“Woo hoo! Reward boxes!” Jane said.

“Open them all at the same time?” Sigrid said.

“Sounds like fun,” Jane said. “On three? One. Two. And three.”

Four poofs of bright virtual confetti.

“I got an uncommon power scroll,” Jane said. “Is that good?”

“Same here,” Sam said.

“I only got a common gift,” Sigrid said.

They all looked at me.

“What’s yours?” Jane said.

“Um,” I said.

“Don’t tell me.”

“Rare power scroll.”

“Which is obviously better,” Jane said. “Figures.”

“Don’t think about it too much,” Sigrid said. “He’s got that hobo power so he’ll always get the good stuff.”

Sigrid was being nice, but I could tell she was just as frustrated as Jane. But this time, there was no reason for them to be jealous.

“You know,” I said, “just because that one was in your box, it doesn’t mean you have to be the one to use it. We could swap.”

“Really?” Sigrid said. “That’d be totally awesome because my scroll is for increased strength. I’ve already got that as part of my Heavenly Body.”

“Someone’s feeling full of herself,” Jane said.

“It’s the name of my ability,” Sigrid said. Then she ran her hands down her sides seductively. “Although, I gotta say...”

Gift:

Who Wants An Arm Wrestle? - Superior strength

Jane laughed. “Actually, my scroll would be good for you, Sigrid. It can summon any object you own into your hands. Might be handy for retrieving tossed spears.”

“That would be handy,” Sigrid said. “Accio spear!”

Power:

Come Back! - Novice: Summon an owned object

“Mine looks like a sort of affinity armor,” Sam said.

“Oh that sounds useful too,” Sigrid said.

Power:

I’ll Take The Force Of The Blow - Novice: Cover yourself with armor made of your Affinity

“If I can make a suggestion?” I said. “I think you should give that one to Jane, Sam. With her special affinity, she can create whatever kind of armor would be most effective in any given situation.”

“I like the sound of that,” Jane said.

“Jane, you give yours to Sigrid,” I said, “and Sigrid, you give yours to Sam.”

“That doesn’t seem very fair,” Jane said. “Sam gives up an uncommon power to get a common one?”

“If anything, it’s unfair to you,” I said, “because I’ll also give him my scroll. I think you’ll like it, Sam.”

Power:

Do They Have Sharp Talons? - Novice: Player’s fingertips transform into deadly claws

“As long as they’re retractable,” Sam said.

“Combine that with the increased strength from Sigrid’s scroll, and boom: Sam the summoner also becomes a dashing, slashing, frontline damage dealer.”

“Like Wayne,” Sigrid said, “the romping, stomping, sword swinging necromancer.”

“Only you’ll be like Wolverine,” Jane said.

“Forget that,” Sam said, then his mouth spread in a wide grin. “I’ll be like Catwoman. Rawr!”

Jane laughed at that.

I’d never get tired of hearing that laugh.

Sigrid put her hand on my arm. “But doesn’t this mean you don’t get a scroll?”

“That’s totally okay,” I said.

“Daniel’s getting the best deal,” Jane said. “He can just copy any of them, so in a sense, he gets them all,” Jane said.

“Oh yeah,” Sigrid said, pouting. “Now I feel shafted again.”

We all traded scrolls, and everyone tested their new powers. Sigrid threw a spear then recalled it to her hand. On command, Sam’s fingers grew by six inches into razor-sharp claws that carved deep gouges in a nearby boulder with one swipe. Jane cycled through all the affinities, shrouding her body in each, first being covered in ice, then erupting into flame, then seemingly vanishing into darkness, then surrounded by a whirling vortex of air.

“Do I dare try using Death?” she said.

“I’m curious what will happen too,” I said.

“Then you do it, I’m scared.”

So I copied I’ll Take The Force Of The Blow, and that was how we learned that affinity armor of Death covers your body in a sheath of scabs and oozing pustules of disease. Protective, sure, but also unimaginably gross.

“I am so glad I made you try it first,” Jane said, retching a bit.

All through this, Salvia had been busy curing trees while Petal watched her. That weird blinder that prevented NPCs from noticing when we start to meta-game about System notices and things like quests and rewards kicked in, and they tuned out by busying themselves with other things. Convenient.

