Rubio dismissed his class for that day. The sun was high in sky and if they were going to venture out, they would want to do it in daytime. He then walked CJ over to the line of motorcycles just propped up around the park. Several of them had the keys in the ignitions.

“Which one do you want?” asked Rubio.

“I’ve never ridden a motorcycle before. I would think it was dangerous to try and learn during the apocalypse. Then again, everything is dangerous now,” replied CJ.

“The good news is the road in town is pretty clear of cars. We have to make it to Atlantic City and Newark Airport at some point and I’d rather not walk. Our van probably won’t make it all the way to these locations. Both of which are in opposite directions. You’ll need to travel at speed. Also, I’d like to assess this communication ability. Does it have a range limitation? How does it work? Does it just pop your voice into my head, or can I hear you even though you’re not next to me?” questioned Rubio.

“All good questions. Let me see. Give me a second…” said CJ before he cut off his own sentence.

Message from CJ: Can you hear this?

“Oh, it just creates a message on my slate. Like texting,” commented Rubio.

“Now send one to me. Just look at my name in your slate screen and think the message,” said CJ.

Message from Rubio: Did this work?

“Yes, it did. It will be complicated to read these while we are fighting. We should come up with a shorthand in case of emergencies. We can test its limits when we head out later. I’ll have to learn how to ride a motorcycle now,” commented CJ with a worried look on his face.

CJ soon found himself straddling an all-black Scout bobber Sixty. It had the word Indian silk screened on the fuel tank and a dual exhaust system. It was mostly just black and chrome with a headlight above the front wheel and two side view mirrors extended from the handles. The rest of the bikes were a mix of Harleys and some sport models. This one really spoke to him though.

An hour several false starts later, CJ learned not to release the clutch right away. Balancing the bike was less cumbersome than he’d imagined. Learning the neutral position for the shifter on his left side took a lot of getting used to. By the end of the hour, he was slowly rolling around the circle in the town square. At some point during the lesson Elena and Jenn showed up to pick their bikes as well. The amount of falling and giggling even cracked Rubio’s stern exterior. CJ was more focused on the batteries that still worked. It really was only things with circuit boards that didn’t work anymore. Basic current through a wire still functioned.

“CJ, can I borrow you for a second?” asked Monty.

“Sure, thing bud. I’ll be back in a few and then we can get going,” said CJ as he walked over to Monty on the bench.

“We should go over your level increase. Share your slate with me,” said Monty.

CJ did so. Monty took a long time going over CJ’s attributes and his class options before saying anything else. It was long enough that CJ started to get worried. Then all of a sudden, his head snapped back to CJ, and he began to speak.

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“This is how I see it. You’re overloaded with a twenty three Intelligence. You’ll need balance it out with the two new points you got. Right now, you can think faster than your body can react. So, I’d put those points into Agility. Agility governs your bodies dexterity; you know how you manipulate your limbs and such. Since you have a twenty speed, probably from all that running. The downside is you’ll be clumsy until you balance that out. Your brain moves faster than your ability to coordinate. That’s my recommendation anyway. Now you can do whatever you want with your class point at this stage. I would prefer you spend into Greater Familiarity but its your choice. I think you’d do well with some more basic elemental spell power. The Tricks of the Trade category will help if you want to be sneaky but lately you’ve just thrown yourself into battles anyway. Might be a waste. Depends on the abilities. Thoughts?” asked Monty finally.

“I have no problems with anything you’ve said and increasing my Agility may help with the motorcycle riding. Seems like I’ll be doing a lot of that. Can I go back to other trees once I get more class points?” queried CJ.

“You can but you wouldn’t be focusing. Being a jack of all trades will get you killed. Now for our bond improvement. I’m recommending share spells. That will give me access to my mana again. Skills won’t work for me since I don’t have mana yet. The only skill you have is trick cards and that works with infusion of mana. I’m not interested in being a party leader so that choice is out. Abilities would be nice, but I don’t wear clothes, so your storage ability won’t work. I don’t have thumbs, so Hand is Quicker than the eye is out. I’m already benefiting from the familiar regen. So, spells is where I land,” said Monty.

“Spells it is. Now let’s take a look at Greater Familiarity,” said CJ before diving into his class tab.

CJ mentally selected that option. His mind followed the thread of energy leading off of those words deeper into the expanse of the skill tree. It led to three more options orbiting a small green moon.

Familiar Sight- You can now see through your familiars’ eyes. It requires you to concentrate with your eyes closed. Passive Ability.

Familiar Locator- This ability allows you to use mana to ping the location of your familiar. After the ping you’ll receive a direction to head in. Cost is five mana per ping.

Familiar Empowerment- With the cost of twenty mana, you can force your familiar to grow double in size. This effect lasts five minutes per cast and grants damage reduction.

“I can see a use for all three of these. Which one do you want?” asked CJ as he looked down at Monty.

“Come on. You don’t have to spend your first class point on me. What about the spells tree?” Monty questioned back.

“Well, my boon says I’m not locked out of any type of magic. I assume I’ll have other ways to get those spells. Like the one from the bolster dungeon. No worries, bud. The growth one would make you four feet tall, that way you can kick some really big things,” said CJ.

“That would be cool. Alright, pick the Empowerment ability. We can already communicate in party chat so I can just tell you what I’m seeing or where I am,” said an excited Monty, his ears standing straight up.

CJ did just that. He spent his class point on Familiar Empowerment and noticed a new thread of energy coming off of that ability straight down into the moon below. It revealed the next ability in the tree, Monstrous Empowerment. Instead of delving deeper he switched tabs to apply his two attribute points to Agility. His stats were still out of balance.

Attribute

Score

Intelligence

23

Strength

10

Speed

20

Agility

12

Wisdom

10

Luck

0