Chapter Forty – A Safe Place

“Three thousand gold!?” I announced, annoyed. “That’s outrageous! That's like a thousand pies! Do you know how much work it would take to make a thousand pies!? More work than you’ll be doing to build me a safe zone!” I screeched.

“Hey, you want the place, and you don’t want to allow me to use it as a home point, that's the price! Take it or leave it. I’m sure you’ll find someone else willing to go that low!” said TtSLewtSeller2317.

I fumed. “Twenty-eight hundred. Final offer.”

“Done,” he said.

TtSLewtSeller2317 was a creepy-looking guy wearing a black cloak that had a stylized TtS logo on his cape and wore a hood that disguised his face. Something about this whole scenario seemed fae-y to me. Amy had called it fishy when people did sneaky things, but people always used fish when they meant fae while talking about me. I’d make sure to correct her later.

I’d been reaching out and trying to get someone to help me build the last part of my safe zone for the better part of two cycles now. I hadn’t expected it to take so long though.

Two people had already reached out to me but their prices had been ludicrous amounts, some nearly fifteen thousand gold for the bare minimum of service. Finally, this guy had answered my request and his price was only outrageous.

Outrageous… because it was so cheap. Too cheap based on all the other offers I’d gotten. Almost too good to be true.

Then again, it would completely wipe out my funds to let him do this.

Or… would it?

“You get the minimal package. Nothing but the cycle it takes to build the zone. No additional amenities, no auto food service, no NPC cooks, no auto repair magics, no cleaning, no marketplace access, no repair node, no healing node, no training ground. Nothing basically except the ability to teleport to this area and claim it as your own. Are you sure that’s all you want?” he asked.

I grimaced. Perhaps I could ask Francis or Tyrone for money but that didn’t sit right with me. How could it be my home if I went and asked the False Gods for everything I might need?

“That’s all I can afford. You’re the lowest price I’ve found,” I said honestly.

“Well, I guess that’ll be alright. Not a terrible little setup you’ve got here. Good builder. Great carpenter. Master-level?” he asked, sounding genuinely curious.

I beamed. “I’ll tell Iron you said so! He’s my friend!”

“Well miss, you just hand me over the twenty-eight hundred gold and I’ll get to work!” he said with a genuinely pretty smile. It almost made me feel bad about what I was about to do.

Almost.

“Alrighty!” I said happily.

Miss Tutorial popped up, as she often did when I activated system things she could teach me about. She didn’t say anything, having already taught me all about the trading system though. She was just here to watch.

I handed over the gold and accepted the trade happily.

The sour man beamed, his smile sinister behind his hood.

“Pleasure doing business with you!” he said before lifting into the air.

“Wait… what are you doing?” I asked, watching as the familiar sound of teleportation in progress began to drift off his magic-infused body.

“Oh I’ve just got to head back to town to get some supplies,” he said, as casually as can be.

“I think he is lying, Gell!” came Miss Tutorial’s pleasant voice.

I already knew that, but let no sign of my irritation show on my face.

“Alright! That sounds great. I’ll be here waiting!” I said exuberantly, patting his leg with a friendly activation of my epic level steal ability.

He scoffed. “Yeah. Sure.”

While his teleportation finished, I rifled through his inventory. He had some neat stuff, but his gold was what I wanted. And holy wow did he have a lot of it!

Well. He had a lot of it. His character was on level one and my chance to steal from him was over 97%.

“Thanks, sir!” I appreciate all the help!” I said, this time completely genuine.

“Me too, Gell. I hope to do business with you again!” He said, the false sincerity practically bleeding out of his words.

He disappeared with a warping noise, completely unaware that he was over fifty-six thousand gold poorer. Clearly, I had been stealing from the wrong people.

“Congratulations! You’ve gained three thousand and forty-nine experience points. You have gained a level!”

I blinked. Level sixteen? Wow! That was great!

I opened the labor search menu, now that I’d accomplished the admittedly simple missions required to unlock it. Within, I could limit the search, to exactly who I needed, but was happy to find that my recent searches were saved just below! Thanking Miss Tutorial for saving me the effort of looking them up again, I quickly hunted down one of the ridiculously expensive Amenities Magi and sent them a happy message about how I would love to take their deluxe thirty thousand gold package. I had conveniently just come into a whole lot of money! I made a little smiley face at the end like Miss Tutorial did occasionally and received an enthusiastic response almost immediately.

A cycle later I received a wonderful new prompt.

