Apocalypse Engineering B1 C19: The Price You Pay

Congratulations! For completing one hundred percent of a Tier One Dungeon, you have received the following reward:

One [Voltsmith’s] Supply Box (Rank One)

Completely clearing a dungeon will result in rewards equivalent to the level of dungeon cleared.

“That’s it?” Tori half-shouted as she picked herself up from under the dissolving Greatest Blue Heron, which had collapsed on her when it died. She seemed furious. “A couple of half-baked non-combat spells?”

I opened my own box, which smelled like oil and looked like someone had spent an afternoon throwing orange, red, and yellow paint at a milk crate. It creaked open, and I found a small pile of assorted odds and ends. A spark plug-looking thing, a wirecutter and wire, and a single round battery were the highlights.

Assorted Voltsmithing Parts

Charge Battery (Small) x1

I grabbed the whole box and shoved it into my inventory. Tori was still losing her mind about the single-use spell tomes she’d gotten; they weren’t what she wanted, apparently. I waved for her to follow, and she used both the tomes, glowing gold for a second. Calvin had already put his box away for now; he fell in next to me, and we worked our way toward Fort Kiosk.

Brian’s party emerged from the mist as we got there. He was wearing a cloak that looked like it had once belonged to one of those Italian fencers from my history textbooks, while Carol now wielded a plain straight sword and a round wooden shield made of planks. A rune glowed in the middle of it, burning bright red. Zane looked pretty much the same as he had before, but with a smile across his face.

They’d leveled—a lot. Brian had gotten all the way to Eighteen, while the twins were Seventeen now. They weren’t as strong as we’d been when we entered the dungeon, but they were catching up.

More importantly, the door was open now—and so was a gate on the other side of the zoo.

“Let’s get out of here,” Brian said. He nodded toward the fresh, southern gate. “We owe you one. We can talk about our debt after we're out.”

Before I could stop him, he pushed the gate open and disappeared, with Zane and Carol following. As they walked through the door, I saw a few items in their hands. So did Tori. She started to ask, but Calvin shook his head. “You’ll see. Let them do what they have to.”

I swallowed and followed Brian out the door.

◄▼►

Brian, Zane, and Carol stopped just outside of the gate, which disappeared as Tori followed Calvin outside. The gray fog wall vanished, letting us see inside. So did the fog. The remnants of Fort Kiosk—what I hadn’t taken apart—loomed in the distance, and a timer appeared.

The Twilight Menagerie: Cleared

Time to Reset: Six Days, Fifty-Nine Minutes, Fifty-Nine Seconds

Brian paid no attention; I watched as he waved the message away. Carol and Zane set down a few items: armor, a battle axe, and a wristwatch. The girl fished a gold necklace out of her pants pocket and laid it along the top of the stone retaining wall. When she glanced back at us, her eyes shined with tears. Zane pulled her in for a hug. He was shaking, too.

“I’m sorry, Angie. I did the best I could,” Brian said. “The three of us got out. We’ll do…I’ll do my best to make sure you didn’t die in vain. I promise I’ll make sure your kids get somewhere safe and that they survive this mess.”

Tori glanced at the battle-axe. It glowed green—as did one of the leather breastplates lying on the ground. She looked my way, eyebrow raised. But Calvin shook his head again. “They lost squad mates,” he said simply.

I stared at the balding, overweight man. Something about him had changed in the hours we’d taken clearing the Twilight Menagerie. He’d gained confidence with every level, and the items he and his team had earned had only helped him. But now, with the pressure finally relieved, it felt like something had broken inside of him. His voice cracked. For a moment, he seemed frozen. Then, he started sobbing as he collapsed against the retaining wall.

I wanted to put a hand on his shoulder. He needed someone. But Calvin said, “Let them do it.”

The twins joined Brian in front of the wall, crying and sobbing. Tori shivered, and I put an arm around her shoulder. She hardly noticed; her attention was locked on the two teenagers.

We let them mourn their teammates until, after what felt like no time at all and an eternity at the same time, Brian stood up. “Thanks again, Hal,” he said, sticking out a hand. “We’d have been screwed without you.”

“Uh, no problem,” I said. I shook his hand, holding the grip as I pulled the Tome of Embrace out of my inventory. I held it out. “Listen, we got this off from the last boss fight, and it’s not something any of us plan to use for our, uh…”

“Builds,” Tori supplied. “So we thought you might want to take it—or, if not, Carol might. It could help you guys out somehow.”

Brian stared at Tori for a few seconds. Then, sobbing again, he took the tome from me, used it, and wrapped Tori in a gigantic hug. When he finally disengaged, her eyes were filled with tears, too. “I’m sorry about your team,” she said awkwardly.

“At least we’re alive.”

“What’s your plan?” I asked.

Brian shrugged, looking at the ground. “We don’t have one. I think Carol wants to try to earn a couple more levels in Chicago before we try another dungeon, but Zane’s still pretty beat up about what happened in there. So am I, to be honest. I think it’ll be a while before we try another dungeon like this one, much less something harder.”

“We’re going to the Field Museum,” Tori said. “That’s where Jessica is.”

“Who’s Jessica?” Zane asked.

“My step-mom.”

“You’re welcome to travel with us,” I said. “We should get there sometime today. It’s not that far, but we’d be safer moving together.”

