[The Abyssal Academy - First Floor Labyrinth]
Commander Kael slammed onto the hard stone floor, his heavy golden armor clattering loudly in the dim light. Around him, five hundred of his elite Paladins groaned, scrambling to their feet and raising their shields.
"Hold the line!" Kael roared, his voice echoing down the long, narrow stone corridor. "The dark mages have separated us! Clerics to the center! Prepare for ambush!"
The Paladins formed a perfect, airtight Phalanx. They waited for the horde of Orcs or the barrage of necromantic fire.
Nothing happened. The corridor was dead silent.
"Move forward," Kael commanded, his sword glowing with divine light. "We will purge this maze room by room."
As the Vanguard marched down the corridor, the air began to change. A thick, yellowish-green mist started to seep from hidden vents in the walls and floor. The mist smelled of rotten eggs and bitter copper.
"Poison!" a Paladin shouted from the front. "Hold your breath!"
But the mist wasn't meant for their lungs. It was Professor Morbus's "Corrosive Swamp" trap.
Hiss.
Kael looked down in horror. The divine silver of his broadsword was bubbling. The perfectly polished steel of the Paladins' shields began to flake and turn a disgusting, brittle orange. The acidic mist was entirely non-lethal to flesh, but it was rapidly eating away the durability of their blessed armor.
"Our gear!" a knight screamed as his pauldron rusted through and fell off his shoulder. "The mist is destroying the blessed steel!"
"Cleanse it!" Kael ordered frantically. "Drink your Goddess Potions! Protect the armor!"
Across the Phalanx, five hundred Paladins frantically reached into their pouches. They uncorked glowing blue vials—the 'Tears of the Goddess'. They drank them hastily, the holy magic radiating from their bodies and momentarily burning away the rust.
But the mist didn't stop. Ten minutes later, as they trudged deeper into the endless corridor, the rust returned.
Hiss.
"I'm out of potions!" a cleric panicked. "My chainmail is disintegrating!"
"I only have one left!" another shouted.
By the time the Vanguard finally saw the heavy iron door at the end of the corridor, they had consumed every single rare potion in their inventory. Their pristine silver armor was stained brown and orange, squeaking and grinding with every step.
Kael kicked the iron door open, expecting a boss monster.
Instead, they stepped into a brightly lit, safe-zone chamber. Along the back wall sat a row of glowing, glass-fronted vending machines. Inside the machines were hundreds of generic, brown bottles labeled: Basic Anti-Rust Elixir.
Standing next to the machines was a towering Orc wearing an ill-fitting nametag that read: Customer Service.
"Praise the Light!" Kael gasped, rushing toward the machine. He looked at the price tag. "Five... Five thousand Gold for one bottle?!"
Up in the Security Control Room, Victor watched the monitors, tapping his gold-nibbed pen against his ledger.
"Dynamic surge pricing," Victor explained smoothly to a horrified Elara. "When supply is monopolized and demand is absolute, the consumer has no choice but to pay whatever the market dictates."
Down in the chamber, Kael grabbed the Orc by the collar. "This is extortion! A basic rust potion costs ten silver coins in the capital!"
"You're not in the capital, shiny," the Orc grinned a toothy, terrifying smile, pointing at a golden barcode scanner on the vending machine. "You're in the Pantheon Group. Prices surge during peak demand. Swipe a valid Kingdom Treasury card, or your armor turns to dust in the next room."
Kael looked back at his five hundred men. Their armor was literally falling apart. Without their gear, they would be slaughtered.
Trembling with rage and humiliation, the High Commander of the Holy Vanguard pulled a platinum Kingdom Treasury card from his pouch and pressed it against the scanner.
BEEP.
[Transaction Approved: 2.5 Million Gold Transferred.]
The vending machine dispensed five hundred cheap brown bottles.
In the control room, Seraphina looked at her clipboard. "Principal Thorne. We just made two point five million Gold on water mixed with baking soda."
"Excellent," Victor checked his Rolex. "Send them to Floor Two. Let's see how much they are willing to pay for oxygen."