Their honeymoon had only lasted a week. They had married on July 1st, and by the 8th they were back to the Community Guild Hall. Their days had been filled with sex from sun up to sun down. Now it was kept to morning, noon, and night. Joon had stopped by on the 5th day, congratulated them, and joined in on the fun. Tiff got her revenge on Joony for sleeping with Asher without his permission, much to Joon’s delight. Since Joon was a little bit of a masochist she had been more than happy to allow Tiff to test her Mana Whip. The pink glowing whip caused pleasure and pain. They got a day of that fun, but were called back to help sort things out eventually.
Now it had been a month since they arrived back on Earth. The Star Elves, Leopardkin, Bofin, and Kitsune girls had taken to the planet nicely. The majority of them stuck together, but a few Star Elves branched off to dungeon groups. Chartalla spent a lot of time with her family trying to get them set up on another farm, but she too planned to start a monster hunting group. Though they hadn’t had sex yet, Tiff had promised to start up again soon. Joon, Tiff, and Zora had taken all of his attention.
Atalanta had left about 2 weeks ago to find herself, but was still in constant contact with them through Comms. She was traveling the world, and was trying to find people in the wilds. Bring them to local guilds, and protect people. In all honesty she was trying to find people from her past. Asher couldn’t be upset about that. She had been a very angry person when they met, and he hoped she was ready to make her own amends. With luck, maybe she would be able to find those from her past she had wronged.
Asher, Tiff, and Zora split up as they stepped into the Guild Hall. Tiff and Zora walked into the reception area to take care of a few items. Though the guild had been running for 6 months without them, Tiff and Zora went right back to taking charge. Handling assignments, answering questions, digging for resources, they worked harder than everyone else. Zora was going to have to go back to her guild soon, but for now she was happy helping out. They were already doing final touches on their alliance treaties.
“Woah there preggers,” Asher said dodging out of Daphne’s way as she walked down the stairs.
“Fuck off,” she said. Asher laughed.
“You know, for someone about to pop, you look mighty hot,” Asher said, and she did. A tall buxom woman with tanner skin than his own Daphne had popped Asher’s cherry once upon a time.
Daphne stopped walking. He was afraid that he said something wrong as she let out a sob. “Thank you,” she said, wiping her eyes.
“Woah, what’s gotten into you?” He asked. They moved to the wall.
“These fucking hormones,” Daphne said wiping her eyes, but she still had a slight smile on her face. “No one would look at me with Arnold around. It’s nice to finally have someone say something.”
Asher laughed. “You’ll always be that hot GILF that popped my cherry,” he said. She smacked his chest hard.
“You fucking say that again and I’ll cut your balls off,” she promised. But there was no real anger in her voice. Asher belly laughed. They had been in the porn industry so long ago, it was nice to remember their roots.
“I’m proud of you, you know,” he said, drawing her back toward the cafeteria. “I hear you were instrumental in your tutorial and after.”
“Yeah, well, most of these people were pussies about it,” she said. “I can’t wait to get back out there.”
“How does your System work again?” Asher asked.
“I get a spirit form of anything I kill personally,” she said. He could hear the excitement in her voice.
“What do you get with the spirits?”
“Stats, skills, I haven’t leveled in forever,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“Neato. I’ll keep my eye out for cool monsters,” he said.
“Would you?” She asked, stars in her eyes. “Arnold won’t do shit. Claims I have to do it myself.”
“I mean you should,” he said. “But if I can get a super strong one, it’ll only protect you and your future kid more, right? I mean. We are basically doing him a favor.”
“Right,” she said excitedly. Though they had once been lovers they had both agreed to leave that in the past. They liked to flirt, but Asher wasn’t about to go for one of his friend’s girls.
“There you are,” an older man barked. He pushed through the groups in the cafeteria. He was Henry Krollic, Daphne’s father. He looked about 50, young for his age of 70. Levels had done him well.
“What’s up?” Asher asked.
“We are working on the final list for the guild meeting,” Henry said. He passed over a sheet of paper.
