Peek brought me the coins, dropping them in front of me in the kitchen like an offering. Or a dog finally spitting out something it shouldn’t have eaten in the first pce.
Three shiny gold pieces, looking almost pristine. Like they’d been freshly minted.
“Good boy, Peek.” And giving him a soft pat on his pstic sensor. “Would you like a reward?”
I wasn’t sure what would css as an appropriate reward for a mimic, but as my first employee, he should receive praise for a job well done. That’s right Debra, you bitch. A simple thank you for staying an extra 5 minutes goes a long way!
Thinking back to my painful days at a cash register, with shitty pay and even shittier working conditions.
My eyes panned down to the still processing roomba.
“Reward Greg? Isn’t the floor the reward?” I mean, it could be… but why?
“No no Peek. What you did was a job and for a job well done, you deserve a thank you.”
I walked over to the FoodLocker, pushed a coin in and made my selection. Once it did its rattling and carrying on, I held in-front of me a pack of gummy bears. “This is a Sweet and a little token of my appreciation.”
He looked at the bag in confusion, but didn’t move. Not a fan huh.
I put the bag back into the locker and sat back at the counter. Fingers tapping gently at my chin. “Is there something you’d like in particur?” Something better than what jobs always tend to offer, instead of monetary compensation.
*Ding*
[A new option has been added to your Path]
[“Pizza Party” has been unlocked]
“…”
[…]
“You’re friends with Debra, aren’t you?” I accused, but the system returned to its default state—Silence.
Whatever.
I opened the new option within my path, eyes wide with surprise. It wasn’t the corporate way of saying “thank you” to their underlings, it was essentially another storefront.
No suggestions or pre-packaged options. A simple search function and a cart symbol. Sooo.
“If I type in… let’s say, googly eyes.”
Bam, there it was.
The prices of the items I searched up, were on par with the things from the FoodLocker. Not cheap… manageable.
What would I even get?
Maybe it was best to just let that question simmer for a bit, until I know him a bit better and he gets a better understanding of this “employment”.
“Let’s put a pin in that for now. We need to organise a pn of defence first.”
The house had reverted back to its default eerie silence, with the faint sound of the fridge-compressor stopping and starting. I decided to sit on the “vintage” couch and run some ideas past my new companion, while also doing some much needed financial reallocation.
“Peek, how strong would you think you are?”
I had pced him next to me on the couch, where he happily bumped into the corners in order to suck dirt out of them.
“Hmmm. In terms of adventurers on this floor level, I’d say high.”
I brought up the Danger Rating once more. Where he was sitting at 32.
“That begs the question, how did I even recruit you? Did I summon you out of thin air? Or pluck you from the dungeon itself.”
The answer would seriously change my perception of this dungeon… and its ecosystem.
“Let me check for you.” As it kept sucking crumbs from the gaps. “I was in fact created in addition to the dungeon, but not for your purpose. More like—inventory.”
Interesting.
Is that how this dungeon operates then? Creating monsters in a separate space in order to release them ter?
There were so many questions I wanted answers to, but it started to dawn on me as I thought it through. The bad sender.
An individual most likely monitoring how I react to things. The st thing I need right now, to make my life even more difficult—after I had just caught a break.
I decided that Peek’s first reward should be levelling. Since he brought me the coins, it seemed fitting.
The progression cost was the same as mine, so I selected the +1 level and confirmed.
A small pilr-like fsh engulfed the little mimic and I was bsted with another system announcement.
[Peekaboo level has risen to level 2]
[Danger Rating increased by 2]
That exchange had cost me one gold and now, the next level cost 2 gold. Of course it would go up.
My current stockpile was 2 gold from Peek, while keeping the remaining 9 from the orcs helped pay Lomber. Hoping he’d found her by now.
Can’t believe 10 gold coins is all a person’s life is worth in their world.
I looked over at Peek, who didn’t look any different, regardless of the level. So I decided to check mine. Can’t stay level 1 forever.
What I didn’t see coming was the price… it had risen.
“You gotta be shitting me.” I exhaled, realising the problem I was now going to face. “What a sick joke, I will be forced to spend hundreds, no… thousands of gold coins.
Depending on how many people or monsters I recruit, this could financially cripple me. And it doesn’t even factor in their normal wage on top of levelling.
I’ll have to think this through—carefully.
I pinched the bridge of my nose, mildly sweating from the realisation of exponential income problems.
“And then there’s this money-pit of a house.”
Sighing loudly in this incredibly quiet house, with my only companionship being in form of a disc-shaped vacuum cleaner.
The time in the corner of my view was patiently ticking away, as we both just sat there… watching the humming door and expecting a visitor—a customer.
“Ok, while we have this moment of quiet, I’ve got some rules for you Peek.” His body rotating to meet my attention.
“You will act the part of a vacuum cleaner, you will not speak to people. Unless I say otherwise.” Giving him a stern index finger. “You will also drop the coins in a spot that I will designate.” Quickly going through my storefront for something cheap and practical.
What I found, while not ideal, was a little dog house. I got up, walked over to the kitchen, and pced it beneath the counter. The shadows hiding the little home and with it—my treasure.
I returned to find that Peek had tried to get off the couch by himself. Now lying upside down on the floor, his little spinning broom going nuts.
“Greg… help please.”