The look on Sunny's face when I did eventually collect her from the saloon to check out her now air conditioned home was priceless. She was so happy in fact she felt like thanking me, vigorously. I felt like a squeezed out tube of toothpaste afterwards but damned if that suffering wasn't worth it. After that I kicked back and relaxed mostly. I mean sure I totally got suckered into ACing up the saloon as well as Doc Mitchell's place but after fixing the first AC the other two weren't too troublesome.-
Cut it a bit close with the saloon since I had to juice it up a tad to counter the lack of insulation but otherwise it was a good way to pass the time. As for why I also did Doc Mitchells house it was actually a town decision once I made it clear I flat out didn't have enough parts to fix everyone's AC's. It was a whole thing where everyone kinda put their heads together and collectively decided that Doc Mitchells place should get it since he was the medical heart of the town.-
Honestly I applauded their thinking on the matter as a cooled medical facility had several benefits beyond mere comfort. For starters it would make preserving medicine easier. There was a small thank you from the town at the saloon in the form of a couple rounds of drinks on them before Sunny thoroughly drained me of fluid when the night came. The next morning came with a couple things that I was expecting and one I was not.
{Daily pack token dispensed.}
{One week grace period has ended. Pack token distribution changed to once per week not including quests.}
{Hidden quest completion detected. Displaying quest details.}
{Quest(Hidden): The danger zone
Description: The first week is always the roughest for fresh meat. Let's see if you can cut it shall we?
Objectives: Survive the first week in your new reality, Complete at least two quests in this span of time
Rewards: New set unlock, 1X Pack opening token}
I stared at this wall of notifications and felt a mix of colorful emotions, exasperation being the biggest. The hidden quest revealed to me a few things that were a bit annoying and/or chilling to me. The first was of course that hidden quests existed. I liked being in the know, made things nice and clear and shit like that. Hidden quests being a thing now meant I had to constantly keep an eye out for anything that MAYBE qualified. -
I could think of a few right off the rip that might exist. Stuff like taking over the world, fixing the world, destroying it entirely, you know standard long term goals that are kinda just implied. The second thing that the hidden quest revealed to me was that APPARENTLY getting thrown into another world without diddly squat to your name but the system tended not to end with you alive before the week was out, go figure.-
I could absolutely fucking see it too! I started my new life in the middle of the desert with no clothes and no clue where in the dick I was. One wrong move and things could have easily went tits up. For example if I hadn't summoned my soldier guy I probably would have died because of the scorpions that plagued that stretch of road. I could have also totally died from fucking heat stroke because, you know, DESERT! Or maybe some Cazadors might have passed by or something else could have gone cataclysmically wrong. Point being there was no telling if I'd actually survive the full week or not and that's some existentially haunting shit right there!-
'Well at least the free set and pack are nice I guess.' I thought eventually once I stopped mentally screaming.
I didn't go back to sleep but chose to get dressed and go make some coffee. The stuff was pretty rare in the wasteland since there weren't many places in the United states that grew the beans before the war but the vault had several dried bricks of it that I'd grabbed while there. While I sat in the rusted metal and plastic chair sipping my bitter drink I chose to get the new set out of the way along with the two pack openings I had.-
I mentally nudged the system into action and that huge full wheel with all the sets on them in rainbow light appeared in my vision. I gave the go ahead and it began to spin nauseatingly fast. When it stopped I looked at what set I got and frowned because it was one from before I started playing.
{New set distributed: Scourge}
'Well i've got two packs to open so I guess I can use them on this to see what it's about.' I thought before moving to open the first pack in the system.
Tendrils of agony-sorcery, Uncontrolled infestation-Enchantment, Edgewalker-creature, Dawn elemental-Creature, Reaping the graves-Instant, Krosan Drover-Creature, Dispersal shield-instant, Lingering death-enchantment, Bonethorn Valesk-creature, Noble templar-creature, Chartooth Cougar-creature, Torrent of fire-sorcery, Titanic Bulvox-creature, Raven guild initiate-creature, Thundercloud elemental-creature
'Nevermind. That's nothing but big stompy monsters, which I mean yay? But at the same time I want the little ones, like a fucking house cat or something.' I thought with a sigh and chose to put off opening another pack for now.-
"There were a few useful additions among those cards. The cost was concerning however." Adam chimed in as I watched the sun rise.
"Bad luck maybe, the set could actually be a bunch of small monsters and I just got a bunch of the big ones this time. I really doubt it though." I said with a shrug.
I wasn't too bothered by the outcome really as even with the high prices I could still cast most of them with just my artifacts. I especially considered summoning the thundercloud elemental because nothing says "get fucked" like a literal storm cloud coming to murder you. Except maybe a clown with a knife, terrifying shit that.-
We just sat there in silence for a good while before Sunny woke up. I offered her some coffee but she declined because of how bitter is was. I thought it kinda cute how she could down booze easily but disliked coffee. Personally I thought the former was much worse to deal with but to each their own I suppose. Her day like always started with her checking around the town to make sure nothing nasty moved in during the night before she ended up at the saloon until it was time to chase off geckos from the water sources.