“Jeez Henry, we aren’t going to war,” Asher said. It was a long list. “10 people, tops. That’s what we all agreed on. We have a lot of people from other guilds we need to take with us.”
“Kid, just cus we agree, doesn’t mean it will happen that way,” Henry said.
“They can break their word if they want. I won’t,” Asher said. “You, me, the higher ups in the guild, maybe a few more, but no more than 10.” Henry grumbled. The old man had been in the military once upon a time, and during the hard tutorial he awoke the General System. Not a standard one, but a military general. He was able to lead war and raid parties. He had skills to see status screens of people, and give commands from a distance. A very interesting System.
Asher had made him the leader of the Community Troops. The man had been lazy after the Tutorial. Happy with his levels. By the time Asher came back Henry was ready for some action. With ideas from the Roktai guild, they had split Community up into 3 main parts.
The Troops/Mercs were the dungeon divers that focused on leveling. Any one of them could be called to fight raids or actual people if the need arose. Asher wasn’t heartless enough to make them all kill people, but they needed to be aware that the possibility was out there. They went along with their day to day, and acted more like militia. If they were called to action they would be paid accordingly.
Next was the Professionals. These were the non-combat people. The Engineers, Doctors, and Accountants. All of them could now use mana and received skills attributed to that. Builders, Bankers, Mechanics, Brewers, and even Programmers had some new System that let them do their jobs better and easier than ever before. Custom shops and new skills were everywhere to be learned.
The last group was the miscellaneous. Those that didn’t have a System, or had no interest in leveling. Of course they would never turn away a kid. Many of them were ecstatic to turn 16 and get a System. Most of them had already begun to level without a System. Status Screens awakening at 13 they could gain experience and try to lead their awakened System when the time came.
There were also those that had been traumatized during the tutorial. Though you could get stats to make your mind and body stronger, sometimes it wasn’t enough. More than one person had been found unresponsive once the tutorial was over. Asher’s parents were quick to begin working with them.
“I’m telling you, we need more than 10 people,” Henry grumbled.
“The other groups could bring 100 and I still wouldn’t be scared,” Asher said. He had been working with many on mana circulation. He knew that some would learn the trick outside of the guild. There would be spies of course, but with psychics running around they would be easy to find. “We leave tomorrow. No more than 10,” Asher repeated. “And you, stay pregnant, you’re extra cute.” He gave Daphne a wink as she flipped him off, but he could tell she appreciated the compliment.
“Anita, my beautiful mother-in-law,” Asher said, seeing the bombshell blonde. “I told you we would be related someday.”
“I seem to remember you said we would be married,” Anita said, swatting him away. She had her month old kid in her arms. Asher knew she had struggled to get pregnant with her first husband. Some levels were apparently all she needed to fix that issue. Now she was happily married to Asher’s father-in-law, Wayne Tyler.
“Offers still open,” he said. Who wouldn’t what a hot milf as a wife?
“You have enough wives,” Anita said. “Wayne’s looking for you.”
“Tell him I ran away,” Asher said, running to the Training Hall through the back door.
The training hall itself was busy. They now were using the full 4-story height of the once food processing plant. There were different levels of platforms for jumping to so people could practice. Asher had made himself available once a week to train people on how to call out their stats.
“Asher!” Abby yelled down. “Walk those noobs through how to do this again!” Abby said. She was 50 feet up in the air on one of the small platforms. He too had to train her on how to jump that high.
“Alright, but I got things to do,” he said. He gathered those on the ground level. There were about 40 men and women. Young and old they sweated trying to get it right. Asher used ID and most were around level 25. A fair level for those still training.
“It’s all about focus,” he said as they gathered around. “Who here has learned Mana Sight?” Asher asked. Only a few hands raised. Asher frowned. He had only bought 4 of the skill books for it. But it still took a week to learn. He had hoped to make copies but there were enchants on them to prevent piracy somehow.
