New System, Who Dis?

Saturday, April 6th, 2069

“I’ll need a copy of a physical receipt for taxes,” Willa said as she spun her Miner’s Pick in her hands. It looked almost identical to how mine had looked yesterday. However, if I was honest, my own still looked pretty beat up from my father’s Mining of Magna Steel. I nodded to her and reached into my back pocket for my phone.

“The only issue is that my dad needs it as well, so I took a picture, is that okay?” I answered, feeling slightly sick to my stomach. Willa and I were waiting outside of a Construction trailer for my father. He’d gone in to register the three of us as Specialists.

“Oh right. Yeah, I guess that works. It’s actually probably better to have a picture since Gary would probably just lose the husking thing,” Willa stated, her voice telling me that my father had lost important things in the past. “So, explain to me again how—” Willa looked around to make sure no one was nearby and lowered her voice to a whisper, “—this ‘repair mark’ of yours works.”

“I think it only works when you’re Mining Crystals. That’s why mine looks like this after my dad went a bit too hard and extracted the entire eleven pounds of the Magna Steel vein,” I held up mine, which currently sported a nearly flat spike, and twisted spade. “So, in theory the more Crystals we mine, the better it will look. I also think Mining without sharding repairs the thing faster, so maybe try keeping the Crystals whole if you can. It’s kind of all a balance, I think…”

“That’s not it at all,” Smegma spat, but thankfully only I could hear him. “The real problem was that Magna Steel was too hard for the level of your Miner’s Pick and so while the metal of your Pick has Mana in it—the damage far outstripped your Picks level and durability.”

I repeated Smegma’s words to Willa as though they were simply speculation on my part.

“So, what? Keep it to one Ore deposit a day?” she asked, clearly looking for set parameters of use. Unfortunately, I didn’t have an instruction manual. I mentally asked Smegma for help and then continued to repeat what he told me.

“In theory it shouldn’t break even if you use it right now on a magical Ore deposit. However, it will be far less effective as the metal warps out of shape. Still, no matter how bad the head gets, Mining some Crystals should slowly return it back to working order.”

“What are you two whispering about over here?” asked a man I didn’t recognize as he walked toward the trailer door. He was wearing a pin-striped black suit with a metallic powder blue collared shirt, tie, dress pants and shoes. I immediately could tell that this wasn’t a Miner, but the way Willa jumped and then ducked her head respectively to him made me take careful note. It also made me duck my head.

“What the husk are you doing?” Smegma asked.

[I don’t know,] I answered even as I saw Willa raise her head beside me. I joined her, following her lead. [The bow is a show of respect, and if Willa respects this man, I probably should too!]

“You’re an idiot,” Smegma said, even as Willa started to speak as well.

“—Specialists. We’re trying a new strategy where we buy second hand pick’s sir.” Willa’s explanation was quick and concise. The fact that she called this man sir, and the way he was dressed instantly clued me in on his identity. This was Jagger Vance, the CEO of Portals, Portal’s, Portalz —AKA, the company I was currently working for.

“Oh? Trying your hand again, Willa?” he said with concern in his voice. “You know I can’t give you an advance on pay again, right?” Willa nodded sheepishly and scratched her hair just under the high ponytail. Seeing her acknowledgement, Mr. Jagger turned to me. “You must be Gary’s son?”

“Yes, sir,” I responded, and quickly cut off since I didn’t know what else I could say.

“I heard you’re just joining us part time until the second semester of school starts?” Jagger asked directly.

“Yeah, I won’t be here on Monday’s,” I answered immediately feeling stupid. This man didn’t need to know the specifics.

“Well, we’re glad to have another body.” Jagger began to walk by us but then eyed the Pick in Willa’s hands. She tried to pull it close to her side and hide it from view, but it was clearly too late. “Please tell me that this isn’t the Pickaxe you are becoming a Specialist with?” he then looked at mine, with its bent and mangled head and sighed further. “Willa!” he exclaimed. “The kid might not know any better, but you? Are you trying to rob the company?”

“There’s always a probationary period, Jag,” Willa countered, some heat in her voice like she took offense to being told she was an idiot, or maybe the implication that she was a bad influence.

“Morning, Mr. Vance,” my father said, his greeting accompanied by the squeal of the trailer door. “I see you’re questioning Willa again.”

“Morning Gary,” Jagger responded, quietly. His eyes still on Willa. “I wasn’t trying to upset her. I’m just surprised that you're part of the cockamamie scheme too…” he turned his head and narrowed his eyes at my father. I felt my brow furrow. What the husk was cockamamie?

Smegma was snickering from where he perched on a nearby parking sign.

“It’s only crazy if it doesn’t work,” my dad said, as he walked down the steps and extended a hand toward Jagger. Jagger’s narrowed eyes looked at the proffered handshake with disgust. My father’s face attempted to stay schooled in a happy grin, but I knew him, and he definitely wanted to either laugh or smile wickedly. Willa snickered from beside me telling me which one it was.

“Good luck today, then!” Jagger spat and fled into the office.

Willa broke into actual laughter and my dad joined her with a much more muted chuckle. Seeing me scan between him, Willa, and the door that Jagger fled through, my father explained, “He’s a bit of a clean-freak but also a firm believer in gentlemanly conduct. So,” my father’s face broke into the wicked grin that had been threatening for a while. “If you ever want to get him off your case you just need to offer a dirty Miner-handshake.”

“It works all of the time, ninety-percent of the time,” Willa said jokingly, but sobered a moment later. “Just don’t try it if you’re in actual trouble. His head might actually explode if it tried that level of moral computing.”

“So, we don’t like him?” I whispered even as we began making our way out of the trailer section and toward the Portal.

