Jasper - Anubian. Level 50

  Guildmaster of this guildhall

  This is a Non-Combatant NPC.

  Anubians are taller, thinner, and more artistically inclined than their cousins the shade gnolls. In the dungeon they typically focus on technology, music, or ranged weapons. You can appreciate their beautiful group howl as they hunt you down and strip you for parts.

  I pushed past Cascadia and dropped the bags. I inspected our game guide as Cascadia cautiously entered the room; the one full past season I had had access to did not include press pass content, so my exposure to game guides was very limited. Jasper was quite a bit more….enthusiastic than I had been expecting. The room was minimally furnished with a small bed, a multi-purpose table, a few storage bins, and a dozen folding chairs.

  “My name is Jasper, and I am your game guide. I will help guide you through this challenging, but potentially enriching transition. I was also once like you, nervous, confused, even a little afraid, as I entered a mysterious dungeon. But I conquered my fears and I conquered that dungeon, and with my help, you can too.”

  He spoke loudly but his voice was shaky. He seemed nervous.

  “Do you mean you completed the eighteenth level?” Cascadia asked.

  “Ahhahaha noooo. I myself reached the eleventh floor, though I could have gotten further if I had just-“

  “I understand that you can help us access our inventories,” I interjected. I anxiously glanced back at the hallway; I was worried about the speeder. It was an important part of my plan for the first three floors.

  “Ahaha very eager, yes. I have been watching you two and you are firecrackers indeed. I am lucky that you are in my zone; I am sure that you will make it far and, you see, I am incenti-“

  ZAP

  Jasper paused for only a moment as an electric shock pulsed through his body.

  “I am sure that you will make it far and this is good for no particular reason. I do indeed have a very carefully prepared tutorial that I will give you but I would prefer to take some time to get to know you and bond. For you see on the later floors you will be able to choose between different class and race options and if we improve our chemistry adequately you may choose to pick a-“

  ZAP

  “We will discuss class options at a later time, however we should still wait a touch longer to begin the tutorial. You see, you entered the dungeon extremely quickly; our briefing said th-“

  ZAP

  “You entered the dungeon very quickly but your entrance was placed in a highly populated area. Though no other crawlers have y-“

  ZAP

  “It is conceivable that some other crawlers will join us and it will be easier for me to provide a premium experience if I don’t have to restart the tutorial half way through. And I want us to bond.”

  Cascadia had finally lowered her trident; I put a hand on her arm to prevent her from giving Jasper any openings.

  “We would like to start the tutorial. We were forced to leave some things behind in the hallway and would like to get back to them as quickly as possible. Plus that countdown timer seems to still be ticking down…I’m sure we will have plenty of time for…..bonding….in the future.”

  Jasper grumbled, but he began. He started describing some basics about the syndicate and the crawl in a theatrical, rehearsed manner. Cascadia asked the typical questions about people who had been indoors, the galaxy at large, and so on; I mostly ignored him while hoping I looked suitably shellshocked. In truth, I was somewhat shellshocked. Not because of our general circumstances or anything Jasper was saying, but because I had nearly died. And on the first floor! In almost our first encounter. And now that I could see the holes in my dungeon entrance plan, I wondered what else I had neglected in my preparations.

  I didn’t regret my choice; I had zero faith in our ability to find a place in a rebuilding society, if indeed society even rebuilt at all, but I was a great deal more afraid than I had been. Fortunately, Cascadia had filled in for my plan’s inadequacies. Watching her dispatch those mobs reaffirmed the belief that had brought me into the dungeon; Cascadia would thrive here. And with the upper hand a few early achievements could give me, I should be just fine as well. Jasper activated our menus and I pretended I was listening as I explored the interface. If Jasper would just activate our inventories…wait, what?

  “Wait, Jasper, did you just say that for your season they removed wisdom as a stat?”

  “Yes, but that’s not important, as I-“

  “And how long did you say you have been in the dungeon for?”

  “I didn’t…,” Jasper looked at me suspiciously.

  “But, to be fully transparent, friends have nothing to hide from each other after all, this is my first season as a game guide.”

  Oh for fucks sake I thought. That question had been extremely reckless, stupid. But a first season game guide! So much for having a manager. Managers weren’t an absolutely fundamental pillar of my strategy, but this absolutely threw a wrench into my plans.

  Cascadia and Jasper both stared at me. I just grimaced and moved to examine my stats.

  Strength: 2

  Intelligence: 4

  Constitution: 2

  Dexterity: 3

  Charisma: 3

  I grimaced again. I had known I wouldn’t get excellent starting stats, but lack of activity and a primarily fizzy drink and cheese chip diet for the last two years had made me more frail than I expected.

