MergeMart QnA

Tales from a Dungeon Mall

[mergemart-qna]

<Video Recording Start>

=A nervous looking man appears on screen, wearing a fluorescent vest, black shirt and glasses. He looks tired, but lights up as a reassuring beep signals the beginning of the recording=

Oh, oh! It’s working! Fantastic. Hello, My name is Ruby, I’m a full-time employee for MergeMart, and apparently the person who is running this page now. The higher ups wanted to “branch out” with how they communicate with people, so they ended up taking a suggestion from the box. Turns out, “Live QnA system” was in there, and I’m the only person in Logistics with hands and knowledge of how a computer works, so I got the job of running the show!

Now it may be strange to see someone doing a QnA for a supermarket chain that stayed around after The Merge, but honestly, I think they realised finally that Logistics has had nothing to do since the Dungeon was conquered. We basically just became a glorified cleaning unit with our own weapons budget and office, if that’s what you want to call this mess...

=Ruby pans the camera to show the office. A small stone lined room with wooden board walls, lit by a strange glowing blobby lizard hanging from a basket. The back wall is lined with shelves containing cleaning supplies, a well used microwave, several pairs of overalls, an impressively large hammer and an assortment of packaged snacks. Off to the left of frame, a mound of blankets and pillows can be seen rising and falling softly, before the camera pans back to Ruby=

Now, any questions you have about the state of things, ask them here! I’ll try to answer to the best of my abilities, whether it be related to our stock, staff, or the shop itself. Give me a holler and I’ll give you an answer! Have a wonderful day, and thanks for stopping by MergeMart QnA!

=Ruby looks down, fiddling with buttons to turn off the recording. The screen cuts to a logo for MergeMart=

<Video Recording End>

///if you want to leave an ask, check the guidelines beforehand at the link below!///

Post by @mergemart-qna

💬 0  🔁 0  ❤️ 0 · ///This should have been posted much earlier but better late than never. ASK GUIDELINES: This blog does accept asks, thou

[mergemart-qna]

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I looked it up later and it turns out that the path to avoid two whole nests of Frost Wyverns takes an extra hour, so our choices are to either have stock turn up late from the north cities or the drivers blitz through what they described as "magpie season on crack"

Think I might take some time on my days off to go observe the nests. Maybe I can figure out why they've gotten so much more aggressive this year. Might as well use those years of biology classes for something, y'know?

[mergemart-qna]

Gods I love my job sometimes.

We’ve just had an elven druid come into the store with the most wild possible “familiar” and you can tell this guy was insane for it.

Cassowary.

This guy said “I wanted the most dangerous animal in the area as a familiar so I didn’t have to worry while gathering” and some bloke in the north recommended a cassowary for him.

I respect the balls honestly. Before the Merge, so many people tried to tame these birds and got a claw to the chest for it. Othersiders are wild.

[mergemart-qna]

ASK GUIDELINES:

///This should have been posted much earlier but better late than never.

This blog does accept asks, though there are some guidelines I have to ask y’all follow:

1. Please limit ask types to Customers, Adventurers, Guild Staff (Adventurer Guild, Thieves Guild, Merchants Association, ect) or Othersiders (fantasy races).

2. I do not accept asks from other “staff” mostly cause that is a bit of a headache to manage as I write a lot of this lore myself. You are free to shoot me a PM if you have an idea and we can talk about it, but don’t make entirely new staff members please!

3. Keep it clean. A little bit of blood is okay, but nothing huge or inappropriate. I am not answering things like “do you sell XXX Product, sincerely monsterfricker”, that’s just tasteless. You can be a snooty Karen or a honest to god nice person, I only care that you keep it clean!

That’s it! Feel free to ask me if you need any rectification regarding the rules! I will always get back to people in time///

[mergemart-qna]

Happy June everyone, and a wonderful start to Winter! It’s pretty cold in the Dungeon, so I’ll give you some warming updates to drive away that winter chill!

First up, Layer Changes! With it being the start of winter, all Unstable Layers have seen a full reset, with them reverting to what we have politely titled “Test Dungeon”. Expect stone hallways, sharp corners and easy navigation on unstable layers for the month of June. There is also an increase in rare monsters on these layers and we are always looking for new materials to research and trade!

Stable layers have also seen a change with many adopting the winter climate. Exploring these layers without heating gear is not recommended, so check with the Dungeon Reception for temperature reading on Stable layers and bundle up!

