Pathbreakers: Multiclassing For Fun And Profit

Part 2: The Team

I hear a knocking at the door but I ignore it for obvious reasons. The knocking repeats a few seconds later.

Mercy Mahar takes a deep breath and then calls out, “come back in ten...” I increase the pace of what I'm doing to her. “Five minutes,” she says. I'm... Giving Mercy a back massage. Yeah, that's all.

“I'll wait outside.” I know that authoritative yet annoyed voice. But I'm not stopping, so she can wait.

Five minutes and a hasty shower later I open the door of my garage apartment and step onto the back yard lawn. I'm wearing an American flag swimsuit.

It's a beautiful, sunny day in Carrollton, Texas. The lawn is green, the pool is clean and my girlfriend is in the shower. It's been three days since the system incident. We've barely left my room and I haven't kept up with the news. So I'm a bit surprised that Staff Sergeant Davis is here to see me.

“Corporal Han.” She stands up straight, like the officer she is. She's got two men in business suits with her. Not military. Definitely government.

“That's me,” I say, not saluting. I'm not enlisted anymore. I respect Davis but I want to make clear that I'm not interested in coming back. “And I'm not interested in whatever it is that you want me to do.”

“Your country needs you.” Davis says this in the way that the recruitment officers do. In a way that indicates that they have to say that before telling you the real reasons you should join.

“Well, gosh, I'm flattered, but could you find another Korean with a drawer full of medals? I'm sure there's at least a few of us.” And with that I dive into the pool.

I come up for air a few seconds later and one of the suits says “Get! is offering 3 million dollars.”

I spit out water and immediately get out of the pool.

The Amarillo homestead is a 5 bedroom, two story affair. Light tan brick walls are complemented by navy and white woodwork. While the house is big, the lot isn't, so there's not much lawn out front and barely any out back. The pool in the backyard is shaped like a lima bean and has blue and white tiling. The patio is a wooden deck that Jose and I put together last summer. We're both pretty proud of it.

The apartment where I live is above the two car garage. Nobody parks in there right now. It's mostly used for Ernesto's drum kit and Jose's 97 inch LG OLED 4K TV because Amy doesn't want it in the house. We're already turning the garage into a man cave. My abode above is basically a studio apartment. I've got a kitchenette, bathroom and a decent closet. All for the low, low price of $500 a month.

We are now all seated at the umbrella table next to the pool. Mercy is sitting next to me. One of the suits has to pull up a lounge chair and is sitting about a foot lower than the rest of us. I'll call him shorty.

“So three million, and all I gotta do is clear the dungeon?” I ask, going over the contract.

“That's the short version,” Davis, now Colonel Davis says. “We, the government, have a few other stipulations. For starters we need you to shut down your blog.”

“No way,” I say quickly. “I've been writing Multiclassing For Fun And Profit for years now. It's a valuable resource for gamers.”

Davis raises an eyebrow at me. “Well, at least remove the Dracosys information.”

“Dracosys?” Mercy asks.

Tall suit says, “we have acquired the name of the system. It's called the Dracosys. D.R.A.C.O.SYS. An acronym. Dungeon Ruin Arena Castle Ordination System.”

Shorty adds, “right now you seem to be the only one with the Synergist class, or at least the only one dumb enough to post what you're learning.”

I've very recently switched my blog from focusing on tabletop and video games to the real world class system. I am proud to say that my readership is up 14,000% in the last few days. The original 150 or so readers still follow me except for xxxGoku420baby, who says I'm a sell out.

I've been posting what I've learned about the class system. My Synergist class apparently gives me access to a TON of information that others don't have. Most people apparently get one of the six starting 1st Step classes, each of which evolves into six related 2nd Step classes. Most people only ever choose what class they want twice, and apparently they don't get subclass information like I can. So I've been contributing to the global knowledge base by posting run downs of one or two classes a day. You know, between spending time with my girlfriend.

“Why is it such a big deal?” Mercy asks. “It's just for a bunch of geeks who want to become heroes.” I make a face like I'm horribly hurt by her words.

“No, actually most of your recent views are state actors from other countries and individuals looking to capitalize on and monopolize this new power structure.” Shorty says this with his nasally voice and produces a document listing the various groups and countries interested in my blog. “Bad actors are already abusing the Dracosys, forcing people to go in and fight so they either die or become stronger.”

