*It's a bit heavier, but it's not as annoying as I would have thought.*
I adjust my double shoulder holster and check the new pouches on my chest rig one last time. I nod internally once I finish counting all the magazines and confirm that the universal translator is in my ear. I then grab the big cardboard box containing the metal plate that was supposed to protect my property.
I teleport in front of the shop and a couple of passersby stares at me in annoyance since I appeared in front of them. I make a wry smile while pretending to not hear the mumbled curses and enter the big shop. Returning the barrier goes smoothly the plate bears no traces of damage, so I get my Credits back.
I thank the clerk, a bipedal raccoon-like creature with deep black eyes, and head to the 'Stationary Barriers and Automated Defenses' section where I spot the dwarf that sold me the barrier.
"Hello esteemed customer, how may I help you?" he trots towards me and rubs his hands together.
"I recently bought a barrier for my property, the top of the line according to you, but I had to return it since it wasn't up to the task."
His business smile wavers a little, "I'm sorry to hear that dear customer, but what do you mean not up to the task? Our best model can stop anything short of a Strategic Class spell, so…"
I look around and slowly lift my jacket, revealing the gun dangling at my side, once I confirm that we're alone in the section.
"Well, I might just need something that's a bit stronger… Maybe something that can stop a group of Enforcers from teleporting in my backyard, you know what I'm saying?"
I also totally didn't refrain from using an Italian accent, not at all.
The dwarf pales and his smile completely disappear while his eyes survey the area.
*This doesn't look good… Maybe I was too forceful? I hope he doesn't call for security or something.*
I'm ready to press the button on my phone that would Rewind time back a few minutes, just in case things go wrong. After all, there's little to no chance that a random salesman has any-
"Aye, but not 'ere." The dwarf finally answers, his expression is stiff and his voice is thick with a cockney accent.
I nod and follow him into a storage area; he leads me to a spot hidden between two big boxes and looks around before touching the ground with his finger. A dome of thin yellow light surrounds us before vanishing into thin air, and the dwarf visibly relaxes once the film of light disappears.
"We can talk 'ere, ain't no one who can hear us now."
The dwarf looks at me from head to toes and sighs, "I don't know where you're from, but Enforcers really don't like it when someone goes against them."
Tell me about it, they already sent a squad of assassins after me.
"And you don't look like the type to be a criminal, so…"
I pull out my credit card and wave it in the air, "Don't fret the details, I want information and I'm ready to pay."
The dwarf smiles, I can almost see the dollar signs in his eyes.
"Aye, that's better. But don't say I didn't warn ya. Then payment first, I want 8,000 Creds before I talk."
The salesman pulls out a small yellow orb from his pocket and I stick my credit card on it.
"Thanks, lad. Now, listen carefully: Go on floor 42, there's a bar at those coordinates." he hands me a piece of paper, "Go inside and talk to the big guy behind the counter, tell him Nick send ya. Once you're through, go down two floors. You'll find a shop run by a Goblin with a metal arm. And remember, if someone asks then we never spoke, got it?"
I nod and leave the shop before configuring my Portal Gun and walking in the resulting portal. I arrive in a barely lit back alley that reeks of piss and other bodily fluids. There's trash everywhere, and I can see two creatures passed out against a wall.
I scan the area until I spot fiery letters spelling 'BAR' floating above a decrepit metal door, it creaks when I open it. The interior isn't in better shape: The entrance is a long dark corridor and the smell of vomit and alcohol gets stronger the more I advance.
The corridor finally ends and I arrive in a small room. The only pieces of furniture I can see are two tables and some chairs that look like they were pulled from the bottom of the ocean.
*They look like they'll crumble if I stare too much…*
"What do you want?" a growl interrupts my train of thought and I turn towards the voice.
An eight foot tall humanoid bear with reptilian eyes as well as green scales instead of fur is washing a glass and staring at me with narrowed eyes. He's missing an ear and he is covered in scars, but the quality of his clothes contrast heavily with his gruff appearance and his surroundings: He's wearing a large blue shirt with runes embroidered in the cloth.
*I can tell that those runes are good from here… I better not anger him.*
"Nick sent me," I say while trying to suppress the trembling in my voice.
The bear nods and slams his hand on the counter. Something clicks and a part of the back wall covered in old empty bottles slide and reveals a film of green watery substance.
*So there's a gate hidden here?*
The bartender follows me with his eyes until I walk through the gate. I step through it and arrive in a large area that's in no better shape than the alleyway. I take a deep breath to calm my upset stomach caused by traveling through the gate but immediately regret my decision.
The stale air is even worse here and I almost vomit since the stench of rot and death is so strong.
I check my GPS while waiting for my queasiness to disappear, but what's displayed on the device's screen make me frown.
*I'm… under the Bazaar?*
There's no mistake possible, the blue point that represents my position is blinking deep under the first floor of the Bazaar.