The difference in the potency of the staff in the hands of someone with Master level power like Salvia’s compared to my Competent level was shocking to behold. It hadn’t taken her very long to heal a significant copse of trees, and with the staff’s ability to draw mana from the environment, plus the renewed vigor from having the Blight cured from her own body, she really could keep going and going.

Suddenly, Sigrid went tense. “They’re coming,” she said, looking East toward the swamp.

“Who?” I said.

“I dunno, but there are a lot of them, and they’re strong.”

Petal may have been oblivious to all our talk of Reward Boxes and Power Scrolls, but she heard that. “Are you sure?”

“Positive,” Sigrid said, hefting her spear and readying her shield.

“Right,” Petal said, then reached into a pocket and pulled out a small whistle, which she put to her lips and blew. Nothing happened.

“Is it broken?” Sam said.

Petal shook her head. “Our hearing is quite superior to yours.”

“Ah, so it’s like a dog whistle.”

“The warriors in the village would have heard it and will be here soon.”

“I guess we’ll need to hold them off until they arrive,” I said.

Now then, what powers would be most useful here? Nina’s force field power could set up a barrier, and the danger was coming from the direction of the swamp so it probably has something to do with Shadow, meaning it would probably be doubly effective if I pumped Nature into the force field instead of Life, but if there was enough of the enemy some would just go around it. I could have used a summon power to whip up some meat shields, but cannon fodder can only go so far. I could have augmented myself with Andy’s qi power, or copied Nina’s blessing and gave everyone on our side a buff. There were a lot of things I could do. So many things. And wow, Nina really did have some awesome powers. Life was a valuable affinity.

There’s a curious phenomenon that happens when someone has a lot of choices. For example, if you were to lay out, say, three jars of jam, all different kinds, and asked someone to choose their favorite, they probably won’t have a problem. They’ll tell you right away. If there were a dozen different kinds, they would have a much harder time choosing. They might not be able to choose at all, or take a long time humming and hawing between a few.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

It’s the same reason why it takes a little kid forever to choose a flavor of ice cream, they become overwhelmed by choice overload. It’s decision paralysis, where you become unable to make a choice for fear of making the wrong one, and it can cause real problems.

The solution, of course, is to realize that there is no wrong choice. If there are multiple options competing for the top spot, just choose one of them and go with it. They’re probably all decent. Besides, it’s only jam.

I went with my first instinct. A barrier appeared about thirty feet in front of us, like a gigantic pane of glass, though tinged green because of the Nature affinity I was using on it.

“Everyone, I made a force field in front of us. Use ranged attacks to start with.” I pulled a bow out of my inventory. Using affinity attacks may have been more effective, or even applying Wayne’s affinity weapon ability to augment the arrows, but I was being frugal with my mana. I’d rather pump more into a bigger, stronger barrier. There was no knowing how long it would take for the cavalry to come, and keeping the force field up wasn’t cheap.

The enemy vanguard arrived first, fast-running black Shadow Wolves, same as the ones we’d fought just before meeting Wayne and Bruce.

Shadow Wolf

Big enough to be used as mounts by smaller humanoids, nobody knows how Shadow Wolves reproduce, only that they do it quickly and these blights can now be found all over, hiding in the shadows, waiting for the opportunity to pounce and feed on whatever flesh they can chomp down on.

Powers:

The Power Of The Pack - Adept: Deadlier when hunting in a group

I Lurk In The Shadows - Competent: Extra stealth when hiding in shadows

Skills:

Pounce - Competent: Launch an deadly attack from a distance

Bite - Adept: Sharp teeth make short work of prey

The Shadow Wolves smashed into the barrier and began rending it with their teeth, gnawing at it. With every bite, I had to pour more mana into the shield to repair the damage. But something was wrong. They were demolishing the barrier too quickly. Why wasn’t the Nature shield effective?

Then it came to me. Duh. Attacks made by one affinity are more effective against defenses in its opposite. I was making it easier on the Shadow creatures using a Nature-based defense. That could also explain why the elves, who wore their cloaks infused with the power of the Green, struggled to overcome the Shadow monsters. Insidious.

