“Let me see if I can give you some of these new wild ones.”
He sent selected Major Heat Shield and then tried to trade it to Katie.
You are attempting to trade the basic grade, yellow xatherite, “Major Heat Shield” to SA Katie Sabin, are you sure?
He confirmed it with a thought and it disappeared from his map. “Yeah, I got that, major heat shield? Is this one of the ones you got off the bastard with the battle-axe?”
“Yeah, the other three are major mana sight, a violet, major gravitas which is orange, and a white one called metallurgy. The first two are uncommon, heat shield is widespread, and metallurgy is scarce.”
Katie glanced them over, “I can only slot the violet and yellow; my whites are pretty far away. But I think you should probably do the mana sight one and maybe this heat shield one. Those both sound like they’d be more useful for you. What does gravitas do?”
“It allows me to change the way gravity affects either myself or an object near me. I can make it either heavier or lighter.”
“Damn, that sounds cool. You think you can use that to fly?” Katie asked, and Drew shrugged, trading it to her.
“I dunno, you can look at the effect.”
“Ugh, master? I don’t think we have the time for that headache.” Katie frowned for a minute, “Did you slot that teleporting xatherite in the middle of the fight?”
“Uhm, yeah. I couldn’t think of a way to get out, so I could use my spells without slotting it.” Drew answered before Katie hit his arm under the pauldron.
“And it was rare, right?”
“Yeah.”
“You idiot, I thought you said you couldn’t slot it,” she said with a glare.
“Well, I had to use a white slot for it, which I was hoping not to do.”
“Drew, you have to tell me stuff like this! You could have slotted it before the fight, and then you wouldn’t have blacked out for a minute when we needed you.” Katie hit his shoulder again.
“I know, I’m sorry, I didn’t…I didn’t think it was that important.”
Katie shook her head and looked back at her xatherite, “I can upgrade create light. Have you upgraded anything?”
“Oh yeah, it’s fine, doesn’t hurt like slotting it does,” Drew said, again remembering that he could upgrade acid dart. He clicked over to the red and upgraded it.
Xatherite Crystal Name: Major Acid Dart
Xatherite Color: Red
Xatherite Grade: Basic
Xatherite Rarity: Widespread
Type: Magic
Effect: Creates a small globule of acid from a finger that travels in a straight line until it impacts a target, dealing small amounts of acid damage.
Mana recharge time: 16.1 seconds
Well, it finally upgraded its damage from minor to small amounts.
Chapter Sixteen — Planning
Drew had to fireball a hole in the barricade. They weren’t going to be able to get Sarah through otherwise. But when they were finally through and out in the sunlight again, both of them stopped and just soaked in the light.
For the first time in who knows how many days, they could see further than the glowrocks could shine, and it was like a weight had been lifted from them both. It was only when they could feel the warmth of the sun and wind on their skin that they realized just how oppressive the closed darkness had become. By unspoken accord, Katie set Sarah down, and they simply stood there for a moment, drinking in the outside world again.
They were on a small road that traveled around the base; across from them was the parking garage for the building, and on the other side of the garage, just barely visible through the walls and pillars, was a forest. To their right and down the hill was the exit from the base. The road ran alongside the beltway before rejoining the rest of the Anacostia neighborhood of DC. To their left and up the hill were a few more Coast Guard and Department of Homeland Security buildings, while beyond them was the abandoned mental hospital and its replacement.
Either way, they were in the middle of Barry Farm, one of the most dangerous places in DC pre-advent. How the advent had changed that, Drew had no idea, but he didn’t really look forward to finding out.
“We need to figure out where we’re going.” Drew broke the silence, looking at the sky, “I think it’s around 1600, so we’ve probably got a few hours of daylight remaining. Water, food, and shelter are the priority in that time.”
Katie nodded her head as she looked up the hill, “Base Exchange then? It’s the only place nearby that we’re going to be able to take Sarah.”
Drew followed her gaze up the hill as well. The exchange was only slightly larger than a small convenience store, but it would have food, drinks, and spare clothing. “Other option would be to see what we can grab from cars.” He gestured towards the parking garage next to them. “It’s closer, and we wouldn’t have to move Sarah as much.”
“We could, but I think it’s a better long-term move to go to the exchange. We might not find anything in the parking garage, especially with how few people were in the building when it happened.” Katie turned again and sized up the hilclass="underline" it rose a couple hundred feet, and the grade was steep.
Drew glanced at the garage-there were only a few vehicles within, mostly from people that found it easier to store their extra vehicle here than somewhere within the district. The odds of them finding food beyond their own vehicles was minimal.
“Well, I have a gallon of water and a 72-hour kit in my car, but you’re probably right, we’re gonna need to raid the exchange either way.”
About halfway up the hill, they switched and Drew carried Sarah. The open nature of the terrain made them feel more comfortable that no pressing attacks were forthcoming. “It’s weird. It’s been a couple of days now, and yet…everything looks like nothing happened. There are no crashed cars, no burning buildings. Look at Arlington; it’s the same as it always was, just quiet.” The hill they were on afforded a decent view of the Potomac from the Woodrow Wilson Bridge to the 14th Street Bridges, centered around the Dulles Airport.
“What’s been happening out here while we were inside?” Drew mused as he pulled Sarah up the hill.
“Do you always talk when you exercise?” Katie asked with a half-smile, but when Drew glared at her, it morphed into a full smirk. “Who knows?” She looked out at the quiet city so different from the loud, busy 5 o’clock traffic that normally beset it. “Holy shit,” she exclaimed, as a turtle surfaced in the river. It was hard to tell from this distance, but it looked to be as big as some of the airplanes near it.
It pushed itself along the river for a few seconds before sinking back down under the water. Now that she was looking, she could see several other gigantic turtles. She had previously taken them for hills, but they were sunning themselves on the riverbank. “Well, that’s…disconcerting,” Drew said as he caught sight of the creatures as well, drawn to look by Katie’s exclamation.
It took them thirty minutes to crest the hill and make their way around to the other side of the building, where the entrance to the Exchange was. The building itself was four stories, but the exchange only took up a portion of the bottom floor, and Drew had no idea what was on the upper floors. A barber shop and dry cleaner took up a portion of the lowest level of the building, completing the three staples of military shops.
The front doors were locked, but a single hit from the new and improved major acid dart was enough to eat away at the lock and allow entry. Katie set Sarah down and built walls around her, protecting her, while they went off to ensure it was safe.