I held the purple, metallic coin between my thumb and forefinger, turning it over in the torchlight of Lyria’s personal space.

Both sides of the coin showed a slightly raised plus symbol but nothing else. The metal was a deep, satisfying color. Back on Earth, I had always enjoyed collecting things like unique rocks and paperweights. I spared a moment of thought for the crazy idea of teleporting suddenly back to my old life with nothing but this purple coin to convince me I hadn’t imagined it all.

Some trophy that would be.

As I sat there, thinking about the rewards I had to claim and the responsibility I felt here, I realized I didn’t want to return. It was a moot point—I knew that—but somehow it mattered to know I still wanted to be here, even after the harrowing trip through the Black Wood to Thrask. Even now, knowing more of what was ahead, I still wanted this.

I dragged my thoughts back to the present, inspecting the coin.

[Augment Token (Epic) (Wood)] Increase the rarity of [one] [Wood] item by [one] rarity tier. Cannot improve items of [epic] rarity or higher.

“Wow,” I said. “That’s kind of awesome.”

Lyria nodded. “Too bad it stops at epic. Otherwise, you could use it on whatever weapon you get and bump it straight to legendary.”

“Yeah, I wish. So, I’m not wasting this on a common rarity item and only bumping it up to rare. Which rare item do I want to upgrade, though?”

“You got that cloak,” Lyria said, pointing.

I touched the fabric of my cloak, considering. But I didn’t think about it for long. Frankly, I already had an item in mind. None of my combat-oriented equipment, except for my protection ring, tempted me too much. But I knew I would be disappointed if upgrading the ring only reduced the cooldown or some other small benefit.

There were two items I was very tempted to use it on, though. My herbalist’s lens and my trophy. I ruled out the trophy relatively fast. As much as I loved trophies, I was afraid of accidentally super-powering the weird boon that involved appreciating the curves of bugs. I wouldn’t risk the augment token on something that could backfire.

My herbalist lens, on the other hand, could be very useful. If it let me see even more properties of wild herbs, I’d probably be able to find and brew things out in the wild without needing to bring them to a shop for identification. It would be nice, but I wasn’t sure saving myself a trip to town, and a small fee was completely worth such a potentially powerful item.

Saving it for later wasn’t smart, either. It only worked on Wood items, and I planned to push through to Iron soon. I expected even my powerful Wood items would be quickly outgrown once I was an Iron.

“How much do you think this would sell for?” I asked.

Lyria whistled low and slow. “Good question. At least several gold. Maybe as much as that nectar, even? I’m just guessing, though. Epic items are really rare, especially at Wood. Most people play it safe, after all. It’s hard to earn great accomplishments when advancing that way.”

We talked some more, touching on the pros and cons, before Lyria eventually came to a similar conclusion as me. Frankly, my good items were epic. I hardly had any rares, and we couldn’t be sure what improvements the augment would lead to. We could, however, be sure that a pile of gold would be useful.

The final plan was to wait and see what I got from my epic weapon reward token. If the weapon was a total bust, for some reason, I would sell that instead of the augment token. I could use the money to buy a rare weapon of my choice and upgrade it to epic. If the epic weapon was something I planned to use, I’d sell the token and use the money for whatever I needed.

I pulled out the epic armor token next.

“Here goes,” I said.

An ornate chest thumped down hard. Inside, I found a pair of supple leather boots. They looked incredibly well-made and high quality, though not necessarily magical at a glance. I inspected them.

[Abyss Walker’s Boots (Epic) (Wood)] Activate to use [Abyssal Step]. Self-repairing. Impervious to mundane piercing damage. Resistant to [Wood]-ranked piercing and slashing attacks.

Warning: Resistance effect only applies to the boots and not the user.

[Abyssal Step - Activatable ability. Duration: [2] seconds. Cooldown: [1] minute] - Step into the abyss for [2] seconds. Become [intangible] for the duration. Movements within the abyssal realm will be mirrored in the physical realm.

Warning: If [Abyssal Step] ends while an object is inside the space your body tries to occupy, unpredictable results will occur.

[Intangible] - Immune to physical, magical, mental, and spiritual attacks. Cannot pass through physical barriers like walls, doors, or floors while intangible.

I couldn’t put the boots on fast enough to try the ability for myself. I was excited as hell about the possible uses of something like Abyssal Step, but I also wanted to see what it felt like to use a completely new magical ability.

“Be careful,” Lyria said. “I don’t know if I like that bit about unpredictable results.”

“Agreed,” I said. I had already imagined some horror scene of reappearing with my body split in half by a table or something. Hopefully, it just meant unpredictable because it would teleport me out of the way. I could start off by testing that on something small, like a needle. If it wound up stuck inside my body, at least it wouldn’t kill me. Mostly, though, I trusted that the forces behind all this had seemed mostly fair-minded to this point. I didn’t think I would get an epic item with an ability that could easily get me killed or maimed.

