Sell you a Bridge chapter 90 (Patreon)

The Caves August 24th 2010 7:00 PM EDT

I  stared at my girlfriend with a raised eyebrow. "He still hasn't said  anything?" I was shocked she was here. I'd been planning to break into  her house later tonight to check on her. I hadn't talked to her in a  while. She looked fine to me, happy to see me and Artemis both and  clearly having been starved for attention. Or maybe the opposite, she  might have been smothered based on not being able to call. Either way it  was amazing to see her even if I was a bit worried about her dad  showing up, impossible as that might be in our individual dungeon  instance.

She gave me a warm smile and a quick  blueberry cheesecake kiss. "Nope. I think they mentioned...something, to  him, but they didn't go into detail. He watched me like a hawk for a  few days and I couldn't even get to my phone but eventually he got  called away on a mission so I came out to play." She shot me a wink  before nearly skipping over to Artemis to wrap her in a hug. "Oh  sweetie, I'm so sorry I wasn't around for that mess with you and Wally.  I'm glad you decided to give things another chance. You're so good  together." I really was happy to see how close my best friend and  girlfriend were after the ritual.

I also had to agree  with the sentiment. Artemis was practically floating today, happier than  I'd seen her in years. But they weren't going to dwell on that right  now, no, tonight we had bigger fish to fry. We had found the entrance to  level ten. Granted level nine was huge and we hadn't come close to  cleaning it out, but diablo was on of those games where that happened on  occasion and I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, not when  I knew what lay on level ten. Everyone stared at me expectantly as we  looked over at the stone stairs down.

Figuring they wanted  to know what we were doing I shrugged, stating the obvious. "We're  going down. Artemis and to my surprise Kit looked unhappy, but before  they could speak I held up a hand. "Level nine is pretty much useless in  the grand scheme of things, and honestly at this point we can't afford  to spend literal weeks clearing a floor we can just leave. But that's  not why I'm so anxious for level ten." I grinned wolfishly. I was  anxious for level ten because there was something big down there,  provided it appeared without the quest which experience told me it  should.

The Anvil of Fury. While the dungeon itself was  the most immediate source of magic weapons, the anvil provided us with  an ability to forge them ourselves. I'd even looking into my stat folder  and found a magic smith learning course that had popped up after the  dungeon opened, it was pretty cheap too at only fifty points, most  likely because it wasn't actually functional without the anvil or at  least not easily. All my best abilities usually had some absurd cost  outside my powers that must have made them affordable like the magic  needed for the girls ritual.

At the moment I was back up  to three hundred and fifty points, this new income was incredibly  helpful, and I had enough for the smithing perk for sure....but I didn't  want to take it. Maybe a chemist or something but blacksmith didn't fit  my build. Though that did give me an idea. I turned to Zee and Artemis  and gave them curious looks, I had considered before that I might be  able to let people who had powers learn skills. There was no energy to  integrate since the skill items themselves used the power.

I  just had to figure out who to give it to. Zee loved magic and she would  be so excited to make magic items, but Artemis had grown up around  Teague and might be interested in learning. Sadly items that taught  skills like that were used up when you went through to program so I  couldn't just let them both learn it. I'd have to talk to them about it  later. For now I shook off the thought and nodded down the steps. "So  anyway if we can get the anvil we can make real magic items ourselves."

Despite  getting lost in thought I'd had a simple time keeping up a running  commentary. Despite my vague stare during the process everyone seemed  excited and we made our way down the steps carefully, looking for the  anvil. I had to assume all the major forces knew about the anvil from  the game, no way they hadn't figured it out yet, so we wouldn't be the  only ones with the thing, but my skill would give us a huge advantage as  the rest of them tried to figure things out through trial and error.  Being able to mass produce gear for instance, would make us pretty much  heroes in the city.

We slipped down the stairs,  careful as ever. Unlike the game the steps in the dungeon weren't a  loading screen, those bastards on the lower levels could and would jump  us on the way down a lesson we learned early on our runs when Reggie  almost got decapitated. Now though we moved like a well oiled machine,  with me going first to play interceptor and Artemis in the rear to play  guard. Zee was in the middle keeping an eye out and she was ready to  drop a shield at any time.

We made it to the bottom mostly  unscathed there were a few quick probing attacks but we dispatched them  easy enough. Artemis had bolted the bastards out of mid air. When we  emerged onto floor ten it seemed...empty at first. Not empty as in  nothing there, it was less the absence of something and more the  presence of nothing. I walked to the nearby lava stream and suddenly a  shape came flashing out at me. A magma demon but not one like I'd seen  before, this one was fast as hell and even I barely drew my sword in  time to kill it, watching with wide eyes as it almost dodged.

