The Level Store Novels & Stories

As before, the large store with a big sign of 'North Treasure Merchant' looked magnificent and amazing. Xiao Long entered and went straight to the small weapons block. There, he saw weapons and other small items with a higher grade than the weapons in other stores. Earlier, he went straight to the cashier to buy some items, so he didn't know that the quality of the items here was much higher than other stores.

I sign at the bottom, and have somewhere to stay. He shows me around the shop next, and teaches me how to operate the cash register. There isn't a stock room. If it isn't on the shelves then it isn't in stock. Most of what's there is prepackaged groceries, candy, chips, soda, beer, liquor, tobacco, magazines and newspapers, along with a few cheap plastic toys. The top shelf of magazines has a lot of front-cover pictures of naked women, with a few naked men for variety. I feel myself blush, and look away.

Slipped by without a second glance. When he’d finished and nothing else beeped, he waved me inside. “Welcome to the heart of my empire.” The building didn’t get any better once he’d closed the door behind me. A few techies typed away at laptops on a metal table. Guards with semis patrolled a double door in the back, and a few more circled the perimeter. “Only six?” I said, loud enough that Lyle could hear me. “And the keyboard warriors.” “Out here.” Tony grinned. “Got about a baker’s dozen in the back, where we store the product.”

The giant stone flew out again, reaching a height even higher than the girl’s attempt earlier. Sure enough, when the stone finally settled, it was in the level eight range. “Level eight!” The auction house manager calmly handed out the token. The black-robed team quickly received their token and entered. The scene erupted again. “Level eight...” Based on past experiences, they will definitely be in the seven rooms! “Yeah, achieving level eight is a sign of great strength.” “I wonder if there’ll be anyone stronger.” “Maybe...” As the crowd discussed, it was Andrius’ turn.

“Service door here. Two guards, one camera, one alarm we can loop if we time it between patrol sweeps.” “Internal layout?” Daire asked. “Vaults on Level One and Two,” Kieran said. “L-class items and Lunaris-adjacent tech on Level Three. That’s where the logs suggest the relic went. Security doubles each level.” “We get in,” Rae said, tapping the table with a pen. “Grab the relic, the calibration logs, any traces of Calista’s fake testing, and get out before Crowe’s clerks finish their coffee.” Elowen listened, memorizing turns, chokepoints, and distances between cover.

Eliana whispered, her breath misting in the frigid air. She was right. The narrow, utilitarian concrete corridor suddenly flared outward, transitioning into a massive, vaulted chamber constructed entirely of brushed steel and reinforced glass. Above the heavy, double-wide blast doors at the entrance, a digital sign glowed with a sickly green light: LEVEL 4: BIO-EXTRACTION & REFINEMENT. "This is it," Baraka said, his voice dropping to a low, dangerous register. "This is the core of the facility." The blast doors were slightly ajar, the hydraulic locks having failed long ago. Baraka pushed them open with a heavy screech of metal on metal.

I knew that there was a small shop there that would allow us to purchase food and water. It wasn’t a town like the one on level one, but it had a small store there that would allow us to purchase a few items to help us deal with the desert. I couldn’t agree with Luka more, that we needed to hurry to the next level. The climate on this level was worse than any other level. Okay, not the worst, but definitely the top five worst. Still, we needed to make sure we covered as much of the desert as possible. There were monsters on this level that dropped gems. Since gems were needed to help me improve my fairy charm, which will also enhance my stats.

A few deep breaths of his fresh scent calms me enough to push forward. “Ready?” he asks when I step back. “Yeah.” He takes my hand again and holds it tight as we walk to the other side of the car where we see Alan with his arm around Abigail. They hear us and glance over their shoulders at us and begin walking toward the store with us following. I look at the giant store and feel a bit overwhelmed by how big it is. I can only imagine what it will look like inside. When we walk in, I stop and gape at it all. The level we’re on has the registers but there is a full warehouse behind them. There is also an escalator leading up to another floor. What more could be in here?

Today, I would test my authority as the Luna of over forty packs. I flagged a can to the sketchier parts of the pack where we had the dungeons. I hadn't been here in a long time but I'd been here often enough for the place to still feel familiar. I entered the building that housed the dungeons. The front of the place advertised it as a 'defence' store but the stairs at the back led to a vast basement that could hold at least a thousand prisoners at the same time. The store's receptionist lowered her eyes and bared her neck respectfully as I passed while she explained the workings of a keychain that had a small decorative thing on it which was really a weapon.

"That's it. You want to call Stanton? Let him know we've found them?" James, unspeaking, nods, tapping a message into his phone. Within seconds, something Pings back. "They're on their way," he mutters. "You want to wait for them?" I ask. James hesitates, looks to me, then Klempner. "Your daughter. Your call," he says. James shoves the phone back into his pocket. "Fuck that." A sign above the store reads, Style4U. There's more, but unfinished; a ladder propped against the wall, dust sheets, paint and thinners around the base. The sound of drilling hums out from beyond the brightly lit glass frontage.