System Architect - Ch 127

I was surprised the officer hadn’t noted down our names or anything else. There was no way I would say anything. Poking Smokey was not a wise decision on the best of days—and today was not a good day. I could only imagine the chaos happening everywhere. In some respects, it was shocking that the police were able to dispatch someone to watch over the dungeon. While I had no idea how many dungeons were around, it seemed like a huge drain on their resources when they could be off doing more important things like pepper-spraying peaceful protesters.

I put thoughts of the dungeon out of my mind as we walked the mile to Dad’s house. There were more important things going on, like making sure the rest of my family was alright. I was dreading what Grandma Rose would say or do, given how she’d reacted to magic all those years ago.

I took a deep breath as I knocked on the front door. A moment of silence passed before there was a shuffling of feet. The door swung open to show Dad and Grandpa Milton there to greet us.

“Come on in,” Dad said while his eyes looked us over.

I went into the house with Mom and Grandpa Joe on my heels. I kicked off my shoes and placed my spear by the door.

“Sorry about the mess,” I said. “We came across a dungeon on the way over. I swear any blood and guts is not my own!”

“I believe you… but you should probably get changed before your grandparents see you, ok?”

I shrugged. I had clothed in my room to change into. Mom and Grandpa Joe… did not. I joined everyone in the living room a couple minutes later. Grandma Rose and Grandpa Milton were seated on a couch, snacking on chips and dip. They were content to wait for all of us to enter—which turned out to be the best thing that could have happened.

“Oh my gosh!” exclaimed Grandma Rose. “What happened to you guys?”

“We ran into a dungeon on the way here,” Grandpa Joe said. “Took care of the goblins inside. Nasty little things!”

“Well, I’m glad you’re ok! I don’t know why God saw fit to test us all like this. Have we grown so complacent as to need such a punishment?”

“Or an opportunity,” I added.

“I do not think Hell coming to Earth is an opportunity,”she spat, glaring at me.

“When He rewards us for battling the denizens of Hell, that is an opportunity,” I shot back.

“Hmm,” was all she said in response.

Between my age and explaining the system with words she would understand, it was enough to have her back off. I hoped she would think about it a bit more. The system I had built was our salvation, and the deity that had caused the apocalypse seemed not to be evil—just indifferent. She didn’t know this, nor would it do any good to tell her either. She was too closed-minded to do anything but condemn reality when it conflicted with her world-view.

“So what did everyone end up with for a class?” I asked.

“I’m a Spearman,” Mom stated in an effort to get others to say more.

“Gunslinger,” Grandpa Joe said.

“God chose me as his Zealot,” Grandma Rose announced with a smile.

It was worse than I had imagined. She had officially gone off the deep end.

“What does that do?” I asked, wondering how to explain my class without getting smote.

“I have a skill that lets me bless others against the minions of Hell,” she said.

“That’s cool. What about you, Dad?”

“Spearman as well,” he shrugged.

“I’m a Healer,” Grandpa Milton said. “Like my wife, I can boost people’s abilities. It’s not against monsters though, but rather to heal faster or recover from poison. That sort of thing.”

“That’s awesome!” I exclaimed. “I’m a Wizard, which means I can throw fire at the monsters.”

I neglected to mention that I could also zap them. I figured that Grandma Rose would react better to burning the minions of Hell as she called them. It turned out that I had been correct in that assumption.

“Do they burn well?” she asked with an unsettling grin on her face.

“They do.”

“Good. Good.”

She nodded while muttering to herself.

An uncomfortable silence fell over everyone. Eventually, Dad coughed. That was enough to snap up out of it.

“Have you seen the news?” he asked.

“No,” Mom said. “We left soon after it started.”

“Well, you should take a look.”

Dad turned on the TV and flipped to the local news channel. There were three people talking about the events that had happened over the past few hours.

“For those of you just joining us,” the man on the left said. “The President made an announcement moments ago declaring a state of emergency nationwide. Citizens are asked to shelter in place for the moment. He stressed that people should only travel when absolutely necessary. These monsters are believed to be dangerous and should not be approached under any circumstances.”

“That’s right,” said the woman on the right. “We saw what those monsters could do during the tutorial. I do not want to go through that experience again.”

“Turning now to reports of abandoned cars everywhere,” said the man in the middle. “Authorities are mystified by the sudden disappearance of drivers and passengers from cars, trains, and airplanes. Their absence has led to so many accidents that the roadways are clogged. It may be weeks before the roads are fully cleared!”

