To make sure we didn't oversleep, we were woken up by Abby, who had already arranged our supplies for the new mission. Word must have gotten around that I'm pretty unreliable when it comes to taking food with me, so Abby just left something in my room, saying "Otherwise you'll forget it again".
Of course she was right. I still had to get used to the fact that I didn't have a supermarket on every other corner where I could just pick up the essentials.
"Have you prepared anything for me?" Cáit mumbled sleepily and Abby suddenly laughed, "If I'm making something for Em, then of course I'm making something for you. But since I didn't have your canteen, you'll have to get your own water."
Cáit yawned loudly and heartily before giving me a quick hug, "You actually let me sleep this time." I just nodded and Abby suddenly started giggling before saying, "Could you two cutie-pies maybe get your sweet butts out of bed? Hannah's waiting for you. She wants to join you. She seems to have an idea what the treasure might be."
"Angus will be pleased," Cáit grinned, "At least Em has already proven that she can defend herself if necessary. Hannah still has no weapons as far as I know. And no Em. Books don't count. Even if some of them are heavy enough to beat someone to death."
"I didn't say anything, did I?" I muttered - but a comment like that was actually on the tip of my tongue.
When we went into the dungeon, we had to put on our warm clothes again. Even with my jacket in my item bag, it was personally too hot for me to walk that distance. This time, however, I had thought ahead and asked Sara to get us a carriage, at least for the way to the dungeon. Don't judge me, but I was just too lazy to walk 90 minutes. At home I would have ordered an Uber for that distance, even if I was a bit cheap. The good thing about having Hannah with us was that Cáit was spared any sharp-tongued comments about the carriage. Hannah was just as lazy about it as I was.
In less than 30 minutes we reached our destination, where Angus was waiting impatiently. "There you are at last," Angus said surprisingly impatiently, making me laugh, "just to be sure - you do realise we're early, don't you? You're lucky I didn't walk, otherwise it would have been difficult to get here on time."
While Cáit giggled, Angus ignored my comment and asked in surprise, "What is our little researcher doing here?"
"I invited myself," she said simply, "Because I have a hunch you won't find any treasure today, but something that would have forced me to travel to the dungeon tomorrow anyway. Believe me, I'd much rather be reading in my library or having coffee with Abby."
It was hard to miss that Angus wasn't too happy about having to look for Hannah and me, but he tried to hide it and went through the plan with us: "We'll go down to the third level, fix the switch and then we'll see. I hope it's just a small hidden chamber."
"But with Em around we should probably expect the worst," Cáit joked and I couldn't help but give her the middle finger again.
"I don't expect any problems," Angus continued calmly, "That's why I'm handing command over to Cáit today. Do you think you're up to it after four years? Hannah and Em should be easy to look after."
It took Cáit a moment to register what Angus had just said, but then there was a sudden sparkle in her eyes and she nodded happily.
"You know, Hayden would have put you in charge last time if the adventurers hadn't been such idiots?" I asked Cáit, but she brushed it off, "I would have refused anyway. The twins are ticking time bombs, Angus lets me make my decisions and only intervenes if he thinks I'm making a mistake."
"Such sensible words coming out of your mouth?" Angus tried to hide his surprise, but Cáit only said, "I think the last few days have changed us all a little."
Cáit then immediately gave the order to proceed to the third level, but was surprisingly patient with me and my rather leisurely pace.
To my surprise, the dungeon was completely empty at this point and we actually reached our destination without any problems. Once there, I scanned the room again to make sure the switch was still in the same place, then headed straight for the pile.
"I can only fix it if I have a clear view of it," I muttered and Angus grumbled, "Right. Let's get started then. This will take a little longer."
In front of us, as everywhere else in the room, was a huge pile of scrap metal.
"Will it help if I blow the top off?" Cáit asked and I groaned, "If you can manage not to damage the switch any more, I have no objection."
"That's why I asked. I should be able to control the explosion," Cáit chuckled, but seemed to be waiting for Angus' feedback.
He simply said, "You're in charge today. If Em says it's OK under certain conditions, then it's your decision if you're capable enough to do it. Besides, anything that requires some kind of demolition is your responsibility anyway".
"Since it's a switch and not a lever, you don't have to be too careful," I reasoned, but of course I'd rather she didn't do any more damage.