“So, wait,” I say, gesturing that I'm kind of incredulous. “Terrorists are using dungeons as their new training camps?”

“Precisely. Corrupt officials, warlords and terrorists are going to use these places to gain magic and power.” Davis says it with authority and weight. She knows about how my Mom died in 9/11. She knows that's why I joined up. To fight fucking terrorists.

Mercy Mahar, my girlfriend, reaches out and takes my hand. She knows too. I told her while we were not dating a few months ago. Her dyed white hair sparkles in the sun and distracts me for a moment and I definitely wasn't staring at her DD cup size boobs. Or her thick, smooth thighs... She's wearing a purple two piece swimsuit so this is not my fault.

I snap back to the people wearing clothes. “Okay, so I can delete those posts and stop that end of my blog. Huh, maybe xxxGoku420baby will come back then.”

The suits look across the table at each other trying to decipher that. Davis just shakes her head, knowing to dismiss anything I say that sounds remotely geek related.

“That's a start,” Davis continues. “But the main reason we're here is your future role in the government.”

The suit in the regular chair talks business with his Kennedy-esque voice. “We'd like to hire you as an outside contractor to conduct both training and investigations for us. All Dracosys related, of course.” He slides over a paper with an expected compensation package listed. “This first task is being funded by the Get! corporation, so this amount is just to start.” He points to the aforementioned three million dollars. “This is what you'd be paid monthly.”

The three million is very, very nice. But the monthly salary is close to 300k. “Bajebus, what the hell do you want me to do for this much money?”

Mercy glances at the numbers and says, “although he's going to do it, whatever it is.” She knows that I'm not exactly happy with my Get! pay.

We hear car doors close and footsteps approach. Jose rounds the corner. He's wearing an orange Hawaiian shirt and tan shorts. His kids Ernesto, Sara and Mike rush ahead and tackle me shouting “Uncle Jun!” They're all in their school uniforms, Jose having just picked them up from school.

Sara says, “we thought she ate you.” Sara glowers at Mercy, my girlfriend, in the way that only a suspicious 7 year old can.

“I bet she did eat him,” says Ernesto. His thirteen year old innuendo gets him a light flick on the back of his head from Jose.

Mike, the 5 year old, is grabbing my arm and looking at Colonel Davis. He says, “I know you, you the gun lady in the photo.” Jose has a framed photo of Coyote squad on the wall in the living room. It was taken before R-32. We were all holding our weapons like action movie stars.

Finally Amy steps out of the SUV and I hear the two men in suits inhale sharply. Amy Amarillo is one of those tall, stunningly beautiful, slender blondes who tend to appear in lawyer TV shows. She's even wearing a gray blazer and pencil skirt. The two men are understandably shocked by seeing a celebrity quality beauty in person.

She's not my type, so I'm immune. Too skinny.

“Well, it seems like my lawyer is here to hash out all these details,” I say, waving towards Amy. One of the suits raises an eyebrow at me.

I respond with, “no, really, she's a lawyer.”

-----

Jose's wife Amy is one of the hottest hot shot lawyers in the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex. She handles the contract and makes sure I don't either get hosed, indentured or killed.

A few hours later we've come to an understanding. They want me to go into dungeons, ruins and arenas to explore, find out stuff and generally be a typical tabletop RPG adventurer. Along the way I'm tasked with leading a group of at most 6 people. One researcher, two soldiers the feds want to gain levels and classes, plus up to 2 people of my choice for whatever reason I want.

In exchange I get a lot of money, get to keep whatever I can carry out and get to basically keep adventuring and leveling up. That's important because in America the Dracosys locations are all on lockdown by the Army. Which of course explains why Colonel Davis, who's in charge of the 101st Rangers, is here.

She's the first woman to lead the Rangers, turns out. And she fucking deserves it. She'd been passed over more than a few times before R-32, and that incident kneecapped her detractors. Who were all old, white males. I'm sure that was just a coincidence.

“We're doing the Get! as a trial run,” Davis explains. “We want to eventually have you do dungeon runs three out of four weeks a month.”

Mercy squeezes my arm, pulling it between her large breasts. She says, “you can have him half of the month and not a day longer.”