“Make sure you’re on the waiting list. And if people are hogging the books come see me,” he said. There were a few nods. “Right now if you had mana sight you could see that I’m circulating mana throughout my body. Moving it through your body allows you to focus on your body. Allowing you to use your full strength instantly.”
“Yeah, but how do you use your mana?” A young boy asked. Asher looked around at the group. More than a few had the same question in their mind.
“It took time for me to learn to control mana. It is all around us, but every single one of your skills requires it. You,” Asher said pointing at an older man. “You use fire element right?”
“Uh yes,” he said, caught off guard by being called out.
“I want you to slowly draw your fire out,” Asher said. “Slowly.” The man’s hand was instantly alight. “Wrong. Turn it off. You’re treating your skill like an on/off switch. You need to control the skill. Not let it control how much is used. I bet you’re thinking the name fireball aren’t you?”
“Well, yeah, but that’s what the System said to do in the tutorial,” the older man tried to justify.
“The System was showing you the basics. This is the advanced level. Everyone needs to work on using your skills without thinking about the name,” Asher said. He tried a different tactic. Raising his hand he explained. “I have a skill called Judgment. It uses Holy mana. If I thought the way you did I would only use holy mana with that skill. But when you get down to it. I can control holy mana on my own.” Asher began to channel holy mana in his palm. Just a little flicker of white light that everyone could see. Looking around at the faces staring at his palm he felt like Gohan teaching Videl how to use Ki.
“Start small,” Asher said. “Just barely try to use your power. And slowly you will sense your mana. Learn to control the flow of your mana. And you can do this.” He allowed a huge rush of Holy mana out. It built until it was spirit bomb sized above his head and blinded everyone.
Asher let the mana disperse. People rubbed their eyes as they mumbled to one another. “What good would that do?” A girl asked.
“The System gives us skills. They are like recipes that happen automatically. You can add however much mana you want to them to make them stronger. But you need to understand how to utilize the mana how you want. Eventually you can learn to customize your current ones, and maybe one day create your own skills.”
“You can create skills?”
“Of course,” Asher said. “Need to teach these people to walk before they run Abby.”
She frowned as she walked up to him. The Saiyan girl grumbled under her breath. “Hey. I warn ‘em I'm not you. But they still pay.” She was about 5’-9” with short spiky black hair. Her purple Trunks jacket and Vegeta armor was her common attire. The only new thing about her was her Saiyan monkey tail. It looped around her waist like a belt.
“Focus on drawing only a little mana,” Asher said to the class. He and Abby walked away together. “How you been?”
“Bored,” she said. “Since you don’t let people close dungeons it’s hard to stay busy.”
“You can still go there and fight monsters,” he said.
“I know. But there are only tier Is and IIs,” she said with a frown. As a Saiyan she had a drive to become stronger. He could tell she was restless.
Asher rolled his eyes. “Then go out there Abby. Fight stuff,” he said pointing at the door. “Challenge yourself. There’s new continents and monsters out there. Hell hook up with Atty. She’s out there. Could prolly use some help.”
“Really?” She asked in surprise. “But I thought I was needed here.”
“If you stay here you’ll be needed. We were gone for months. These people will survive. You’re a Saiyan. Did your XP increase at all from almost dying? You had a healer on you at all times. You need to be challenging yourself.” She bit her lip thinking, but he could tell the Saiyan was getting excited. “I’ll talk to Wayne for you.”
“Ok,” she said, a little excited. “Thanks dickwad.”
“You’re welcome Chichi,” he said. She flipped him off as she ran out of the room. “And don’t look at the moon!” He added before she slammed the door. She hadn’t transformed yet, but he was worried.
“Uh sir,” someone said. “We were supposed to have a full hour of training.”
“How much did she charge you?” Asher asked.
“A Sysco each,” one of them admitted.
Asher cursed. “I will finish her time. But first we need to talk about swindling. You guys got jipped, trust me. First of all on another planet a Sysco is worth a hell of a lot more than an hour of her subpar training.”
—-
“Hector, how’s it goin?” Asher asked as he walked to the Dungeon room. He ignored another phone call from Wayne.
