Amazon Apocalypse: Chapter 7 (Patreon)

While I pondered what to do next, I reached into my shirt absentmindedly, fingering the token I had gotten so long ago. This was the very thing that had started it all. Toying with this little trinket had become something of a habit of mine. A fidgeting tic to remind me that the end was near. I wondered if the practice would persist now that it had finally come?

But there was something different about the token as I toyed with it now. It was warm. Hot even. I squinted at it and let it fall out of the tiny pouch I kept it in. Sure enough, there was a discernible glow of golden light emanating all around the edges as though there was a flashlight hidden just behind the thing.

I wasn't sure what it was and what was happening until a message appeared on the screen before my eyes.

You have received an offer of patronage from the Amazonian Empire!

Do you wish to accept?

I froze for a moment as I looked at the dialog box from the system. The coin in my hands must have been what activated it.

The Amazons had mentioned something about patronage. I remembered that now. Could getting help from them really be so simple? I accepted the offer of patronage, and a new line of text appeared before me.

Prove your worth!

• The Amazonian Empire does not accept all who come in search of her aid.
  
• To earn her goodwill, you must prove your self-worth!
  

Quest issued!

• Your potential patron has demanded you prove your worth. To earn an audience with the Amazonian Empire. You must complete the following three objectives within three months.
  

1. Raise three heathen women in the Amazonian way, bringing their strength stat up to a minimum of 50 and give each of them a melee combat class.
   
2. Slay a magic-user over level 25.
   
3. Prove your virility.
   

I stared at the quests requested of me long and hard. Slaying a magic-user over level 25 sounded incredibly difficult, especially at my current level. Granted, it would be safer if I managed to get myself over level 25 before my quests time limit was up, but even then, it would be by no means an easy thing.

That incorporeal monster we had just fought might very well of been the death of me if Regina's alchemical potion hadn't been effective against it. There was simply no way for us to harm it otherwise. Hunting down level 25 magic users or monsters seemed like a terrible idea. And worse, the quest didn't mention anything about a monster. Did that mean I would potentially need to kill a human magic user of that level?

Raising three women in the Amazonian way was a strange quest as well. For one, I didn't know anything about the Amazonian way. My only hope was that the Amazonian way reffered to nothing more than leveling strength and picking a melee class, otherwise I would be in trouble.

Though, I was actually a bit excited to see that one of the objectives was having them grow their strengths to over 50. Regina was well on her way there already. Giving her a melee combat class just seemed obvious at this point given her choice of weapon and her stat distribution.

The only problem I was seeing right now was that Regina was only one woman. If I wanted to satisfy the requirements of the quest, I would need to find two more.

The third quest was the strangest and the hardest to figure out.

What did prove your virility mean?

I stared at the quest prompt for a long time, hoping a help dialogue or something similar would appear.

Nothing.

Did these Amazons expect me to prove that I was strong and ambitious? Virility could mean that, and it certainly made sense to me. They would likely not wish to be the patron of someone who only wanted to hide in their bunker all day, unwilling to face the world crashing down around them.

I already knew that wasn't going to be me, though. While I had prepared my bunker, I didn't intend to simply sit out this apocalypse. Those Amazons had mentioned keeping ahead of the leveling curve was crucial to my survival, which meant hiding was not an option.

I dismissed the patronage quest prompt. I had no intention of facing a magic-user over level 25 now, even if I knew where to find them. Nor could I prove my virility without taking action. So if I wanted to make progress on this quest, I there was only one way to be proactive about it.

Regina could fill one of those three slots for women learning the Amazon way, but I would need two others. I drummed my hand against the workbench crammed off to my right. A couple of muskets sat on top of it, along with an entire barrel of black powder. I hadn't tested them or any of the other firearms in my possession yet, but I'd be eager to know what worked and what didn't sooner rather than later.

It looked like I was going to have to play hero bit.

Before telling Regina about my plans, I broke open the first couple of cans of emergency supplies and fired up my alcohol stove.

"I am famished," Regina said. "What's cooking?"

"Survival sludge," I replied. "It's basically a can of super nutrient-dense soup."