Davis looks at my dumb face and annoyedly says, “fine. We'll agree to that.”

The two suits glance at each other in a way that indicates they disapprove of that stipulation, but they're clearly outranked here.

Amy takes the suits inside the house to finalize the documents.

“Nice place you've got here, Han.” Davis says it looking around the big backyard and eyeing the upper-middle class home.

“It's obviously Amy's,” I say. “She's the top dog lawyer. Jose just lets me rent the garage apartment because we're friends.”

Speaking of, Jose comes back into the backyard with the kids after changing them all into swimsuits. They all cannonball into their pool, followed by their dad, who similarly does a cannonball. The splash soaks me and Mercy and her gorgeous light brown skin. Crap, I really am in love with her, aren't I?

Mercy Mahar, my girlfriend, asks “So can you tell me why the Get! is first on the list?”

Now that I've basically agreed, Davis explains in detail. “Of the dungeons across the US, that's the only one we have a complete map of. It's also among the smallest dungeons. A five floor dungeon is pretty rare. Most are 10 to 30 floors.

“We also want to use it to test a few things. Apparently, if you clear a dungeon and defeat its boss you gain the ability to turn that location back into a regular place. Make it not a dungeon any longer. We want Han, sorry, Jun Kyung, to test this. That's why Get! is paying so much up front.

“The researcher we recruited is from some game company, and they're going to be testing certain features and functions of the dungeon and Dracosys. Apparently this bungee jump company are experts at game numbers and-”

“Did you say BUNGIE?” I ask, incredulous.

“Marathon, Destiny, Halo, that Bungie?” Mercy asks, also incredulous.

“Do you know them? Well this woman used to work there, so don't get too excited. And she worked on the economy and behind the scenes math. Just numbers stuff.” Davis says this like she's trying to talk two dogs into not eating a steak.

“Still, it's cool,” Mercy says, trying to not totally fangirl out. She flips her white hair that she'd dyed so she could cosplay as Mara Sov, a key character in the Destiny franchise.

“So...” Davis says, trying to continue the conversation in a direction she might actually understand. “How long have you been together?”

At the same time we say two completely different numbers, three days (me) and six months (Mercy).

“Uh, okay,” Davis says, confused. “Whatever.” She looks right at Mercy. “Just take care of him, alright? He's a good one.”

“I know,” Mercy says almost in a whisper. “I'm not letting him get away.”

That last part is either incredibly concerning or incredibly sweet. Judging by how she's both one of my closest friends AND we like kissing each other all over, I'm leaning towards the sweet side.

“Do you know who you want with you?” Mercy turns to me and asks.

“You, all the time,” is my immediate reply as I stare into her big beautiful eyes.

She pokes me in the arm. “I meant on dungeon runs.”

I look over at Jose. He's playing and laughing and splashing in the pool with his kids. And I don't want to take him away from that. “I don't know. I'll have to give it some thought.”

“I could get you Ekko and Grant,” Davis says, referring to our old squad mates from the Coyotes. “They're both still enlisted.”

That means they're both still willing to risk it all for their country. If they died... It would be sad, but not tragic. When you choose the life of a soldier, especially when you choose the life of a Ranger, you have to expect a violent death is a likely outcome. I look again at Jose, being a really good dad, and I can't imagine that he'd want to risk this life again.

I ask “Can I get back to you in a couple of days?”

Davis holds up two fingers. “Maximum two. If you don't pick anyone else I'll throw Grant on your squad anyway.”

Jose yells from the pool, “you know I'm coming, right?”

“Jose, you have kids!” Mercy yells back.

“I'm aware,” Jose says amid being splashed in the face by said children.

I lean forward in my chair to talk to him. “She's right, Jose, you shouldn't risk your life for money.”

He gets splashed in the face and then a pool noodle whacks him in the back. He splashes back. He says, “I wouldn't risk my life for money but I'd risk it for my best friend.”

Mike spits a spout of water at me. In his little kid voice he squeaks out, “daddy will protect you uncle Jun.”

I take a deep breath. It's a big decision. I really won't let these kids lose their father. I swear it to myself.

“Besides,” Jose says, pulling himself out of the pool. “I still want to hit the toy department.”