CJ sat in silence. Monty’s attitude notwithstanding, CJ was still dealing with killing actual people. His dream about the trickster gods would have to wait. His mind share was squarely on how to now cope with his life. There were no more courts of law, he wasn’t worried about that. Rationalizing that they would have killed only gets him so far. He needed to talk to someone about this and Monty had stormed away. CJ lifted the cup to his lips and drank some more water. After putting the cup down, he scooched forward on the bed and grabbed his clothes. It looked like someone attempted to clean them. Cold water and soap could only get them so far. The real benefit was they were dry.

CJ swung his legs over the side of the bed and winced with the spike of pain that shot through him. As he got dressed, he remembered his first quest. He still needed to find four more Bolster dungeons before the next full moon. So much madness has happened in such a short period of time. CJ slipped his arm through his tux jacket and felt whole again. Maybe that wasn’t the right way to think about it. He felt a hole in his tux jacket. Just below his right pectoral muscle there was a hole. It was also where he kept a deck of cards inside the hidden pocket. He was now down to six decks including the one he lost in the explosion. He spun his wrist with a flourish and a bottle of water appeared in his palm. That’s when CJ grinned ear to ear.

“Neat trick. How’d you do it?” asked Jennifer from two mattresses away.

CJ spun around to see the blonde woman looking at him. He fell back into showmanship mode and greeted her with a deep bow. That was followed by another shock of pain. After straightening up he walked around his makeshift hospital bed to shake her hand.

“Tada. Oof, still kind of hurts. Hello I’m CJ. It’s nice to meet you. Thank you for the assist during the fight. Might not have made it out if it wasn’t for your wooden plank skills,” joked CJ.

“No, thank you. That was very brave of you to risk your life to save me. I still don’t understand how a playing card could cut thick rope, but I’ve decided to let that one go. I’m Jennifer Salem. I was a CVS assistant pharmacist before the world went nuts,” she said while shaking his hand.

“It’s been a while since I’ve thought about prescription meds.”

“Well, I guess you’re lucky I was here. I managed to scrounge together some antibiotics from various medicine cabinets in this town. I do know there is a Rite aid down the road a bit, but the rabbit says its outside of the safe zone. If it hasn’t been raided already, there could be some lifesaving supplies in there we could use.”

“I’ll put it on my to do list.”

“So… The others said you can fix what’s wrong with me?”

“What do you mean?”

“The thing that prevents me from reading the message or understanding what some people are saying. That thing.”

CJ paused and looked at her. She had short cropped blonde hair with two lengths of hair coming down on either side of her head just past her eyes. Jennifer couldn’t be more than five foot four inches tall. The problem was CJ had only known her for a handful of minutes at best. Monty did give her the paws up, so to speak. Still, CJ decided to ask her a few questions first.

“We’ll get to that. How did you get into all the small apartments above the shops?”

“Elena either kicked the door in or her dad found the keys in the stores somewhere. Elena is crazy strong.”

“That’s unfortunate. Now there are less secure areas. The wah wah are only safe from wah wah,” CJ started to explain before her eyes began to squint and she started shaking her head.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“Sorry. That didn’t make any sense to me. I know you were talking but like I said earlier, I can’t understand it,” apologized Jennifer.

“No worries. To fix the issue I have to touch your head. It might sting a little as well. Do I have your permission?”

“Absolutely. The Trinchar’s mentioned how you were able to help them. Do I need to swear an oath or something?” asked Jennifer as CJ stop still arms halfway toward her head.

“An oath?”

“Yeah, like the Hippocratic Oath or something along those lines.”

“Do no harm isn’t really the world we live in anymore.”

“Right but we should try our best be kind or at least give people the benefit of the doubt.”

CJ smiled at that. That was exactly the kind of hope in these trying times this world needed. His decision to fix her slate was solidified in his mind in that instance. He reached for her temples and activated Harbingers Grasp. She jerked back a little before she settled in place where she was seated.

“Now. Can you read the message?” asked CJ starring at her unfocused pupils.

“Yes, but it’s strange. Something about a goddess of fate. Oh, that must be where all the other people went. I was dead tired the morning all this happened, and my phone was on the cradle in the kitchen. Real nice, there was a time limit, and I didn’t even know what it said,” rambled Jennifer.

“Yes, that is unfortunate. Now you asked earlier how I did the thing with the water bottle. My class is called Magician. It gave me a few abilities. One of which allows me to store objects up my sleeves. Now I was giving multiple different class choices. We all picked the one with the rainbow colored outlines. They seem to be unique choices. I don’t know what options you’ll be given but I suggest reading all of them before…” CJ never got to finish the sentence before Jennifer jumped up with overwhelming excitement.

“Yes! I picked Psychopharmacologist. It says I can make concoctions and pills to heal the mind and body. It also said something about mind altering substances. I just got a skill notification. I have level two in alchemy,” squealed Jennifer before doing a little dance at the side of the bed.

“What’s all this racket?” asked Monty as he hopped from bed to bed.

“Apparently, Jennifer was also given a skill to go along with her class,” answered CJ.

“Really, she must have picked a craftsman’s class. They usually come with skills. What’d you pick Jenn?”

“Psychopharmacologist,” she said as she continued to review her newly acquired slate.

“That’s a mouthful. Let’s shorten it to Psycho for now,” snickered Monty who shortly joined by CJ.

“That’s fine,” replied a barely attentive Jennifer.

“Hey CJ, what’s this book doing here?” asked Elena from his original bedside.

“Oh, right the quest reward. Could have sworn we were supposed to get several things,” answered CJ as he walked back over.

CJ picked up the book and got a new item notification.

New Item: Active Party Skill book- The active party skill will impart knowledge of party member status like health and mana usage in your slate window. Party members can be designated by the party leader and the effect last until the party leader cancels it or falls unconscious. All members in a party will share a telepathic communication link. This skill does not level. Would you like to learn Active Party Skill? Y/N

CJ felt that last part made it more of an ability and less of a skill, but it was plenty strong as is. This would definitely give them a leg up in team communication during wild fights like the one they just had. Even so he better explain it before using it on everyone. It most obviously links their slates in some way CJ didn’t understand yet.

“So, this skill essentially links us all together. We can see our health and mana stats as well as communicate telepathically. I don’t really understand it, but I figured I’d tell you before just using it,” explained CJ now that Rubio had shown back up.

“Sounds like mission comms to me. I like it. Our coordination would outstrip any opponent. What’s the limit?” asked Rubio.

“It doesn’t say,” answered CJ.

“Is this going to be like the storage cheat? Worded just vaguely enough to invite abuse?” asked Elena with a quizzical look.

“How about I use the item first before we start thinking of ways to break?” asked CJ before he chose yes from his slate.

The book broke apart into shafts of light before entering CJ’s eyes. Within a few seconds CJ had an innate ability to use the skill. He added Rubio, Monty, Elena, and Jennifer to his active party. He could see all of their vital stats cascading down the left side of his vision. It wasn’t intrusive at all. He needed to focus on it for it to be in full view. CJ had a thought, and the lettering of Jennifer’s name changed to Psycho.

“You know what? I don’t think I like that anymore,” protested Jennifer through peals of laughter from everyone gathered round.