Myst in Worm (Gamer) Part 8 (Patreon)

‘How is the sneaking going?’ Amy asked as she worked on yet another pushup, having noticed that physical exercise was actually worthwhile thanks to Myst’s power.

Myst froze as a gremlin spun to look in his general direction. ‘Better than my attempts to increase my music skill. Attacking creatures from stealth gives a decent amount of stealth and weapon experience, as well as a nice damage boost.’

‘Let me guess, the rats swarmed and tried to kill you because of your musical talents?’ Victoria joked as she continued working her way through her math book.

‘Nah, I just got bored of playing with a drum and getting nowhere.’ He smirked when the gremlin glanced around suspiciously then went back to trying to pry open the cash register with a screwdriver. He took another step closer and brought his katana down on the creature’s neck, killing it instantly. He reached down and picked up the screwdriver and stuck it in his inventory with the rest of the gremlin tools he’d collected. ‘I really need to make a better dungeon.’

‘Tired of killing rats?’ Amy asked.

‘That and I want better loot,” Myst replied as he headed out of the bakery. He glanced at the gremlin that had his illusionary bike half disassembled. ‘Yeah, I’m never casting the gremlin spell outside of an ID barrier.’

‘What are you going to try next?’ Victoria asked.

Myst snuck over and hacked the gremlin’s head off, slightly annoyed when the gremlin didn’t drop anything useful. He opened his crafting menu, dropped the katana into the salvage bin, and hit accept. He looked at the katana pattern in his crafting menu. ‘I was thinking about trying to see what other types of ID barriers I can make, but I want a decent sword first. Sadly, I’ll need some quality steel and a forge before I can do that, which means taking a trip to the junkyard.’

‘You could always hit the boat graveyard, there is plenty of metal on the larger ships and they’re basically junk,’ Victoria offered.

‘That sounds like a good way to get in trouble or hurt,’ Amy pointed out as she switched to doing stretches. ‘How about just going to the hardware store and buying a bar of steel?’

‘That sounds better than swimming through the bay or looking for scrap at this time of night,’ Myst replied as he broke the ID barrier and dropped back into the real world. He brought up his map and ran a search for hardware stores then started running toward the nearest store, a little annoyed that he hadn’t even thought of just buying the metal.

‘Yeah, much better.’ Amy shook her head. ‘Have you figured out where you’re going to forge your sword?’

‘Does Arcadia have a metal shop?’ Myst asked, hoping they had something suitable.

Amy thought about the shop she’d visited when one of her classmates had gotten his hand stuck in one of the machines. ‘Yeah, but the furnace is rather small, which would make heating up the blade annoying and that’s even assuming the machines work and aren’t background.’

‘I might have to try to make an illusion barrier with a forge,’ Myst replied, thinking about ways to tweak his illusion barriers.

‘I’m sort of surprised you haven’t grabbed a gun for dealing with the monsters,’ Victoria said.

‘I’ve been busy dealing with Merchants, I don’t trust them to do anything other than screw up, so I’m certainly not trusting their guns. Besides, they make a lot of noise and I don’t need the entire dungeon rushing me.’

‘That actually sounds fun,’ Victoria replied with amusement.

Endurance increased by 1!

“About time, now I just need a few hundred more and I might survive a glancing blow from an endbringer,” Myst muttered as he headed into the hardware shop, keeping his stranger powers at a level where he was just a face in the crowd and unimportant while not showing up on cameras. ‘Only for brutes,’ he replied as he headed toward the section that had metal rods and plates.

‘Are you going to make us some neat swords?’ Victoria asked hopefully.

‘You don’t need a sword Vicky,’ Amy pointed out, knowing that she’d probably have to reattach some limbs if her sister took a sword on patrol.

‘We’ll see how much material I have left,’ Myst offered, not seeing a problem with Victoria having a sword while monster hunting.

‘Sweet! Speaking of monsters, when can we fight something more interesting than rats?’ Victoria asked.