Regina curled her lip, but she couldn't keep her stomach from growling. She glared at me for a while, as though she wanted to complain that I didn't have better food. Still, she had no intention of giving me the slightest excuse not to give her the bowl of soup I was cooking for her.

She gobbled the whole thing down in one tremendous gulp. Apparently, her racial change to oni combined with a two day hike had left her with an incredible appetite. When she was finished with her bowl, she set it down on the table before her and stared at me while I gingerly spooned up a few mouthfuls at a time.

"No wonder you never ate with the rest of us on break." I chuckled. "I thought you just didn't want to slum it with the help. I didn't know you gobbled your lunch down in one bite."

"Hmf. I'm hungry." Regina huffed as she continued to watch me eat with an incredibly intense stare.

"You've got a little something right here."  I poked my own cheek as I gestured. But, truthfully, Regina had a lot of something just about everywhere.

"Alright," Regina said as she wiped her cheek with the napkin I'd gotten out for myself and placed on my side of the table. "I admit, I think I've become a slightly messier eater. I was exploring my menus last night and reading the help screens. There was a page about being an oni in there. Apparently, it takes a lot of food."

"I would say so." I laughed. "Alright, I'll crack open another can for you."

I got up from the table and Regina immediately snatched my half-eaten bowl and started gobbling down what was left of my lunch just as fast as she'd eaten hers.

The second can of nutrient sludge vanished just like the first. I ended up digging into the supplies a little more and pulled out a couple of protein bars.

"Now, make sure you savor these. Unless we find a convenience store to raid, we won't have many of these."

But I might as well not even bothered. The moment the protein bars were in Regina's hands, she tore them open with all the ferocity of a hungry shark. Each bar seemed to only last her single bite as she scarfed them down one after another.

"Ahh... that's much better…." Regina sighed contentedly as she sat in front of a pile of wrappers. She rubbed her belly, which probably should have looked swollen from the massive amount of food she'd just consumed. I checked, but it was as flat and toned as fitness models'.

"I'm glad you're full. Now, we have some strategizing to do." I said as I scraped the last remenants of the soup out of the two cans. "We have resource needs. Food, for one. I stashed enough of it here for one man to survive for ten years."

Regina looked at the pile of wrappers on the table, looking a little contrite now that she was remembering our situation.

"I take it you didn't account for guests when stocking this place?" Regina tucked her hands in her lap, shoulders slumping.

"No. And certainly not for guests who eat more than a platoon of men."

"...Sorry."

I shook my head. "No need to appologise. Just make sure you pull your weight when we go hunting and foraging and I won't have a problem feeding you."

Regina actually brightened at the prospect of earning her keep. She had always been a hard worker.

"Ha! Just you wait, Carter! I bet I'm twice as good a forager as you are. Just give me an hour of searching and I'll haul back a whole berry bush or something! And maybe I'll even run into a dear or two while I'm at it. Actually, venison sounds strangely tasty to me all of a sudden. Much better than berries..." Regina started salivating a bit at her own words, and she reached up to wipe a bit of drool from her mouth.

"We'll have a chance for that before all is said and done," I held up a hand. "But before that happens, I think there are more important things to do. Like trying to rescue those in need. It takes more than two to build and maintain a homestead, and that's what we'll need to get going if we're going to survive this past when the rations I've stashed run out."

Regina frowned. "You want to go rescue people?"

I shrugged. "Only one or two. And only if we're really, really certain they're good folk. I don't want to bring any assholes to the homestead. And no dead weight either."

I didn't mention that I planned to bring back exactly two. That would be just enough to complete the immediately actionable part of my patronage quest.

Regina shrugged, looking a bit uncomfortable at the thought of trying to rescue others. "I don't know. Couldn't we just survive here like hunter gatherers? You and me, just the two of us?"

I shook my head. "What happens if one of us gets hurt? Then the other person will have to do all the work to maintain this place on their own. Trust me, it will be safer to have a few friends guarding our backs."

"..." Regina pouted at me before sighing. "Alright, you're the one of us who's been playing mountain man preper guy. And it's your bunker, so I guess you can invite in whoever you want. But I have to ask, aren't we just trying to survive? How long do you really think it's going to take for all of this to get sorted out? A year? Five? If we suppelment our food supply with some crops and hunting we could last that long."

