Dustin slowly realized that he might have to spend some of his hard earned Dos on material things. He was still living at home with his mother, and when he returned home late at night she was very worried.
Let alone the eggs, Dustin could barely find space to himself. His mother was keeping a check on him a lot more lately, due to his recent sprees of staying out late. Despite being in university, she still treated him like a kid.
Lei-Lei had been confused afterwards, and asked if she should follow Master's Master. Dustin didn't have the patience to explain to a spirit what being a mother meant, so gave her the short answer of 'no'.
Dustin was hard pressed to find somewhere to store his oversized quest related goods. He not only had to keep the three eggs, and the equipment to store them on him, he also had the ritual ingredients to collect.
He had picked up a couple of pieces from the undead dungeon, and one or two from yesterday's adventure. Whilst they were a lot smaller in size, he needed a higher quantity of items to complete the ritual. He knew for a fact that some of the items would take up a lot of space, the premiere item being the Blood Ape Chieftain's heart.
He had already bought multiple inventory upgrades, and each seemed to fill each shortly after he purchased them.
The way around this was to find somewhere in the physical world to store them, which definitely meant that he needed to move out.
Perhaps he could rent out or buy a warehouse somewhere. The eggs would need to be hidden well, as they were very obviously not from Earth. The ritual ingredients were small enough to hide inside some crates, and generally didn't look too out of place amongst some of earth's funkier flora.
Dustin looked up online for warehouse rental and checked his bank account. He had already burnt the bridges to his old part time job by quitting over the phone, and most of his money had gone towards preparing for the dungeons release.
He had just shy of $1500 to his name, which was becoming more and more worthless as time went on, and people converted their Dos to cash.
Hiring any sizeable warehouse was anywhere from $60,000 to $500,000 per year. Perhaps smaller property was the first step.
If he could buy a house somewhere, and stick the eggs in the basement, it might suffice. He put off the pain of looking at house prices for later, adding it to long list of future purchases, just below 'Plane' and 'Motorcycle'.
Ultimately the real money wouldn't be coming in until dungeons were fully realized, and the government raced to control them. People would pay good money for higher tier spells and weapons, considering the trade of them was banned outright.
Items that Dustin would have to upgrade sooner or later, like weapons and armour, could be sold at a decent price. Those from shops could be sold just below market price, to recoup the losses.
Items that came from dungeons, like his scale gauntlets, would go for much higher amounts. He closed the depressing bank account tab on his computer and continued researching names. As time went on, the amount of people disappearing was too many to keep track of, and Dustin couldn't remember all the names.
There were two that he had on his mind. One was a very high profile businessman, whose address Dustin could find easily. It was monitoring the man that came at a risk. He was surrounded by security a lot of time, and couldn't be seen inside his house as the property was surrounded by thick, tall walls.
If Dustin wanted to find where he disappeared, he would have to be very discreet. Dustin turned on the TV to blab in the background as he dug into the man's boring background, and was surprised to find Sarah on the TV.
Unlike when he had seen her, she was dressed up very professionally, and speaking about her harrowing experience in the dungeon. She had even recorded a clip of her using the spell Dustin told her to buy. The clip had received half a billion views in only a week, and reports were coming in over havoc across every country.
People were buying spells, testing them out in the street, others were buying things they were familiar with, like guns.
Obviously the part the government was most concerned about was the economy. The Dos conversion rate for currency was changing rapidly, accurately reflecting the current inflation rates.
So far there were two dungeons cleared without Dustin's help, one in the Middle East, and one in South America. Suddenly the image changed from Sarah, to a crude drawing of a man in a black cloak and day of the dead face paint. Dustin hadn't been listening to what she rambling on about, but was keenly aware that the image was meant to be him.
To prove that Sarah wasn't crazy, another familiar sight joined her on screen as two identical twins stood by her side. They wore the same dress, had the same hairstyle, and spoke in unison.
Dustin was almost scared of how well they pulled it off. The two of them had kept their spirits a secret, but did admit to seeing Dustin in a dungeon as well.
He had become something of a joke overnight, people tweeting in to the station about how ludicrous the outfit looked.
Dustin weathered the storm with his pride shattered, muting the TV to focus on his real work. What people thought of him currently was irrelevant. He needed to be stronger than before, and pull the entire race together to fight back against the threat of invasion.
The fight against the Queen Ant had given him the cold reality. He couldn't take on the ant colony by himself, let alone defeat all of the spirits. It was luck that he had three elemental groups helping him. If one of them had been missing, he wouldn't have been able to fill the niche that they left.
It wasn't just that dungeon that proved it either. The undead dungeon before that had a boss that might of killed Dustin if he didn't have others to distract and kill the guards.
Each time he came to an obstacle, he was fortunate enough to have someone else to help. If he wanted to be the one to save the planet, he needed a team, not an individual.