“Not good,” the man said. He was with a team of 3 other Dungeoneer Systems as they worked on the Portal. They were all skilled and had been manipulating it for a year now. The Guild had won the dungeon almost a year and a half ago, but still hadn’t brought out it’s full potential. “After you said it wasn’t good enough we went back to the drawing board.”
“Yeah sorry,” Asher said. “+3 stats isn’t enough. Standard for guilds is +5 stats.”
“I know, I know. None of us had trials in our tutorials so we are going in blind,” Hector said. He was a Mexican man with dark hair and pale skin. So much time spent inside wasn’t good for him. Asher had tried the trial a few weeks ago. It was mostly an obstacle course with some monsters, nothing inspiring. But you did get the Community title at the end.
“I tell you what. When we go off planet all of you are invited to come with. There’s a planet we went to with tons of Trials. One is so hard it could kill you,” Asher said.
“I’ve been thinking about it more and more,” Hector said. “You think I could do that one?”
“If you wanted. But it’s hard. It’s pass or die,” Asher said. The Roktai trial had been the single defining moment in his League Trials. It had shown him how bad it could get and then some. His family killed, his planet desolate. It took him over 10 years in the trial to get revenge for those he lost, only to find out that it was all false.
“We will see,” Hector said.
“Asher!” A voice boomed. Ash recognized it as belonging to his father-in-law.
“Gotta go,” he hissed. Asher ran out the back door. He came face to face with his Ethership. Through hard work and a lot of sweating he had scrimped and saved enough for his own spaceship. The arrowhead-like sleek vehicle was at the back of the guild. Guards were stationed around it 24/7 to make sure unauthorized people didn’t approach.
“Just gonna pop in,” Asher said to the guard nearest. Asher approached the elevator platform. The white platform began to raise as Wayne Tyler stepped out of the Training Hall door.
The platform raised slowly. When it was at the top he stepped out into the ship. He was tempted to lock the platform there, but he wasn’t that much of a dick. “Starburst, slow platform speed to half, acknowledge,” he said. A beep sounded in the room as the ship AI confirmed the order. As the owner and captain, his words were absolute.
Heading in he walked right to the bridge. The place was mostly empty, but there was one person always on the bridge. “Pickle Rick,” Asher said, making the guy jump. He bumped his head on the bridge controls.
“Stop calling me that,” the man said. He had a bald head, and was in his 60s. He didn’t wear a lab coat, though Asher had bought him one. He simply wore some blue overalls and a plaid shirt.
“You’re the one with the Rick System,” Asher said. “Can you turn into a pickle yet?”
“No,” he said. The man’s real name was Charles Turck. Everyone called him Turck. He awoke his Rick System pre-Initialization. His wife and daughter were killed, and he was unlucky enough to become one of the smartest men in the world.
“Any luck?” Asher asked.
“Getting closer,” Turck admitted. “The Starburst’s circuitry actually transfers mana instead of electricity. I think they neck it down to millimana points or maybe even micromana points. Very interesting. When you go offworld next, you’ll have to see if there is some sort of measuring tool.”
“I’ll put it on the list,” Asher said. “Any luck with the portal platform.”
“Nope, focused on this,” Turck said as he disconnected a wire. Asher would worry about it, except the AI had already alerted them when he wired something back in incorrectly.
“How can you have the Rick System, and not want to make a portal gun?”
“Because we live in the real world. And portal juice isn’t a real thing,” the man said.
“There you are,” Wayne said. “Stop running.”
“Sorry,” Asher said. “Did you need something?”
“You know I did,” Wayne said. “Are we really picking up every guild on our way to the meeting?”
“Gotta show our power,” Asher said. “Besides, Joon already agreed to handle the others. She wasn’t sure she could get all of them if we didn’t.”
“Then I think we need to review what we are proposing to them,” Wayne said for the 20th time. Asher rolled his eyes but nodded. He had met who he wanted to. He should probably get down to business. As Wayne talked Asher wondered if someone had the Doofenshmirtz System.