“We’re getting reports from some folks at home saying that they were driving home for lunch when they were swept up in the tutorial,” said the man on the left. “Upon returning, they were placed at their destination rather than back inside their car. This may explain why cars and other modes of transportation were abandoned. It’s still too early to know for sure, however.”

“Sorry to interrupt,” said the man in the middle. “We have a reported on scene with one of those dungeons talked about in the tutorial. Go ahead Christine.”

“Thanks, Jim,” said the woman in front of the camera.

Behind her was a dungeon much like the one I’d cleared with Mom and Grandpa Joe. It was a level 9 dungeon with a timer of just under a month before it would break.

“As you can see, these large structures are dungeons. At the top is an indication of the difficulty while there’s a timer underneath counting down until the monsters will escape the dungeon. This was the only one we could get to with the way the roads are. There have been reports of others. The lowest reported was level 2 while the highest was level 19. Back to you, Jim.”

“Thank you, Christine,” he said, sweating. “As you can see, these dungeons pose a danger. Until they are deemed safe to enter, the government has posted a ‘round-the-clock watch at every dungeon location. Do not enter them. I repeat: do not enter them.”

Dad muted the TV and turned to me, Mom, and Grandpa Joe.

“So, what are dungeons really like inside?” he asked.

Mom explained what we had done—fighting and killing 100 goblins. Grandpa Joe explained the terrain and the strategy.

“It’s not too bad,” I said. “And it needs to be done. There’re simply too many dungeons for any government to control.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah. Based on everything I just saw on TV, there will be plenty of dungeon breaks in a few days. I hope that’s a catalyst for people to get off their butts and keep the dungeons clear.”

“Well said,” Grandma Rose said.

“Oh, and before anyone does go into the dungeon in the park nearby, let me improve your weapons. My profession is all about that kind of thing. I have to engrave the pattern and inlay it for the effect to happen—and you’ll need to be able to push mana into it for it to work. Here, let me show you the one I made in the tutorial.”

I took out the fire starter and showed it.

“The pattern’s here at the bottom. If I put mana into it, it will shoot sparks out the top. It’s a fire starter.”

I walked over to the fireplace and sent a few sparks out of the fire starter as part of my demonstration.

“How does that make weapons better?” Grandpa Milton asked.

“If—instead of sparks—it was something that made a knife cut easier, a sword burn as it sliced, or a bow shoot farther. That’s more what I mean.”

“That makes some sense. What can you do?”

“So far?”

He nodded.

“Make any blade sharper, coated in fire, or shock on contact. I might be able to make a weapon shoot a ball of fire, but I haven’t tried that one yet.”

Grandma Rose looked like she was bouncing.

“Which do you want?” I asked.

“Definitely the fire,” she said. “Can you make my hammer burn the denizens of Hell?”

“I can,” I said. “If you’ll give me an hour or two. Like I said, you’ll need to feed the sword with your mana for it to actually work. It takes some practice. Is there anyone else?”

The rest shook their heads or voiced their negative decision. I took Grandma Rose’s sword to the workshop in the back of Dad’s house. Once inside, I accepted the reward of my starting tools. Some were the same as the ones I already owned, but there were others I had never seen before. Those I set aside to research at a later date.

For the next hour, I worked on the pattern for wreathing the sword in fire. I took the fire part of Fireball and mixed it with the enchantment I’d made for my spear. When I felt I had it right, I engraved and filled the pattern onto her sword. I also saved it in Pattern Storage just in case. I returned to the living room with the sword.

“Would you like a demonstration?” I asked her.

She nodded.

I pushed mana into the sword and the air just past the edge of the blade ignited in a brilliant orange glow. I swung the sword slowly to show that it stuck to the sword. When I let the mana fall, I brought my fingers to the blade to show that it didn’t make the sword hot.

“And there you go,” I said. “It’ll burn when you hit something so long as you feed it mana. At the same time, it won’t heat up just because it’s on fire, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally hurting yourself.”

“That’s wonderful!” she exclaimed. “Thank you so much. I can’t wait to use it!”

“You’re welcome,” I said with a smile that hid how much I wanted to be far away from her.

After talking with my family for another hour, Mom and Grandpa Joe left. I took that as my cue to spend some quality time alone in my workshop. Dad would have to handle his parents because I wanted no part of the pressure of handing Grandma Rose. The slightest misstep with someone like that invariably led to an enmity I did not want to deal with. Too much drama for me!

With the dungeons locked down for the moment, the only ways to gain experience were from quests and using my profession. The quests available were fine—I picked up a couple—but the primary way was for me to finish enchantments. I had thousands of knives and other items to enchant. I was curious to see what the new options for skills would be when I earned my next free skill.