Sure, the cursed bedroll was maybe an example of some derangement, but it wasn’t as if the boons were terrible. The item had some real solid benefits, and I was already starting to brew a very crazy, potentially reckless idea about how one of those boons could prove really useful.

Focusing back on the boots, I pushed mana into them.

The world snapped to gray. Everything was fuzzy and ethereal, even the form of Lyria, who sat on the ground and looked like she was made of shifting smoke.

Then I noticed I could see through the walls of her personal space. I only had a moment to take it all in, but infinite room-shaped spaces floated in every direction, some occupied by ghostly forms and others standing empty. I caught a glimpse of something far in the distance. Its huge form moved in the space between the rooms, gliding like an unfathomably large sea monster on hidden currents.

I saw a couch floating through the space between rooms, drifting toward a large, multi-story personal space that looked palatial. I was trying to get a better look when reality returned with a sudden lurch.

I blinked through the disorientation, feeling unsteady on my feet.

“Holy shit,” I breathed.

“What?” Lyria asked, scooting closer. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I just… I could see other personal spaces, I think. Like we’re floating in a dimensional soup right now. They were in every direction. And there was this… thing swimming or floating around out there. And I saw a couch. I think it was being delivered?”

I shivered a little, imagining that creature punching through the walls of Lyria’s room and making us into snacks.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“You’re serious?” she asked.

“Why would I make something like that up?”

“Okay, okay,” Lyria said. “Good question.” She sat back, lifting her knees and wrapping her arms around them to rest her chin on top. “I always wondered. When the cooldown is up, you should use them again and see what else you can notice. Just… don’t test the thing about not being able to pass through walls. You obviously didn’t fall through the floor, but I wouldn’t want you to fall into that ‘dimensional soup.’”

“That makes two of us.”

I sat back down, noting that my new boots were incredibly comfortable. I didn’t want to admit it because it sounded stupid, but I might have been just as excited about the self-repairing aspect as anything else. I had already seen how quickly I tore through boots in this world. Even when I was Iron or Silver, I could find use for a pair of boots that never wore down or broke.

“Between your ring and those boots,” Lyria said, “it’s going to be a pain in the ass for anyone who wants to hit you.”

“Good,” I said. “Believe it or not, being hit is something I’d like to avoid. On that note… If anybody’s listening, please make this weapon a ranged weapon.”

I had put a good amount of thought into what I hoped to get from this epic token. While I had seen a picture of myself in my Seraphel days with that “elemental chain” whip, I wanted to keep my distance. I don’t know if I had fallen into the use of a whip by accident or by choice, but I did know if I had a choice, I would like to be farther away from things that wanted to kill me.

It just made sense, after all. Why would I want to fight things up close when I could drop them before they could even touch me? I also didn’t love the idea of weathering a storm of magic or arrows as I tried to close the distance on a ranged enemy.

I knew I could get a magic staff in this world. After all, I had seen the one Circa used in the ruins. Given the magical nature of my abilities, I thought I had a decent shot at getting a staff of my own and just hoped it would be something powerful. Frankly, I’d take a magical boomerang, so long as it was ranged. I was sure I could find a way to make it work and I intended to do the best I could with whatever I got.

I lifted the token, fed it mana, and watched it flake away.

"Congratulations! [Weapons Crate (Epic) (Wood)] has been upgraded to [Gilded Weapon Chest (Legendary) (Wood)]."

Lyria’s lips slowly parted. “Holy shit.”

“Holy shit,” I agreed in a hushed whisper. Hot excitement flooded through me, making my skin prickle.

Suddenly, I didn’t care if I got a frying pan. Legendary? Whatever the hell this thing was, I would be using it.

I opened the chest, heart pounding.

Inside, I found a bow.

My first glance told me it was more than an average bow. The handle was polished, dark black metal. The string looked like it was made of silver and glimmered in the torchlight. I didn’t notice it immediately, but there was a subtle effect within the metal as if silvery motes of energy as small as grains of dust were moving around just beneath the surface. I watched them flow and shift, thinking how the patterns reminded me of water or wind.

There was a black leather quiver stitched with silver to match the bow. The quality was as nice as my boots, and—to my satisfaction—it even looked like it was made to match them.

I pulled out one arrow, noticing the shaft looked like a hollow glass tube. The fletching was glistening silver feathers, and the nock at the base of the shaft was a silvery metal that was surprisingly warm to the touch.

Nice. I wondered if heated nocks was like heated seats in the archery world. Never fire arrows with cold fingers again!

Jokes aside, it was a pleasant perk.

The arrowhead itself was hollow glass shaped to an aerodynamic point.

I was fairly sure I understood where this was going, even before I inspected the bow, quiver, and arrows—each of which had its own description.

I inspected them all, starting with the bow.

[Silver Scream Bow (Legendary) (Wood)] Feeding mana into this bow will increase projectile strength, range, and power.