Their honeymoon had only lasted a week. They had married on July 1st, and by the 8th they were back to the Community Guild Hall. Their days had been filled with sex from sun up to sun down. Now it was kept to morning, noon, and night. Joon had stopped by on the 5th day, congratulated them, and joined in on the fun. Tiff got her revenge on Joony for sleeping with Asher without his permission, much to Joon’s delight. Since Joon was a little bit of a masochist she had been more than happy to allow Tiff to test her Mana Whip. The pink glowing whip caused pleasure and pain. They got a day of that fun, but were called back to help sort things out eventually.
Now it had been a month since they arrived back on Earth. The Star Elves, Leopardkin, Bofin, and Kitsune girls had taken to the planet nicely. The majority of them stuck together, but a few Star Elves branched off to dungeon groups. Chartalla spent a lot of time with her family trying to get them set up on another farm, but she too planned to start a monster hunting group. Though they hadn’t had sex yet, Tiff had promised to start up again soon. Joon, Tiff, and Zora had taken all of his attention.
Atalanta had left about 2 weeks ago to find herself, but was still in constant contact with them through Comms. She was traveling the world, and was trying to find people in the wilds. Bring them to local guilds, and protect people. In all honesty she was trying to find people from her past. Asher couldn’t be upset about that. She had been a very angry person when they met, and he hoped she was ready to make her own amends. With luck, maybe she would be able to find those from her past she had wronged.
Asher, Tiff, and Zora split up as they stepped into the Guild Hall. Tiff and Zora walked into the reception area to take care of a few items. Though the guild had been running for 6 months without them, Tiff and Zora went right back to taking charge. Handling assignments, answering questions, digging for resources, they worked harder than everyone else. Zora was going to have to go back to her guild soon, but for now she was happy helping out. They were already doing final touches on their alliance treaties.
“Woah there preggers,” Asher said dodging out of Daphne’s way as she walked down the stairs.
“Fuck off,” she said. Asher laughed.
“You know, for someone about to pop, you look mighty hot,” Asher said, and she did. A tall buxom woman with tanner skin than his own Daphne had popped Asher’s cherry once upon a time.
Daphne stopped walking. He was afraid that he said something wrong as she let out a sob. “Thank you,” she said, wiping her eyes.
“Woah, what’s gotten into you?” He asked. They moved to the wall.
“These fucking hormones,” Daphne said wiping her eyes, but she still had a slight smile on her face. “No one would look at me with Arnold around. It’s nice to finally have someone say something.”
Asher laughed. “You’ll always be that hot GILF that popped my cherry,” he said. She smacked his chest hard.
“You fucking say that again and I’ll cut your balls off,” she promised. But there was no real anger in her voice. Asher belly laughed. They had been in the porn industry so long ago, it was nice to remember their roots.
“I’m proud of you, you know,” he said, drawing her back toward the cafeteria. “I hear you were instrumental in your tutorial and after.”
“Yeah, well, most of these people were pussies about it,” she said. “I can’t wait to get back out there.”
“How does your System work again?” Asher asked.
“I get a spirit form of anything I kill personally,” she said. He could hear the excitement in her voice.
“What do you get with the spirits?”
“Stats, skills, I haven’t leveled in forever,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“Neato. I’ll keep my eye out for cool monsters,” he said.
“Would you?” She asked, stars in her eyes. “Arnold won’t do shit. Claims I have to do it myself.”
“I mean you should,” he said. “But if I can get a super strong one, it’ll only protect you and your future kid more, right? I mean. We are basically doing him a favor.”
“Right,” she said excitedly. Though they had once been lovers they had both agreed to leave that in the past. They liked to flirt, but Asher wasn’t about to go for one of his friend’s girls.
“There you are,” an older man barked. He pushed through the groups in the cafeteria. He was Henry Krollic, Daphne’s father. He looked about 50, young for his age of 70. Levels had done him well.
“What’s up?” Asher asked.
“We are working on the final list for the guild meeting,” Henry said. He passed over a sheet of paper.
