Sebastian found himself face to face with a man who looked like he was cosplaying an Assassin's Creed character.

[https://i.imgur.com/UUkT9iq.jpg]

There sure were a lot of people wearing costumes today.

The assassin appeared to look Sebastian up and down—it was hard to say for sure since his face was obscured in darkness—nodded once, then faded into the shadows.

Sebastian’s heart raced. Was he about to get stabbed in the back? Then he realized it didn’t really matter. He would just come back to life and take his revenge.

Worry of death alleviated, his thoughts turned to how useful the ability to vanish would be, and whether Sebastian would get the man’s cards if he killed him.

The System had said he didn’t have any abilities that would let him loot through other than physical means, but that was with the Vassals. This guy hadn’t seemed like a Vassal, or at least Sebastian hadn’t gotten a notification of him being one, which his title was supposed to alert him to.

He stood there for several moments, looking around, listening, waiting, but nothing happened. He didn’t hear anyone shuffling about, and the door to the World Store remained closed.

Had the guy teleported away?

A little disappointed, he turned his attention to the store.

It was large, taking up the entire lower floor of the building, though the interior was transformed from what it had been before. The walls were covered with cards hovering an inch away from them, floating there with no visible support.

And it wasn’t just cards. There were racks and cases and stands everywhere, filled with all manner of items. Just as Osiris’s message had promised: food—like a weird version of MREs—weapons, even housing vouchers, which looked like oversized carnival tickets.

When he tried to pick one of these up, he came into contact with a forcefield. He tried pushing like he had with the aberrations, but there was absolutely no give.

A message appeared in his head telling him he had insufficient orbs to purchase the item.

It was the same for each item he tried to take. Even the cards floating in front of the wall wouldn’t budge.

So shoplifting was out, unfortunately.

And he had no orbs with which to buy anything.

He spent a while longer exploring and discovered a device in the rear corner where he could sell items to the Store. Curious, he tested out how much he would get for his Sovereign of Gelandar card.

Not much, it turned out. Only two orbs. Which was enough to buy food, but little else that he had encountered so far.

He wondered if it was like a video game—or a real-life pawnshop for that matter—where the merchant would charge you many times what they would pay you for an item.

It seemed possible, as the cheapest card he’d seen so far (Might, which increased the density of tissue, including skin, muscle, and bone) cost two hundred and forty orbs.

Not that he had been able to examine many: most of the cards on the wall were blurry and no information on them appeared when he focused on them.

When he asked the System about this it told him he couldn’t yet use them, but wouldn’t say why.

Probably he had to rank up, which he still didn’t know how to do.

He explored some more, wanting to at least find out the cost of a deck initiator and communication crystal, and came across a card that was even cheaper at one hundred orbs, but which caught his eye for another reason.

[https://i.imgur.com/ufQXdqa.png]

Spectral Garb

Rank: Base

Cooldown: 600 seconds

Duration: Permanent

Uses: 1,000

Card Slot: Core

Sockets: 4

Effect: Forge about your person a set of protective garments.

If he had this card, he wouldn’t need to find a new set of clothes every time he died.

But, cheaper though it may have been, it wasn’t like he could afford it, not yet anyway. And it wasn’t what he’d come here for.

He looked around the packed store.

Was he going to have to check every single item manually to find what he was looking for? He didn’t even know if a deck initiator was a card that would be on the walls, or an item that would be in one of the numerous display cases.

Can you guide me to a deck initiator? he asked the System.

Deck Initiator is within ten feet of your current position.

Sebastian sighed. Another game of Hot and Cold.

A minute later he had finally located it. It was next to the door, on the bottom row.

He bent down and examined it. It was a card of sorts, though diamond shaped. And it cost ninety orbs.

That was going to take awhile to earn. Which seemed a bit of a catch-22.

Well, at least he had his heart card. He wondered if there was some easy way of earning orbs he was missing.

The door suddenly opened and a girl around his own age stepped inside. She had a sword in one hand and was wearing robes that reminded him of samurai or maybe geisha, he wasn't sure. Yet another person in a costume. What a surprise.

While his cooldown for Death Is Not the End was up, he really didn’t feel like dying again. First the assassin guy, now a samurai girl. He was afraid some fight was about to break out, so he nodded at her and went to walk past her, planning on searching out aberrations and monsters in hopes of earning enough orbs or cards to buy a deck initiator, but she stopped him with an outstretched arm.

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“Hello friend.”

“Hi,” Sebastian responded cautiously. She didn’t seem hostile, but she was holding a sword, and had stopped him from leaving. And who called someone ‘friend’ except sarcastically?

She scanned the store, ignoring him while also blocking him from leaving.

