After my serenader’s and Semermen’s surprise visits, it took a minute to remember what I was doing.

All the documents I’d called up had disappeared, but I was able to recall them with a thought.

Noah Whitehall

Rank: Copper

Level: 8

Profession: Merchant

Hobby: Fodder

Affinity: Subjugation

Active Cards

• Contract

Level 2, subjugation affinity

Create binding contracts. Requires two or more parties. Requires explicit or implicit agreement of all parties.

Effects limited by your rank and available mana.

• Smoldering Caress

Level 2, destruction affinity

With the merest of contact, ignite a spark that has a small chance to set ablaze anything you touch.

Converts a portion of physical force into fire. Scales with attack strength. Effect accumulates with subsequent attacks made within a short period.

• Blood of the Phoenix

Level 1, alteration affinity

The flames that once burned now heal. Heat, fire; these are your salves. Fear no longer the inferno, because for you it is salvation.

Converts all damage from any source of heat into a small amount of healing.

• Deckmaster

Level 1, prismatic affinity (legendary)

A card for the girl who has everything. Or who can't decide anything. One or the other.

Expands your circuit to create decks of cards that can be swapped between without removing or destroying the cards they contain.

Effect limited by mana and current card capacity. Does not otherwise increase deck size.

Only primary deck may obtain Synergies.

• Ephemeral Armament

Level 1, conjuration affinity

Your battle chest is endless, limited only by your surroundings and resources.

Reshape the fabric of reality to summon weapons able to be controlled at a distance.

Duration varies with mana input.

• Dreadnaught

Level 1, alteration affinity

Turn the mildest touch into a brutal assault. The sinews of devastation, once disparate in intensity, now harmonize in symphonic unity as you become the peerless dreadnaught.

For a short period of time, increase the damage of all attacks to that of your strongest attack. Other effects of enhanced attacks are unchanged.

Both Contract and Smoldering Caress had reached level two, but I couldn’t see any differences to the abilities.

Upon further inspection—and thanks to my new powerpack subscription in Contract’s case since it was a card rather than an arcana—I discovered that Smoldering Caress had its chance to ignite increased slightly, though not enough to move it beyond what the system considered a ‘small’ chance; and the amount of mana any contract would require had slightly decreased.

I hadn’t noticed either of them level up, though now that I was focused on them I could feel they’d gotten stronger, feel something waiting like I had with the resurrection token.

I’d have to remember to pay attention to them to know when they leveled up.

Of the abilities I had at my disposal, Contract seemed potentially the most powerful. I needed to think through ways to use it in different situations so I could be prepared.

Another thing to do once I got some rest.

Next up was my Merchant profession.

Merchant (profession)

Rank: Knight

Items:

• Merchant’s Satchel

Store items which you intend to sell. Once an item is placed inside, it can only be removed once sold. An insubstantial copy of the item may be displayed at any store, auction, market, or seller.

Abilities:

• Currency Vault

Grants access to a unique storage ability capable of containing any form of currency.

• Corporate Network

Grants access to a system interface that provides access to Corporate services, allows for trade between Merchants and the cataloging of items, and enables the use of special Store item types.

I wondered when I had gotten Merchant’s Satchel.

I activated it, and instead of a grid of cubes opening up like I expected, an actual satchel appeared slung over my shoulder. I rummaged around inside, but it was empty.

Oddly, I could feel a connection to it. As though if I wanted to retrieve something from it, I’d only have to reach in and think of the item and it would appear in my hand.

I unsummoned the satchel and studied the other two abilities.

I wondered how lenient Currency Vault was with forms of currency.

I grabbed the box of money I’d gathered from my broken cash register and tried to put it in the vault.

Would you like to convert 477 AUD to fragments?

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

During the grace period, there is no conversion fee for native currencies.

First I tried simply putting the money in the vault. It worked fine and I was able to withdraw and deposit it as much as I liked.

I gave my assent and it converted the AUD to 334 minimum-potential fragments.