“Congratulations! You now control a Safe Zone along with XxXD3stinyW3averXxX and Iron Crock! Would you like to make this zone public or private?”

“What would you like to name your Safe Zone?”

“Definitely Private. And…”

It didn’t take me long to decide on a name. I’d already changed a lot of things today, so I chose “Jungle Home,” for the familiarity.

Shortly after I named it, and finished listening to the fanfare of trumpets that always accompanied those congratulations notices, the Amenities Mage gave me a smile and a wave.

“XxXD3stinyW3averXxX has given up his claim as part-owner of your Safe Zone. You are now Co-owners of Jungle Home with Iron Crock!”

I beamed at the man and he lifted into the air much as TtSLewtSeller2317 had. Unlike that swindling jerk, he left with every coin he’d earned. If I ever wanted to make another Safe Zone I’d definitely be calling him.

Also, I needed to start stealing from the labor sales people. TtSLewt wasn’t the first person I’d seen with that same look about him, a level one character with a ridiculously high profession level. I bet all of them had great big stashes of ill-gotten gains ripe for the plunder of a destitute Jellyfae in need of more Steak-and-Broccoli!”

Metaphors were still fun.

I took my first step into our new Safe Zone, beaming with pride. Our safe zone was built. Our new home looked almost nothing like our old one. The building was big with lots of windows to let in sunshine, moonlight, or starlight. I put a bunch of torches on the walls too, because I thought they would make Bugbear feel more at home.

“Grrnnlll,” came a grunt from inside the building. “Grink! Eiak!”

A surprisingly panicked grunt.

“Bugbear!? I screamed, pride forgotten in an instant as I sprinted to the door.

Bugbear, to our great surprise, had been pretty easy to keep in one spot. He followed me around in a way that felt eerily like his old way of following in Instinct. I was glad that he’d chosen to stick with me but when I’d left him alone by teleporting to Variak he just sat down to wait, perfectly content to spend the cycles it took me to unlock the labor system without doing a single thing.

He’d been enamored with the bed in the bedcave we’d made for him and had been guarding it avidly ever since.

He’d broken free of the instinct but still hadn’t quite developed a need for his own actions yet. That was my guess anyway. For me, by the time I’d finally been turned into an adventurer, my need to go had been almost overwhelming. Bugbear didn’t seem to have nearly as much wanderlust as me. Instead, he had left for me, and I thought he might be perfectly content to take me back to Dungeon Home. He didn’t understand that the other Bugbears there would attack him now that he was an Orc.

I charged into the room panicked, only to find him staring in fascination at a mirror.

The deluxe package from my amenities mage came with a spell that would fully furnish a house and Bugbear flitted from object to object as if they were all about to attack him, brandishing his new axe.

Fortunately, he hadn’t yet swung at anything, though I thought the only reason he hadn’t was because there were so many new targets.

“Bugbear! Bugbear hey! It’s okay! It’s okay, alright? It’s just… stuff!”

“Grrnnn!” his nostrils flared, eyes wide with panic. He stepped between me and pushed me back into the door before placing himself between me and all of the new objects inside the small house.

I couldn’t help it. I began to laugh.

Wasn’t this what I’d always wanted, all those cycles ago? Someone, to care for me? No. Not even that deep. Just some who cared about me.

I’d always wanted that someone to be Bugbear. And he had. He did.

I jumped up onto his broad shoulders and wrapped my arms around him.

“Grree?” He said confused. I laughed harder, pulling myself up to his shoulder and wrapping my legs around his back.

“I’ll show you. Okay?” I said calmly.

“Hiya adventurer!” Miss Tutorial said, and to my shock, Bugbear looked at her. She hadn’t appeared before me at all. I could see her in front of him! She could show herself to both of us now! Wow!

“Welcome to your new Safe Zone! Would you like to learn about Safe Zones?”

Bugbear held out a tentative claw and hit the yes button, oblivious to my weight on his back. It was all I could do not to crumple to the floor. I didn’t think he’d appreciate me laughing at him.

We were changing. We were growing, the three of us.

‘Soon-to-be four of us,’ I thought nervously remembering the King.

I was going to get in so much trouble for that I was sure. But I wasn’t alone anymore. Someday Bugbear would be able to talk and Miss Tutorial might have a body, and the King… well, who knew what he might become!?

I received a sudden notification and pulled up my interface. I beamed at the news. Akwa had logged back in! I had so much to show her!