After the three of us finished talking about future life policies, I looked around the medieval peasant’s hut we had taken over, before I looked back at my friends.

“Even if we’re going to live future lives by taking huge risks, we still need to make plans.” I said. “I think that starts with Abilities and ability planning. Just so that I know what you guys are planning to do, Felix, have you gained an Ability to use the rune System?”

Felix shrugged, and then chuckled. “Sadly, no. A bit ridiculous that I didn’t end up with one, despite having the best Stats of the three of us, right? It’s another part of what inspired me to talk about our lifestyles before this. I feel it’s a bit embarrassing that I failed to capitalize on my advantages so much that even with the best Stats in the group, I ended up as the only one without a keyword ability. Though, to be honest, I’m not sure if I would have ended up grabbing a keyword ability for the rune magic System, even if I had the option to. It’s a little bit different from what I want, if I’m being honest.”

I nodded. Felix loved making tools most of all, and the rune magic system just wasn’t built for tool creation. If Felix spent his future lives building tools whenever he could, he might never use the rune magic system again. Felix saving his Achievement and keyword slots for more tool-related Abilities made sense.

“Any plans on what to spend your Achievement on, then?”

“I’m debating whether I want to get one of the weapon abilities, or just buy Stats and wait for something I care about more to come around. I’m leaning towards Stats.”

I paused for a moment, wondering if that would be a problem, before I shrugged. Felix had learned enough about how to fight that he shouldn’t be dead weight in the Market, and that was good enough. I didn’t want to force my friend to buy Abilities he didn’t want just to make the Market a little safer, especially since Sallia and I would both get major upgrades soon.

“Fair enough. If you want to buy Stats, Sallia and I can help us survive in the Market. Don’t worry too much about it.” I turned towards Sallia. “I imagine you’re taking the Rune System Ability?”

“Absolutely. There’s no way I would give up a magic system and Keyword Ability so perfectly tailored to me,” said Sallia. “It has the Sword, Absorption, and Training Keywords. They perfectly match what I want to do. How about you? You have an Ability you can buy that’s related to the rune magic system, right?”

I nodded. “I have two now, actually. I got one for organizing the great pearl heist. I haven’t made up my mind about whether I’m buying one of them, or neither of them. I’m also somewhat debating buying a weapon ability, but I think I might either get Beginner Swordsmanship or just pass completely.” I stopped for a moment.

“You already talked about the Illusion/Water/Absorption Ability you got, and the Illusion Ability it could synergize with. What does your new option do?”

I quickly described my second Keyword Ability to Sallia and Felix, both of whom looked thoughtful after learning the details.

I paused. “I haven’t decided which one I want yet, if I want either of them. I’m more drawn to the second Ability, overall. I do kind of like the idea of taking the rune magic system with me; I can tailor a few specific Abilities to whatever I want to accomplish in a certain life, and I think the ocean/madness Ability fits combat a little better than my other Keyword Ability. I don’t hate the idea of using illusions to fight, but I prefer having a little more oomph during combat, you know? But I’m still debating if I want the rune magic system at all.”

Felix paused. “Well, as far as I can tell, it seems like taking a magic system along costs 2 or 3 keywords, right? That seems to be about the average requirement to take an ability along?”

I nodded. “Out of the three Abilities that carry Magic Systems with them, All three cost 2-3 Keyword Slots.”

“In that case, I think taking along the rune magic system makes sense for you, if you like it. In our first world, all three of us were pretty… average, honestly. We weren’t particularly outstanding in any respect, and you barely managed to squeak out an exceptional life by taking insane risks every step of the way. Even though it worked out, if you were stronger it would have been much easier for you to succeed. If we come across a world where your extreme affinity is present and you’re too weak to get a keyword ability for it, it would be a huge waste. The rune magic system has a lot of combat potential, and while you aren’t a fighter like Sallia, you don’t seem to mind fighting either. And given your proclivity for exploring horrifying environments filled with monsters that want to eat you, you’re probably going to be fighting a lot in the future.” Felix cracked a grin at me, and I chuckled. He wasn’t wrong.

“You would still have 8 keyword slots after buying the second ability, and so you could buy your ‘main’ magic System and still have 5 slots left over for other synergistic abilities. And your rune magic ability could also synergize really well with whatever ability you pick up in the future as your main combat style, too. Boosting your physical and mental stats is never a bad thing, and while I have no idea what other magic systems might look like, if you focus your rune magic system around supporting your main combat system in the future, it should work out, right? The nice thing about the rune System is that it’s versatile, and it lets you use a second kind of essence during fights. Which is basically doubling your mana during a fight. I think it combines well with most combat-oriented magic systems as long as you build it properly. And using it to throw madness at people will probably mess with other spellcasting.” Felix rubbed his chin, thoughtfully. “Maybe in the future, you could use your rune magic as a sort of mental ability? Blast other people’s thoughts into oblivion before using your primary ability to kill them before they recover? I think it’s worth thinking about.”