“Jeez Henry, we aren’t going to war,” Asher said. It was a long list. “10 people, tops. That’s what we all agreed on. We have a lot of people from other guilds we need to take with us.”
“Kid, just cus we agree, doesn’t mean it will happen that way,” Henry said.
“They can break their word if they want. I won’t,” Asher said. “You, me, the higher ups in the guild, maybe a few more, but no more than 10.” Henry grumbled. The old man had been in the military once upon a time, and during the hard tutorial he awoke the General System. Not a standard one, but a military general. He was able to lead war and raid parties. He had skills to see status screens of people, and give commands from a distance. A very interesting System.
Asher had made him the leader of the Community Troops. The man had been lazy after the Tutorial. Happy with his levels. By the time Asher came back Henry was ready for some action. With ideas from the Roktai guild, they had split Community up into 3 main parts.
The Troops/Mercs were the dungeon divers that focused on leveling. Any one of them could be called to fight raids or actual people if the need arose. Asher wasn’t heartless enough to make them all kill people, but they needed to be aware that the possibility was out there. They went along with their day to day, and acted more like militia. If they were called to action they would be paid accordingly.
Next was the Professionals. These were the non-combat people. The Engineers, Doctors, and Accountants. All of them could now use mana and received skills attributed to that. Builders, Bankers, Mechanics, Brewers, and even Programmers had some new System that let them do their jobs better and easier than ever before. Custom shops and new skills were everywhere to be learned.
The last group was the miscellaneous. Those that didn’t have a System, or had no interest in leveling. Of course they would never turn away a kid. Many of them were ecstatic to turn 16 and get a System. Most of them had already begun to level without a System. Status Screens awakening at 13 they could gain experience and try to lead their awakened System when the time came.
There were also those that had been traumatized during the tutorial. Though you could get stats to make your mind and body stronger, sometimes it wasn’t enough. More than one person had been found unresponsive once the tutorial was over. Asher’s parents were quick to begin working with them.
“I’m telling you, we need more than 10 people,” Henry grumbled.
“The other groups could bring 100 and I still wouldn’t be scared,” Asher said. He had been working with many on mana circulation. He knew that some would learn the trick outside of the guild. There would be spies of course, but with psychics running around they would be easy to find. “We leave tomorrow. No more than 10,” Asher repeated. “And you, stay pregnant, you’re extra cute.” He gave Daphne a wink as she flipped him off, but he could tell she appreciated the compliment.
“Anita, my beautiful mother-in-law,” Asher said, seeing the bombshell blonde. “I told you we would be related someday.”
“I seem to remember you said we would be married,” Anita said, swatting him away. She had her month old kid in her arms. Asher knew she had struggled to get pregnant with her first husband. Some levels were apparently all she needed to fix that issue. Now she was happily married to Asher’s father-in-law, Wayne Tyler.
“Offers still open,” he said. Who wouldn’t what a hot milf as a wife?
“You have enough wives,” Anita said. “Wayne’s looking for you.”
“Tell him I ran away,” Asher said, running to the Training Hall through the back door.
The training hall itself was busy. They now were using the full 4-story height of the once food processing plant. There were different levels of platforms for jumping to so people could practice. Asher had made himself available once a week to train people on how to call out their stats.
“Asher!” Abby yelled down. “Walk those noobs through how to do this again!” Abby said. She was 50 feet up in the air on one of the small platforms. He too had to train her on how to jump that high.
“Alright, but I got things to do,” he said. He gathered those on the ground level. There were about 40 men and women. Young and old they sweated trying to get it right. Asher used ID and most were around level 25. A fair level for those still training.
“It’s all about focus,” he said as they gathered around. “Who here has learned Mana Sight?” Asher asked. Only a few hands raised. Asher frowned. He had only bought 4 of the skill books for it. But it still took a week to learn. He had hoped to make copies but there were enchants on them to prevent piracy somehow.