This morning the Portal we were going into was inside the city. In fact, it was inside a high school, which was why a group of kids, and some parents were across the street on the sidewalk. Someone had even erected a temporary fence for about five hundred yards in both directions, to stop anyone from getting closer. The same temporary fence was set up around the perimeter of the school.

A few parents and kids held up signs, and I read them before reading them again. Some parents were protesting leaving the Portal open so long, since their kids were out of school. While others held signs, I was more used to viewing on the TV at Hunter Combat events. Signs like ‘Beastmode have my babies!’

Maybe the ones holding those weren’t parents...

“I guess this Portal was cleared by Lynx?” I said connecting the sign with the Guild.

“Yep,” my dad confirmed. “It’s a red-sun dessert inside. The monster corpses I’ve seen were all insectoid. However, our biggest concern is parasites in the cave we’re trying for.”

“Parasites?” I asked.

“Really?” Willa asked, looking at my father with concern. “You think it’s a good idea to bring Brodie in there?”

My confusion only grew, as my father’s face paled. “What the husk is going on?”

“Hey! Language!” my dad said, sounding like the response was startled out of him. After those words he looked me over. “Son, Willa makes a good—”

“You need to explain!” I said cutting my dad off before he could finish the thought that would likely damn me to staying outside the Portal today.

“Parasites are like leeches, mosquitoes or ticks, Brodie,” Willa responded in his place. “However, they don’t feed on your blood but your Mana pool.”

“Oh,” I said in startled realization. “Ohh!!” I said with a bit more emphasis. They were worried that it would bring back the trauma from my assault. “Don’t they take care of most of the creatures before we go in though?” I asked.

“They probably had a Fire Mage bathe each chamber in fire, sure but Parasites aren’t like Slimes. They’re small and can easily hide in cracks or crevices to survive. In almost every operation with parasites we’ll get at least ten to twelve bites per Miner,” my dad further explained.

“Then how do you all deal with it?” I asked, to which Willa slapped an imaginary bug on her forearm. I pointed to her. “You’re saying they’re exactly like mosquitos?” My dad looked at Willa and then me before nodding with a clenched jaw.

“So, I can kill them personally with a slap of my hand?” I asked, trying to press my point. I decided to focus on the ease at which Willa and my dad seemed to handle these Parasites, instead of trying to convince them I was over the assault.

Considering the attack happened on Monday, and it was Saturday, I doubted I could make that point.

“We can have him work closest to the Light Stone, Gary,” Willa said, making a case for me. I speculated that the Parasites must not like the light, based on her words.

“The problem is, if we go in there and have to call in a favor for an escort out, it will cut into everyone’s bonuses.” Gary pointed to the group of Miners we had been walking toward before we’d stopped to have this conversation.

“But if the three of us can mine one Ore deposit each, by the end of the day it will increase the bonus too! I know that’s a risk I’d want taken if I was given the choice,” Willa countered again.

Since she seemed to be on my side now, I let her make the arguments for me. She knew far better what points to emphasize.

[Smegma, are Parasites really that bad?] I asked, in an aside to my demon imp trader.

He waved a hand to dismiss that question, like it was beneath him. “They’re only bad if you don’t find them. Eventually they suck you dry and lay eggs in your corpse.”

[Husk!] I mentally said with a start, not having expected that response after the dismissive wave.

“That’s exactly right.” Smegma agreed. “In the worst cases you get Husked and die, but I’d put that at about the same equivalent of your world’s Darpin Awards. If you take yourself out of the gene pool like that, you pretty much deserve it.”

Gary and Willa resumed their walk toward the other Miners, and I had to play back the end of their conversation to make sure I was meant to join them. Willa had won the argument, but by the not-so-subtle glances my father was giving me, he wasn’t totally convinced. I pretended I didn’t notice.

Thirty minutes later we were led into the basement of the school and into a gymnasium. Atop the logo of a panther sat a red Portal. Our group, with three Lynx guides in the front, walked directly into it without pause. The change from the climate-controlled gym to the dry, arid heat made my first inhalation stutter. It felt like the air burned my esophagus, and I coughed which only irritated it more.

Willa, who was beside me, pulled up my mask for me as I was doubled over coughing. I didn’t think it would help, but to my surprise the next inhalation while hot didn’t feel like it was burning me from the inside. My exposed skin between my Miner’s gear was another story, but it only felt like I would be coming home with a sunburn.

“It’s the fine sand particles that cause the most problems,” Willa explained. “They are actually hotter than the air, I should have warned you.”

I shrugged and brushed off the implied apology, partly because I didn’t want to risk wheezing out a response. I scanned the area for a moment but quickly lost interest in the endless red sand dunes that stretched out in every direction. Until my scan passed over Smegma, who was on the ground. Considering I had never seen him land on the actual ground so far, I paused. [You okay?]

“This is Crendalar One or Two,” he said, even as his hand passed through the sand he was clearly trying to pick up.

[Does that mean your people might be here?] I asked, looking around anxiously.

“No, all the Demons on Crendalar One through Four were obliterated. All that’s left are Monsters and baking sand.” Smegma didn’t look back at me, and his tone of voice gave me no hints to his mood. He’d simply stated it like it was a fact, but I couldn’t help but think that he was upset. Or at the very least unhappy with the situation.

I had questions but put them off. We’d be here all day, and I might get an opportunity to ask later. Smegma made me think I made the right decision when he changed the subject. “Is your Mana Pool full again?”

I’d woken up this morning to eighteen points of Mana to convert, and Smegma had told me that I should wait till it filled up each time from now on. That way we could better track its growth. “Nope,” I answered. “Sixteen points.”

“Okay.” His words sounded odd as he stared off into the distance. “You should hold off on converting all of it while in the Mines.” That last part sounded… ominous, and his next words only confirmed it.

“You might need the buffer if a Mana Leech latches on.”