I shook my head. "Regina, I don't think things are ever going to go back to the way things were. That's the way you should look at this too. Things might be better than I think, but we should prepare for the worst just in case."

"I have a good on good authority that things are never going to be sorted out outside." I flashed Regina the Amazon token.

"Your alien conspiracy thing?"

"It's not a conspiracy if it's true." I countered. "Trust me, Regina. This is something we have to do."

"...Okay." Regina smiled as she reached across the table and gripped my hand in hers. "You haven't steered us wrong yet. We can recruit more people. But I want to help pick who we take! After all, I did all the hiring interviews back at work myself. I've got the experience to spot a slacker or an asshole from a mile away."

"Deal."

***

I had a lot of stuff stashed away in my bunker, accumulated over the course of several years. I'd never quite known the exact nature of the threat the world would face, nor did I know what challenges I would face after the fall.

So I made sure to pick out a little bit of everything. Regina ended up picking out some motorcycle equipment, mostly shin pads and a big helmet. She topped off the thug look by grabbing a baseball bat to use as a replacement for the stick she'd been using as a club.

Just two days prior, she would've looked ridiculous in the hodgepodge gear. But now, her newly toned and enhanced body meant she could wear anything and still look ravishing. I had to force myself to avert my gaze as she changed lest I be caught staring.

"You know, you actually look a little bit intimidating like that." I remarked once she was dressed again. "Except for the helmet..."

Regina had tried and failed to put on the helmet several times. It simply wasn't designed to be worn by someone with horns. In the end, she'd cracked open my tool box and recruited my help drilling a horn-sized hole in my perfectly good helmet.

Regina took off her motorcycle helmet to scowl at me, struggling a bit to pull her horn through the gap. "I've always been plenty intimidating. Thank you! I was my own hatchet man, and you know it. When I called someone into my office, I set their knees trembling and their hearts quivering!"

Regina tilted her nose up in pride and I let out a quiet snort.

While Regina went for motorcycle gear, I went for something a lot more traditional. For the middle ages.

I picked out a set of brigandine armor. Essentially it was heavy cloth with metal studs on the front that held sheets of metal on the back to protect me. It wasn't as good as plate, but it was more comfortable to wear. It was also camouflaged colored, so it would stick out a lot less than shiny platemail.

Regina laughed a bit when she saw my outfit.

"Studded leather armor? You know that doesn't actually work, right? You look like some sort of larper!" Regina doubled over, slapping her thigh as she laughed.

"It isn't studded leather. It's brigandine." I corrected.

"Brig-what now?"

"Never mind."

After strapping on my brigandine armor and grabbing a pair of the travel backpacks I'd prepared, Regina and I headed outside and sealed the bunker.

"So, where are we headed?" Regina asked me

"There is a common camping grounds nearby. We'll head there and see if there's anyone who needs rescuing. And if there's nobody who needs rescuing, we will rescue some supplies to bolster what we have."

"So we're like… scavengers now?" Regina asked me

"Sscavengers?"

"Yeah. Like in the movies. Those bands of rugged survivors who go searching for the room and through the ruins of old civilization for cans of beans and batteries. They're like, the lowest on the food chain after an apocalypse."

I shook my head. "We might be scavengers for today. But soon will be birds of prey."

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Note:
Main quest line revealed!

Work on Paladin of the Sword continues. Though I've only uploaded two chapters to Amazon this week I've been pushing a lot of buttons. My fingers and eyeballs hurt.

I'm going to do a half day today to try and recharge a little, then hopefully get another chapter of Amazon Apocalypse done tomorrow morning before switching back to Paladin of the Sword.

After that I'll do roughly two weeks of 5x per week Amazon Apocalypse chapters before switching full gear over to Paladin of the Sword. That should give you guys time to read the first book on Amazon and time for me to finish the first act of Paladin of the Shield before I start showing the early chapters to you guys.

My goal is that this story (Amazon Apocalypse) will go to Amazon in novel form one book before I close off the paladin series completely, which will happen either on book 3 or 4, depending on how that story plays out.