After the Chimera died on the ground in front of us, a panel opened up on his sleeping mound to reveal the dungeon core. It floated in the air, a crystal that swirled with darkness and emanated hate and rage, backlit by the shaft of light that speared through the hole in the ceiling at the back of the cavern.

“That the dungeon core?” Bradley asked as he came up behind me and Junipher.

“That it is.” I responded while staring at the inky blackness that shifted and swirled within. He brought his rifle up and I stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “We don’t destroy it, we claim control of it.”

“Why?” He looked confused.

“It never really goes away if we destroy it, it just respawns eventually, but keeps its experience and memories, and then it grows stronger every time it is defeated.” I said as I reached out and touched the corrupted core.

CLAIM DUNGEON CORE? (Yes/No)

Yes.

CONGRATULATIONS! You have claimed [LOCAL DUNGEON: KAIBAB PRISON CELL BLOCK 4]

CONGRATULATIONS! LOCAL AREA QUEST: DEFEAT AND CLAIM THE LOCAL DUNGEON: KAIBAB PRISON CELL BLOCK 4 COMPLETED!

You have been awarded 25000 Experience, 10000 UMC, and 1 Legendary piece of equipment per surviving party member! See the dungeon chest for all loot. Have a nice day!

CONGRATULATIONS! You have earned a [Large Settlement Core]!

Everyone gasped at the influx of both experience and credits except for Junipher and myself. Another notification followed immediately after the first.

CONGRATULATIONS! For choosing to claim the dungeon, you have been awarded a bonus of 2500 Experience and 1000 UMC!

CONGRATULATIONS! For completing a dungeon on conflict mode and defeating all other parties present you have been awarded 10000 Experience and 2000 UMC!

NICE! After all the killing and fighting of the day I had reached level 24, and getting to magic level 25 looked to be a ways off, extra experience is always a good thing. I looked at my experience bar and saw I needed almost a million experience to reach level 25 and get my Advanced Class.

As everyone exclaimed and murmured about all the experience they gained the Dungeon Chest appeared. This one was about the size of a dinner table with a sticky black exterior and contradicting gold trim that converged on a singular red gem. I reached out and pressed my fingers against the gem and it pulsed with light briefly before swinging open in a riot of blinding color. Three objects presented themselves to me which I snatched out of the air and stepped off the platform to make room for the others to grab their respective loots. I’d look at them in a minute, I needed to know if my settlement, and by extension, Alyssa still stood.

“Veep, we got comms back with the settlement yet?” I asked urgently.

She bobbed into my view and began to report excitedly, “YES! We do! I saved and sorted the notifications for you. And before you ask, yes, Alyssa is alive, though badly wounded.”

I felt the tension I had been hanging onto through the last few fights ease and then Veep interjected “I’ve pulled up the recording of the fight from several perspectives and compiled a report of damage and losses for you. Read your notifications first, and you’ve got a couple messages as well.”

I sighed with relief and began reviewing the additional notifications.

CONGRATULATIONS! Your Settlement has defeated an attack by a Gnoll Warband. All participants in the defense have earned 100000 Experience and 10000 UMC. Your settlement has earned 10000 SP.

That’s good for everyone involved. What’s next?

NOTICE: SooHoo Settlement Captain of the Guard, Alyssa Nightraven has been rescued by Samantha Devers. For successful completion of a settlement quest by a settlement member your settlement has earned 1000SP.

That’s… interesting. Also, good to know that posting quests for the settlement isn’t all one sided.

After the major system notifications I reviewed my message box and saw I had several to parse, one from Johnny, Samantha, and Sanchez. I read through them all and got the jist of the situation. The settlement was secure. Alyssa was alive but had lost her arm in the fight. We lost about 10 fighters overall, though the ones that remained had gained significant levels and used the credit reward to upgrade their equipment.

Sanchez had led a small group of officers towards the settlement and arrived right as the Gnoll Lieutenant was about to deliver the killing blow on Alyssa. I would review the recording in a bit, but I was feeling it was time to exit this shit show.

Junipher slid up next to me wearing several new shiny trinkets. She sensed the relief in my posture and smiled and nuzzled her nose into my shoulder while keeping her eyes locked on mine. “Everything is good on the homefront?”

“As well as it can be, I suppose.” I spun around to look at the rest of my party that was oohing and aahing over their new equipment. Bradley walked up to me with a wicked grin and a white futuristic rifle that stretched over a meter and a half in length. Instead of a barrel two long flat vanes stretched from the receiver, which thrummed quietly with power.

“Railgun.” He smiled like a 16 year old that just smelled his first pussy.

“Nice.” I responded and then he produced my AR and magazine and gave them back to me.

“Thanks for the loaner. We getting out of here?”

“Fuck yeah! Let’s get out of here, Beesh!” Phil exclaimed and everyone nodded.

“Yeah, let’s beat feet. Looks like we can get out through there.” I pointed to the series of switchback ramps that lead to the hole in the ceiling. “You get that message from your daughter?”

“Yeah, I’m glad she’s alright, though it sounds like she almost wasn’t. I’ll have to thank Sanchez when I see her.” ,the relief in Phil’s posture was as obvious as mine.