I was about to switch the affinity of the barrier to Shadow, but then I figured that would be even easier for Shadow creatures to overcome. I don’t know why, but in the end I decided to switch it to Air. The green tinge to the barrier vanished, and crackling sparks of electricity began to surge through it. The wolves pressed against it were thrown back by a massive shock. They quickly recovered and pounced upon the force field again, but now each bite was less effective and required less mana to repair. As an added bonus, each time a wolf nipped it they received another shock in return.

Funny thing, though: I was wrong. I learned later that the best defense against a specific affinitity was the same affinity. I'd assumed a Shadow attack would slide right through a Shadow defense, but that was a mistaken assumption. Can't be right every time. Still, Air was more effective against Shadow than Nature, so at least it was better.

With that improved, I raised my bow and joined Petal and Salvia shooting at the wolves through the barrier. Jane fired her crossbow, cursing every time she had to reload it; with our bows we were able to shoot a few arrows before she was ready to fire again. That is, Petal and Salvia were. I wasn’t all that much faster than Jane, but the elves loosed arrow after arrow with impressive speed, and every one found their mark. Wolf after wolf fell.

It was humbling and inspiring at the same time. If merely two elves were this potent...

Meanwhile, Sigrid tossed her spear, recalled it, and tossed it again, over and over, while Sam used Nature to make the forest itself reach out to immobilize and strangle the enemy. It was surprisingly effective. The wolves had a natural Shadow element to their defense, so attacks using the opposing Nature element were enhanced. At least that worked in our favor.

We kept using ranged attacks and killed many this way, but each time a wolf fell two more took its place.

“You sure elf reinforcements are coming?” Jane said.

“Don’t worry, we train regularly for this sort of thing,” Petal said, her bow twanging as she let yet another arrow fly. The joy on her face was palpable. “They’ll be here soon.”

“I hope so,” Sigrid said, “because the next wave is here.”

Swarming up to the barrier behind the wolves were creatures of living shadow, appearing seemingly from nowhere, emerging from the shadows between trees and gliding swiftly over the ground like dark ghosts.

Shadow Soldiers

Wraithlike warriors created by the Shadow Demon, these creatures slip between the shadows to attack their enemies with a touch that chills the soul as it drains power.

Powers:

Chill Out - Adept: Frigid touch attack

Shadow Movement - Adept: Extra stealth when hiding in shadows

You Are So Weak - Adept: Drain mana

“These new guys can’t do anything if they can’t get close,” Sigrid said, “so do not let them get close.”

System: Your mastery of Archery has evolved

We followed the same tactic of shooting enemies through the barrier, but the Shadows were smarter than the Shadow Wolves and found their way around the sides of my force field, as I’d anticipated.

“Watch the flanks and protect the Magikist,” I said. “Switch to melee. Sam and Jane go right, Sigrid and Petal take the left. Salvia, you keep shooting through the barrier and I’ll support where needed.”

Jane encased herself in affinity armor of Nature, covering herself in a layer of what looked like tree bark, and used her ability to blink in and out to devastating effect. She’d pop close to one, stab it with her rapier -- enchanted to be an affinity weapon and also infused with Nature -- then pop over to the next one and do the same. Alongside her, Sam used his new strength and claw power to rend the Shadows, assisted by four huge tigers. Leveling up his summon power had enabled him to conjure more creatures that were also more powerful than before.

On the other side, Sigrid was holding her own while beside her Petal was a whirling blur of death, slashing through the Shadows with her pair of long knives. Her technique was similar to escrima, the Filipino martial art that uses sticks or knives in both hands, but the elven style was more fluid and acrobatic, more elegant, even. It reminded me of something, but it wasn’t until I glanced back over at the other side that I made the connection: it reminded me of Jane’s fighting style that was heavily influenced by her skills with dance and gymnastics. With Petal’s high level of mastery it was beyond deadly, as shown by the number of shadow monsters falling under the blur of her dual blades.

System: You know Elven Dual Knife Fighting

Sa-weet!

