With breakfast out of the way, Nolan dropped me off at the garage where Gary was leaning against Monster Mash, twirling something around his finger.

“Glad to see you’re still in one piece.” Gary said as I tried to subtly wipe my lightly greased hands off on my pants while still holding my axe.

“It’s me we’re talking about,” I scoffed cockily before reaching the van, “what you got there?”

“Keys,” Gary replied, tossing them to me, “damn sight better than trying to start her up with a spoon.”

“You fixed that?” I asked.

“Course I did,” Gary said, “I had to take her out for a test drive after all.”

I laughed a little at his joke as I looked over the cleaned but still rusty van, “What’s the damage?”

“We agreed on 300,” Gary replied assuredly, “would be pretty crappy of me to spring a surprise expense on you.”

“Yeah, but I needed keys,” I chuckled, “c’mon, what do I owe you?”

“300,” Gary said more assertively, “a deal’s a deal.”

Like I mentioned before, I’m not a huge fan of charity, but I’m also not much of a fan of having my ass kicked because I won’t take a deal.

“Alright, 300 it is.” I said, opening the van’s sliding door and tossing the axe inside, “transfer okay?”

“Works for me,” Gary replied, clearly glad to be done with the ‘argument’, before pulling out his phone and starting the process of sending me the bill, “got any big plans for today?”

“Nothing huge on the agenda,” I said after pulling out my phone in preparation, “probably going to head on over to Gertie’s, grab some things.”

Gary seethed at that as my phone vibrated, prompting me to accept the bill he’d sent, “If you’re grabbing white goods, I probably wouldn’t overdo it.”

“How do you mean?” I asked before hitting the little ‘ACCEPT’ button and doing my best to ignore the ‘-$300’ pop-up.

“It’s just that the old girl here’s in passable at best condition at the moment,” Gary explained, “I wouldn’t put any unnecessary strain on it until you can get her in for a proper service, and I wouldn’t bother doing that until you’ve got a couple grand put away.”

“A couple grand?” I scoffed, balking at the idea, “Just how bad is she?”

“She’s not great,” Gary chuckled humorlessly, “but again, I wouldn’t let you drive if I thought you’d get hurt. I’m just saying I probably wouldn’t fill the back with more than a couple hundred pounds. Three Nolans.”

“So…” I trailed off as I did some math, “600 pounds?”

“Two Nolans.” Gary clarified without so much as cracking a smile, “Seriously though, once you get some money behind you, send her back my way and I’ll have the bots fix that paneling, get her some new suspension, really work her over.”

“How long would you wait?” I asked.

“Honestly? I wouldn’t suggest sitting on her for more than a few weeks at tops,” Gary replied before taking a moment to really think it over, “I also wouldn’t take her on any big trips.”

I tilted my head at that, “What classifies a big trip?”

“Probably don’t leave town,” Gary said, “and try to make sure you have reception ‘til we get her fixed up.”

I’m not sure why, but the fact that I was, for the time being anyway, trapped in Darlingwood was less than appealing.

Granted, I hadn’t really thought about leaving or anything, but having Monster Mash back was supposed to be a return to some kind of normalcy, and freedom was a big part of that.

Even without that though, being stuck in the small town meant me and the girls wouldn’t have much in the way of work, nothing massive anyway.

“You alright there?” Gary asked, snapping me back to our conversation.

“Yeah, yeah,” I replied as confidently as I could, “just thinking. Well, I guess I better leave you to it.”

“Alright then.” Gary said with a smile before snapping his fingers with realization, “Before you leave, I’m pretty sure Andy was looking for someone to do a job for him, might be worth it to stick your head in.”

“Thanks for the tip.” I said, climbing into the driver’s seat, “See you around.”

“You too.” Gary replied before walking around the front of the van and heading towards the garage.

Starting her up, it was clear that Monster Mash was a damn sight healthier than she’d been the day before.

The vibrations had toned down to a more reasonable level, and while the engine still sounded a bit sick, I felt none of that anxiety I’d experienced before.

In fact, the only major problem I had was that I got to drive her for all of a minute before reaching town hall and parking again.

I had to move the van, couldn’t clog up the garage’s parking after all, but as I got out and walked up to the job board, I couldn’t help but feel like I’d been a bit wasteful with her limited life.

Thankfully, I was able to distract myself from the impending death of my trusty steed with a little help from a particularly interesting-looking job.

CHUPACABRA HUNT

Goddamn dog monster assholes are harassing my herd again.

Got a pack of at least a dozen of the little shits draining the cattle, almost killed a calf last night.

I know the system’s going to put some level suggestion on this posting, but don’t you listen to that bullshit. The only reason I ain’t handling it myself is my back’s out and Myrtle’s at her sister’s.

This is easy money.

They typically come out around ten at night, sometimes a little earlier if it’s cloudy.

Regards,

Jim Peterson

LEVEL

EXP

REWARD

5

1000

$400

As low as the payout was, I’d done enough of Peterson’s Chupacabra hunts to know that they really were easy money and experience.

I was actually kind of surprised that he hadn’t been hit up for review over the frequency of his job postings, but I’d chalked that up as another benefit to living in a small town.

Giving the board another look over after getting my ‘QUEST STARTED’ notification and seeing the only other job availabilities were either way outside of our level range or would conflict with the Peterson job, I turned around and made my way back to the van.

Evidently as much as the Intelligence boost had helped, my short-term memory was still absolutely crap.