*So there are ways to avoid the GPS… I guess I should have expected something like that.*
I bookmark the location as 'Floor -1' and head towards the biggest road I can find, hoping that it'll lead me to the shop mentioned by the dwarf.
Before I thought that the bazaar was messy and disorganized, but it's miles better compared to what I'm seeing right now. Most of the buildings are shacks made with whatever was available at the time, the rest are either ruins or look like they are about to collapse. The road is made of mud and full of holes along with puddles of grey water, and it's littered with trash.
There are shacks everywhere: Some are even on flimsy platforms attached to the massive stone dome covering the entire area. The rickety pathways linking this suspended maze makes me shudder, they sway with each gust of wind and have no railings so falling off must be a common occurrence here.
The people here are not much better: The majority of the inhabitants are dirty and are wearing rags, and they are clearly malnourished. The ones that look at me all have dull, lifeless eyes and look at the floor once I direct my gaze towards them.
*Isn't this place supposed to be a shopping dimension? So why are there people living there?*
I try to ignore the misery around me and continue to walk forward, and I finally spot a big set of metal stairs that seems to go down forever.
Ten emaciated bird-like creatures that are all wearing a red armband are discussing something near the entrance of the stairs. They don't look in good health but are miles better compared to the other people I saw so far, and they are wearing sets of patched-together leather armor instead of rags.
They stop talking once they spot me and a greedy smirk spread on their faces, revealing the rows of small pointy teeth hidden in their large eagle-like beaks.
*Something tells me that they don't want to chat.*
The birds form a semi-circle in front of the stairs, blocking my path. The biggest one, a big bird with grey feathers and with a beak with a broken tip, steps forward.
"Never seen you before…" he says while leaning forward, I frown since his breath smells like a toilet that hasn't been cleaned for a decade.
"Just let me pass, okay?"
He laughs and his cronies do the same, "Of course we'll let you pass, but first you have to pay the toll."
"And what would happen if I refuse?"
I fought people that can level entire city blocks in an instant, so I'm not going to bend the knee for some egotistical pigeons.
The grey bird grins, "Then… This'll happen!"
A small circle of white light forms into the hand of the creature, and a ripple of air fly straight towards me. However, his grin wavers when my shield stops the attack.
I click my tongue: This attack was so weak that it didn't even pierce the barrier produced by the bracelet welded to my Glove.
"Shit, a shield! We need to overwhelm him!" he screeches and lunges towards me. The other birds don't waste time and bombard me with a wide array of spells.
"Really, why are people so troublesome…" I mutter under my breath after I grab my pistol and pull up the sleeve of my jacket that was covering my Shield Glove.
*The birds are fast but I can still follow them with my eyes, these creatures are nothing compared to Alza or the Black Claws.*
I grin and fire a bullet into the head of a small bird person covered in dirty black feathers who was about to unleash a blade of air. His cranium explodes and the rest of his body soon follows suits when metal spikes emerge from his insides.
"YOU BASTARD!!! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" the big grey bird shouts and lunges at me.
I avoid the attack by stepping to the side and fire a bullet into his stomach, causing him to slump on the floor.
"BOSS!" one of the bird screeches and throw a fireball at me, but my shield stops the spell just as I silence him with a bullet to the face.
The remaining birds take a step back when their leader's body explode, only leaving behind a ball of metal spikes.
I smile and shoot them all before they can get out of their stupor, causing them to explode into tiny pieces of meat and blood-covered feathers.
"Is there anyone else who wants to stop me?!" I shout and look around, but I only see the terrified faces of the passersby huddled together.
*I don't have time to deal with this bullshit; for all I know there are Scalebound assassins following me.*
The stairs are bigger than I first anticipated. They expand once I squeeze through the entrance, and now five cars could fit in the stairwell. There's also little to no light since the few slivers of light illuminating the area comes through cracks in the wall. I lean near a crack to see what provides the light and discover that there's a star-filled sky behind them.
*…This place keeps getting weirder and weirder.*
I almost want to put my hand through one of the bigger cracks, but the possibility of being sucked into space or losing my hand to some eldritch horror lurking in the dark stop me in my tracks. Instead I decide to look down: The stairs are going down for what seems like forever.
I'm not spending the day in a dirty stairwell, so I pull out my Portal Gun and sigh. This is going to take a long time.
Half an hour later and I arrive at a flat area populated by a few shacks and a couple of tents. A Merman that saw me walking through a portal approach me and point at my Portal Gun while baring his teeth.
"Give me that thing or…"
For fuck's sake, not again.
I'm going to ask that dwarf for a refund, I've been mugged twice in less than an hour.
I shoot the Merman before he can finish his sentence and glare at the other Mermen sitting in the small encampment. They all look unhealthy, and most of them have broken teeth and dry cracked skin. Some even have nasty scabs that are oozing pus under their ragged leather armors. A couple of the biggest Mermen have rusty sharpened steel rods hanging from their sides, but even they don't dare to move before I teleport away.
This place is unsettling, and questions keep popping up in my head while I teleport down the dark stairwell.