Moving on to new products, due to the full moon, we are having a sale on all things magic! Mana potions, single use scrolls, staves and insta-familars are all half price, and our range of tomes and EzTear Scroll Paper has a buy one, get one half-off deal! For those more close quarters inclined, we also have a deal on enchantments this week and have added some new products from the local smithing guilds, so expect some new and exciting weapons on the near future. Catalogue is out now online and will be available in-store later today.

We have also finally found a good use for our stock of Firestone Powder. Thanks to the Draco-Kobolds Engineering Corps, I am proud to announce our new line of CQC-Expendable Cannons! Inspired by the joyful party popper, these easy to use cannons come in a variety of munition types and are perfect for damaging big monsters. Simply stick the firing end against your monster, pull the cord and run. The internal timer scroll will activate and blast the side of whatever your fighting with a colourful display of violence not seen since the Magus Festival! Munition options include:

- Slug Rounds for instant breaks and high impacts

- Dragon’s Breath for coating the enemy in flaming tar foam

- Grapeshot for turning any swarm into a finely minced pile

- Breaching Rounds for removing walls and doors

And many more! We hope you enjoy the new toys, but remember that you will need to be over 18 and have an active and valid Adventurer Card to buy these.

We also used some Firestone to upgrade the Emergency Flares, they now produce a much brighter glow and automatically face upwards when pulling the cord. This makes for less accidents and more saved adventurers.

Anyways, I’m gonna go grab Gummi and curl up in some blankets for my day off, I hope you all have a wonderful day, and thank you for shopping at MergeMart!

[mergemart-qna]

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Okay, thought I should put this clip as a reminder of three things:

The Dungeon Gate is locked from 10pm to 7am. If you are staying overnight in the Dungeon, please use an InstaCamp so that you are safe. This is because the night shift cannot legally leave the Dungeon open as many monsters will roam around and have a chance to go for the surface. Unless you are trained, DO NOT LEAVE DESIGNATED SAFE ZONES OR INSTACAMPS.

The Dungeon Gate and surrounding walls are so incredibly reinforced with magic that breaking it is impossible. Trust me, when the Lord took over, he got our whole crew to test durability of the gates and stones till we came up with something that was nearly godproof. When a trailer car going at 100 km can't break the shoddy looking roller shutter, your explosion spell isn't going to do anything other than smoke you out.

If you are injured beyond your parties limits during a night expedition, do not try to rush for help on the surface. As stated the shutters are closed at 10pm, and leaving a trail of blood and fear will just lead the monsters to you. Look for a Safe Zone or another party, or activate an Emergency Flare. Either is much more safe than ending up nearly dead in our infirmary.

Now, as for terminology used in the recording, "Tac-Med" is our way of calling for any active priests or necromancers on site. Frankly the party who I found this morning was lucky to be alive. Please remember to stay safe out there.

[mergemart-qna]

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So it turns out I learnt two things today:

It is officially frost wrym season and they very much like going after large moving objects, like our delivery trucks for instance. This was discovered when our truck arrived an hour late covered in enough ice that we had to melt it before parking it in the dock, and I just spent the better part of an hour with an ice pick, broom and dustpan clearing all the ice before we could unload the interior.

Our device update came with a handy new Haptic Emergency Recording feature. Basically, if the device feels a hard enough jolt, it starts recording all audio and uploads the whole thing to the network as a form of Black Box so they can find you. As such, my device decided to record a good chunk of my clean after I dropped it on a somewhat frozen box of fish. So enjoy a lovely candid recording of me singing and de-icing the walls of the truck with a broom handle.

[mergemart-qna]

I suppose I forgot to mention.

Layer 9 is now re-opened for access to general public! Thanks to all the adventurers who signed up to capture "Pinball", the monster was finally contained and sent off for research into how it formed in the first place. Please keep in mind that the Layer might be a bit damaged for a few weeks still until the reset, so there are pits around from the various attempts at trapping "Pinball". Our Survey Team is out and about patching up what we can, feel free to say hi if you see us!

for all those who attended the hunt, make sure to collect your reward at the Service desk. Just present your ADC and the team will assist you!

also, special shoutout to the Spudstacular Chefs, the cooking guild who joined in to feed our brave team. We heard up in the offices that your cooking was out of this world, and would like to invite ya'll to come down for a lunch with the general corp at some point! honestly, I'm sad I missed out, some of the guys have been raving about the Duckfat Campfire Potatoes and I'm jealous.

