Slumping with relief, the team paused to recover from the fight.

  "So the whole time, the baron was covering for the baroness," Tom said. "She was involved with some kind of blood magic it appears. Hence the title."

  "Looks that way," Derek said. "I can't exactly blame the guy for protecting his wife, but seriously dude, she could take control of people!"

  "Right?! If Kevin had been a little stronger we would have been in serious trouble." Tom replied.

  "I'm sorry again guys. Especially Derek. I didn't mean to attack you." Kevin said sheepishly.

  "Don't worry about it, bro. It wasn't you. You were being controlled. All good." Derek said, reassuring Kevin.

  "I still feel like..." Kevin began but trailed off as a light shone from the end of the room with the thrones.

  The baron's throne appeared to be transforming as they watched. Morphing slowly, the chair took on a box shape and then glowed brighter and brighter. Eventually, the party had to shield their eyes from the light. With a final light pop sound, the transformation was complete and the light winked out.

  Standing in place of the throne, was a vending machine.

  "Seriously...we kick the dungeon boss' ass and we have to buy something?" James asked. "What a crock of shit. I don't know what twat-waffle designed this fucking system, but if I find them I'm gonna introduce them to Squirrel and Chipmunk here."

  "You named your guns Squirrel and Chipmunk?" Jay asked.

  "Of course I did. Because they destroy Deez nuts!" James said and began laughing uncontrollably.

  While James was laughing, a prompt appeared in all of their visions.

  "Ohhhh...so we don't have to pay to use this one. Well, never mind then on the chestnut chucking," James said.

  "For fuck's sake James, quit talking about people's nether regions and just go pick something from the machine," Derek said.

  "Alright, alright, don't get your panties in a wad Mom, I'm going," James replied getting annoyed. "Now let's see, what should I get?"

  Peering into the machine, the party noticed that some of the items were similar to what they could buy from other machines. Weapons and armor similar to what they already had were in the machine. However, this time there were also some cans for jewelry. Rings, pendants, bracelets, earrings, and more were available.

  "Put your hand on the screen dumbass!" Derek called.

  Feeling embarrassed now for not thinking of that before, James put his hand on the machine and it changed out the options to fit his Ranger class.

  "Ah! I know what I need!" James said and made a selection. Then he made the same selection again.

  "What did you get?" Kiera asked as she walked up behind him.

  Holding the cans up, James opened them one at a time and held out his prizes after the smoke had cleared.

  "Red-dot sights!" He said beaming with pride. "These babies should increase my accuracy."

  Tom took one and inspected the item.

  "You didn't want anything else?" Tom asked.

  "Why would I want something else when I can use these babies to kill more monsters to get more loot?" James questioned back.

  He did, however, turn back to the machine and try to get another prize.

  "Both purchases for user 'James' have been used. Please change users before attempting to make an additional purchase. Once all other members of the party have made their selections, the options in the machine will be reset and users may make purchases as normal." The machine said in its female automated voice.

  "Worth a shot," James said as he stepped back to let someone else choose.

  Kiera stepped up and put her hand on the screen. Making two selections she stepped back with her prizes.

  "What'd ya get?" Jay asked.

  She held one of the cans up to his face to let him see the image and promptly opened the can mere inches from his face causing the smoke to blast him from point-blank range. Coughing and sputtering Jay reeled backward and almost fell over.

  "I got a ring of spell storage and a rifle," Kiera said, smiling from ear to ear at Jay's discomfort.

  "So this thing is basically the treasure chest at the end of the dungeons?" Tom asked.

  "Looks that way. In some games, the dungeon will have a chest that just gives a set number of items that the party has to divvy up between themselves. In other cases, it will allow each member to open the chest and give either specific or random items out to each party member." Derek explained at the confused looks on Kiera and Jay's faces.

  "Oh, I see. So when we finish a hard task or quest we might just pick from a vending machine instead of finding a treasure chest?" Kiera asked.

  "That seems to be the gist of it right now," Derek confirmed. "But only time will tell if that happens in every case."

  Jay stepped up and got a Cape of Stealth and Ninjato of Bleeding.

  Derek obtained a Ring of Cure Wounds and a Helm of Clarity.