‘Probably tomorrow, I need to work on my ID creation skill a bit more,’ Myst said as he looked over the various types of metal bars. ‘Carbon steel… 5160? That sounds familiar.’ He glanced between the rest of the metal types.

‘Sounds good,’ Victoria replied, going back to speed reading through her English book, taking advantage of Myst’s power.

“Screw it, that’s close enough for killing crap,” Myst muttered as he grabbed three long bars of 5160 stell and headed back to the cash register. He paused when he noticed the rather expensive masks that were useful for dealing with hazardous fumes. “I can probably get away with just a dust mask,” he muttered as he looked at the dusk masks that were a fraction of the price. “Then again, it’s the Merchants, who knows what they put in their shit.’ 

He picked up the expensive fume mask and headed for the casier, knowing that he’d have plenty of money once he robbed the Merchants. He adjusted his stranger rating when the clerk didn’t bother to look up from the game he was playing on his phone. “How much?”

Myst gave the clerk several seconds to look up from his game. “How much for everything?”

The clerk paused his game and turned to look at Myst. “Sorry, I didn’t see you there.”

“No worries.” Myst paid the man for his purchases when he gave him a total. “Best of luck.” He cranked his stranger ability back up as he left the shop and put his mask back on after sticking everything in his inventory. ‘You’re lucky I’m actually honest,’ he muttered as he headed down the street in the general direction of his shop.

Myst frowned as he saw a crazy wild eyed skinny man in his thirties walking down the street toward him. He dropped his stranger rating enough so the man could recognize him if he was a Merchant while staying off cameras and off everyone else’s radar as being important.

The merchant jumped as he noticed Myst and reached for his gun. “Die fucker!”

Myst quickly cranked his stranger rating all the way up so that no one could see him then stepped to the side and walked over to the Merchant who was looking around frantically. He reached out and stole the man’s gun, glad that his thievery skill seemed to get a boost while he was invisible.

“What the hell!” the merchant demanded as he grabbed his switchblade out of his pocket and started swinging it around wildly.

Myst kicked the blade out of the idiot’s hand sending it into the brick wall then kicked him in the side of the knee, sending him to the ground screaming bloody murder and grabbing his knee. He cast his healing spell on the man, stepping back when the man started coughing up black tar and yellow crap. ‘Yeah, cause that’s healthy.’

Myst grabbed the man’s phone and wallet out of his pocket. He stole the three hundred dollars out of his wallet then looked through the man’s contacts on his expensive looking phone. ‘Yeah, sending his girl a text about how hot the strippers are is probably overkill.’ He opened his crafting menu and dropped the man’s phone into the salvage bin, getting a smartphone pattern and a bunch of electronic parts.

‘Any luck with the music?’ Taylor asked.

‘Nah, I went patrolling,’ Myst replied as he pulled the man’s credit card and license and dropped them into the salvage bin, curious if he’d get anything interesting. ‘Fake credentials, that could be useful.’

He dropped the leather wallet into his salvage bin then walked over and picked up the man’s knife and put it in his inventory. 

‘Did you find any villains?’ Taylor asked excitedly.

‘Most of the villains have more sense than to be running around in the cold,’ Myst replied as he worked on stealing the man’s stash of drugs while he coughed and hacked his lungs out or at least that was what it looked like. He dropped the drugs he found into his auction account then hit the man with another healing spell when he stopped coughing up gunk. “Maybe you’ll turn your life around or maybe you’ll kill yourself by overdosing, your choice.”

‘I guess that’s fair,’ Taylor replied as she worked on drawing her future mask while working on her insect control.

Myst shook his head and walked down the street when he saw flashing lights coming his way, fairly sure the idiot would be out on the street in a couple of days at most, despite the fact that he was probably wanted for several crimes. ‘With any luck, I’ll have a nice quiet patrol then I can relax somewhere warm.’

‘Best of luck, my father just walked in,’ Taylor replied.

