more a puzzle to solve rather than a life-or-death situation. Things were good.

Leon was amicably talking with Illy now, going over what he and Wade had been up to on their side while Illy filled him in on theirs. Nothing as exciting as finding a gold lootbox, they'd been mostly just keeping a quiet watch for where the flag waving would go. She'd been surprised to learn Play was a NEET compared to Nox, who seemed far more like a regal god should look like. But her time with Nox was mostly the same as Wade's and Leon's. The storefronts worked the same way for everyone so far.

Play had oddly little to say about the other gods on Azdrial. Other than 'Sentimental idiots who still think there's a chance to fix things.'

The quest to discover the Dying Light schematics was still there, and Wade was pretty sure that meant finding the Nathir doomsday weapon that could blow up a sun. Likely the weapon itself wasn't here, just the research and development. But the other gods who'd tossed the humans into this city were clearly desperate to get their hands on a sun-killing weapon. Which was odd.

"I'd have thought people wouldn't want to blow up a second star." Wade said as the group walked.

idk, giant sun-killing weapons could be used against other threats out there. Play sent back, cryptically. The group followed through on drilling some questions, but Play ducked and weaved through all that laughing like the little troll she was. Either Play was enjoying keeping the group in suspense, or genuinely didn't know what the other gods were after and was simply enjoying acting as if she did.

As for Wade, he was just worried. This world had a lot going wrong with it, but if the gods out there were desperate to find weapons of mass destruction to reuse, there had to be something more going on outside the city.

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The empty ancient sewer ahead of them was mostly obscured in darkness, but Wade's flashlight was working fine. Part of his backpack goods, since he didn't want to waste his smartphone batteries on this.

He'd been deep in contemplation about his dodge ability over the walk, and unfortunately Identify had only shown him the same pieces of information.

Lightning Dodge (Common) - When activated, drain half your maximum stamina and execute a dodge roll, gaining some invulnerability frames. If damage was negated by the use of this boon, your next attack within ten seconds will deal an additional 25% of your normal weapon damage as electric damage.

Invulnerability frames were video game jargon for time duration, based on frames per second. Usually meaning seven or so frames for most games, which equalled to a few milliseconds. And during that window of time, nothing could hurt him.

It didn't say anything other than that, so there were some grey zones. How long was that window of time? What happens if what's supposed to deal damage to him was still going through him at the time the invulnerability timing ended?

That's not something he wanted to find out.

Electric damage was also exactly that. Surprise. Similar to what the system had told him corrosive was, just not a damage over time debuff.

But there was some more wiggle room here. "What does normal weapon damage mean?" He tapped his chin. Identify refused to assist further, not seeing that part of the description as a valid candidate for further details.

In video games, most times abilities scaled off stat points. But other times, they could scale off currently equipped weapons. Usually for balance reasons.

As it read on the description, Wade imagined it meant the weapon currently used to deal the lightning damage. But there were… oddities he could potentially abuse.

Problem was that theorycrafting required actual testing. They'd need to capture a skeleton or something and then he'd be able to run through all his options. They'd have to double back at some point to Wade's starting location and see if there were more skeletons there. And there was some danger in that. A massive horde was still something the group couldn't handle.

Selena sidled closer to him as he considered and muttered under his breath, armor clinking lightly as she came pace to pace with him. Her ears twitched repeatedly, though she maintained her regal posture. She still seemed trying to figure out the best way to open a discussion.

"Is something bothering you?" Wade asked in elvish.

Selena straightened her back even more, if that was possible. "No. Nothing."

Twitch twitch.

"Uh huh. Go on, tell me."

"… If you absolutely insist. I merely wished to... that is to say..." She cleared her throat. "I visited your world. I still am not certain how or why, but clearly this is a test of the gods. During the interlude of peace, my charge has shown considerable... hospitality in food and lodging."

Wade waited, but Selena just stared at the distant sewer for threats, her jaw clenched.

"And?" He prompted.

