The Manaverse

Slatewell Safe Zone

Granite City

Jut finally fell asleep after hours and hours of torment. He kept seeing the faces of those who had died, reliving their deaths or finding their bodies. The memory of watching Jonny's head crack like an egg made him throw up. When he wasn't retching, he sobbed as quietly as he could. When he finally slept, he dreamed and it wasn't any better.

Again and again, he chased after Kit or his party members and they would disappear, leaving him behind. They waved goodbye to him as they faded away.

When Jut finally woke up, it was mid-afternoon, the sun just beginning its descent in the sky. Brick wasn't there and neither were Gunther and Nox. Jut wasn't concerned. They would all be around somewhere.

He went into the bathroom, stripping down and tossing his clothes onto his bunk. He wished the shower had warm water, but it didn't. He guessed he was lucky to have running water for a shower to begin with, but heated water wasn't a primary concern in the Safe Zone yet.

Jut was thorough and washed himself completely. He wasn't able to soak afterward like he wanted to, but getting clean was better than nothing. It was just too cold.

He gagged when he saw his gore covered bedding and mess. Jut immediately stored all of it in his inventory, hoping all the while it wouldn't contaminate anything. He would dispose of it all later. He did clean around the bed though.

Then he dressed, pulling another stack of new clothing from his inventory. It all appeared clean and the ruined clothing had even taken its own slot. He was concerned by how few outfits he had left. Sure, each article of clothing had numbers in the low teens in his inventory, indicating he had fifteen t-shirts and twelve pairs of jeans. Yet, the number of shirts was half as much as it had been a few days ago. He either needed better clothes or he needed to stop taking damage. Maybe both. He had to replace his shirt five times in one day once.

Jut thought briefly of food. He pulled some of the fire roasted Monster meat from his inventory and inspected it thoroughly. He shrugged and ate the meat mechanically. He couldn't even taste the food. All it did was remind him of Randy, carefully roasting the food over an open fire they surrounded together, which killed his appetite. Yet, he ate the entire serving.

He knew his team and how they would have acted if they were still alive and he wasn't eating because of them. Jonny would berate him. Larry would silently hold some food in his face until he took it, not leaving until he ate it. Randy would give him a pouty look if he didn't try his latest dish.

Jut shook his head to clear it, eating the last bite as he left the haunting room. It was impossible to spend multiple nights chatting and bonding with his team and not have flash backs everywhere he looked. He considered asking Brick if they could move rooms, or if he would care if Jut did. Than again, all the rooms would likely look the same, defeating the purpose.

Stepping foot outside took his breath away. The barrier was bright and made him feel like all he could see was endless blue. It appeared the barrier did let in air and sunlight though as he felt a breeze and he could see everything like normal. He also felt like he was a mouse trapped under a bowl. He doubted they could run and the bowl would zip around like a cat and mouse cartoon.

As Jut was crossing the casino's courtyard on his way to see one of the new buildings, the gathering of people caught his attention. There were tens of thousands gathered around the same podium as the day Jut had arrived in the Safe Zone.

Unlike before, when everyone looked scared and excited to be in the Safe Zone, they all looked mad. There was a tension in the air that was thick and felt like Jut was walking through syrup.

Adam, surrounded by a large group of his staff, all wielding swords, clubs, and other weapons, was letting the louder of the mob shout at him. It looked like they had been at this for a long time.

"Why can't we open the Bunker?" One man shouted.

"Yeah! My wife is down there! I want to see my wife!" A woman shouted angrily.

"There's over a million people down there!" Another person added.

Then the mob devolved into inaudible shouts and growls after that. Jut was nervous the crowd might turn violent for a moment.

Adam's voice cut through the noise over his sound system, but the people didn't stop yelling as he spoke.

"As I have said, something has happened and I cannot get any of the doors open. Once the locks can be repaired, we will open the bunker once more."

When the mob didn't cool off and continued to shout and yell, Adam lost his temper and shouted back. The screech over the intercom made the crowd quiet down instantly.

"Enough! We have already answered your questions and I am not doing so any further. We will keep you all informed as we learn more. Besides the bunker, we also remind everyone that we will be in lock down for two weeks. Violence and unrest will not be tolerated. While we understand how hard last night was, we also need to survive the next two weeks. Riots and chaos now will be our only danger. So, please disperse. We will be making announcements over the next few hours."

Halfway through his speech, the crowd started shouting again. Once Adam was finished, he turned on his heel and left, his group of guards following him, looking like the secret service and everyone else was a terrorist threat.

Jut had listened as he walked around the crowd towards his original destination. He scowled. Was Adam saying that millions of people were trapped underground? Hopefully they could fix that quickly. Then again, with how little space there was in the Safe Zone, maybe everyone was better off. There was supposedly enough space for millions of people to fit comfortably down there.

