Hammy’s fist hit my forearm, but it didn’t hurt. My skin had thickened somehow, feeling almost like I’d gotten a coat of mud on it that hardened. It felt strange, but not enough to distract me. I slowly showed him a different punch, repeating it a few times until he nodded. My father needed to be the one to teach him, not me, but at the moment I was all he had. I preferred my knife, since in most cases I was smaller than the things I fought against.

“Can you maybe create spikes with your mittens? They would do more damage. Or maybe, like, brass knuckles, with protrusions along them…?”

“Mittens?” shirked Hammy. “They aren’t mittens. I could only separate the thumb because my metal shaping skills aren’t the greatest yet…”

“Thumb, plus your four fingers grouped together, equals a mitten.” My eyes narrowed at him before I jabbed at his side. “Shouldn’t you practice your metalworking skills to make better armor?” John had metalworking skills that were much more advanced than Hammy's, but his profession had to do with engineering. “What’s your profession?”

“I’m a manufacturer support technician,” he mumbled, but I clearly heard him.

I paused, fist hanging in the air. “What does that mean?”

Hammy blushed as he took a step back. “I tried to game the system. I thought I’d be able to work on the mech suits easier. I’d gotten this one working again, and had the opportunity for a mechanic profession, but thought the other option would fit better.”

“So, how’d you get mech warrior as a class?” I asked.

Hammy let out a sigh. “Carefully laying out plans… I started as a Melee Warrior, then once I got the mech suit working with crystals, I used that to fight with. Eventually, my class evolved to Mech Warrior, but I haven’t been able to do the same with my profession. I’ve hit a wall trying to improve the mech suit for combat. Like the recharging issue…” he trailed off.

My brain got stuck on the fact he’d found a way to evolve his class. I didn’t know that was possible, beyond becoming Great, which I’d briefly discussed with Noseen. If you wanted to create a perfect class for yourself, and the system would let you, the possibilities were endless. Maybe that was how you became a Great Devourer, your class just needed to evolve.

“It sounds like you need an engineer, or a crystal singer,” I added once I connected the dots.

“Exactly, but Lenna’s village doesn’t have anyone who works with crystals, and they don’t have mech suits.” His voice lowered. “They are all like elves from fantasy books back on earth. Bows, arrows, some swords, and each has a bonded companion. But, not a lot of magic, no crystal work, and nothing technical.”

“You’re in luck.” I chuckled and pointed at myself. “I’m a Crystal Singer. Let me see what I can do with the crystals in your suit.” Maybe this way I’d be more useful than trying to teach him how to punch differently. Plus, I’d already figured out how my new armor skill worked, though I didn’t know the upper limits. Hammy didn’t punch as hard as I thought he would.

“I really want to be able to fire lasers…” said Hammy as he headed back inside. “Like a superhero.”

I rolled my eyes as I followed, but then thought about John. He could help with the engineering, and he was a Fighter pilot. Together, they could potentially design a flight suit for John and make it easier for him to earn levels in his class. Or, given how Hammy had evolved his class, maybe John could do the same.

Dengu finished eating the chunk of meat resting in front of him as soon as he spotted me. Then he gave me a look, and I could swear he was begging for more. His wounds looked healed, but I knew what it felt like to be hungry. I tossed him another hunk of the Allosaurus meat. Again he caught it, but this time he purred like a freaking cat, with his eyes closed.

“I didn’t think about bribing him to like me,” said Hammy. “I still can’t get over the fact that dinosaurs are real and we’re living in a video game.” He shook his head with a smile. “It’s the best thing to ever happen to me.”

I walked around to the back of the armor suit and reached out to the crystals on the spine. “Can you make the crystals burn to the touch?”

“I can make them glow, but it leaves me very hungry.”

“So, no skills surrounding using crystals…probably just the category…” I muttered to myself as I tried to figure out how the suit pulled power from the stones. The suit had both the crystals I was used to, and the weird green ones that covered the ceiling.

“Wait, you can get skills using them?” he asked, then started rambling. “Of course you can. You can get skills for almost anything…”

“As long as you grind enough at it,” I added.

He blushed again.

“Don’t tell me you haven’t trained before?”

“Well, I haven’t had a reason to… When gaming, I normally found a cheat code or paid for someone to level up my character.” He rubbed his chin. “In school, things just came naturally to me.”

That explained a lot about what I’d heard about him. Brilliant, but strange, now adding in that he wasn’t used to hard work, and this was what we got. A mech warrior that got stuck improving his suit because learning new things was hard, who could punch things.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Training is important…” My voice trailed off when I realized I sounded like my father. I turned back to the suit to see if I could improve things. I hummed under my breath, making power flow through the spine of the armor with both green and golden lights. The crystal above me also glowed, casting more light into the camp.

Then I got to work.

#

A fantastic smell filled the area and my head snapped away from the armor, unsure of how much time passed.

“Welcome back to the real world,” said Hammy. He held a wooden bowl filled with soup that smelled amazing.

My stomach growled and Lenna chuckled. She grabbed another bowl and filled it from the pot resting on the ground near the fire. “Here you go,” she said, handing the bowl over.

