The Gift of Loot Chapter 30: Chapter 30: Loading For Bear

Read chapter 30 of The Gift of Loot by Jack_Golightly on NovelPedia.

homas reached down for the skill shard and found it was still warm from body heat. His System helpfully tagged it as: Still Water on a Razor's Edge. Whatever that meant. Had the shard been the robber's skill? His Gift? Had the dungeon just treated any person who died in it like a monster, dropping loot? With an inner grimace, Thomas turned to the other body. What was left of the man was in shreds, and Thomas didn't think he would ever find that meme funny again. But he'd had nothing to do with this man's death. That made him a valuable data point. There, lying in the middle of the, uh, meat, was a white mana crystal. He wondered if the bear had been trying to get to it. Possibly, there had been even more mana crystals at one point. As he picked up the crystal, he felt its strength. It was a level one, C-Grade. The robber had dropped a level one crystal in a level two dungeon. That suggested the loot had been generated directly from him and not as a consequence of this dungeon. Maybe. He'd have to see more bodies to know for sure. With that lovely thought in mind, Thomas turned his attention back to the skill shard. Despite the horror of the situation, his greedy, loot-lovin' heart wanted to keep it, but... "Hey," he said, looking at the National Guardswoman. She had been standing by, quietly keeping watch with a sick expression on her face. All told, that wasn't a bad reaction. "Do you have any skill slots left?" "What?" She startled. "Skills? Do I look like a millionaire?" Skills were pretty rare, and expensive. Thomas inwardly weighed his options, still hating them, but didn't see much of a choice. He held the shard out to her. "My System says it's called 'Still Water on a Razor's Edge.' I don't really know what that means. But if it's a combat skill, that will be a huge help." She stared at him like he had two heads. Fair. It was a little like a complete stranger offering up the keys and title to a brand new car. And Thomas was visibly not a game show host or a YouTube sensation. "Why don't you take it then?" she asked, suspiciously. "Because you get one skill slot for every level, and both of mine are full." He wiggled the shard, hoping to tempt her with it. "So?" Again, she hesitated. Then her shoulders slumped. "That's kind, but I can't pay you. Guarding this place was... it's a temp job." "What do you mean?" he asked. She looked sheepish. "I was sort of hired from a staffing agency. We're supposed to work with the National Guard doing basic admin work." The story poured out of her as if she'd been keeping it a terrible secret, her words coming faster. "Because everybody's stretched thin, don't you know. But then a lot of teams were called away to the hubbub in the valley. They asked if I could shoot a gun. I've always hunted, so I said yes. Next thing you know, I'm assigned to guard duty at a dungeon halfway down the mountain in the middle of nowhere. No diver's come all day, until you and those hoodlums—" She stopped, blushing. "Sorry." "You're not military," Thomas said, feeling his stomach dip. He had sarcastically thought of ' security theater ' with the guards before, but now he realized that had been close to the truth. By the numbers, the United States had more service people in one branch than many other countries had in their entire military complex. And now they were so overwhelmed they were hiring temp workers from staffing agencies, and putting them in fatigues to plug gaps. Slowly but surely, the stitching that held together society was unraveling. That was... yet another thing he did not truly have time to think about. "Look," he said. "I guess you can call this an emergency situation, and... I haven't even introduced myself, have I? I'm Thomas. I'm a level two, and I'm mostly a healer. I have a few fun tricks up my sleeves, but not a lot of combat strength. I think I can get you out of here, but it would be a lot easier if you could also take care of yourself. So what do you say?" Again, he wiggled