‘Talk to you later.’ Myst closed the text window then focused on his ID Creation skill and brought up his options. ‘Flat ground, empty buildings, giant rats and random people, that’s new.’ He focused on creating an ID barrier with random people and activated his skill, causing most of the background noise to fall away as he slipped into the pocket world.

He glanced around then stared at the mailman with an assault rifle. ‘Yeah, because that’s not disturbing.’ He slipped past the happy looking overweight man with an apron holding a large pizza spatula and made his way over toward the mailman. He slipped behind the mailman and punched him as hard as he could in the back of the neck then stole his weapon as he collapsed to the ground. He brought the butt of the gun down on the man’s head, causing him to turn into black motes and vanish, leaving behind a roll of stamps.

Myst reached down and picked up the roll of stamps then stuck them in his inventory and looked at the description. ‘Next day delivery, simply stick them on a properly addressed letter and your target will get it the next day, no matter where they are. I wonder how much Dragon would freak out if Amy sent a letter to her father.’

He pulled his well worn earplugs out of his back pocket and stuck them in his ears, raised the assault rifle to his shoulder, pointed it at one of the parked cars and pulled the trigger, putting a decent number of holes in the car and obliterating the window and causing bits and pieces of the bricks on the building behind the car to shatter. 

“Fuck that’s loud,” Myst complained as he stared at the damage. ‘Yeah, I really need to deal with the Merchants before some idiot shoots me in the back.’ He glanced at his ammo meter on his HUD, not surprised that he was already out of ammo. He opened his crafting menu and tossed the rifle into his salvage box then hit salvage, seeing no point in keeping the temporary rifle when it didn’t have any ammo left.

‘Dad’s gone, the doctors want to keep an eye on me until morning to make sure I don’t have any more panic attacks,’ Taylor complained over the party chat.

‘All things considered, I can’t say I blame them,’ Myst replied as he removed his earplugs and headed down the street, looking for weapons to steal. ‘You could always try reading a book or sleeping.’

‘The hospital doesn’t have a library and I don’t feel tired, plus I’d rather not go to sleep right now,’ Taylor replied, fairly sure she’d end up having a nightmare about the locker.

‘Fair enough. Any luck with the bugs?” Myst asked as he stopped ten feet away from a teenager in biker leathers that was leaning up against the wall of a bar twirling a knife like an idiot. ‘I might as well check if they’re hostile.’

‘I might need to tone down the creepiness factor,’ Taylor said, thinking about the man she’d almost given a heart attack to when he’d ran into the alley with a lady’s purse.

‘What happened?’ Myst asked as he lowered his stranger ability enough that the idiot could see him.

The young man in a leather jacket smirked and waved his knife back and forth at Myst in an attempt at intimidation. “Pay the toll or I’m going to cut you.” 

Myst briefly considered asking how much, out of morbid curiosity then raised his hands and used his frost beam on the idiot, causing the man to scream, “Die!” as he charged at him.

‘A purse snatcher ran into the alley where I was playing with a bunch of bugs, I told him to give the purse back and surrender or I’d eat his soul,’ Taylor replied. 

Myst continued blasting the man with the frost beam as he stepped backwards to avoid the man’s wild swing. He shifted the beam up to the man’s face and kicked him between the legs, dropping the man to the ground. He grinned when the man turned into motes and vanished, leaving behind a ten dollar bill. “It’s a start,” he muttered as he wiggled his half frozen fingers, making a metal note to work on his cold resistance. He picked up the ten and stuck it in his inventory then looked at Taylor’s message. ‘Did it work?’

‘He screamed like a little girl, tossed the purse and bolted like the hounds of hell were after him,’ Taylor replied, feeling rather happy about stopping her first criminal.

‘Nice, if you can’t be loved, you might as well be feared,’ Myst replied, rather amused with the entire situation.

Taylor shook her head. ‘I’m fairly sure Heroes shouldn’t be taking advice from Machiavelli.’