“Make sure you’re on the waiting list. And if people are hogging the books come see me,” he said. There were a few nods. “Right now if you had mana sight you could see that I’m circulating mana throughout my body. Moving it through your body allows you to focus on your body. Allowing you to use your full strength instantly.”
“Yeah, but how do you use your mana?” A young boy asked. Asher looked around at the group. More than a few had the same question in their mind.
“It took time for me to learn to control mana. It is all around us, but every single one of your skills requires it. You,” Asher said pointing at an older man. “You use fire element right?”
“Uh yes,” he said, caught off guard by being called out.
“I want you to slowly draw your fire out,” Asher said. “Slowly.” The man’s hand was instantly alight. “Wrong. Turn it off. You’re treating your skill like an on/off switch. You need to control the skill. Not let it control how much is used. I bet you’re thinking the name fireball aren’t you?”
“Well, yeah, but that’s what the System said to do in the tutorial,” the older man tried to justify.
“The System was showing you the basics. This is the advanced level. Everyone needs to work on using your skills without thinking about the name,” Asher said. He tried a different tactic. Raising his hand he explained. “I have a skill called Judgment. It uses Holy mana. If I thought the way you did I would only use holy mana with that skill. But when you get down to it. I can control holy mana on my own.” Asher began to channel holy mana in his palm. Just a little flicker of white light that everyone could see. Looking around at the faces staring at his palm he felt like Gohan teaching Videl how to use Ki.
“Start small,” Asher said. “Just barely try to use your power. And slowly you will sense your mana. Learn to control the flow of your mana. And you can do this.” He allowed a huge rush of Holy mana out. It built until it was spirit bomb sized above his head and blinded everyone.
Asher let the mana disperse. People rubbed their eyes as they mumbled to one another. “What good would that do?” A girl asked.
“The System gives us skills. They are like recipes that happen automatically. You can add however much mana you want to them to make them stronger. But you need to understand how to utilize the mana how you want. Eventually you can learn to customize your current ones, and maybe one day create your own skills.”
“You can create skills?”
“Of course,” Asher said. “Need to teach these people to walk before they run Abby.”
She frowned as she walked up to him. The Saiyan girl grumbled under her breath. “Hey. I warn ‘em I'm not you. But they still pay.” She was about 5’-9” with short spiky black hair. Her purple Trunks jacket and Vegeta armor was her common attire. The only new thing about her was her Saiyan monkey tail. It looped around her waist like a belt.
“Focus on drawing only a little mana,” Asher said to the class. He and Abby walked away together. “How you been?”
“Bored,” she said. “Since you don’t let people close dungeons it’s hard to stay busy.”
“You can still go there and fight monsters,” he said.
“I know. But there are only tier Is and IIs,” she said with a frown. As a Saiyan she had a drive to become stronger. He could tell she was restless.
Asher rolled his eyes. “Then go out there Abby. Fight stuff,” he said pointing at the door. “Challenge yourself. There’s new continents and monsters out there. Hell hook up with Atty. She’s out there. Could prolly use some help.”
“Really?” She asked in surprise. “But I thought I was needed here.”
“If you stay here you’ll be needed. We were gone for months. These people will survive. You’re a Saiyan. Did your XP increase at all from almost dying? You had a healer on you at all times. You need to be challenging yourself.” She bit her lip thinking, but he could tell the Saiyan was getting excited. “I’ll talk to Wayne for you.”
“Ok,” she said, a little excited. “Thanks dickwad.”
“You’re welcome Chichi,” he said. She flipped him off as she ran out of the room. “And don’t look at the moon!” He added before she slammed the door. She hadn’t transformed yet, but he was worried.
“Uh sir,” someone said. “We were supposed to have a full hour of training.”
“How much did she charge you?” Asher asked.
“A Sysco each,” one of them admitted.
Asher cursed. “I will finish her time. But first we need to talk about swindling. You guys got jipped, trust me. First of all on another planet a Sysco is worth a hell of a lot more than an hour of her subpar training.”
—-
“Hector, how’s it goin?” Asher asked as he walked to the Dungeon room. He ignored another phone call from Wayne.