[mergemart-qna]

Recordings from the Field

Layer 1: Windy Meadows

Weather: Sunny

Party size: 14 Trainees, 1 Management Officer, 1 Trainer

Basic Survival Training

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[mergemart-qna]

Good morning all and happy May!

Sorry for the long silence, there were some pretty significant events that we’ll go into later down the post. To start with though, thank you all for your patience while the store was closed last week, I understand it wasn’t an easy week for anyone.

Okay, let’s start with Dungeon updates! This month is showing a strange fluctuation due to the rainy weather, with many stable layers having a constant rainfall. Make sure when exploring these layers you have an umbrella or rain gear, as the mud and water has made it pretty slippery down there! As for layer changes, layer 11 has shifted to Tropical Shoreline, layer 13 has shifted to Caves and layer 19 has shifted to Golden Castle. Those wanting to make a quick buck should hurry as layer 19 has shown signs of increased instability recently.

Onto more local news, I would like to remind everyone that Mergemart sites and surrounding areas are safe zones. No violence or more importantly assassinations are to be committed in a safe zone. This includes the restrooms. We are aware of the assassination request that was “fulfilled” in our public restrooms and are currently in the process of collecting the cleaning bill from the offenders. We apologise deeply to the family of the deceased and have paid for the burial and catering.

Also, as autumn nears it’s end, I would like to remind everyone we do not accept live Dryads. If you are going to bring Dryads to the sales counter, please make sure they have been severed at the roots, I can’t stress this enough. We had too many incidents of staff getting bit or strangled last year by “dead” Dryads, I don’t need that nonsense again.

Finally, a massive shout out to the Dwarves over in the old limestone quarry for supplying us with a massive haul of building materials to repair the damaged sections of the mall for the new shops opening up. We have a bunch of new stores opening, so feel free to duck in and peruse the new and exciting opportunities that await you at the Dungeon Mall.

Onto a more serious topic, we have noticed a spike in abnormal creatures in the dungeon. Please be safe down there and report any strange behaviour or new creatures to the Safe Zones between layers. After “Pinball” was captured, we realised that there was quite the backlog of reported “mishaps”. We have our team on lookout at all times and are also monitoring the situation ourselves at the request of the Big Boss.

That’s all from me! Stay safe out there and thank you for being a patron of Mergemart!

[mergemart-qna]

Hey all, Happy April!

We’ve got a lot to cover so lets get right to it!

First off, a massive thank you to the adventurers and volunteers who helped out during the Army Ant and Flood outbreaks over the past week, we only lost 3 houses in the local neighbourhoods and had no casualties! A massive upgrade from last year’s 50 dead and 30 injured, as well as two whole districts uninhabitable for months. I’d like to shout out The Serpent’s Fang party in particular, who actually stemmed a large tide of Flood near the old quarry with minimal injuries and protected hundreds of civilians!

We are looking at a fairly stable Dungeon rotation this month, with all unstable floors being marked as “safe” with the exception of layer 14 having changed to Ruined Castle. Please remember that this forecast can change, and always check before delving to avoid injuries.

We also have finally reinstated the “Deep Drop” travel system after much fixing, passes for this can be obtained at the front desk starting at 5 Gold. These travel pods are only used for any layer below 10, and you will need to be at least a Rank C Adventurer or employee to use the system. This is for your safety. We also sell harnesses for those of you who need to feel strapped in for a smooth ride.

We still have Layer 9 on lockdown due to the Deviant Monster roaming the area, please avoid this area for the time being unless you are part of the Extermination Team. Travel from Layer 8 to 10 has been set up as a temporary telelocator system, please remember to not fiddle with the Gems so that the system stays functional.

Finally, a message to our staff. After the recent “Frank Incident”, HR has asked all staff to refrain from sending messages to the account, and instead use the designated channels for staff communication. We still don’t know how the original manager got onto the main frequency and tried to melt out an entire district with highly dangerous acidic slime, but rest assured that he has been apprehended and jailed for attempted mass murder.

That’s all from me this week, have a lovely day and thank you for visiting Mergemart!

[mergemart-qna]

!-+EMERGENCY ALERT+-!

-+MULTIPLE ANOMALIES DETECTED AT MERGEMART LOCATION #1+-

-+DEPLOYING CAPTURE SYSTEM M1MIC+-

CAPTURING...

CAPTURING...

CAPTURING....

CAPTURING....