A few members were unreplaceable in the team Dustin made up in his mind. Some had passed away too early in his previous lifetime, exhibiting great skill, but applying it to the wrong areas.
There was a party of four, the very same that had once saved Dustin from a rampaging Infested Scyllasaur. They were very skilled, and worked well as a team.
Unfortunately they refused to take any additional members, and the lack of frontline that could soak damage ultimately got them killed. They had pushed deep into the territory of a dungeon that long plagued the town Dustin resided in.
It was a couple of years after he had met them, that they were gone. The only remains that were found was the leaders famous gun, and the sword woman's hand, still holding onto her sheath.
Dustin needed people who displayed skill and tenacity, but could follow his orders. When the group had gotten strong and overconfident, that was when they had refused to follow orders or expand the team.
If he was going to whip them into shape, he needed to get to them early.
There were plenty of other suitable candidates as well, some of which he had never met, only heard tales about from travelling pioneers.
And of course, the core members that he would never give up on were the twenty-five friends he had made as humanity's last stand. It was their tenacity to spit in death's face and overcome all odds that made them great. Each of their usernames, real names, faces, skillsets, attributes, and hobbies were carved into his memory.
They had become such a close knit party that it was impossible for any one of them replaced. Lead by Dustin, they had reached the end of their journey, of which he did not get to see. He was glad that at the end of it all, he was able to sacrifice himself to help others, rather than seeing the opposite happen.
Putting a hand to his face, Dustin had started to tear up unconsciously at the thought of them. He chuckled quietly to himself, swearing to himself that the Goliath would be kneeling in front of them by the end of fifteen years.
Dustin quickly scribbled down the address of the rich man on a note and stuffed it in his pocket. Turning off the computer before he left the room. He was in no hurry to find the man's house, as he needed somewhere nearby to stay. The man stayed in a rich part of town, far enough away that Dustin wanted to stay close by.
He typed a number into his phone and dreaded talking to the person who picked up.
"Hello, James speaking!"
-----------------------
Dustin endured the death stares James' family butler was giving him as he sat in the lounge room of their expensive home. James had scolded Dustin like he was still his lackey, but agreed to let Dustin stay over for a couple of nights.
He made up an excuse that he was scouting the area for homes, and that he needed to pop into James' university to talk to a couple of professors. Unfortunately James didn't seem to take any hints, and stuck to him like glue.
Dustin escaped his claws when James' father came home and dragged his son off to the private study. He walked past the butler and took the address from his pocket, heading north of the mansion to find where his target lived.
Normally such a large house would have been easy to find, but this particular area of town was filled with them. Each of them was distinctly different architecturally, but the only description Dustin had to go off was large area, and tall walls, which every house had.
He used the mini-map to pinpoint the address, and finally reached the sandy coloured walls after twenty minutes. He pretended not to be looking for it as he jogged past, feeling the eyes of the armed guards watching him pass.
He didn't dare loop back in front of them and circled the block of houses beside it, finding his way back to James' house just in time for dinner.
Apparently James did not have many friends as his parents seemed very happy to see Dustin staying over. His mother came up with a few plans the two of them would do the next couple of days, to which Dustin couldn't turn down.
He was on a mission, but the joy of which she asked him, he had unconsciously accepted. Of course, the plans were to do things that Dustin had either never done, or couldn't afford to do.
They were going to be going shopping, going to expensive restaurants for lunch and dinner, and visiting some of the recreation centers around the suburb. Dustin couldn't even imagine what they would have cost, but the family seemed happy to pay for it all, as he was the guest.
Dustin gave a half smile and thanked them, retiring to the guest room to work out how he was going to escape the predicament.
He managed to work in the excuse of seeing houses into the routine, as the next day it seemed the man hadn't moved from his home, the armed guards were still on patrol, and the gates looked like they hadn't opened in a couple of days.
On the final day of Dustin's stay, the armed guards were gone. James dismissed it as nothing of importance as they drove past, heading to inspect a house on the other side of the suburb. Dustin nodded slowly, but knew that it wasn't right.
He snuck out that night, convincing the butler that he had something he needed to head home for. The old man didn't even offer him a ride, and dumped him outside the house.
That was fine by Dustin, he needed to be alone if he was going to enter the dungeon. Thanks to his increased agility and constitution, the run over to the targets home wasn't too tiring.
Just to avoid breaking and entering a man's home that hadn't become a dungeon, he tried ringing the bell first.
There was no response from inside, so he circled around the back. The gates were locked, so climbing the tall walls would be the only way inside. Thankfully the dungeon didn't spawn in the center of the mansion, but rather in the courtyard gazebo.
Its influence extended onto a portion of the road, and Dustin felt the world fall away as he walked along the eastern wall. The ground turned soft and mushy as Dustin felt his feet sink. Rather than mud, it shifted under his feet as he moved, and the dark night sky wrapped around him.
