Jee looked at Pudding in shock as he shook his finger at him. Pudding just frowned at Jee, as he moved closer to Sam to inspect the necklace. He couldn’t understand why Jee would be upset as he felt Jee should know that all quests with no downside are automatically accepted. Pudding sent his thoughts to Jee, “It could be something that could hurt Sam, but would work great for me. You never know!”

As Pudding finally got a look at the necklace, his heart flipflopped with his wish to be loyal to his new friends and saviors, and pure greed.

Sam called out to everyone, “Any thoughts people? Only have five minutes, and we’ve already been in this ambush site wayyyy too long.”

Jen replied, “No idea. Can you read the enchantments on it?”

Tamako also quickly replied, “I have no idea either.”

Sam replied in frustration, “There’s enchantments on the necklace, but The System appears to be blurring them in some way to prevent me from deciphering them.”

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Pudding wanted to just be quiet, and let the decision play out without his input. That way it wouldn’t be his fault that Sam gave up the necklace. He could sell the necklace for enough gold, favors, and protection to set him up for the rest of his life. More importantly, it would almost certainly be enough to get “her” back. However, he also owed all of them for his freedom. Pudding didn’t even have to look at Jee to know how he felt. Pudding then said to everyone, “It be a reincarnation necklace. You need to be bonding with it. It be very good and valuable. I explain it all when we get back to our camp.”

Sam looked from Pudding over to Jen to get her thoughts, and she looked at Pudding intently for a second, before saying, “Do it Sam, and then let’s get out of here!”

Sam placed the necklace over his head and accepted The System’s gambling quest. As he did, he felt something tighten in his consciousness for a few seconds, and then fade into the background, at the same time as the necklace faded out of existence and settled into his body. He could still sense the bond as well as the presence of the necklace in his being.

Jen was worried as she watched Sam’s reactions and felt his emotions spike. She moved towards him to place her arms around him, and asked, “Are you O.K?”

Sam nodded, and waived her off, “I’m O.K. … It’s all good. Now let’s get back to camp so Pudding can tell us what just happened.”