“Uh, you need something?” he asked, staring at her sword. “Cause, I don’t have anything. These aren’t even my clothes.”

The girl nodded slowly, finally turning her attention back to him. “I know. I… saw.”

Sebastian frowned. Did she mean she’d watched him get dressed at H&M? Had she followed him here?

That was kind of weird and also somehow flattering. “Saw?”

“Your fight. That was dishonorable.”

Sebastian suddenly felt his ire rise. Dishonorable? They’d tried to kill him. Not just tried. They’d succeeded. Multiple times.

She must have seen the anger on his face, because she elaborated. “I mean what they did to you.” She shook her head. “I apologize, speaking is strange. The messenger is translating, but I have to concentrate.”

Sebastian could just detect a faint accent in her voice, though not one he’d ever heard. It was like someone speaking a foreign language, but the words reaching his ears were English. She didn’t sound like a foreigner, she sounded like a native speaker in the same way a Brit did, just with a different accent.

He wondered if he’d be able to understand any language now. This girl said she had to concentrate to understand English, so maybe that was why he hadn’t been able to understand the Dutch he’d heard: he hadn’t been trying.

Something to test out in the future.

“Well, nice meeting you.” He made a vague gesture at the door. He was eager to start earning orbs.

She didn’t budge. “We can help each other.”

He glanced down at her sword.

She saw where he was looking, made a face, then the sword suddenly vanished from her hand.

“Whoa.”

“My apologies. I wanted to be prepared, but it seems the man I detected is gone. I have no hostile intent toward you. When I was brought here, I was far from my group and have been unable to locate them. It’s possible I’m alone on this world. You’re the first person I’ve seen with power.” She paused. “First who isn’t… evil? I don’t think that’s the correct word. It’s close enough.”

“Not that I’m disagreeing about the not being evil bit, but you don’t even know me.”

“I know your aura.”

Her mention of aura reminded him of the color thing, and he tried focusing on her to test it out. That vanishing sword probably meant she had a card, so he assumed she was an aspirant. She certainly wasn’t a Scion or Vassal.

“What are you doing?” she asked as he focused on the air around her.

“Trying to— Oh!” As soon as he stopped looking at the air around her and actually looked at her, he saw… something. And felt it, too.

Which was what the System had said it would be. He didn’t even really need to see the bluish color of her aura to know she was stronger than him. He could feel it, though it was a bit indistinct. Like if he focused too hard the feeling and the bluish color would vanish.

“Is your aura blue? And I can only feel your power, not whether you’re a villain.”

She tilted her head in a way he couldn’t interpret, though the System somehow overlaid meaning on it. A half-agreement.

“That may be how you see it,” she explained. “I can see more.”

“That I’m not evil.”

She nodded. “And I saw you before as well. Running away from a giant man.”

Sebastian felt a surge of emotion he’d been unconsciously trying to repress. He knew at once who she was talking about. Magnus. “He is…” he trailed off, throat tightening, “was, or… I don’t know.” He let out a weary sigh. “He’s my friend. Something happened to him. The System. Osiris. It did something to him. Made him a Scion.”

“Scion. That was in the missive from the heavenly messenger.”

“Heavenly messenger? I don’t know where Osiris is from or what it is, but I’m pretty sure ‘Osiris, the Apocalypse System’ is not a heavenly messenger.” Though after saying it, that did seem somewhat, if not heavenly, at least biblical.

“Perhaps”, she said. “I only have what I know from my world to go on.”

Sebastian frowned, something dawning on him. “Wait, your world? You’re not from Earth? You’re from the merger? The fusion with that other world?”

“Yes. I was cycling in the forest and was transported here. Along with parts of my world, it seems. The messenger has not been forthcoming on that part.”

Sebastian somehow knew that when she said cycling, she didn’t mean on a bike. It was strange, there was a sense of multiple words under it: meditation, growth, power. Cultivation.

“Wow.” He studied her. She had paleish-tan skin, hazel eyes, and black hair parted and pulled back into a knot—nothing out of the ordinary. The only thing that stood out about her was that her features looked somehow Asian, but also not. Though that could easily be explained by mixed parentage. “You look so human. Is it some kind of illusion?”

She frowned. “I am human.”

“That’s weird.”

“It is?”

“Isn’t it? You’re from another world, but we’re both the same species?”

“I fail to see what is strange about that. Why would other worlds have different species masquerading as human?”

“You deal with other worlds often?”

“Only in legends. Are you alone here?”

Sebastian shrugged, not sure he could trust her, but also not that worried about dying. “I guess. There was a guy when I came in, but he disappeared.”

“He’s gone to my sight as well. It’s strange. I almost didn’t come in, and then I saw him and I wor—” She shook her head. “That’s not important. You have a power inside you, but you’re terrible at harnessing it.”

