As they entered their camp site, Jen said, “Don’t start without me! I want to hear about the necklace with everyone else” before running off into the woods.
When Jen returned she found Sam and Tamako both on the ground with their eyes glazed and not breathing, tongues lolling out of their mouths, while Pudding and Jee were just staring at the two in shock. Pudding was flustered, and said, “Ms. Jen! We were just talking about buying the clue from the shop. They just now fell over! Not a second before you came into the camp! I don’t know what’s going on!”
At that moment, Sam took in a deep breath, but started gagging and coughing, and yelled out, “Tamako, it’s not safe yet! Save yourself! Try not to breath it in! You can hold out! Something crawled up in Jen and died, and now that she’s shit it out, its come back for revenge!”
Tamako sat up and laughed, “It is not that bad, but she might have given away our camp’s location!”
Jen turned red, picked up a small rock and threw it at Sam, and replied menacingly, “Alright, if you think it’s bad now, wait till I shit right next to your bedroll next time. I’ll leave a real pleasant surprise for you!”
Pudding and Jee quickly realized that Sam and Tamako were teasing Jen, but wisely decided to stay out of it. Sam then said, “Come on Jen, it was just a little joke!”
Jen laughed menacingly at Sam and Tamako, and said, “No worries, I’ve missed our jokes! Now, Pudding tell us about that necklace.”
Sam laughed at himself as he internally thought, ‘You brought it on yourself, you old fool’, and with the acceptance of the retribution that was surely to come, he also said to Pudding, “Yes, tell us about the necklace.”
Pudding looked at Jee a brief moment before he said, “I’ve never actually seen one before, but I’ve seen a picture of one. Karen de evil life mage that be chasing us onto the Quest Deck, she be looking for one for many, many years. They are never for sale in The Shop. Many people think they be just stories and make believe. They go by several names, reincarnation necklace, renew necklace, second-life necklace, jump necklace, and various other name. The necklace is soul-bound, and will stay with you even when you jump between Decks. More importantly, when the wearer is killed, the necklace will suck all the remaining mana out of its wearer. It then be teleporting you to a ‘safe’ place, and you be alive again. You be naked and mana-drained just like a Deck jump, but you supposed to be teleported into a hidden place that if you stay still and don’t do anything, you will recover your mana safely.”
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Jen let out a loud breath of air, and loudly whispered, “Jump Necklace… If you wild jump to another Deck and get killed upon arrival…you’ll be safe.”
Pudding nodded, and continued, “But even if you are not a Deck Jumper, the necklace make it almost impossible to kill the wearer. If dat fool mage hadn’t moved bringing his location to de attention of Mr. Sam, his mana would have refilled the necklace, and he’d still be alive now.”
Sam couldn’t tell Jen or Tamako about his evolved luck stat, so he just nodded along with Pudding’s assumption about the mage moving.
Tamako looked to both Sam and Pudding, and asked, “Can it be removed? Can it be given to someone else to use?”
Pudding shook his head, and replied, “I don’t think so, but what I know is mostly rumor.”
Sam said, “Give me a second, and I’ll see what I can do.”
Sam mentally willed the thought of removing the necklace, and the necklace ‘floated’ to the surface of his skin becoming visible and tangible. As Sam grabbed the pendant on the necklace to remove it, he received a System Message.
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System Message
Removing this necklace from your body will destroy the necklace.
Remove the necklace? Yes/No
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Sam selected “No” and let the necklace drop back down to his chest, and as he relaxed his will and focus on the necklace, it disappeared and “sank” back into his body.
Sam explained the system message he received, and Pudding replied, “No one must be knowing you have dis necklace. Many people would be hunting you down and also hunting everyone you know trying to force you to give dis necklace to them some way. The rumors of these necklaces always include stories of vicious betrayal and gruesome murders.”
Pudding paused in thought for a few seconds, as he looked at Jee, then he continued, “There are many quests in The Shop offering untold amounts of gold for information on anyone that might have this necklace….and Ms. Jen, if you could use some of that mind power of yours to wipe my memory of any knowledge of Sam having this necklace, that be good by me! The necklace be great for the wearer if absolutely no one knows they be having one.”