*Why is there an unmapped area under the Bazaar? And why are there people living in those underground slums?*
However, I couldn't come up with any answers during the next hour.
I stop teleporting around once I arrive at the second floor: I'm not surprised to see that it's in the same desolate state as the first one. The people around here are all looking at me with wide open eyes, and some of the younger looking ones are pointing at me while mumbling something I can't understand.
*My translator doesn't recognize this language… what is this place?*
A crowd quickly form around me while I try to understand what's going on, and I'm about to move out when pained yelps catch my attention. A group of five dirty shirtless humanoid bears is kicking people away and glaring at me with hateful eyes.
The bear in the front kicks a little girl with a slim tail and two tiny horns on her head away and growls at me. Anger wells up in my stomach when her crying mother picks her up and sobs while trying to comfort her unconscious child.
I spot the remains of one of the child's bleeding horn on the muddy path and raise my pistol without a second thought.
The bear's face contorts and he opens his mouth, "You… Not from here. You give shiny things and-"
However the bear doesn't have time to finish his sentence, I guess it's because his head just exploded.
The other bears growl and recoil at the sudden death of their leader, but they don't have time to react before I fire a bullet through their skulls. Screams erupt when the last body hits the floor and explodes into large chunks of flesh. I can see another group of bears rushing towards me while the crowd disperses.
I look back and see the mother still clutching her child while sobbing and looking at me with fearful eyes. I refrain from smiling since I'm covered in bear guts and some could enter my mouth. I don't want to scare her off so I take a stance between the bears and the crying horned woman before aiming at the nearest group of attackers.
Gunshots echoes and another group of bears drop to the ground before they can reach me. A sudden ear-piercing screech makes me stumble, and I look around to find what could produce such a horrifying sound.
I find my answer when it lands in front of me. A car-sized leech covered in pulsating veins and ridden by another bear lunges towards me.
*Shit! I can't move away since it'll hit the woman!!*
I grit my teeth and a blue barrier stops the creature's charge while an empty casing flies out of my glove. The bear stares at me while a green liquid that turns the mud it touches into ash oozes from the maw of his disgusting mount. And, as if the situation couldn't get any worse, the rider is soon joined by two other leech riders.
Each of the horrible creatures growls before releasing a beam of acid towards me. My shield can't hold against the pressure of the liquid, so I close my eyes and press the button hidden in my palm.
*Please don't destroy the dimension!*
My prayer is answered when I open my eyes again and I'm greeted with the sigh of the three giant leeches. I jump back and grab the woman, who protests in the same incomprehensible guttural language the bear used before and jump into the nearest shack.
High-pressure green liquid melts most of the shack, and it's soon followed by a cone of flames.
*Fuck, they have spells too?!*
I look at the woman but she's in shock and doesn't react to what's happening around her, she just cradle her child while mumbling.
*I can't just leave her here…*
I take a deep breath and run out of the shack while firing at the leeches, the pained screams tell me that they don't have substantial armor or any shielding so that's a relief. A few seconds pass and one of the riders yell something before a muffled explosion shake the entire area. The sudden silence is broken by bone-chilling gurgled wails.
I take a peek: The rider of the leech that just exploded is melting into a puddle of green acid produced by the explosion. The two other bears dismounted and look at each other with confused faces, one of them try to help his comrade but screech when he steps into the acid and limp back. He takes the vial of red liquid tucked into his waistband and drinks it, causing his burnt skin to regenerate. But this isn't enough to save him since I shoot the unaware riders along with their mounts and hide in the nearest shack to avoid the rain of acid that follows the explosion of the leeches.
Silence once again falls on the slum, and I take a deep breath while trying to ignore the smell of rotten meat floating in the air.
I look at the grey dome to spot any potential attackers and try to organize my thoughts, but sobbing noises stop me from calming down.
*Fuck, I almost forgot about them! That kid is still bleeding out! Maybe I can-*
I scan the area and a gleam of red buried under the melted remains of a rider grabs my attention.
*Of course, the red potion!*
I snatch the small vial and run in the shack where the sobbing woman is hiding, a laser is stopped by my barrier as soon as I step into the ruined cabin. The woman stands between me and her unconscious child with a pointed finger.
"Hey, stop! I'm not here to harm-" another laser hit my barrier.
I raise my hands, causing another beam of red light to hit my shield, and take a few steps towards the woman who's panting and sweating while firing thinning lasers at me.
"I know you probably don't understand me, but take this." I show her the vial and she stops firing. I drop it on the ground and point at her daughter before stepping back. The woman glares at me and takes a few steps towards the vial. When she sees that I'm not moving, she pounces on the glass container before rushing to her child's side and making her drink it.
Tear pour out of her eyes when the gash on the girl's forehead closes up and opens her deep amber eyes before coughing.
Yay, I saved a kid!
...And also became the mortal enemy of a gang of underground bears riding leeches.
The list of people that wants me dead seems to get bigger every day.