I  frowned as my sword sunk halfway into the thing and then ripped it free  with a grunt, yanking the magma demon out of the lava river completely  and flinging it up on the bank to die. I spun to look at the others in  shock. "Ok, what the actual fuck? That was stronger and faster than the  ones on nine by at least three times. Granted we outpaced those things a  while ago but there shouldn't be that much of a difference. Zee you  have any idea what's going on?" A jump in difficulty at floor ten wasn't  that weird, but I didn't remember anything this extreme in the game.

Zee  closed her eyes and started muttering spells. With her new magic  reserves she had been trying multiple styles of combat and casting, she  was most fond of something the called cascade spell work. Basically  instead of a single huge spell she stacked a bunch of smaller ones  together into a ramping working. With her increased mana regen the style  gave her pool more time to refill and resulted in less time being  vulnerable and more optimized casting. Zee hated wasting mana. When she  opened her eyes she was frowning hard.

She  flicked a finger and summoned her hydra guardian, raising the thing  literally in the lava, before stepping up to study it. She kept her  distance but her blue eyes flashed and she nodded with a scowl.  "That's...not good. You know how all the energy from the sacrifices  flows downward and the levels keep getting stronger?" We all nodded.  "Well we just passed the point that any of the other teams have managed.  Even though the dungeon is instanced the other front like teams have  been mostly keeping up with us I guess. The density of energy in this  level hasn't been lessened at all from killing monsters or getting  loot."

I  groaned. I hadn't even considered that. "Shit. I bet most of the big  organizations have been rotating in teams or something. I bet the  instance will still work if the new team goes in with the mage who cast  the town portal. We have some serious advantages but they've been  keeping up. The worst part is that since we're trailblazing they won't  even run into the same issue because we'll be draining off more power.  Any upside to this at least? Are we more likely to get good gear or  something?" Any silver lining would honestly help my mood.

Zee  just shrugged. "Couldn't tell you. Maybe, or maybe if it happens it'll  be a consequence of the stronger monsters. It's not a stable allocation  thing, just bleed through from an overabundance of energy. Most of it is  still being drained down but the dungeon seems to use a tiered system  that allocates a certain amount to each level, and with us being the  only ones to get here there's been a bit of buildup in all the  instances." She paused for a second. "Or I could be wrong and crazy.  Either way the energy here is way thicker." She seemed pretty worried  about the extra danger, which I got, but I also had an idea.

I  nodded before stopping with a smile. "Would something that was a part  of this level natively be stronger then? Like say...an anvil?" I could  tell she saw where I was going and she nodded excitedly. The extra  monsters were worth it if that was the case, getting our hands on some  kind of elite version of the anvil of fury would be a game changer for  us. Combined with the blacksmithing lessons we could make much higher  tier gear presumable. Outfitting ourselves and selling to certain  trustworthy teams. Hell I wouldn't mind selling to the junior justice  bros. Wally wasn't so bad and they were too squeamish to use bladed  weapons on humans.

I  wondered briefly what we would be able to make. Could we recreate any  gear we found? Or would we need to start slow and work our way up.  Silently I decided to give Artemis the blacksmithing proficiency. I  could get Zee a fun skill some other time, maybe something magic based,  but Artemis was around more often, not to mention she might be able to  get some lessons from Teague. Decision having been made I was feeling  much better about this whole thing. "Alright we're going to keep going  if it's cool with you all. I want to get that anvil while it's powered  up. Everyone good with that?"

I  got a serious of nods and grins which was heartening to see, and  returned the grins with one of my own. "Good to hear. Ok, so we're  playing it safe in the new level until we figure out how strong everyone  is. I'll be ranging ahead as a scout, I can shadow port and combined  with my reaction speeds I should be the least likely to get hurt. Reggie  just in case you're on standby for rescue, swap me with some monster  away from the fight if you have to. Zee and Artemis are on ranged, Kit  you're playing near guard for our long distance."

I  put my hand on my King's Sword of Haste, literally my favorite thing  ever. I was made for speed, in fact I was considering bumping my  dexterity to twenty next level, since I had a few levels of extra stat  points as cushion while still getting to two hundred and fifty points a  day. Regardless I was ready to go. I grinned at my friends and slipped  out into the level with them trailing behind me. Say what you will about  Gotham and how complicated it could be, but you had to admit, the place  could be a lot of fun sometimes.