I sniffed it and my mouth watered. Hammy took a sip using the bowl like a cup and I followed suit. A sweet meaty flavor, reminding me of seafood, burst across my mouth and I took another gulp. The meat had almost dissolved in the water, forming a thick broth. I tried to slow down, sipping it, but it didn’t take long to empty my bowl.

“You were right, that’s amazing,” I said into the silence as the others both focused on eating.

Dengu accidentally responded by snoring, his eyes closed.

“Feel free to have another bowl.” Lenna motioned to the pot.

I stretched upward, my muscles feeling stiff from standing in the same position too long. After grabbing another bowl, I sat down away from the armor.

“So, what’d you find out?” asked Hammy in between sips.

“The armor is drawing power from the crystals without any direction. I’ll need you to put it on to confirm it, but it drains the energy from them faster because of that generalized use. I think intention is key.” I took a big gulp of the soup. “Also, I bet I can decrease the base energy usage. The green crystals react strangely. I haven’t used them before.”

“You mean the forest crystals?” asked Lenna. She pointed to the ceiling.

“Yeah, he has both those and the regular ones from inside the mines.” I paused before responding, trying to figure out how to explain how they felt before I went with the easy explanation. “They act differently.”

“We call those fire crystals, from deep in the earth. They are usually used for burning stones.”

“What can the forest crystals be used for?” I asked. Sang hadn’t mentioned other types of crystals, and I wanted to know more. It was possible Sang didn’t know about other types, since we’d only found the golden crystals as far as I knew.

“Forest crystals can be used for protection. They’re useful to scare beasts away. All crystals can do that, but forest crystals are the best.”

That had to be why the small shards on the ceiling were enough to keep the camp safe. If the fence for the colony or the compound used the forest crystals, they wouldn’t need ones as large. It made sense.

“Are there other types of crystals out there?”

“The only other ones I’ve seen are water crystals, which are used for healing.” Lenna pulled a cord out from under her shirt. A small bright blue crystal hung from a leather strip. “I used it on Dengu to remove the poison from the quills.”

Barely any light shone from the blue stone, but even from where I sat I could feel the difference in the energy that rose off of it.

Soothing, it felt soothing.

While I didn’t need one, it’d be handy to have one. Sang could have used one after her injury. Hopefully, by now, she was healed.

“Where can I find the forest or water crystals?”

“Forest crystals grow near the biggest trees, while the water ones are near water…” She scratched her ear. “Since I haven’t been tested, I know little about them. I’m lucky to have the healing crystal, and that’s only because my elder sister is a healer.” Her cheeks turned a darker green. “She snuck me one last time she visited, while doing her rounds between our villages.”

The biggest sources of water nearby were the lake, along with the area near the waterfall. I’d take a look, but between the tadpoles eating the turtle remains and needing sleep, it probably wasn’t a good idea to do that right now. Plus, we were tackling a dungeon early tomorrow morning. As we hiked through the jungle, I’d keep an eye out for big trees and any other water sources. I wanted one of the green crystals to play with, and one of the healing crystals would be an awesome backup, just in case.

“So, can you make my suit better?” asked Hammy, interrupting my thoughts. A slight puppy dog look crossed his face with an easygoing smile. “It’d make me a better fighter for the dungeon.”

“I’m going to give it a shot.” I turned to the suit and focused on interweaving the two different types of crystals together. Instead of a row of 6 separate crystals the size of golf balls, I wanted them to act as one. Light rose from all of them as I hummed to myself. Energy flowed from me into the crystals. Then it suddenly went out.

[You have leveled up your Crystal Singing.]

[You have leveled up your Crystal Singing.]

Everything spun for a moment as my stomach growled. Then the room steadied and I studied the crystal in front of me. Lenna gasped.

The six crystals looked as if they were woven together like a braid, and while it felt better, I could tell there were missing crystals. Hammy needed to find more to complete the design.

“You’ll need to find more crystals,” I explained. “Either Forest or Fire. Maybe even a Water, though I’m not sure how it would add to the mix.” The crystals didn’t combine into strands. There were gaps between them, so that the spine still could bend as he dodged.

Hammy jumped up and slid into the mech suit, clipping the latches under his arms and the one across his waist.

I snagged my empty bowl and picked it up before looking toward the pot. “Any chance there is some food left? That was hungry work.”

“Of course,” said Lenna, though her eyes didn’t leave Hammy as he twisted left and right in the suit.

I stood up and made my way over to the pot. Dengu opened an eye and saw it was me, then closed it again. A little snore came from him. He looked much better, like when I’d first seen him.

I filled my bowl to the brim and realized that they weren’t paying attention to me. Quickly, I snuck some raw meat from my inventory into my mouth. While the soup was filling, hunger gnawed at my belly. Another bowl wasn’t going to be enough.

Hammy stepped outside and Lenna followed, muttering something about watching his surroundings.

I balanced the bowl in one hand and scarfed down more meat.

Dengu huffed next to me, now wide awake, and I handed him some Allosaurus meat. He carefully took it from my hand and then swallowed it whole. Kind of like I was doing, with smaller bites.

I switched to the full bowl of soup, slowing down as I swallowed and trying to enjoy the complex flavor. It was super tasty.

[You have devoured Greater Armored Snapper and gained a stat point in Toughness.]

What the heck?