[Silver Scream Quiver (Legendary) (Wood)] Feeding mana into this quiver will regrow arrows. Cannot conjure more than [3] arrows at a time.

[Silver Scream Arrow (Legendary) (Wood)] Absorbs a single drop of liquid, infusing the arrow with the elemental effect. The infused effect will apply when puncturing targets (If the infused effect is applicable to the target and not resisted). Punctured targets will suffer the infused effect, modified by [Silver Scream].

[Silver Scream - Modification Ability. Duration: [2] minutes.] Modifies the potency of an effect, increasing over time. If the target does not remove [Silver Scream] within [2] minutes, all accumulated effects will be applied again instantaneously. Only one instance of [Silver Scream] can be active on a single target at a time.

“Wow,” I breathed.

“I don’t think I understand it,” Lyria said. Her eyebrows were furrowed, and she was staring into space as if she was rereading the tooltips.

“I think I do,” I said, still trying to put it together. I started talking, thinking aloud. “Imagine I put my rot poison in one of these. If I shoot somebody with one of these arrows—or stab them with it by hand, maybe—it’ll start applying Silver Scream. And as long as the arrow is inside them, it would pump them with rot poison. The longer it stays in them, the harder the poison would hit. Like… imagine we could see our damage in numbers. Say it starts out doing 10 damage per second, then 20, then 40, and by the end, it’s doing 80. Imagine they took a total of 1,000 damage by the end. If the arrow is still in them when two minutes is up, they’ll instantly get hit for another 1,000 damage. Like a damage bomb.”

“Huh,” Lyria said slowly. “But someone could just pull it out.”

“Sure,” I said. “But maybe they won’t know they should. Or if it’s a creature or beast, all I really need to do is find a way to survive two minutes after I hit them with this. Unless the potency is way lower than usual, I think it means just about anything my level would die in two minutes. And if I find a way to paralyze or slow enemies down, it would synergize well with Silver Scream.”

“Combine that with your ring and your boots…” she said, considering.

“And my handy bodyguard,” I added, giving her a grin.

She snorted. “Yeah, right. Tell me you know how to use a bow, at least.”

“Well…” I said, scratching the back of my neck. “How hard can it be?”

Lyria sighed. “You keep helping me with my abilities, and I’ll help you learn to shoot your bow. Deal?”

“Good enough for me.”

My thoughts went straight to obscure uses for the bow and the effect. What would happen if I stabbed myself with an arrow loaded with healing potions, for example? Or what if I found some kind of strength buff? Could I get a sudden surge of strength after two minutes of a slow trickle?

Of course, the idea of peppering three enemies with poisoned arrows and climbing a tree for two minutes while I waited for them to explode was also very appealing.

Suddenly, the idea of venturing into the dungeon near Thrask didn’t seem anywhere near as suicidal. I finally felt like I had some real, serious firepower. I was close to feeling good about my situation until I thought to check my bedroll within my inventory for any signs of it “awakening.”

Aside from the stats I had already viewed, I saw there was a new description in the tooltip.

[Hunger, 26%]

“What?” Lyria asked. “Why do you look like that? You’re not about to stab yourself with a poisoned arrow to get skill-ups or something, are you?”

“No,” I said quietly, though I thought it was a great idea—as long as I pulled it out before two minutes passed. “I think I need to go to that dungeon sooner than I thought unless I want to have to divinely smite the shit out of this bedroll.”

“What? Why?”

“Because it’s getting hungry. Fast.” Assuming 0% was a happy bed and 100% was an awoken, people-eating monstrosity, that was. If the hunger started at 100%, we were even more screwed. But I checked it again and saw the hunger happen to tick up to 27%.

Okay. It's going up, then. It was still moving faster than I liked.

“What about the adventurer’s guild?” Lyria asked.

I quickly ran through how much time had passed since Grimbo’s shop. Two hours, maybe three or four at most? It was hard to tell, but Kass also said the dungeon was “close.” That could still mean it was hours away.

I shook my head. I was already standing and zapping things into my slip space as quickly as possible. “I’ll have to do it all quickly. Illusionist, adventurer’s guild, a new set of clothes, identification lens powerful enough to see the stats on my Alchemist’s Kit and Voidgaze, and—”

“We’re worried about your demon bed waking up to eat us all and you’re thinking about new clothes?”

I sighed. “Okay, okay. No new clothes. Let’s just hurry. I don’t know how long it’ll take me to figure out how to feed this thing, assuming I can even make it there on time.”

“What if you have to use your divine ability on the boat in front of everybody?” Lyria asked. She was getting up like she was planning to follow me.

“We’ll make something up. But I need to go,” I said.

“I’m coming too, asshole. You can quit trying to play hero and telling me to stay whenever you do something dangerous. At this point, you getting involved in some life-or-death situation is a given. And I’ve already said I’m in.”

I grinned. “Then let’s go get a boat and do some dangerous shit.”