  “Bullshit you’re smarter than me,” Cascadia said. I examined her stats.

  Strength: 6

  Intelligence: 3

  Constitution: 6

  Dexterity: 7

  Charisma: 6

  “Wow,” was all I could think to say. Jasper was trying to keep his reaction measured but I could tell he was surprised; her stats were absurdly high. He explained more about stats, races, viewers, loot, bathrooms, and health before getting to our skills.

  I had very few skills of note. Drone piloting: 3, Electrical Engineering: 3, Robotics: 3, Speeder piloting: 4

  Cascadia had a ridiculous number of high level skills. She had eights or nines in all of her athletic events: grappling, staff throwing, kickboxing, obstacle coursing, zero g obstacle coursing, stick fighting, sprinting, running, and courtball. She had dozens of other athletics and combat related skills at extremely high levels like pugilism, grappling, dropkick, balance, climbing, weightlifting, jumping and so forth.

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  Jasper was now flabbergasted, saying something about how he thought that the max starting level of a skill was eight. He tried to get some backstory on Cascadia but I redirected him, I wanted to get back out there. I did notice that Cascadia was seeming pleased with herself and I smiled internally. Jasper moved on and I waited impatiently to get to our inventories. I did note with interest that we had both energy and mana pools this season, though Jasper said that magic classes would be very uncommon this season. Abilities would use energy, spells would use mana, and skills would require no resources. Both mana and energy were based on intelligence. He also hinted that other types of resources might be unlockable, a new feature for this season. We got our basic nanite-healing burst ability and Cascadia groused that I had one more energy point than her, though that didn’t stop her marveling at the ability completely removing her injuries from earlier.

  Just a small amount of exposition about the patron system later, Jasper finally opened our inventories. He gave us each a healtech jet-injector and showed us how to use them. They had to be used manually. It looked like they had chosen a standard grid inventory system, using crawler strength to determine grid size and weight capacity. With my strength of two, I would have to find some way around that. They had also brought back the fifteen second wait period for removing items, which I was disappointed about. Next, he moved to our notifications.

  “Holy tits! You each have at least nearly a dozen boxes! And you’ve a platinum! And you a legendary!” He was nearly giddy with excitement. I had received a “vehicular squidslaughter” achievement with a gold reckless driver box and a very rude “shitty combat driver” achievement with no additional rewards. My skill in drone piloting and robotics had both also increased to four and I had received two new skills: combat driving and combat piloting. Both increased damage I dealt and unlocked other skills and options at higher levels.

  I had received eleven boxes which I moved to open right away. They appeared in front of me in a line, ordered by tier. As I had hoped, many of the boxes and achievements were very rare. They opened one by one as Jasper and Cascadia watched.

  Bronze Chauffeur Box(1/11)

  I didn’t know what a chauffeur was but the etching on the black leather box detailing a well dressed man waiting next to an old fashioned wheeled vehicle made the meaning clear enough. The box neatly opened and a fancy hat and set of black leather gloves appeared on the floor.

  Chauffeur Hat

  Chauffeur Gloves

  The items were automatically moved to my inventory as the next box opened.

  Bronze Companion Box(2/11)

  Healtech jet-injector kit x 5

  The next box took the form of a mini gated mansion. Cascadia scoffed as the gates dramatically opened.

  Bronze Economic Inequality Box(3/11)

  Humanoid Shock Collar

  The shock collar was a thick, segmented, metallic band.

  Bronze Remote Operator Box(4/11)

  Mini Cannon Attachement

  I knew I shouldn’t overlook this type of basic loot but I was impatient to get to the higher tier boxes and I pulled the small gun module into my inventory.

  Silver Speedster Box(5/11)

  Rechargeable Universal Boost Cell x 2

  I had never seen this particular item before, but I had high hopes for the glowing shoe box sized devices.

  Silver Remote Operator Box(6/11)

  Universal Range Extension Module x 2

  This was a good find, but now we had finally gotten to the large gold boxes. I rubbed my hands together in anticipation.

  Gold Gearhead Box(7/11)

  Dimensional Automatic Repair Bay

  Yes! Any dimensional devices would be invaluable, and a repair bay was exactly what we needed right now. This was an exceptional drop for a gold box.

  The next large box took the shape of some sort of thick chested bird with a beak full of dangling worms.

  Gold Early Bird Gets The Worm Box(8/11)

  Premium ration bar x 9

  Universal Rechargeable Battery-Small x 20

  Toxicology Kit x 5

  Medpack x 2

  An unexciting but undeniably useful haul. The next box depicted a small drone hovering over a bleeding corpse.

  Gold Remote Operator Box(9/11)

  Operator’s Brain Spike

  I swallowed nervously as the thin, metallic spike moved to my inventory. This next box looked very similar to the last, but with a landspeeder over a corpse instead of a drone.