I helped by using a combination of Sam’s Green Thumb power to create plants and Nature Affinity Control, making thorny vines and using them to block and envelop the foe as well as shoot their barbs like darts. Yet they kept coming, a fresh wave of monsters swarming over the bodies of their fallen comrades. Thanks to the impressive fighting strength of Petal and Salvia we were managing to hold our own, but only barely, and not without cost. We also took our own share of damage. The chilling physical hits were starting to weaken us, but the mana drain every time a shadow touched us was far more worrisome. If any of us ran out of mana, we’d be down. Even worse, every time they drained our mana they seemed to get stronger; it was similar to the vampiric power Chika had to heal herself by damaging her opponents, only it was mana instead of health.

Already my mind was churning with possibilities of how I could use the Shadows’ powers in synthesizing new abilities.

The mana drain also revealed a definite weakness we suffered from. Physical injuries could be healed with Nina’s power even while fighting, but lost mana was harder to recover. You couldn’t exactly pause a fight to grab a taco. I’d synthesized an area effect healing power, so maybe combining it with this mana drain power of the Shadow Soldiers could create something that would restore mana? I didn’t dare try it then. Synthesis was not the kind of thing that should be done in the middle of combat, for obvious reasons.

It wasn’t long before the onslaught of sheer numbers crushed us closer together, so I changed the force field from a wall to a bubble that surrounded us. In no time, the enemy had us completely surrounded too, and were hammering away on the barrier with relentless determination. We formed a tight circle in the middle, each of us stabbing or slicing or clawing through the barrier at the mass of shadow creatures enveloping it. It was incredibly handy that we could get through the force field from our side, but they couldn’t from theirs.

This You Shall Not Pass power of Nina’s was indeed very useful, but it had its drawbacks. Each hit the enemy made on the outside required me to use little bit of mana to repair, which wasn’t an issue when there were just a few monsters bashing it, but with so many Shadows surrounding us, clambering over each other so that they were completely enveloping the force bubble with their dark bodies, the mana attrition was punishing. It was all I could do to keep it up even with my ability to draw more from the environment, but I could feel the available mana in the surroundings getting used up and I knew it was only a matter of time before I’d run out completely. Then the shield would collapse, and we’d be done for.

I also discovered another weakness in the shield. With the force of their colleagues pressing them against the force field, some of the Shadow Soldiers started getting squeezed through, purely by accident. These were quickly dispatched by the blade of whomever was closest, but it was only a matter of time before they figured out how to do it on purpose and we’d be overwhelmed, even inside the shield.

We’d reached the point where we were constantly fighting hand-to-hand against Shadows who managed to squeeze past the barrier. Ordinary monsters would have created a wall of corpses to help protect us, but the Shadow Soldiers deflated like empty garbage bags after being killed, which only allowed more and more of them to come in, and soon the ground under our feet was covered with layers of dead Shadows. It felt like standing on a slippery dark gray carpet.

I’d pulled a pair of short scimitars from my inventory and was using them in the elvish knife fighting style. They worked, but weren’t exactly right for it. The scimitars were too long and too heavy; elvish knife blades were only a little over a foot long, strong, light, and sharp, made in the single-bladed Japanese technique of folding the metal over and over. But at least they worked.

It was a particularly potent fighting style, even at Novice level. Thanks to Jack Of All Trades it took no time to advance it to Competent. I’d incorporate the elven skill into omni-do later, when someone wasn’t trying to kill me.

Using it beside Petal and Salvia, I discovered there was a special feature to the elves’ skill: when multiple practitioners fight together, everyone’s combat effectiveness was enhanced.

“Where’d you learn how to fight like that?” Petal said.

How do I explain Jack Of All Trades? May as well tell her the truth.

“From watching you.”

She didn’t say any more, but I caught her glancing over at me several times, then looking away abruptly whenever our eyes met.

My mana bar had been in the red for a while now, and out of the corner of my eye I watched it continue to slowly but steadily decrease. Soon, there was only a sliver of red left.

“I’m sorry, guys,” I said, “I’m about out of mana. This is it for the shield. Get ready.”

Then my mana hit zero, and I passed out.