The next day Jen woke around 10. Sam wasn’t sure about the exact time in the Seven Decks, but the Sun looked as though it was only a couple hours away from being at its zenith. Jen was famished, and it made Sam happy to see her well-rested, eating, and excited about the new skills and spells they had learned. He could tell that as soon as she finished stuffing her face, she was going to get right into Boss mode. “She’s the best. I just can’t let anything happen to her,” Sam thought to himself as he watched her.

When she was almost done shoving the last of the canned peaches away, Sam looked at Jen to get her attention. He wanted her to know that he was being serious. “Jen, I want to beat these decks and bring Kelly back more than anything. We’ve had to kill some pretty evil bandits over the last few days, and we were able to gain a lot of experience points and levels. I mean, they deserved to die, and we didn’t really have a choice. The Decks seem to be a hard, unforgiving, violent place so far, but I don’t think Kelly would want us to lose our soul to get to the top. We may have to defend ourselves, much more than either of us want to in this new future of ours, but I want us to focus on gaining experience points and levels in as positive a way as possible.”

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Jen paused and slowly blinked at Sam before saying, “Duh! you old man! Did you think I was becoming some blood-thirsty killer because we gained a few experience points and levels from defending ourselves? You’re ridiculous sometimes! Now that your speech is over, let me tell you the plan for teaching each other these new spells and travelling to Casino City.”

Sam just looked down slightly embarrassed, chuckled with relief, and replied, “Yes, Boss!”