7

I'd always had trouble standing my ground with authority figures, and she might have convinced me to give up on my whole plan if I'd talked to her. I needed to have a paycheck, and I wasn't a hundred percent certain the dungeon thing would get me one, but there was no doubt in my mind that if I didn't go challenge the dungeons, and work on raising my level that I would die in the next year. I sat behind the steering wheel for a few moments, and just breathed. Summoning the dragon egg from storage so it rested on the passenger seat of the car. Just close enough so I could rest my hand on it, and remind myself that I had five thousand monsters to kill before this egg would hatch, and that the sooner I started the sooner I'd finish. 

For me volunteering was just a means to an end. It was me grasping at a chance to be someone. Whether I became important or not didn't matter to me. Fame was for people that needed attention. I didn't want attention, but the money that came with it would allow me to do everything I wanted to do.

My desires were simple. Own a house, have a few pets, a nice vehicle or two, and not have to work under anyone ever again. I didn't think that was asking to much. I knew I wasn't the type of person that could handle being stagnant, but I did not want to be an employee anymore. I was going to do what I wanted, when I wanted, and anyone who got in my way was going to regret it. 

Sure I might die, but I was going to do it my way. If that meant getting killed by zombies or whatever other monsters I came across then so be it. At least my death wouldn't be boring. I frowned to myself. Traffic. 

This was going to add to my commute. I wasn't too worried about it. Two hours instead of an hour and a half wasn't that much difference anyway. I turned on a podcast, and listened to the prerecorded goodness of murder mysteries. I wondered if this part of my life would be going away now that the world was changing. 

I frowned to myself. I didn't want to lose my murder mystery goodness. Then again I probably shouldn't have been listening to this anyway with my negative disposition. Then again I wondered if I would fall into another deep depression now that I'd decided to change my life. My fingers drummed on the steering wheel while my other hand rested on the shifter stick. 

The traffic stayed so slow that I was actually able to take my car out of gear, and just allow it to roll forward slowly. It was barely more then a crawl. Even if it was starting to make my feet hurt I still made sure to keep the gap between me, and the car in front of me small so that no one was sneak in front of me. I allowed myself to fall into a lull. Listening to an odd tale of a murder solved through some stroke of luck or little clue that fell into place once they found the piece of the puzzle that linked the whole case together. 

It was kind of nice actually. Tales of murderers caught because of the stupid mistakes they made. Sometimes the mistakes were unbelievably stupid. I mean why would you throw a living victim into the back of your truck, and not stop when you realized she was still alive, and standing in the back of your vehicle. That alone was some of the stupidest shit I'd ever heard, and that was before the podcast talked about the numerous witnesses. 

Once they found the guy the number of clues in his vehicle were enough to convict him alone. That was before the rest of the evidence came in. Then there was the guy that literally lived with an exotic dancer that cared for him enough to allow him to live with her. He killed one of his neighbors. One of his female neighbors. 

All because he wanted to force a woman to have sex with him. He literally had a woman that was willing to make his night, and he went over to the neighbor just to kill her. I sighed. Traffic let up once I got past Everett. I knew I'd run into more trouble once I got close to Seattle, but now that I'd passed the halfway point I was determined. 

The next one was about a man that died suddenly in his hotel room for no apparent reason. I'd listened to this one before, and it was one of my favorites. I had enough time to finish this particular podcast episode simply because it was shorter then the other ones. I listen as they went through the setup in detail. A man goes on a business trip to some sort of sales convention to better himself as a salesman. 

This man has a few particular habits while he's away from his wife. One he calls his wife every morning, and night. Two he likes to blast his AC no matter the weather. Three he liked to smoke cigars while drinking a beer in bed. The man left his home, and arrived at the hotel no problem. 

He even called his wife before retiring to his hotel room to relax since most of the convention events would be early the next day. When he didn't call his wife the next morning she waited for a while. Just to make sure he hadn't forgotten or gotten in a rush. By early afternoon the wife knew that something was wrong. She knew her husband. 

He was a creature of habit, and this was a break in his pattern so she calls the hotel. Begs the hotel to go check on her husband. The hotel listens to the wife's pleas, and heads up to the room to check on the husband. When there is no answer at the door, they decide to enter the room using the master key, and they find the husband.