“You’ve convinced me. I really do like my second ability option, and I like the rune magic system as well. I’ll start next world by using it as my primary combat system, and then I’ll swap it to some sort of support System once I have my main abilities online, whatever those end up being. Thanks for the ideas.”

“No problem.”

I bought “Endless Hunger of the Ocean.” Instantly, I dropped to 10,504 Achievement. Since I had no glut penalty left, I didn’t buy beginner swordsmanship, but if I bought Stats within the next 71 hours, I could still pick up the ability.

Before I had time to think more about my future plans, I realized my senses were changing. Suddenly, I felt a strange… connection with the air around me.

When I lived on the islands, I had the ability to sense mana in the air around me. I had lost track of its disappearance, due to the chaos of returning to the Market and nailing down plans for future lives, but I just realized that I had lost the ability to sense mana in the air around me when we had returned to the Market.

The moment I purchased Endless Hunger of the Ocean, my ability to sense mana returned. I was connected to the world in a way I hadn’t realized was missing until it returned to me.

The Ability Description for Endless Hunger of the Ocean also changed slightly.

Keywords: Ocean, Madness (2 Keywords.)

While you are submerged in water, your body will generate absorption essence, regardless of whether the local dimensional laws support the existence of absorption essence. Furthermore, contact with water will naturally remodel your body and brain to support absorption-essence spellcasting.

Absorption essence may be spent to form ‘runes,’ a unique magical structure created partially within the brain and partially within the body.

These runes have varied effects, mostly relating to strengthening the body and mind and allowing limited control over specific abilities. (This rune system is copied directly from the world you were just living in.) You will also recreate the relevant dimensional laws within your body.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Whenever you use water-related abilities to drive something insane, you will collect Achievement as if you had killed it. Madness-related keyword Abilities will be slightly easier to form and upgrade in the future, up to [Master] grade.

Killing an enemy with a water-related ability or with water for the first time in each body will allow you to form a skill related to that creature. You may absorb this skill into your current body in order to permanently enhance yourself.

Note: Only Achievement-granting creatures can form abilities. Only three abilities from this effect may be ‘held’ at once. You may delete a copied Skill from this ability at any time to replace it with a new one. (Abilities are lost each Death)

Abilities held:

1.

2.

3.

Glut Penalty: 20

There was now a little ‘Abilities held’ tab for Endless Hunger of the Ocean, letting me know I could ‘ingest’ three abilities. I didn’t know what that looked like right now, but I hoped it would be useful in the future.

With that, 20/20 of my available Glut cap was filled up. I spent a moment examining my new Status Screen, before I wished that I had a way to track exactly how much of my glut cap I had used up. Sure, I could roughly keep track of how much glut cap I had, but paying attention to everything sounded like it would be a pain in the future.

Right as I thought that, a new System notification popped up.

Tired of keeping track of Glut Cap? Do you want to just have an extra few numbers added to your Status Screen, forever saving you from the annoyance of needing to do math anytime you purchase a new ability?

Don’t hesitate! Buy the Glut Cap Tracker to your Status Screen for only 5 Achievement!

*Does not take up an item slot, glut cap, or any other resource. It’s just a setting modification.

I sighed.

Was I surprised?

No. I had a pretty good idea what the Market was like by now.

Was I disappointed?

Absolutely. This seemed like something that should have just been attached to my Status Screen by default. Still, it was convenient, and it was only 5 Achievement. With a sigh, I purchased the glut cap tracker.

Lives Remaining: 4

2/10 Keyword Slots used

Glut: 20/20

Abilities:

Keyword Abilities:

Endless Hunger of the Ocean (Ocean, Madness) (2 Keywords) (20 Glut Penalty) (Basic Grade)

Held Abilities:

1.

2.

3.

Birth related Abilities: Body Control

Achievement: 10,499.01

Items: 1/5

1.Friendship Bracelet

2.

3.

4.

5.

Then, just out of curiosity, I tried reaching out to the mana in the air around me to form a rune. I wanted to see how it would differ from back on the islands, since this wasn’t the origin world of the rune magic system. After a few moments spent sensing the air in the Market, I realized the Market was… very strange.The Market’s dimensional laws, as far as I could tell, weren’t built to support any specific magic system. Instead, it seemed more like they were built to support every magic system. All at once. Which made sense, considering how many different magic systems must have been in use at the same time in the Market every day during its golden age. But it also made the Market very… cluttered. It was hard to create runes because there was so much going on at the same time in the air around me; it was like having a tv blare loud static into my ears as I worked.