The silence grew awkward as Zane, Carol, and Brian looked at each other. Then Brian shook his head. “I think we’ll grow better if we’re separate, and thanks to those boss kills, the three of us can handle ourselves now. We need some time to figure stuff out, too.”

I’d figured they’d say that, but it still sucked. They were the first people we’d seen outside of the Redline Tunnels, and for such a big city, it felt strange that we’d only seen them. I really didn’t want to abandon them, but at the same time, I couldn’t exactly force them to go with us. “Okay. You three stay safe.”

“Right back at you,” Brian said.

Zane cast a spell, and the items they’d left behind in tribute burst into flame.

◄▼►

Once Brian’s team left, I pulled the Surge Protectors out, laid them out along with my new Imbuing Rod, the battery bombs, and the box of Voltsmith’s supplies, and pulled up my stats.

[Hal Riley] [Class - Voltsmith] [Level - 27]

[Stats]

          ►Body - 20

          ►Awareness - 40

          ►Charge - 2/26 (10 Used)

          Stat Points Available: 0

[Class Skill - Decharge/Recharge - Drain the charge from magic items to power your own creations]

Items

          ►Fast-Hoof Gloves

          ►Lock-Grip Gloves

          ►Trip-Hammer (10 Charge)

I was exhausted, but I had a lot to get done and not much time to do it. Tori and Calvin were talking near the scorched wall. I didn’t bother listening in.

With only two Charge available, I could only power a couple of battery bombs, and when I tried pouring Charge into one, it didn’t do anything. I’d need to supply them with power, but I didn’t want to use a whole battery every time I decided to throw one of the acid-and-shrapnel explosives at something. In a way, this was easier when I’d had electrical spells.

The first order of business was consuming the Surge Protectors.

I drained them, leaving behind a pair of utterly unmagical shoulder pads made of plastic and foam. The six Charge flowed into my reserves, giving me eight to play with.

I followed that up by draining the Lock-Grip Gloves—not because I needed the Charge, but because the pattern I had in my head would take at least one of my hands, and I couldn’t give the gloves to anyone else now that I’d used them. My Body dropped to sixteen, but my Charge spiked up to twenty-three; the gloves had been worth fifteen. Then it slowly dropped seven points before stabilizing at sixteen—I’d overfilled my Charge, and my skin tingled as it flowed from my body.

Then I spread out my battery and started forming a matrix of wires, pieces of metal, and foam padding—which I ripped from the Surge Protectors. I attached the leather glove to the matrix and placed the small Charge Battery right below the middle knuckle; I connected it to the wires, then ran more of them across the glove’s palm.

I added Charge until the small Charge Battery was completely full. It drained almost everything I had, but the prototype gauntlet’s battery glowed a faint yellow-orange.

►Charge - 1/26 (15 Used)

What I wanted was a glove that could apply Charge to explosives as I threw them, but the first prototype was missing something; the battery delivered Charge to my palm, but I couldn’t add it to an object no matter what I tried. Something had to change.

As I looked at the blueprint in my mind and compared it to the device on my arm, I saw the problem: I had no way to focus the power. I rummaged through the pile of parts, spreading them across the concrete walkway like Lego bricks on a kid’s floor. There, in the middle, sat the spark plug. It looked a lot like the Imbuing Rod’s emitter, but about the size of a nickel and made of glass with copper wires crisscrossing it.

I pulled it, plugged the matrix of wires into it, and test-fired the shoddy-looking gauntlet again.

This time, the orange sparks coalesced around my palm, shooting sparks a few inches forward before they faded to nothing.

Voltsmith’s Grasp (Created Item, Charge 15, Upgrade Level 0)

The Voltsmith’s Grasp is a Charge-assistance device. In its prototype form, it can temporarily transfer Charge to a consumable device or weapon created by the wearer. It can also use five of its Charge to create a powerful burst of electricity in melee range. Expended Charge regenerates over time.

I wanted to test out one of the bombs, but there were only a handful left. Instead, I pulled one out and held it in my gauntlet-clad grip.

Shrapnel Battery Bomb (Created Consumable, Inoperable)

While it wasn’t a test run, the message was good enough for now. I made sure the Voltsmith’s Grasp was secured to my forearm with a few straps, added some scrap plates for a little extra protection along my wrist, and pulled the rest of the bombs out of my inventory. A few wires and a touch to the center of the gauntlet later, and the bomb’s Inoperable status faded. I didn’t try activating it.

I could only power as many creations as I had maximum Charge for, so I was done for now. That was fine, though, I didn’t have many parts left, and other than my second Imbuing Rod, I had nothing I could strip down. The rest of my scraps went back into my inventory.

“Bionic Man, huh?” Calvin asked, raising an eyebrow.

I ignored him, stretching my wrist out in response. The Voltsmith’s Grasp wasn’t as flexible as the Lock-Grip Gloves had been, and I’d have to be careful with the Trip-Hammer, but I had a decent ranged attack now in the battery bombs, even if I only had a handful. “Calvin, Tori, we’re going to head down Lakeshore Drive. We’ll check on Union Pier and see if it’s available for a dungeon run, then skirt Millenium Park.”

“And what if that’s a dungeon, too?” Calvin asked.

I didn’t have an answer.

Tori did, though. “Full-clear time?”

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