After we looted the boss and my friends freaked out about my new piece of gear, we all decided to head back up. As we left the tower, we were met by staff from Hellstrom who had us log our progress and our loot. All in all we’d ended up with a half full orange and five full reds to spend, but none of us had any idea where the hell we were supposed to spend it all. After talking to the others we agreed to split up and meet back up after getting some rest and working out a good spot to shop for some gear.

Despite the level for the first five floors being one in the theoretical sense, the designations were made with trained and talented highsiders in mind and more importantly, they assumed said highsiders were geared. Since we were neither of those things, we all agreed to try to gear up a bit more completely before we hit the next set of floors. On the upside, being out of the tower, meant we could meet back up with Star, who was thrilled to see us after a week of doing her own thing.

The bubbly blonde cannibal squealed with joy on seeing Erin and Ali, hugging them both and immediately regaling them with loud and very graphic descriptions of her carnal exploits, interspersed with exceptionally dry but enthusiastic descriptions of her technical class work. Oddly, the combination was kind of fascinating, and I still found it adorable that Star was so thrilled by every little aspect of her school life. Grimacing in distaste as my sister started expounding on her own sex life with Aidan, the conversation suddenly became much less charming, and I slipped back to where Shawn and Sebastian were talking about some of the gear they might buy.

Catching the tail end of that conversation, I naturally jumped right in “Do you guys really already have a place to pick up gear? We could all use some defensive equipment for our next run but I have no clue where to get anything.” I’d been wondering about this for a few days actually, but we hadn’t had any stones to spend so it hadn’t seemed relevant. Now that we had some cash I couldn’t resist dreaming about all the amazing magic items we could buy.

Shawn grinned at the question “Of course, I have the perfect place in mind. It’s the biggest gear shop in town, and they have stuff all across the spectrum. Well, not legendary gear. You cant buy those in lower realms most of the time. Occasionally you get some ancient sword or something that gets dug up in a tomb or something, but even those are usually only mythic, and you only get them once every few decades. Not that we would be able to afford the stuff anyway. Demon lords and Archangels have to pool their resources to afford even a trashy legendary item.”

It didn’t take us long to round up the others with promises of loot and treasure and get them packed into the car and headed toward this weird supernatural shopping center Shawn had heard about. It occurred to me that Shawn always seemed to know where to find these kinds of places before the rest of us, it might be a good idea to ask my friend about his sources, you never knew when having a line on solid information would be a saving grace in a dangerous situation.

We managed to fit everyone into Magnus’s car, which, to exactly no ones surprise was an electric blue hummer with vanity plates reading MJLNIR. The seats were plush and warm but worn down from use and several cans of soda and empty bags of chips littering the inside. Sarah grimaced at the mess, probably the first negative reaction to anything I’d seen from her since we’d met back up, and I couldn’t help but smirk a little at the apparent neat freak in our midst.

The drive to the entrance to the shopping district or whatever it was took us about twenty minutes. I tried several times on the ride to grill Shawn about where the hell we were going but all he would give was a vague smile and instructions on when to turn. When we finally pulled to a stop I couldn’t help share a curious look with the others as we climbed out of the massive tank like vehicle.

We were standing at a dock, in front of a huge warehouse. I looked over to Shawn questioningly but he just gave me that same smile. The concrete beneath use was cracked and pitted and the air reeked of brine and seawater, but looking around all I could see were empty run down dock buildings and shipping containers. Shawn just ignored the looks and walked casually up the closest building, the old warehouse we had parked in front of. He knocked out shave and a hair cut on the door and one of those tiny metal viewing plates snapped open, revealing a pair of slit pupil golden eyes.

Shawn gave a nod before saying “We’re here to buy some fruit.” I heard a low snicker before the door swung open, revealing a pitch black space that seemed to lead down at the steepest possible angle. The stairs were barely visible in the gloom and so steeply angled they were almost a ladder, but Shawn just strolled down them casually, so with a shrug and an uneasy look we followed. As the door slammed behind us, twisted iron wall sconces bearing stubby black candles flickered to life with an eerie green flame. As we resumed the climb into the earth, the stairs were empty around us, with nothing visible that could have opened the door.