“Not good,” the man said. He was with a team of 3 other Dungeoneer Systems as they worked on the Portal. They were all skilled and had been manipulating it for a year now. The Guild had won the dungeon almost a year and a half ago, but still hadn’t brought out it’s full potential. “After you said it wasn’t good enough we went back to the drawing board.”
“Yeah sorry,” Asher said. “+3 stats isn’t enough. Standard for guilds is +5 stats.”
“I know, I know. None of us had trials in our tutorials so we are going in blind,” Hector said. He was a Mexican man with dark hair and pale skin. So much time spent inside wasn’t good for him. Asher had tried the trial a few weeks ago. It was mostly an obstacle course with some monsters, nothing inspiring. But you did get the Community title at the end.
“I tell you what. When we go off planet all of you are invited to come with. There’s a planet we went to with tons of Trials. One is so hard it could kill you,” Asher said.
“I’ve been thinking about it more and more,” Hector said. “You think I could do that one?”
“If you wanted. But it’s hard. It’s pass or die,” Asher said. The Roktai trial had been the single defining moment in his League Trials. It had shown him how bad it could get and then some. His family killed, his planet desolate. It took him over 10 years in the trial to get revenge for those he lost, only to find out that it was all false.
“We will see,” Hector said.
“Asher!” A voice boomed. Ash recognized it as belonging to his father-in-law.
“Gotta go,” he hissed. Asher ran out the back door. He came face to face with his Ethership. Through hard work and a lot of sweating he had scrimped and saved enough for his own spaceship. The arrowhead-like sleek vehicle was at the back of the guild. Guards were stationed around it 24/7 to make sure unauthorized people didn’t approach.
“Just gonna pop in,” Asher said to the guard nearest. Asher approached the elevator platform. The white platform began to raise as Wayne Tyler stepped out of the Training Hall door.
The platform raised slowly. When it was at the top he stepped out into the ship. He was tempted to lock the platform there, but he wasn’t that much of a dick. “Starburst, slow platform speed to half, acknowledge,” he said. A beep sounded in the room as the ship AI confirmed the order. As the owner and captain, his words were absolute.
Heading in he walked right to the bridge. The place was mostly empty, but there was one person always on the bridge. “Pickle Rick,” Asher said, making the guy jump. He bumped his head on the bridge controls.
“Stop calling me that,” the man said. He had a bald head, and was in his 60s. He didn’t wear a lab coat, though Asher had bought him one. He simply wore some blue overalls and a plaid shirt.
“You’re the one with the Rick System,” Asher said. “Can you turn into a pickle yet?”
“No,” he said. The man’s real name was Charles Turck. Everyone called him Turck. He awoke his Rick System pre-Initialization. His wife and daughter were killed, and he was unlucky enough to become one of the smartest men in the world.
“Any luck?” Asher asked.
“Getting closer,” Turck admitted. “The Starburst’s circuitry actually transfers mana instead of electricity. I think they neck it down to millimana points or maybe even micromana points. Very interesting. When you go offworld next, you’ll have to see if there is some sort of measuring tool.”
“I’ll put it on the list,” Asher said. “Any luck with the portal platform.”
“Nope, focused on this,” Turck said as he disconnected a wire. Asher would worry about it, except the AI had already alerted them when he wired something back in incorrectly.
“How can you have the Rick System, and not want to make a portal gun?”
“Because we live in the real world. And portal juice isn’t a real thing,” the man said.
“There you are,” Wayne said. “Stop running.”
“Sorry,” Asher said. “Did you need something?”
“You know I did,” Wayne said. “Are we really picking up every guild on our way to the meeting?”
“Gotta show our power,” Asher said. “Besides, Joon already agreed to handle the others. She wasn’t sure she could get all of them if we didn’t.”
“Then I think we need to review what we are proposing to them,” Wayne said for the 20th time. Asher rolled his eyes but nodded. He had met who he wanted to. He should probably get down to business. As Wayne talked Asher wondered if someone had the Doofenshmirtz System.