"And nothing. I am simply making an observation."

Twitch twitch.

Ah. She really could just be more direct with her voice instead of saying it all through the ears. "You want to thank her?"

Selena's feathers puffed out indignantly. "As a paladin of Flight Nightreaver and heir to inherit the estate, I do not require assistance from-"

"I'm taking a guess you absolutely attacked whatever plate you got and you feel embarrassed about it?"

Market's blessing was such a cheat code in figuring out tsundere paladin-elves, Wade almost felt bad. Not only had it whispered to him that Selena was feeling morbidly embarrassed, even the way her feather tips and slight mouth movements had clued him in that it was about food.

"By the missing moon, must you be so direct?" She hissed, then flattened her face feathers down with a hand. "I wish to express... gratitude. But I cannot find the proper words in her tongue. I made my attempts, and clearly they failed."

Wade fought back a smile. "You want me to translate for you?"

"I…" The ears twitched again, and she screwed her eyes shut. "No! It would be most unladylike to have someone else relay gratitude! The gall of it!"

"Uh huh. And what are you dancing around for?"

She opened her mouth a few times, trying different ways to ask, and finding herself smoothing back her feathers again and again. "Could you… Could you teach me how to say a word of thanks in your language?" That last part came out fast, and almost whispered.

Wade decided he would be magnanimus and generous this time on account of the Elf having saved his bacon a few times, so gave her the language lessons free of any charge. 'Thank you very much for the meal' was a bit of a handful, but 'Thank you' could be managed.

Once the elf felt like she had a good enough grasp, she sped up her gait until she reached Illy and Leon, who were currently in an argument. As in Illy was getting her hackles up, while Leon was steadily riling her further on, because it was the most fun he'd had in the past few weeks and something about Illy triggered his long dormant older brother genes.

"What's knife ears want?" Illy asked back, as Selena came to march next to her, still quiet and certainly not looking anywhere in Illy's direction. So naturally, the Scott turned to Wade asking for translation.

"She can tell you herself this time." Wade said from the rear, then looked over to Selena. "Go on, she's listening."

Selena's face feathers puffed up a few times, she shut her eyes and abruptly stopped midway. The group awkwardly stopped as well. It was deeply quiet for a moment.

"T-ttanckkk Yeeeooowww." Selena said, trying her best in english. The ears were twitching like mad, beyond embarrassed. Moonwing culture really was cutthroat if simple thank yous were considered admissions of weakness. Wade could oddly tell from the context clues and Market's blessing whispering in his ears, so he understood there was an entire other level of difficulty Selena was trying to go through on this besides just it being embarrassing to say thanks to a human.

Illy stared back, confused for a moment. Then a massive grin filled her features as she somehow understood despite the thick elvish accent. "I take it the lass is talking about the steak? You should have seen her, three whole plates back to back. I think she would have licked the plate if there weren't people watching. Probably did anyhow, when she thought she'd get away. Tell her the cooks love her now."

Illy went on to regale them the entire tale, now finally getting Wade to help translate all the human cultural quirks. Wade realized the Scot really was some rich heiress from a hoity-toity British estate. Although given her personality and choice of insults, it was hard to imagine it.

To Wade, Illy seemed more like someone who he'd have to drag out of the pub, screaming and shouting about the latest football match.

As Selena opened up a bit more on her side of the visit, Wade learned a few more things. For one, the most bizarre thing about Earth wasn't the technology or strange architecture of the house, it was how empty the skies were.

A completely unbroken blue sky in every direction with only clouds far above felt almost eerie to the elf. And while she knew a sun was what normal worlds were supposed to have had, she'd never seen one herself.

It was smaller than she expected.

New Personal quest: Challenge Gauntlet (2) - An enemy forty levels or higher above you is hunting you down. Evade or defeat your hunter. Reward: One storefront coin if your pursuer is eliminated.

Ah. Of course. This was still the murder dungeon after all. Of course they weren't any safer in the sewer.

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