Despite that, the rune magic System still worked. As I imagined sucking the mana in the air into my body through a funnel, absorption essence started worming into my body and trying to form a rune on my arm. I had 0 Runes again, so my body was trying to form my first rune. I smiled as I thought of that.

It was almost like when I was four years old, and my parents had helped me form my first rune.

I felt a pang of sadness, as I realized I wouldn’t see either of them ever again, and that my father had died with us during the final battle with the outsiders. Then, I pushed the feeling down. I had already realized that every life, I would leave people behind. Even if it hurt, I needed to keep pushing forward.

I looked at Sallia in order to distract myself from the thoughts of Olav, my parents, and the other people I had cared about on the islands that were gone from my life now. She was smiling ferociously, seemingly satisfied with the feeling of absorption essence returning to her body. Since Sallia had struggled so much during our first world, I was happy that she finally got some sort of victory out of everything she had struggled through. I felt the sadness in my heart ease a little bit.

Even though leaving behind the people I loved sucked, at least I still had two people with me. One of whom was considerably happier than she had been during most of our time on the islands, if her grin was anything to go by.

Sallia grinned at me and gave me a big thumbs up.

“My ability is working. I have 1,250 Achievement left, and I still have 2 glut cap remaining. I also bought beginner swordsmanship, and I’ll pick up Intermediate some other life when I have more glut cap left. With my remaining Achievement, I figure I’ll upgrade Absorption Essence to Grade 1, and then throw what I can into Willpower.” Sallia shuddered. “I don’t want to be stuck in Grade 3 for Willpower ever again. I’m hoping killing some skeletons in the Market will push me up another 250 Achievement and I can finish putting 10 points into Willpower. I think that should be manageable before we reincarnate, right?”

I nodded. Even if Skeletons didn’t give much Achievement, and each building we looted didn’t hold much Achievement either, getting 250 was pretty doable.

Felix let us finish talking, before he finally spoke up again.

“Since that’s settled, what’s next?”

“I have a few other points of concern,” said Sallia. “Even after an entire reincarnation, we still have no clue where or how to purchase lives. If we don’t restock on those, we will permanently die sooner or later. We should try to figure out how to buy lives now. Before we run out of time.”

I nodded, and so did Felix. So far, each of us had consumed one life. We had 4 left. I had been vaguely hoping that I would get the chance to purchase more lives after our previous life. However, no such option had appeared, even now that we had returned to the Market. That meant we needed to figure out how to buy lives, and how much they cost. Otherwise, we might end up dead because we didn’t plan for the future properly. I also didn’t know what we needed to do in order to buy lives. Did they come from cubes, like Soul Fragments and some Abilities? Did we need to earn them in worlds somehow? I had no clue. But we needed to figure out how to get lives sooner rather than later.

“I also want to buy Stats,” I said, after a moment. “Maybe we should do that before we focus on lives? We’ll probably run into various skeletons as we wander around. Might as well make sure we can fight or flee from the more dangerous ones, so finding a more run-down shop first is probably a good idea. The more powerful skeletons, like the spellcaster who forced us to reincarnate for the first time, don’t seem to bother with poorer and weaker areas. And I still want a way to keep my name and possibly my physical appearance from life to life,” I said. “I want to keep track of who I am, and I don’t want to lose who I am from one life to the next. That starts with my name.” Felix grinned at me and then nodded.

“While I’m less attached to my name than Miria is, I would also like to keep being Felix if I can. So, our to do list is, in order; buy Stats, find a way to keep our names and possibly physical appearances from life to life, then find a place to buy lives? I also want to find some items if we can. We have five item slots, and we’re only usingone right now. It feels like a waste. Do either of you have anything else to add to our to do list?” He asked.

I paused for a moment, then chuckled as a stray thought occurred to me.

“I wouldn’t mind finding some alcohol. I loved the village and the islands, but it has been fifteen years since I last had a drink. Nobody knew how to make alcohol back on the islands, and after our deaths from fighting the outsiders, I would kill for a drink. Either of you with me?”

Sallia paused, then burst out laughing. “Sounds fantastic. But can we get drunk with these bodies? We don’t need to breathe, eat, or sleep while in the Market. Did they leave the ability to get drunk?”

“They better have,” I said.

Felix chuckled. “Sounds like a plan. After we get everything else on our to-do list squared away, let’s have a drink to celebrate and unwind. The end of our time in the islands was painful, since we died and a lot of people we cared about returned to the ocean of souls with us. But it’s also a new beginning. Let’s have a toast to the other dead, and a toast to new beginnings once we find some booze.”

Finally done purchasing Abilities and talking, we left the hut, and began slowly walking through the streets of the Market, searching for a low-level shop.