Cáit didn't hear me, having already disappeared into her world, and muttered to herself, "If I half the gunpowder in one of my grenades, I could reduce the radius of the explosion. You'll still have to clear some of the dirt, but it shouldn't take hours."
"Then we'll just have to hope that the right spare parts are lying around," I grinned and Angus grumbled, "In other words, we have no idea if this whole plan is going to work."
"I never promised that I would be able to fix that thing?" I said, "Especially since I'm not entirely sure how my abilities work, but I assume I can only see things I can repair at my current level. Otherwise it wouldn't make sense."
"I'm still looking for literature that deals with Em's abilities," Hannah mumbled, "So far it's all learning by doing. I'm finding a few small references, but I haven't been able to get an overview yet."
I marked the location of the switch for Cáit and a moment later she signalled for us to take cover. A small explosion reduced the pile of junk to one third of its original size. I didn't really know why I was surprised that Cáit could actually do that. After all, she had a pretty high skill level when she showed me her status screen. But that was probably because I'd only ever seen a rather reckless side of her as soon as we entered a dungeon.
The repair itself turned out to be quite simple, as only the switch itself was broken.
"I can assume that most people who enter the dungeon have no idea how to fix this, apart from me, right?" I asked Angus and he nodded, "Most scrap collectors would probably break the switch completely trying to fix it. Or try to take it with them, thinking they can make money out of it."
"Perfect. Then could someone please lend me a knife? Preferably not one that I could use as a sword," I asked, and to my surprise Hannah handed me a small knife with a questioning look. "I don't want to use ether for that right now, so I'll just fix it temporarily. Once we know what happens when I trigger the switch, I can still take care of it properly."
"Sounds reasonable," Cáit nodded, and Angus hummed in agreement.
Hannah started to say something, but I cut her off, "I know, it's a great way to train. But we have no idea what's waiting for us later, and I don't want to use my skills for something as simple as this switch."
Still, I had to get my hands on some proper tools. The junk I'd picked up on my first visit to the dungeon was just about enough for the ugly lawn tractor.
Sooner or later I would probably need several screwdrivers, a decent hammer and, given the number of broken pipes in the mansion, at least a decent pipe wrench. Ideally, I could also get my hands on some drill bits, although my next goal, after repairing my little robot friend, would probably be to invent a cordless drill. Hannah will really curse me for this. And a knife would probably come in handy too. But that was a problem for my future self.
With the knife, I carelessly removed the sheath around the switch, revealing a rather simple mechanism that, in my old world, could probably be found in a higher quality in any children's construction set. "Get ready," I called over to the other three and flicked the switch. Nothing happened at first, and I cursed loudly for a moment when suddenly a door on the wall slowly slid aside somewhere.
"Jackpot," I shouted, but Cáit and Angus suddenly looked quite tense and both had weapons in their hands. "Girls," Cáit said, "You two stay back a bit."
To my surprise, Cáit wasn't holding grenades, but her crossbow, "We were bound to run into those pesky critters, weren't we?"
"Fucking rats. But yes - no real surprise that we ran into some of them," Angus grumbled, already ahead with two pistols in his hands. Somehow I had expected to see a battleaxe, a mace or a spear. But the red-haired giant was carrying simple revolvers. He made short work of the giant rats, killing twenty of them without even reloading. Cáit had killed maybe three of the bastards at the same time. It was the first time I had seen rats that big. I had the feeling they had been locked up for a while and were just trying to get some fresh air.
Angus took a quick look through the opening and then signalled for us to come closer. "How many bullets do your pistol magazines hold, please?" I asked Angus and he just grinned, "As many as I need. They're not real bullets, they're highly concentrated ether. Works a bit like Jacky's shotgun. Only one bullet costs me less ether because of its size."
"I see," I mumbled and asked Cáit, "Does your crossbow work in a similar way?"
She just shook her head and Hannah began to explain, "You need a combination of the right skills and a lot of experience to make it work. It is similar to your repair skills. We may be able to fix things, but we can't do it as efficiently as you can."
"And it is the same with my little grenades. If you use enough gunpowder, you can achieve a similar effect as I can. The big difference is that my ether gives the grenades a little extra power".
"But - the most important thing is the combination of your skills. Hannah and I can explain it to you on the way back, if you're really interested. But I'd suggest we take a closer look at the corridor behind the secret door first," Angus said, looking straight at Cáit, "Remember? You're in charge."