Jut lost himself thinking about the rumor he'd heard and wondering how it would be to have a billionaire father who went crazy and became dedicated to building an underground bunker. He remembered when Diggy's folks built theirs. He had believed them to be nuts. He was reconsidering that now.

Once he left the courtyard, Jut made his plan. He would visit the new buildings first. Then he was going to find a place to do his rituals. He had quests to finish and he wanted to collect all of the rewards waiting for him at once. He felt that he had paid enough to complete them and his rewards should match. He doubted the rewards would be worth it though.

Once Jut finished those, he would see to getting Jonny and the others over to the Graveyard. He knew if he were them, he would not want to become a Monster. Hopefully he would be able to find Brick, but he would at least get the process started alone if he had to.

After that, he would go back to the casino and see if any rooms were available to move in to. He would then sleep for as much of the lock down as he could. His desire to be social was as dead as the many victims from the night before.

To the south, the new building was the Adventurers' Guild. It was a stone and wood building about three stories tall. It was square with a flat roof and gave Jut a very professional vibe as opposed to residential. The front had two sets of wooden, double doors. One look told him they were locked.

Jut knew it was the Guild because there was a sign on the front door. It looked like a System window and the there was yet another countdown timer on it.

The Adventurers' Guild opens in 11 days, 15 hours and 36 minutes.

11:15:36:22

Jut guessed it meant that hunters could come and start registration the day before the lock down ended. It made sense. What good was an Adventurers' Guild if there were no adventures available?

He only spent a few minutes there before heading North East. As much as he wanted to avoid that section of the Safe Zone, that's were the last new building would be.

Before Jut could reach the last building, a System announcement popped up. As it wasn't held back like his Quest Alerts and Notifications, he assumed Alex couldn't have stopped it. It was the usual plain window.

Attention!

All [Beings] have 5 minutes to vacate the marked location. Those who do not leave in that time will be relocated magically to another location in the [Safe Zone].

That's when Jut saw a red circle engulf the ground. It appeared to encase the entire Slatewell Casino and it's grounds. He had been less than a block away when it had appeared. As no countdown appeared in his vision, he assumed he was safe.

He skirted the area of effect and made it to the last building before the five minutes had lapsed. Jut assumed the show would be similar to the building of the Graveyard and he was over that. Besides, that meant millions of people would appear in the streets soon and he didn't want to be squashed flat when the upgraded buildings appeared.

The System Shop was a stone building that reminded him of a retail store from before the initialization. It had a single set of front doors and appeared large enough to hold many people. It had an awning that cast shade over the whole front of the building that was painted a red color with the words "System Shop" on display. The "parking lot" had a paved area for vehicles and a dirt area with stalls. Jut wondered if that section was for horses as each stall had a small trough with water.

Despite the crowd at the courtyard, there seemed to be no one around the shop. Jut was able to walk right into the building without interruption. When he approached the sliding, glass doors, they opened automatically.

The mash up of medieval stone, technical sliding, glass doors and a modern, tiled floor had Jut fighting a grin. It was so surreal.

The inside of the building was a high open area. It was exactly like a neighborhood department store. It also had aisles like his store did. They were loaded up with all sorts of items. A majority of them, though, seemed like items he and his team had turned in.

Near the front was a register area with only one attendant. Only, they were flat desks with no cash registers. Instead of belts or bagging stations, there was only flat surfaces with small glass panels in the front center where a customer could touch it.

There was a strange being behind one of the desks watching him. They had the shape of a person, but they were more like a mannequin with completely uniform limbs and stone colored skin. They had no hair or clothes. Their eyes were two glass circles with camera like lenses behind them and they had no nose or mouth. Their eyes and body moved with small mechanical sounds as the being looked Jut over.

"Welcome." The being said with no inflection. Said wasn't quite accurate as Jut couldn't see where the voice had come from.

"Um, hi there." Jut said awkwardly. "Are you the Shop Owner or something?"

The response also lacked any inflection. "I am System Store Operator Bot, Unit four x seven four. The Safe Zone owns this Store. I operate, as my designation suggests, the Store, providing the Barter, Purchase, Sell and Appraise services. Please place any items you want to purchase, appraise, sell, or trade on the desk. Or, if you would rather, you can also access the Shop Interface here." The Bot gestured to the glass panel in the center of its desk.

Looking around, Jut could see there were similar panels on many of the walls near by, within range of the Operator Bot. He guessed those would allow him to make purchases too.

Jut, not knowing what to expect, cautiously touched the panel. When he did, a System window opened in his vision. It was a list, similar to his normal menu. This window looked like it would be visible to all and it hovered over the desk. He could feel it like it was a physical touch screen.

Buy

Sell

Trade

Appraise

Specials

Jut pushed the sell button and the window changed. His inventory appeared on one side while the other half was an empty grid the same size. If Jut touched an item, it materialized on the table in front of him. He touched the stack of Dog Fangs and the six he had clanked onto the table as they materialized. Once he took his finger off the square, the items vanished just as quickly.

