After another minute, Warrion broke out a can of Spam from his Items panel and began snacking loudly on the salty 'meat' product.
"How can you eat that?" Athios asked, her repulsion evident.
"What, Spam?" Warrion asked with a mouthful of spam.
"Spam puts hair on your chest," Gary said seriously.
Garath kept his eyes on Rum’bah, but chuckled as he wondered how much Spam it took Gary to grow the rug on his chest and back.
"You don't actually like Spam, do you?" Athios asked.
"Athios, nobody likes Spam," Gary said. "But a man can only eat so much salmon."
That got Garath thinking. Sure, they had a virtually inexhaustible source of the nutrient-rich fish and a decent supply of rations and various canned foods, but he knew they'd need to start working on ways to feed their community long term.
"That reminds me," Garath said. "We need to find some way to grow food. I was thinking chickens."
"Chickens?" Warrion asked.
"Yeah, man. Not only are they freaking delicious creatures, eggs are like the most versatile cooking ingredient ever," Garath said sagely. "And they pop 'em out on the daily."
"Chickens," Athios agreed, nodding.
Warrion looked pensive for a second, then a stupid grin spread across his perma-stoned features. "Having chickens would be…"—the Assassin paused for dramatic effect—"clutch."
There was a moment of comedic silence. Garath only smiled, but then Athios and even the laconic Gary both laughed softly, still cautious not to startle the large, unmoving Rum’bah in front of them.
"Well I'll keep my eyes open," Gary said with an eye-twinkling smirk, "and let you know if I happen upon a wild chicken."
Finally, its decision apparently made, the gigantic Rum’bah took a right turn and headed inland. The turn was painfully slow. It started with just the creature's huge eyes, then the rest of its head, and then, finally, it picked up one massive foot and shifted its bulky body.
"We might have to do shifts for this part too, G," Warrion said, looking bored already.
Garath had no idea what kind of awesome scenario would be able to keep the Assassin’s attention if a house-sized fire-turtle only a few feet away couldn’t. He shrugged. “You guys can head in. Go tell everyone the building is safe,” Garath said. "I'll keep an eye on Rum’bah for a while to make sure he doesn't change his mind. I've got some clerical stuff to work on anyways.”
It took some convincing, but eventually, even Athios left Garath alone to watch the World Boss as it moved slowly inland. At first, Garath looked for somewhere comfortable to sit down and get started on scheduling tomorrow's tryouts, but then he started getting short of breath. Dizzy. He felt a nagging anxiety tightening his chest. He'd meant to get a start on increasing his own power today, to grind or get a profession or something, anything to get stronger. The fact that he only had one new BeastScape form to show for the day, coupled with the lust from the soul taint stack on his human form brought him to a near panic attack.
It was a good a time as any to explore his new, taint-free Osprey form. He’d be able to navigate his MENU panels the same as he would in human form, but with a clearer perspective. He shifted into the aerodynamic hunter form and soared gracefully to a large, east-facing branch. Another perk—it was significantly easier to find a comfortable perch in a tree than it was a seat on the asphalt. With one eye on the slowly maneuvering Rum’bah, Garath willed open his MENU panels and navigated to the private messages he had dismissed earlier that evening.
Thirteen new messages awaited his attention, all from members of the old Raid group. He started referring to the interested parties as ‘the hopefuls’ in his mind. Among them were familiar names, but some of the people that had expressed interest in the Dungeon team came as a bit of a shock to the Necrologist. For example, the group of middle-school aged dorks that Garath was calling ‘the Hawkies’ submitted their candidacy as a whole. He was even more shocked to find that Sharon had sent him a message, hers had only two words: I’m in. The most shocking result of his call to action though, was the little Elementalist, Daisy. He paused to consider these, the most familiar names that jumped out at him upon opening his Message panel.
Garath wasn’t sure if any one of the Hawkies would be willing to go to the Dungeon unless they all went, so he sent a quick message to all five of them to clarify.
When it came to Sharon, Garath was all for having her around. She’d developed into quite the versatile healer since The Culling. Her quick reactions and steady heal-over-time spells would make for a great Raid healer in a ten-man group setting.
Daisy though, that was an easy one. There was no way in hell was he going to bring a little girl into one of the most dangerous locations on modern, apocalyptic Earth. He could understand why wanted to. Over the last week she’d grown pretty attached to Athios, clinging to the Dimensionalist whenever possible. She’d know that Athios would be going and, with her Gran gone, Athios was just about all she had left.
Garath shook the rain off his neck and wings then scooted closer to the tree for better cover. Rum’bah was still working on that first right turn, but all evidence pointed toward the giant-turtle World Boss continuing his agonizing march east.
While he waited for a response from the Hawkies, the Necrologist pondered over some of the other hopefuls. He was glad to see that, like Sharon, some of the people he’d strong-armed into becoming healers during The Culling had really adopted their Classes. Apart from the seventy-eight-year-young Naturist herself, three of the healers she’d been so helpful in directing throughout the apocalypse had also messaged Garath in hopes of joining the Dungeon team.
The other three healers Garath didn't have any opinion of. They'd