-+CAPTURE SUCCESSFUL+-

-+RETURNING CAPTURED ANOMALIES TO STORAGE AREA #12+-

-+EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM OFFLINE+-

-+THANK YOU, HAVE A SAFE DAY+-

[mergemart-qna]

Frank from R&D here,

It's a common misconception that slimes are all the same, but we've identified at least for separate phyla of lifeforms under the Eukaryota. They seem similar, but all exist and function in distinct ways, despite the visual likeness they share. The major relevant distinction in this case is this: Dust Devils are basic, and Gelatinous Cubes are acidic. Opposing PH levels, in fact. Thus, desiccants produced from Dust Devils' fluid is quite important for this sort of problem.

As for the tower? I wouldn't know. Asking the wrong questions around the mad wizards working here is more dangerous than any creature banging on the walls right now. As an aside, there's a Skyeater poking at the window. It's bulletproof glass, but I fear it m

Wait, we don't have any wizards in R&D. Wait what's a skyeater. Dust Devils aren't slimes-

...

Omg I get to press The Button.

[mergemart-qna]

Frank from R&D here,

Despite lacking the necessary desiccants from Floor 9's Dust Devils, the Gelatinous Cube team will be using this weather event as an opportunity to test out their living sealant project, codenamed "Greg". Please inform staff without acid resistance certification or the requisite PPE to avoid the R&D Tower until further notice, as those goop-addled morons certainly won't...

Best of luck with the weather (and swarms), will keep you updated if I'm not taken in for an unplanned visit to Health and Safety.

Okay, using slime to combat other slime is a bad idea. We don't need new variants turning up willy nilly. Frankly, we shouldn't mess with the Floods unless they cause major infrastructure damage.

Speaking of infrastructure, how the hell did you get the permission to build a tower? We all got told during the ownership transfer that the building wasn't to be altered so the mall didn't sink further. If we fall into Layer 1, I'm blaming R&D. I will pass this on though, as well as scheduling a visit to make sure you guys aren't causing a sinking incident.

[mergemart-qna]

Hey guys, I know a large amount of you follow here so I'll put it here and on the work channels.

Transport today is gonna be hell with the holiday rush, so plan ahead by like a hour. If you can't make it in, call ahead and tell us. I know the entire Undercity is off today cause of the Floods and holidays, but if you genuinely cannot make it in that's okay. Should be slow here so take your time and be safe.

Also, if you are affected by either the Floods or the Army Ant outbreak down south, please stay home. I'd rather you do that than come in and be worried about your stuff or family. If your problem is the Ants, give me a buzz and I'll send out a Survey Corps member who isn't busy.

Stay safe out there and Happy Easter all!

-Ruby

[mergemart-qna]

URGENT QUEST ALERT:

Deviant Monster on Layer 9

Rank Requirements:

- Silver and Above

Class Requirements:

- Mages specialising in Earth magic

- Barbarians with war hammers

- Tanks with the “Shielder” Skill

- Chefs

Reward:

- 20 gold per Applicant

- 1× Mithril or Orachalcium equipment of choice

- 5 × coupons for armour enchantment and trimming

Quest info:

We discovered what pasted three of our Survey Corp members. A Deviant Large Metal Slime nicknamed “Pinball” has been sighted on Layer 9, moving at unknown speeds. Any adventures will work with Mergmart’s Survey Corp to construct a large rectangular ditch with earth magic and provided tools to trap Pinball in, followed by a team of exterminators to crack the shell and remove the stone. I personally will pay for ingredients for any Chefs who join, this job will be intense and long. Tanks will be required to take shifts of overwatch to stop Pinball from attacking the dig crew. Please see the Service Desk for more information and applications. Meeting point will be Windy Meadows on Layer 1, and then service shaft travel to the beginning of Layer 9.

Good luck to all, any deaths will be compensated with free on-site resurrection, done by yours truly.

[mergemart-qna]

Do you have a line to corporate? We've been asking for some materials from Floor 9 for some time now, but management keeps stonewalling us because of the blood elemental incident. Velgarth the Red was fired already, so isn't it about time they move on?

Thanks,

Frank from R&D

Hey man, corprate told us last week that floor 9 was off limits till someone took down whatever turned three guys into skidmarks. I ain't sending boys down there till I know it's safe, unless that boy is Steven cause I know his ass'll make it back.

Also, Velgarth wasn't fired over the blood elementals, he was fired over the derogatory comments towards elves. I don't care what they say to you, don't be racist. I'll see what I can do about materials from layer 9 later though.