So money was worth something. Might be worth it to go around and empty out cash registers. And figure out where Bob had gotten so much from.

While I was able to store the Australian dollars in the vault, coffee beans didn’t work, even though I was pretty sure they were used as a sort of currency in the futures market. Maybe it had something to do with fungibility. But then if fragments had different aspects and circuits, were they really fungible? Or did their potential take that into account?

Unfortunately I couldn’t get any info from the system on this or the vault’s limitations.

Shrugging, I moved on to my hobby.

Fodder (hobby)

Rank: Novice

Specialization: Fiend

Items:

• Resurrection Token (Zone: Whitehall Tower)

• Horde, Armament of Endless Slaughter

Summonable weapon.

• Garb of the Unburdened

Summonable armor.

Abilities:

• Cartographer

Grants a map that increases in utility as hobby increases in rank.

• Cartographer Effect: Pathfinder

Grants automatic path overlays and indicators for areas you’ve visited and ability to add manual indicators.

• Pack Mule

Gain specialized storage abilities.

• Token Death

Gain a single-use resurrection token upon entering broadcast area and any subsequent broadcast types contained within, including but not limited to arenas and events.

• Devour

All attacks steal a commensurate but reduced amount of mana to heal your own wounds.

• Fiend’s Rage

Damage output increases as your lifeforce dwindles.

• Avatar of the Sentinel

Even a shadow of the primordial can bestow profound power.

Increases speed, strength, and size.

Any damage sustained while in the form of the avatar is not inflicted upon your actual body.

Maintaining this form requires both lifeforce and mana. If you run out of mana, you will be ejected from the avatar. If you run out of lifeforce, you will die.

While in this form, you lose access to all your cards and abilities.

I hadn’t seen the names of some of the abilities before, but otherwise there was no new information.

I wondered why the map was the only ability I could use outside of a broadcast, but got no answer.

Deed to Whitehall’s BBC: Books, Bikes, and Coffee

Level 4 Superstore

Type: Independent

Owner: Noah Whitehall

Employees: Noah Whitehall

Volunteers: Bob Huxley, Emma Huxley

No changes to my deed other than its level, which it had reached after Vyrania had bought a book from me. I wondered how long it would take to level up again, and what benefits would come from it.

The system once more didn’t have an answer, however thanks to apparently both my powerpack and the Corporate Network, there was more information linking it to the village:

Current safe zone coverage of Byron Bay Village: 15%

Increase the level of corporate businesses within the Village or otherwise increase the Village’s GDP to increase safe-zone coverage.

“Huh.”

I brought up my map to look at the zone. There was a faint outline that covered most of Byron Bay, which indicated the size of the zone itself. The safe zone was indicated by a much smaller area tinted slightly green. I realized looking at it now that the safe zone area seemed to radiate out from both my store, and Finnegan’s hotel.

I closed the map and moved on to my items.

Card Storage

• 98 × Minimum-potential Fragments

• 169 × Low-potential Fragments

• 1 × Moderate-potential Fragment

Shard Storage

• 1 × Goliath-class Shard (Whitehall Tower)

• 28 × Giant-class Shards (Universal)

• 19 × Goliath-class Shards (Universal)

• 8 × Colossus-class Shards (Universal)

• 1 × Behemoth-class Shard (Universal)

Vouchers

• Creature Clash Voucher

Artifact Storage

• The Egg

Key Storage

• Hidden Key (Floor 1, Whitehall Tower)

Currency Vault

• 334 × Minimum-potential Fragments

• 3 × Low-potential Fragments

Super-Duper Special Item Storage (Temporary)

• Gambler’s Redoubt

I’d forgotten about the voucher, and brought up its description again. I still didn’t know where it physically was, as I could only bring up the description, not the item itself.

Creature Clash Voucher

Voucher good for one free Unique Creature for use in [Creature Clash] tournaments.

When I inquired what Creature Clash was exactly, I got not a prompt to buy another powerpack, but something else entirely.

