Part 2 - Out the Dungeon
Chapter 13
They had short blue hair, angular features, pale skin, and a very slim-fitting suit. They were also pale. Like I thought Daniel was pale, but looking at them was like looking at a ghost.
“So are you interested?” They asked, opening up a folder and pulling out four, crisp white pieces of paper.
I looked around at the others. Colin was already reaching for the paper, and probably was going to spend thirty minutes reading every single word like he did with the brochures that Ainsley had given us. The brochures had just been basic information about the New York Manticore Diver’s School, how great their divers were, and large pictures of divers. The front of it had a smiling Nikki dressed in her full combat armor, her sponsors emblazoned across the armor, and her twin pair of daggers clutched in her hands with what looked like hordes of monsters towering behind her.
I wanted my picture on a brochure.
I then looked over at Elise and Huck sitting on my other side. Elise, I was pretty sure, was on her feed as I saw her eyes flicking side-to-side quickly and her lips moving as if she was reading. Huck had mostly been quiet, taking in everything that Ainsley had said.
“So,” Huck said, uncrossing his arms and grabbing one of the papers. I followed quickly after him and looked at the page. It made no sense to me, “What role do you play at Manticore? Are you just a recruiter?”
“Oh no,” Ainsley said, leaning back and smiling pleasantly, “I’m your manager. Or rather, I’ll be your manager if you and your party decide to sign on with us. I’ll be responsible for getting you dives, maintaining your brand, and making sure we get you the best sponsors possible. If you do well, I do well, and vice versa.”
“Do you have a dive already for us?” Colin asked–he was using his finger as a pointer on the page. It was moving fast back and forth across each line. I shifted my gaze and looked back at the page.
THIS AGREEMENT is made and entered this TENTH day of AUGUST, 2123, by and between THE NEW YORK MANTICORE DIVER’S SCHOOL—
Oh great. It was the same crap I had read last night. I didn’t want to read a contract. I looked at what the others were doing. Were they signing yet?
“Oh yes. We have a dive already signed up for you. It won’t be for a month, which should give you time to get settled and your training moving forward.”
“What event?” I asked, setting the paper down and leaning forward. We already had a dive? We hadn’t even signed up yet.
“It’s nothing special, just a dive over in Chicago,” Ainsley said, “Our previous Minor team was going to use it as their last dive, but we want to have you run it instead.”
“Chicago?” I asked. I hadn’t ever left the city, let alone the state.
“It’s small,” Ainsley said, “a few rooms and a celebrity-run boss. Not sure who yet, think they are still working on it.”
“Oh,” Huck said, a hint of nerves in his voice.
Celebirty-run bosses could be dangerous. Typically they used divers to run the bosses, who rarely took it easy on their fellow divers, often these fellow divers were lower leveled than them. These boss monsters were given some independent control, but typically the controller would have a direct feed to the boss and be able to control them directly as if they were the monster. There were rumors that controllers were given bonuses if they downed a diver, and more if they killed one. I wasn’t so sure about that but still.
“I’m in,” Elise said, grabbing the paper and a nearby pen.
“Are you not interested in hearing anything else?” Ainsley asked, a smile twitching at the corner of their mouth, “Pay? Benefits? Quarters?”
Elise didn’t say anything, she was busy looking down the paper for the spots to sign her name.
“I am,” Huck said, leaning forward. Colin wasn’t saying anything, he was too focused on the words on the contracts, speaking the words under his breath.
“Well, you will be provided appropriate room and board at the school. You are free to come and go as you wish, though we require five days of five hours of training, one day of three hours, and the last day of the week is up to you. Most choose to rest. In addition, you will receive the standard rate for a Minor dive, a quarter for your dive after fees and penalties are first accounted for. Typically it takes a month before your first payout, and then you earn residuals.”
“25%?” I asked, I could only think about how much money that could be.
“Uh—no. A quarter of a percent. Point twenty-five.”
“Oh.” And just like that, the money disappeared. I wasn’t good at math, but how much even was that?
“If your dive does well,” Ainsley said, apparently I had asked my question out loud without realizing it, “You could be looking at a few thousand each. As you prove yourself as divers, you will get more. If you get really good, then you can get sponsors and make even more. Plus, you get to keep 80% of your appearance fee if you are invited to cons or parties, as well as at least 10% for commercials.
In exchange, Manticore will be covering your room, training facilities, a personal trainer, your manger—that’s me—and our media team will be trying to build your brand and get you exposure to more fans and take part in different dives.”
I looked worried over at Elise who was sliding the signed paper back while Colin asked, “What’s this part about a promissory note?”
“Oh, just standard language. You promise to re-pay Manticore’s cost in buying your contract from Roosevelt if you decide to leave early, we have to terminate your contract for poor sportsmanship or inability to complete, or Manticore fails to earn a profit equal to five times your contract price, whichever comes last for two years. If you are offered a contract at another school before the two years are out, most schools are willing to pay the fee for unique divers. Additionally, this is prorated over the two years, so if you do move to another school with a year left on your contract, it will only be half of the transfer fee so long as you have fulfilled the other parts of the contract.”
Ainsley smiled, their lips had black lipstick that highlighted how white their teeth were, “I’m sure we have nothing to worry about, of course. It’s really just a formality, I saw a stream of your dive and your party has a lot of promise.”
“How much was our contracts?” Huck said, glancing over the paper, “I don’t see it on here.”
“It was only $83,000 dollars each. Most can complete their contract with us in a handful of dives.”
“Can we ask what percent Manticore gets from the dives?” Huck said, his brow creasing with worry.
“Manticore receives 50% of the gross revenue. From there, processing fees, taxes, dungeon techs, and salaries are taken out of that amount. Typically, Manticore earns a 5 to 7% profit from a successful dive.”
“What is considered a ‘successful’ dive?” I asked. I knew that the Lethality Severe dives earned tens of millions of dollars per dive. Even Lethality Moderate and High dives were heavily advertised and had huge sponsors backing the more famous divers.
“Oh, at least $200,000. Less than that and it is labeled an unsuccessful dive.”
“Which means that it won’t count towards our contract?” Huck said. It sounded like a statement.
“Correct, but that’s very rare. Requires a breakdown in communication between your manager, the media team, and the divers. In addition, sponsorships, appearances, and other events still count toward your contracts.”
“What is a handful?” Colin asked. I could see small flashes of light as he had his feed activated and was doing something. “Sixteen seems more than a handful.”
“Sixteen?” Ainsley said. I couldn’t tell if they were getting annoyed with our questions.
“I looked up the average revenue of a Lethality Low dive and then assumed a 5% profit for Manticore. That means sixteen dives to pay back five times our contract cost of $413,000. Actually, it would be 16.6 dives. So 17 dives required. Most divers only do 11 games in a year. So it will take one-point-five years to complete the contract if we stick to average. What stops Manticore just not sending us on dives? They could just not have us go on any dive and would make money.”
Ainsley seemed confused by Colin, but recovered after a second, “Manticore is hedging their bet that our divers will become pros and make more money than if we just sat on our divers. There is no point in going through the expensive process of providing food, room, and trainers to divers not going on dives. I will be working hard on getting additional dives on your calendar, but I can’t do that without those signatures. Within two weeks, I should have another dive finalized for you. I can’t give you specifics, but it is a small dive in the city here.”
I glanced at Huck and Colin, Elise was watching something on her feed. She had tuned the conversation out.
Colin was the first to break, signing the paper followed by Huck and myself. I slid the paper over and Ainsley flashed their smile again as they straightened the papers and slipped them into a tray.
“Welcome to Manticore, divers.”