[Welcome to the Silent Desert dungeon, uploading current information to mini map.]
Sure enough, the material under his feet was sand that stretched out further than the eye could see in every direction. It was quite cold in the dungeon as night-time had taken over. A cool chill blew Dustin's cloak to the side as it rolled over the dunes.
He agreed with the dungeons name, as the soft whistle of the wind was the only thing audible.
"Ah!"
That was until something crashed into the ground behind him. He was hit in the back by a spray of sand as two humans rolled to a stop just by his feet. His metal staff was already held out, and he held it close to their heads.
When the younger man looked up, Dustin groaned internally.
It was James, the last person he wanted to see. To add some salt on the wounds, the person next to him was none other than the families butler. He looked up at Dustin's' disguise, vaguely recognizing the face paint and cloak from the news.
James spat out a wad of sand that had flown into his open mouth and looked around like a newborn baby.
"Where have you taken us?"
Dustin turned to look at the butler, whose face had grown pale. It seemed even in fear his sense of entitlement was unscathed.
On the off chance that they hadn't recognized him, he remained silent. His voice would be a dead give away to his identity.
James gasped as he looked behind Dustin, where one of the armed guards who patrolled the manner had been torn apart by something. The butler followed the line of vision and glared at the body. Neither of them had any idea who it was, but apparently his disguise worked well enough.
"What did you do to Dustin!" James shrieked. The butler did not look as convinced as his young master, and his eyes glanced between Dustin and the body.
Dustin thought some acting was in order, and turned slowly towards the body, asking Lei-Lei a random question as he went.
Normal people couldn't hear the communication between spirits, so Dustin's mouth was moving as he talked, but only a garbled sentence came out, like some alien language.
"What do you think killed this man?" Dustin asked as he dramatically approached the body, kneeling in the sand beside it and running a finger softly on the ground. His tracking perception alerted him to tracks left by living creatures, and the thing that had killed the guard seemingly disappeared a mere 5 meters away.
It was possible that the wind had blown sand the cover the tracks, but his perception should have been able to pick up a direction that the creature went.
The realization hit Dustin, and he threw himself to the side. There was barely any notice as a sharp tail shot out from the sand, stabbing the empty air where Dustin had just been. There was a purple liquid covering the barbed tail, and the creature pulled itself out of the sand as Dustin scrambled away.
It was a scorpion, a particularly nasty looking one too. It had a glossy carapace that shined in the moonlight, and sharp hairs that covered its body. Two pincers were snapping the air as the scorpions legs vibrated, pushing it up and out of the sand.
Dustin used his staff to stand up and stood still, watching the monstrous scorpions tail wave side to side. Magic was the best option if he wanted to avoid its pointy appendages. Storm Bolt was incredibly loud, likely to draw even more unwanted attention to himself.
He would have to use Ice Petal, which wasn't a bad idea against monsters that couldn't reliably remove it. He summoned a chilling petal onto the scorpions back, which caused it to twitch, but still not attack him.
James and the Butler were much less calm than Dustin about the nightmare in front of them, and tried to run away, finding themselves at the dungeons boundary, which was akin to running on the spot.
The scorpion locked onto the two of them as soon as they moved, and started a mad dash towards them, awkwardly limping on one side as the petal grew to cover the left half of its carapace.
Dustin wasn't going to let it attack them, and ran towards it, sending a throwing knife out ahead of him. It penetrated the scorpions side, right where one of its leg joints was.
It turned to face Dustin, who was now running at it, as the highest value target. He used the range on his staff to swat the venomous tail aside and kicked the monster back, hitting one of its pincers.
The petal had claimed the legs on one side of the scorpion, and the frost was slowly creeping up its tail. Dustin continued his offensive, shocking it with each attack as the staff connected with the fleshier parts. Eventually one half of it was frozen, and its health dropped to zero as Dustin flipped it over, cutting a vertical line down its body with a knife.
The scorpion lay dead as Dustin pulled his knife from its insides, and cut off the petal to stop it from freezing the body. The undead dungeon had yielded terrible loot, and he had spent much more money on consumables then he had earned from the ant dungeon. Pieces of the scorpion could be sold, providing some hope that he could recoup for the loss of income his previous dungeoneering attempts had provided.
He turned to look at his two stalkers as they were frozen in place. Dustin realized that he was still holding the bloodied knife, and quickly put it away. The scorpions corpse disappeared into his inventory, which only added to the storage predicament. He would have to dismantle the bodies and take what he needed inside the dungeon.
The loot filter he set up could take care of the rest, although at a reduced profit. James and his butler took a step back as Dustin stood up, spun his staff around, and started walking up the sand dune.
He got half way up before looking back, the two behind him still reeling. James turned to his butler as Dustin waited up the dune for them.
"I think it wants us to follow...?"