Would you like to purchase [NewCiv Newbie Handbook]?

“Um, how much is that?”

You are currently eligible to purchase [NewCiv Newbie Handbook] at a discounted price of 100 high-potential fragments due to your Corporate Civilization being within its initial grace period. This is an amazing 50% discount on the standard price.

(Warning: this discount is only available for a limited time while your civilization is in its grace period.)

You have insufficient convertible currency to purchase [NewCiv Newbie Handbook].

Due to your [Merchant] profession, you have a line of credit.

Would you like to use your line of credit to purchase [NewCiv Newbie Handbook]?

“Uh, no thanks. I just got out of debt, not going back into it so soon.”

I would have to ask someone about the guide though. A hundred high-potential fragments seemed like a really high price.

“What’s the conversion between the fragments? Is there one?”

A document appeared listing the value of each fragment I had in terms of the others.

“You’re seriously going to make me do that math?”

I grunted in annoyance when I got no reply.

At least it wasn’t difficult. One moderate potential was worth ten low, and one low was worth a hundred minimum.

I dismissed the document then checked Gambler’s Redoubt, but it was only at eleven percent for the second item.

I tried to remove the egg, but still couldn’t. I wondered if it would hatch again, or if I was supposed to do something with it, or if maybe I hadn’t been supposed to take it at all.

It was interesting that the fragments from Vyrania buying a book had gone into the Currency Vault, while the shards and fragments from Semermen hadn’t. In both cases I had simply stowed them away without considering which storage I’d opened. It seemed it automatically knew where to place them based on whether it was something sold in my store or fragments I received personally.

I glanced at a book sitting atop a nearby table, the one Vyrania had purchased, and wondered where she was.

She’d said she was going to meet me back here at the store. If anything, she should have been here before me.

Koren had gone and followed Rilen’s team, so that explained his absence, but what was Vyrania doing?

Remembering that Koren and Vyrania had been on my team in the event and their dots put on my map, I opened it to see if the dots were still there.

At first they weren’t, but then they appeared again. Koren was a couple miles away, out in the swamp west of town. I was worried about someone killing him for his place on the Hero Board. The area he was in was outside the safe zone.

His dot was moving toward town, at least.

But while Koren was out of reach at the moment, Vyrania, it turned out, was right on top of me.

‌

∎ ∎ ∎

I made it as far as the stairs to see what Vyrania was doing on the roof, when I heard someone enter my store, the crunching of glass alerting me to their arrival.

I groaned, knowing who it was going to be, but got a nice surprise. It thankfully wasn’t Semermen back to try to negotiate again.

“Where have you been?” I asked Koren as he took a seat at one of the tables.

He looked… different. Subdued.

He stared blankly at his hands, which rested flat on the table.

“Koren?” I asked.

“Hm?” he asked lightly without looking up at me.

“What’s wrong?”

He shook his head. “The things I’ve seen. Where to start?”

“You followed Rilen’s team. How about you start with that. What did you see?”

“What didn’t I see is the better question.”

“Okay, what didn’t you see?”

“Mercy.”

I frowned. “What does that mean?”

“He was with a woman.”

“Who was?”

“Rilen.”

“Not surprising.”

“She… enchanted him? Enslaved him?”

“Sounding better and better.”

He shook his head slowly. “Not like that. Unfortunately.”

“Wait, I thought you followed his team.”

“I meant to. Then I got distracted. As I was leaving the safe zone, I saw, or felt, something… strange. Wrong.” He looked up at me. “Dangerous.” He shrugged, focusing on his hands once more. “I decided to investigate.”

“Of course you did.”

“In it, whatever it was, I felt her mana. It was only a brief flash, but it was so powerful.”

“The one who enslaved Rilen?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. And you investigated and saw her enslaving him. I still don’t see the problem.”

“Her power was… something else. Something extraordinary.” He locked his eyes onto mine. “Noah, I think she was Gold.”