DungeonFall – [A Dungeon Creation / Cultivation Story]

Nina took over driving the truck, giving her husband a chance to rest. In the back seat, the three teenagers had passed out as soon as they sat down. The couple of hours’ sleep they had gotten earlier had not been enough to do more than keep them awake until that point.

The adults let them nap for the entirety of the drive back to the wall. They had passed the processing center for active expeditions without stopping. Since this was their last load, they would be taking it to a facility inside the wall this time. The other one was there for convenience and speed, but no one wanted to work with more than they needed to.

Convenience came at a cost, and the prices they offered for everything were a little lower than the main center. Not enough to gouge everyone, but enough to make a difference over the long term.

The wait time for the gate was only a few minutes, and then they were inside the safety of the walls once more.

Pulling into the processing facility a couple of minutes later, Nina shook her husband and the three teens awake. They needed to unload the cargo and make sure all the cores had been collected from them at the same time. She doubted Niall and John had taken the time to go through each one before tossing them inside the trailer. They might have gone through any of the beasts that were still lying around afterward, but not these ones.

Nate woke with a grunt and slowly pressed against his neck with a firm hand, stretching the aching muscle. That had not been a good sleeping position. He might be in a young, healthy body, but even it had limits, especially when he was already exhausted.

He gently nudged Angie and Lindsay and climbed out of the truck like an old man.

“Take a minute to stretch out and warm up your body. Then come on back and help us unload everything and search them all for cores.” His dad told him, already in the midst of his own stretches.

Nate nodded, getting a good look at his father for the first time. He was covered in dried flaking blood and was generally creating a mess with every step he took. He had wondered why the inside of the truck was covered with removable cloths earlier. Well now, he had his answer. It was for ease of cleaning, which was something that he was not looking forward to.

Behind the trailer, each beast was quickly cut open for its core and then moved to the side. A large forklift with an absolutely ridiculous-sized tray on the front of it and weights on it back had come out to meet them.

With Lindsay and Angie’s help, he transferred each of the beasts that had been inspected by the facility representative onto the tray. They made sure to stack them as closely as possible, so they would all fit.

When they had finished, the forklift lifted the tray into the air and stopped.

The representative stepped out of the machine and handed a slip of paper to his parents. “Not a bad catch for their first expedition, and the weight of it all is good as well. I’m sure you know the procedure, but I’ll explain it for the newcomers.

“When I inspect the beasts, it is only a preliminary inspection for what I believe their minimum quality is. The tray is attached to a scale. The cheque I just handed over is a guarantee of payment for a set amount. That is the initial payment for all of these beasts. When they are processed, another payment will be made to their account for the rest of the amount. It will include the money for items I am unable to judge right away, skin, bones, teeth, tendons, and the actual quality of the beast itself. Any questions?”

The three shook their heads. Before that moment, they had no idea how any of it had worked, but it made sense to them.

“Very well, then. I shall be off. Mr. and Mrs. Holmes, always a pleasure. I would suggest having your rig looked at. It seems you ran into some trouble while you were out.” He finished with a pointed look, handing them a card.

Nina turned around and showed the group the amount written on the cheque. Beside her, Niall dug out the cheque he had gotten from the earlier load and showed it to them as well.

“This is the initial amount we, as in all of us, are being paid for the bodies we brought to both processing centers. As he mentioned, the amount will go up once they have been fully processed. However, that will take a day or two. We also still have these that we need to sell.” Nina told them, before holding up one of the bags of beast cores.

“The bank is back at the parking area for the truck and rig. Both of your parents should have created accounts with them already. That is also where we will sell the cores. The parking area also happens to have showers onsite for all of us,” Niall finished with, urging them back to the vehicle.

They all climbed back into the truck with the windows down. After cutting out the cores and handling the bodies, they were covered in blood and gore and bits of everything. The stream of fresh air at least kept them all from smelling themselves.

“What are you thinking about?” Nate asked Angie just before they pulled into the parking area.

She shook her head and yawned. “Nothing, just still tired is all. Once we got back inside the truck, it hit me again.”

The drive from the center to the parking area had only been a couple of minutes, but it had been long enough for Lindsay to fall asleep with her head partially out the window.

A good long nap when they got home was in all of their futures, he reckoned.

The truck pulled into the same spot it had been in the day before and idled for a moment as they all relaxed. Nina pulled out a small remote from the glove box and pushed three of the buttons on it before tossing it back inside.

“You know you’re going to have to stay and give a statement, right?” She asked her husband.

He nodded, shutting off the engine after making sure all the windows had been rolled up. “I know. Hey John, do you mind staying around as well to answer their questions and show them the pictures you took?”