  Kevin selected the Pendant of Might and the Belt of Constitution.

  Finally, Tom stepped up. Placing his hand on the screen, he perused the items available and purchased the Charismatic Pendant and a Tome of Summon Familiar.

  The tome really interested Tom. He had always loved animals and thought it would be fun to have one now, in a world where he could use some cheer. Reading the instructions, the book said it would summon a single familiar to bond with the user. Commanding the familiar was as simple as invoking the bond and giving it an order to obey. Not seeing a downside, Tom opened the book and read the incantation on the inside. He raised his hand out, palm down, somehow knowing this was the action to take.

  A symbol looking like a messed up ampersand sign with a circle around it appeared in glowing red light on the ground under his hand. Finishing the incantation, the symbol on the ground flashed bright and the book snapped shut in his hands before disintegrating.

  A beam of light erupted from the floor, hitting the ceiling and shining bright for five seconds. Everyone hid their eyes from the brightness. When the light went out, standing in the circle was a small creature that looked to be a combination of an insect, a lizard, and a goblin. Long antelope-like horns protruded straight up from its head, pointed ears stuck out to either side, its teeth were like a mouth full of needles, it had spines coming out of its back, a long whip-like tail, and its legs resembled a cross between a frog and a grasshopper.

  "What the fucking hell is that ugly piece of shit?" James asked.

  Inspecting the creature, Tom groaned slightly at what he saw.

  "It's a...demon?" Tom questioned.

  "What kind of demon?" Derek asked.

  "There are kinds of demons?" Jay said.

  "Sure there are lots of kinds. Not as many small ones like this, but still some." Derek replied.

  "It says it's a Quasit," Tom said. "And it looks like I need to name it."

  "Yes, name good." The creature said staring up at me.

  Everyone jumped back at one.

  "Did that fucking thing just talk?" James said in a fast hushed tone while he grabbed me by the shoulders and placed me between himself and the Quasit.

  "Sure as shit did!" Jay exclaimed in a voice barely above a whisper.

  "Awe...it's kinda cute. If you can get past the needle teeth and sideways blinking eyes." Kiera said, though she too was hiding behind Tom.

  The Quasit wagged its tail at being called cute.

  "Yes, me cute! Like, lady. Lady be friend?" the Quasit asked.

  "Awwwww....how adorable," Kiera said coming out from behind Tom and kneeling in front of the creature.

  Moving closer to Kiera the Quasit wrung its hands together nervously as it stared up at Kiera.

  "Don't worry, I won't hurt you little guy. We can be friends. Here would you like some jerky?" Kiera asked, reaching into her storage and pulling out a piece to hand to the creature.

  Reaching out its head, it sniffed the jerky, then grabbed it out of Kiera's hands as it stepped back quickly to stay out of reach. It sniffed the meat some more, then licked it. Taking a big bite of the meat it ran over to Kiera and began to snuggle up against her as it devoured the jerky.

  "There, see, it's good isn't it?" Kiera said as she patted the creature on the head behind its horns.

  "I'll have to think of a name for it. For now, let's head back. We've been in this dungeon for a long time." Tom said.

  Nodding, the others agreed and with Kiera scooping up the Quasit, the party turned to leave the room. Walking back down the hall the party eventually came to the spot they had entered. Where a stone wall had been before, a door now appeared again with the word Dungeon on the placard.

  Leaving the dungeon, the team made straight for the front door and headed for their vehicle. Before they could get there though a window in the sky appeared again out of the obelisks that had been quiet since the initial introduction to the Grand System.

  The same androgynous alien as before stood on the screen and spoke to them again.

  "People of Earth. I speak to you now to inform you of a threat that has been detected. A fleet of space pirates has been detected and they appear to have plotted a course to your planet. They will likely arrive within a year's time. We have dispatched military fleets to attempt to intercept them, but with the headstart the pirates have, they will likely reach you about a week before we can arrive." the voice said.

  "You are advised to train and level up as much as possible to attempt to defend yourself from this threat until our forces can arrive to assist you. These pirates will be out to plunder the items of your planet and its resources. We hope you can stand against them until backup can arrive."

  With that, the screen disappeared and a scream could be heard across the city as people began to panic.