Jut tried touching multiple items, experimenting.

As long as he made contact with an item on the screen, it would appear. The only limit to what he could make appear was what he could touch, which was about four, maybe five, items per hand.

If Jut double-clicked an image, the item would appear and remain. It would be highlighted on the grid in yellow and Jut would see an information window over the item. He read the Dog Fangs' information.

Item: Dog Fang

Quality: Varied

Quantity: 6

Sale Price: 3 Copper Coins each

Total: 18 Copper Coins

While holding the image of an item in his inventory, he could split the stacks. Jut tried splitting the fangs to see if maybe one was high quality. Maybe he could get an extra copper or two.

The answer was interesting. There was indeed a high quality fang. Yet, it only got him one copper coin more. The real problem was the lower quality ones. They sold for one copper each and there was more low quality than normal. Jut was curious why the System was giving them a better deal for the stack. If he had to guess an average, he should only get two coins each. He didn't ask the clerk about it though.

Instead, Jut carefully sold the little loot he had. While he didn't loot often the night before, the fighting was just too intense, he did find the opportunity occasionally to loot Monsters between fights before the line broke.

To make the sale, Jut dragged the items over to the empty window and a value appeared at the bottom. It was a running total of what he would be paid. The items wouldn't appear if he was quick about dragging them to the sale side. If he clicked out of the sale window and came back in, the items were still visible in the merchant's side of the window. He could drag the items away and back into his inventory until he finalized the sale.

Once he finished going through his inventory, Jut made a total of one silver and eighteen coppers. He figured out that it took one hundred copper coins to make a silver one. Not too bad for what he considered a very small haul. That was, until he saw the costs of items at the shop.

Jut clicked the Buy option next.

The window containing his sale items disappeared. It was replaced by a new, much larger grid. Jut couldn't even process how many items there were. He could slide the grid over and new items would appear while the first rows would disappear. He saw everything from clothes to food to Monster parts of all kinds. There were weapons and armor too. The Shop appeared to have everything.

Despite the variety, the prices made Jut flinch. A single fang like ones he had just sold went for forty-five coppers each, and that was for a poor quality one. The high quality fangs went for one silver.

The weapons cost a full gold or more. He didn't know how many silver made a gold, but he didn't have enough for one. Brick still had his award money from the Rally.

Jut wondered if the profit from the resale went to the Safe Zone or the System. He doubted he could ask and get a straight answer.

The purchase window worked exactly like the selling one. If Jut double clicked an item, he could examine it. It would appear on the table. Jut examined multiple clubs and swords. He would pick them up and feel their heft before setting them down again.

"Are all the items out there also listed here?"

"Affirmative. Beings without dimensional storage are capable of using the Shop Interface, but tend to actually shop. Many say they enjoy the experience of picking out their items. Research finds it to be a peaceful kind of stress." The attendant said. Their tone was still flat.

"People here say that? Have you had a lot of customers today?"

"Negative. Less then a hundred Humans have come inside the Shop." The Operator said.

"Then did you work at another location before or how do you know it's a peaceful stress?" Jut asked.

"As I am part of the System, I have access to millenniums worth of Lore around the System Shops. This allows me to better anticipate the needs and wants of our clientele."

Jut doubted they could take care of any being, let alone do so "better" with how robotic they were, but he just asked more questions.

"So, what can you tell me about System Shops?" Jut asked.

The attendant instantly began lecturing Jut. Their tone never changed.

"I do have some information that is free and recommended to be given if asked. Each System Store is tied into the System so the pricing is set at current System trends on similar planets. The Store takes a ten percent cut on all purchased items with the rest of the profit going to the Safe Zone. Barter and Trade Skills don't function inside a System Store and prices are non-negotiable. Items for sale inside the store are items collected by the citizens of this Safe Zone. Items listed in the Store's Interface, however, can include items from other Stores on your planet. Access to items from other worlds' System Shops is unavailable until the Store, and thus the Safe Zone, reach Iron Rank."

"Lastly, despite being owned by, and operated in, the Safe Zone, no one can be turned away from the System Store. System Code requires all Beings have access to income. Violence inside the System Store and theft from the System Store are impossible."

"Did my explanation meet your needs?"

Jut wasn't surprised he couldn't barter better prices here. If the System ran everything, it made sense they would set the minimum rates. Still though, Jut was shocked at the mark up.

"Mostly. What are you hours of operation and how do you handle multiple customers?" Jut asked out of curiosity.

"We are open twenty four hours a day. To handle multiple customers, I can easily duplicate myself." As they spoke, copies of the Operator appeared behind each of the other desks. For each copy, Jut could hear an additional voice laid over the first.

"I see. Well, I was mostly just curious. I'll go now and come back after I get some money. Thank you for all of your information and help." Jut said politely. As he was about to turn away, the Bot made him stop with a suggestion.

"Before you go, all first time visitors should visit the Specials page."