The guard nodded. He would be more than happy to help sink the idiots who had dared do a pump and dump run on them. If any of the kids had been with them on the trip to the processing center… Well, it was not something he even wanted to think about.

“Alright, I’ll take them to get their licenses and then drop off everyone at the house. Once that is done, I’ll come back and get you both. They can all eat or get some sleep until we return. Once I know you are done, I’ll call their parents with a specific pickup time so we can hold a meeting on how this expedition went.” She struggled not to wince when she said that.

It had started out well, but in the end, her and Niall’s inexperience had shone through. Being more or less sabotaged by Donovan hadn’t helped either. None of that mattered. In the end, she and Niall had been responsible for the safety of the kids, and they had nearly failed in that regard.

She wouldn’t blame them if they never wanted to work with either of them again. Not that they had expected that to be the case anyway. This expedition had been an emergency gig, not one that was meant to become a full-time thing for them. It just sucked that they had blown it so badly, is all.

They were still pulling out their gear when two men and a woman approached them.

“Hey Jane,” Nina greeted the woman. “We’re going to need the full workup on the inside. It was the kids first expedition and things got a little out of hand.” She motioned to herself and the others. “Sorry, but the inside is disgusting.”

“No worries, Mrs. H, my team and I will just wear gas masks while we’re cleaning the inside of the truck.” She replied with a wink, passing over a work order form for her to sign.

The two men followed Niall and John to the trailer to inspect the damage and hear about what had happened. One of them was a welder and bodywork mechanic, while the other worked for the ‘Licensing Bureau’.

As soon as they showed him the pictures of Donovan’s truck and rig, the man fell silent. He recognized the truck, just like he recognized the Holmes. The cultivators who worked in the expeditions professionally were all part of a community.

It was a large community, considering the size of the city. However, he was assigned to specific people, just like everyone at the bureau was. He had been working with the Holmes for several years and had been partially responsible for introducing them to Donovan originally.

Looking back at the three teens who were all hurrying off toward the showers with bags in hand, he shook his head. “Donovan truly screwed up this time. He never should have asked you to go on that stupid expedition in the first place. And he certainly never should have reacted the way he did when you said no. I’m sorry I ever introduced him to you, but I will make sure this is handled properly.”

“It’s fine Scott. He used to be a decent boss in the beginning, but then things changed, and the divorce happened. He threw himself into the job after that. The corporation exploded in size and strength, but he never dealt with what happened.”

They kept talking and going over the details of the incident and how much it would cost to repair. By the time everyone was coming back from the showers, they were wrapping up the discussion.

“If you want to wait a couple of minutes, John and I can rush through our showers?” Niall offered as they approached.

“Go ahead, we need to move everything over onto the roof of the car anyway.” His wife told him, wrinkling her nose at his smell.

Seeing the general nasty state of their backpacks and gear, Nate began to realize why they had packed all the gear on the roof rack. It was an SUV, and it had plenty of room in the back. Room that had originally been taken up by spare supplies and equipment for the truck and rig. On the way back, however, there was little doubt in his mind that anyone wanted the filthy items inside with them.

They heaved their packs on top of the car with their weapons and strapped them down while they waited. The bags of cores went into the back for the moment. They were slightly bloody and had a definite smell to them, but the bank was on the way out of the parking area. So, they wouldn’t have to deal with them for long.

Niall and John joined them a minute later, both with their hair still damp, but much cleaner and better smelling than before.

The stop at the bank was a quick affair meant to introduce the kids to the process.

All the cores were dumped into a bath at the beginning that cleaned them. It then passed them through a scanner that separated them by grade and elemental attribute. That information was then passed on to the bank teller, who told everyone else in the group.

If there were any cores that someone wanted to keep, as they fit with their cultivation needs, now was the time to speak up.

Both of the girls took a couple, while Nate didn’t find any that fit him. All of the cores were too weak for the adults to bother with.

“That is one hundred and eleven cores. Forty-eight of them were all ‘Core Creation’, thirty-three were ‘Core Refining’, nineteen were ‘Foundation Establishment’ and the remaining eleven were ‘Foundation Refining’. Do you want the funds for all of these cores split as previously agreed? Twenty-five percent to the company, and the remaining seventy-five percent split among the nine accounts listed on file for this expedition?”

Niall and Nina both nodded. The percentage the company was taking was slightly less than normal, but they also only had a few operating expenses at this point in time. With any luck, they could make Donovan pay for the fixes to the rig as well.

Paying the people who went out with them well was more important than anything else. Besides, they had also gotten paid, and they hadn’t even turned over the herbs yet.