‘Probably not,’ Myst admitted as he raised his hands and blasted a man in an orange, eighties’ style business suit with a haircut and an over the top mustache to match, that was walking down the other side of the street. He grinned when the man only made it halfway across the street before the frost beam ‘killed’ him and turned him into a five dollar bill. “Yep, I’m rolling in the money now,” he muttered sarcastically as he walked over to collect the five.

‘What are you working on?’ Taylor asked while she worked on getting her bugs to sing Mary Had a Little Lamb in the alley, trying to increase her Invertebrate Control skill.

‘Not much, I’m just wandering around looking for trouble,’ Myst replied as he saw an attractive red and green haired lady dressed like a naughty Christmas elf walking down the street holding a six foot tall red and white candy cane. ‘Not the sort of trouble I was looking for but I’ll take it.’

‘Yoink.’ He reached out and stole the lady’s rather short green and red dress as she walked by, leaving her in a pair of red silk panties.

‘Where are you? I’m bored and Mom left,’ Victoria asked in party chat.

Myst winced in pain as the lady smacked him in the ribs with her rather solid candy cane and sent him sprawling when he failed to react fast enough thanks to Victoria’s distraction.

“Candy smash!” the lady shouted as she started swinging wildly trying to clobber the invisible pervert that had stolen her clothes.

Myst rolled out of the way, stumbled to his feet and jumped backwards so that she couldn’t flatten his head with her wild swings or crush his ribs.

‘Are you okay?’ Amy asked in concern, having noticed the drop in his hit points.

‘Yeah, I just got clipped by a club,’ Myst replied mentally as he took a couple more steps back and opened his inventory, keeping part of his attention on the half naked girl in case she lunged forward and tried to kill him. 

‘Try to be careful, I can tell something clipped your health bar, and great, the nurse is back,’ Taylor complained, knowing the nurse meant well, but a bit tired of how often they were checking on her.

‘Thanks, you too,’ Myst replied as he was distracted by the way the lady’s breasts bounced as she swung her giant candy cane around with a determined look on her face. He shook his head then sent a message to Amy and Victoria, ‘I managed to create an ID barrier with people in it.’ He glanced at the dress then stared at it when he didn’t see the temporary tag on it. ‘Huh, Human mobs drop clothes.’

Amy shook her head. ‘You shouldn’t have said that.’

Victoria smirked when she realized she could get free clothes. ‘Okay, that’s it! Where are you? We’ll sneak out.’

‘I’m near the business district, does that help?’ Myst asked as he glanced at his auto map, slightly annoyed that his auto map just said, ‘ID barrier, Brockton Bay’ rather than something useful, like the section of the city he was in.

‘Close enough, you show up on the map of the city,’ Amy said as Victoria picked her up and headed for the window.

‘If everyone drops clothes, wouldn’t it make more sense to hit the mall?’ Victoria asked as Amy opened the window so they could slip out.

‘So you’re saying we should wreck the mall? I’m game,’ Amy teased as they slipped out of the large window.

‘I don’t have any objection,’ Myst replied, knowing he should be the responsible adult and tell them not to sneak out, but honestly, he didn’t see the harm in the girls blowing off steam, especially Amy, considering her general stress level. ‘Let me know when you get here.’

‘Sure, what have you found so far?’ Amy asked as she closed the window. 

Myst tossed the elf’s dress into the party inventory. ‘Take a look at the party inventory.’

Victoria snickered as she glanced at the party inventory and saw the dress. ‘Are you stripping strippers?’ she teased as she flew towards Myst’s location on the map.

‘I was just working on leveling my thievery skill,’ Myst replied as he watched the lady with the candy cane turn around and walk off with a spring in her steps, going back to her previous behavior before he’d stolen her dress. ‘At least they don’t stay aggressive forever.’

‘Right, so how many half naked guys will we see when we get to the pocket world?’ Victoria teased.

‘Not that many, the mobs turn into motes and vanish when I blast them,’ Myst replied as he pulled his attention off the mostly naked lady walking down the street and headed toward the fat pizza chef, figuring he might as well steal his apron and oversized spatula before moving to his next target.