“Oh thanks.”

“I can help you. We should join together.”

“Um, that’s… nice of you.” Sebastian was unsure how to respond to her abrupt request. “But I need to earn orbs. So…” he gestured at the door, which she was still blocking with her body even though she was no longer holding a sword, “I’ll just be going.”

He went to move past her, but she put a hand on his chest, stopping him.

“Wait, we can work together. I saw what you’re capable of, and I could help you reach even greater heights. You’re a bumbling fool, but I could make you a master.”

Sebastian was tempted, for more than one reason, but also was galled at being called a fool. And besides, she would not be as much help as a communication crystal, which might let him contact Anubis again.

“Thanks, but I have—”

She dropped her hand from his chest and pulled a pouch out from under her robes. It clinked and when she opened it Sebastian saw several metallic-blue coins, along with bits of paper that might be currency, though not any he recognized. These weren’t what she took out, but instead several small orbs of varying sizes, like a variety pack of marbles. She held them out to him.

“Those look easy to lose.”

“They’re bound to you.” She shook her head. “Even with my Dragon-sight, I can’t see how. If you drop them, they reappear on your person. You have to mean to leave them behind. Take them. You have to put power in your core, yes? Using a heavenly treasure? I can see you haven’t used it yet. Did you buy one? Have you collected any orbs?”

Sebastian shook his head. “Not for lack of trying. And how do you know any of that?”

“I see it.”

“With your dragon sight?” he asked sarcastically.

“Yes.”

“Oh.” He frowned. “What is that? And how does that work?”

“I can see your power with it, see that your core is empty. The messenger— the System gives me knowledge, and of the things I’ve learned in my time here, one is the source of your power. Cards that are stored in a deck in your core. But you need to initiate it with a heavenly treasure before you can add power, add cards, to it.”

“Again, not sure about the heavenly part.” He looked down at the orbs, which she was still holding out to him. He wondered if her arm was getting tired, or if her physiology was different. Heck, maybe his was too now.

She nodded down at the orbs. “Take them.”

Sebastian hesitated. She seemed sincere enough, but he couldn’t trust her.

He wanted to though. Just talking with her lifted a weight he had either not noticed, or suppressed. He no longer felt quite so alone anymore.

“Go on,” she urged, a hint of annoyance creeping into her voice. “They are from the remnant of one of the people who attacked you. Among others.”

“The remnant?”

“Yes. What was left behind after he died. He and another remnant from that group fought a girl with blue fire techniques.”

“Oh.” She meant the bodies of Lars and Niels.

“Take them,” she insisted, now with both annoyance and amusement in her voice.

Something about that broke his resistance and he gave in. “Fine. You’re really persistent, you know that?”

“Yes.” Her hand was hot as it touched his, dumping the orbs into his cupped palms.

He was distracted for a moment by the human contact. It felt like ages since he’d had friendly contact, even though it hadn’t even been a day.

Not to mention the strange heat.

He was trying to figure out how to phrase the question of whether everyone from her world was so hot, when he registered how heavy the orbs were.

He frowned, staring at them. The smaller ones seemed the heaviest. They felt like they were made of lead, or something even denser.

When he focused on them, text appeared, displaying the value of each, and their combined value above this.

Strangely, the smaller ones were worth more.

All together, they were worth just over three hundred orbs.

It was a little confusing that the units were called orbs. Like calling a quarter twenty-five coins instead of twenty-five cents.

“How many monsters is this from exactly?” he asked, still staring at the orbs.

“A few.” She paused. “Maybe more. I exterminated every remnant I came across. Not all were human.”

“Yeah, I noticed that. It’s creepy. Insect monsters.” He looked up at her, smiled. “At least they’re not monster insects.”

She frowned. “The difference is their size? Is the translation correct?”

“Yeah,” he muttered, “way to kill a joke.” He sighed. “Why are you giving these to me?”

“A sign of good faith. We can help each other, but you don’t know who I am and have no reason to trust me yet.”

“And you know and trust who I am?”

“You who are the dragon; a dragon sees much.”

Sebastian frowned. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but… I’m not a dragon.”

She shook her head. “It’s a saying. Perhaps it didn’t translate. What I mean is I’ve been watching you. I know your measure. You are honorable.”

The echo of Osiris’s words—your measure—made him uncomfortable. But her sentiment didn’t.

He smiled. “It’s good to meet someone friendly. I’m Sebastian.”

“Qin Li Eema.” She hesitated. “You may call me Eema. I suppose.”

Sebastian looked at the orbs, then at the shop, then back to the girl. “Well, Eema, I guess it’s time to go shopping.”