“Me too.”

“So what’s the plan? Scheel asked behind me as we ascended the shallow switchbacks.

“Get out of here, report our success, and…” I paused as I thought about a plan for the first time.

What the fuck do I really want to do now? The settlement is secure for the moment. I am confident Johnny can manage the settlement, he’s already queued up the building of the marketplace among other construction projects. I can approve those from here. The only thing I need is someone to organize the defenses while Alyssa is down. They said she’s not going to die, so I don’t need to handle that, not that there’s anything I can do about that. Maybe one of Shubin’s people can fix her up?

And I have an overpowering urge to hit level 25 and gain my Advanced Class. “Veep, can you detect the number of encampments over level 20 between here and my settlement?

She bobbed for a moment before responding, “There are seven monster encampments that meet your requirements that will soon be sending out hordes, would you like me to plot them on a map?”

“Yes, and share it with the party.”

“Of course.” She sent the information to the rest of the group as we emerged into the light of a hot Arizona afternoon. We were in a small crevasse that was flanked by flagstone cliffs. I quickly scaled the short rock face and looked around to get my bearings. I found the prison in the distance about a mile away. Everyone made their way to the top of the rock with me and I soon found myself at the center of my team's attention.

“So I assume you have an idea kicking around in your head about what to do next?” Scheel pressed once we were gathered.

“Yeah, I think I do. Veep informs me that the locations I sent you are high level monster encampments that will soon be sending out hordes to attack nearby settlements. My settlement is the only one close by. We’re in a desert with no lifeline, many of you aren’t aware but the I-40 is shut down, something big wrecked the train yard and that’s still burning.” I waved my hand at the thick black smoke in the distance. “And as you all know, my urgency in the dungeon was due to my settlement, the only safe zone in this desert for 60 miles, was under attack.”

“Ok.” she responded, patiently waiting for me to get to the point.

“The attack has been resolved and the settlement is safe for the time being. So, while I want to get back to the settlement I also want to do what I can to reduce the chances they are attacked again.”

“Makes sense.” Bradley interjected.

“The locations I sent you are along our path of travel back to the settlement, I’m assuming a little in that you would probably want to pay a visit, if nothing but to use the kiosk. You got UMC and can get some real sci-fi/fantasy shit out of it.” I nodded at the large rifle that Bradley was absent-mindedly lovingly caressing.

“Which means I have to ask, how many of you kids have family here in town and need to go find them?” I already knew Phil was headed my way, and Bradley’s family was on the Rez, so it was likely he would follow at least til we reached the settlement, the three youngsters were the rogue element in my plan.

They all looked at each other and Scheel spoke first. “Mine and Courtney’s family live in the Valley, what about you Stephen?”

“California, Santa Monica.” He shrugged, “I don’t expect to get there by myself, so I’m with you til I feel like I can make the trip on my own.”

I smiled at that and finally laid my plan out for them, “Ok, so here’s what I’ve got, I’ll admit I’m being a little self serving here but everyone gets something from this. We are all on the verge of hitting level 25, so that’s the first benefit, if you guys have been talking to your Virtual Assistants, you know that at 25 we get to pick an Advanced Class.”, I nodded at Stephen, “Which means more power. More Skills. More Abilities. A side benefit for hitting these settlements for me is also that I can grab more settlement cores. Which means I can grow the settlement and make it more secure.”

They all nodded as they listened to what I had to say. “That’s it, hit the encampments along the way, return to the settlement, grow it, gain our advanced classes, and then I’ll decide what to do when I have everything sorted on the homefront.”

“Sounds like a plan, Beesh! Not a five year plan or anything but, it’s still a plan.” Phil smiled and slapped me on the back.

We hashed out some more details and soon I saw Kaia’s form bounding over the rocks and brush of the desert halfway between our position and the prison.

“Looks like the first point of interest is actually in the old scrap yard behind the prison.” Bradley spoke up as Kaia leapt up to our location and greeted me with a sniff and a wet lick, then settled down to let Junipher give him affection in the form of ear scratches.

I looked up at the sun as it moved across the sky, “No time like the present, let’s do this shit.”

We began to march across the desert towards the first encampment and I took the time to finally review the gear I had earned and quickly equipped it all. First up was a pair of legendary gloves.

The Rogue Gunslingers Fingers

LEGENDARY

[+50 Strength]

[+50 Agility]

[+250 Stamina]

[+25% Elemental Resistance]

[Passive: Quickdraw, The Gunslinger can draw, aim, and fire his pistol in the blink of an eye, you do so faster.]

After equipping them I could instantly feel the effect they imparted on my attributes. I smiled as I flexed the black leather gloves and revelled in the feel of the material that felt like a second skin. Nothing about the gloves stood out, but I wasn’t complaining. Next on the list was a pair of plain looking tan tactical boots.

Tactical Boots

RARE

[+25 Endurance]

[+20 Armor]

[+10% Movement Speed over Rough Terrain]

And finally a small dark metal ring that I slipped on my right middle finger that proffered an extra +100 Stamina.

Not too shabby if I do say so myself.