  Gold Reckless Driver Box(10/11)

  Transient Vehicle Shield Generating Module

  My last loot box was comically large and constructed with an intricate framework of moving gears. The box opened to the sound of engines revving.

  Legendary Gearhead Box!(11/11)

  Automated Self Supplying Tactical Quick Deploy Turret

  I had had some builds in mind when I entered the dungeon, and so far, the dungeon seemed to be very obliging. I looked to the ceiling and whispered a thank you to the system AI. I was excited to examine my loot further but I waited as I watched Cascadia open her boxes.

  Cascadia had received fourteen loot boxes, two more than me. She did not have any legendary boxes but she did have two platinum boxes. In addition to some of the same achievements as me, she received achievements for being the first person to enter the dungeon wielding a weapon, for being the first person to kill a mob, for entering the dungeon as a passenger, for being thrown from a moving vehicle, for tearing the arms off a live squid monster, for facing down multiple opponents, for killing an opponent with their own weapon, for killing a fleeing opponent, for “killing with adequate style,” and a few other things.

  She opened her boxes and I examined her gear as she equipped it. She started, naturally, with her weapons, hefting or attaching each of them in turn.

  Light Disruptor Pistol

  Basic ranged energy weapon. Holds energy for up to 6 shots. Compatible with most small size energy sources.

  Next was a small, single headed hand axe with a space for a power pack in the neck of the weapon.

  Adjustable Vibroaxe

  Commonly used by enforcers, thugs, and anyone else who needs to look intimidating. This weapon functions as a normal axe until equipped with a power source. When powered the axe can be adjusted in size from its default handaxe size to a medium or large battle axe. Vibration mode can also be engaged to create a menacing humming sound. And to increase cutting power.

  When Cascadia installed one of her batteries into the axe and activated it an exaggerated mechanical hum filled the room. When she adjusted the size to maximum the axe stretched to 1.5 meters with the head taking up nearly a third of the total length.

  “I guess I don’t understand physics as well as I thought I did,” she muttered.

  After that was a set of three white metal balls dangling from synthetic cords, tied together at the top.

  Tactical Bolas

  Never let them get away from you.

  The next weapon was the best, with excellent upgrade potential. It was a hi-tech bracer with an emitter on top of the wrist.

  Psionic-blade

  This wrist mounted blade is the most basic of psionic channeling weapons. It uses minimal psychic energy to create a powerful stabbing blade. Requires an intelligence of 3 or greater to use.

  Cascadia activated the device and a blue flickering blade extended 30 cm. I could feel the heat from the blade as she practiced a few thrusts.

  Her last weapon was the strangest. Though it was classed as a knife it was conically shaped with small overlapping segments. It was very thin, about twelve centimeters long including the long handle, and a blotchy brown color. The appearance was almost organic.

  Veraklion Burrowing Dagger

  When this dagger pierces flesh it utilizes energy from the heat and blood of its victim to continuously burrow. Inflicts the Skewered debuff. Inflicts Bleed debuff when removed.

  She moved on to her clothing items, equipping a light techweave vest, technosilk pants, and utility belt, each of which granted +1 to her dexterity. She also received a knee and elbow guard set that gave her +2 to constitution. Finally she had a “self-applying bioreactive tattoo kit,” that gave her +2 to charisma. It automatically applied to her hands and wrists in long, crossing patterns. Beyond the same basic supplies as me, she got a “mold-aging box,” a completely mundane neck pillow, a skill pill, a personal shield generator, and a limited use portable guild master holocube. The last item was undoubtedly the most valuable loot she had received, but wouldn’t be useful until later. With her utility belt she was able to equip her shield generator and store her various weapons.

  She took the skill pill and received a level one “friction manipulation” skill.

  Jasper let out a strange, high-pitched, barking growl. “You are…this is better than I had ever hoped…”. His eyes were gleaming.

  I glanced at the timer.

  04:29:01:00

  The dungeon entrances were about to close. We needed to get going. I quickly checked my gear, nothing was wearable other than the “chauffeur” gloves and hat, which I had no intention of wearing. I could figure things out on the way.

  “Ok Jasper, thanks for the help. We need to get out of here though. That countdown timer is making me antsy. I’ll inspect my gear on the go.”

  “Yes! Yes you do! There’s another group ne-“

  ZAP

  “Yes! Time is critical and I’d hate for you to get stuck here and waste any of it. Come back though! On the next floor at least, so I can explain class selection and more about sponsors and exclu-“

  ZAP

  “There’s a lot to know! I’ll be in any training guild you enter! See you soon!”

  He ushered us out the door.