Joshua studied the faintly glinting crystal his familiar had just retrieved for him. A joy shard.

It easily fit in his hand, around the size of a grape but shaped like an elongated diamond symbol with the edges rounded and smooth. It was a translucent blue color with sparks of rainbow light deep within that seemed bright in the dim light of the cave.

It reminded him of those ring lollipops, like two of them put together but with pointed rather than flat ends.

He wondered how someone was supposed to inhale something like this, and it suddenly exploded into a glittering rainbow mist which flew into his nose.

Before he could get mad at the interface doing things solely based on his curiosity and not intention, his body was flooded with a pleasant tingling, and he was suddenly very happy.

Joyous, you might say.

“I love this place! Everything is so great!” He frowned, still happy. “Wait a minute, I don’t think this joy is genuine. Or not warranted, at least.” He shrugged. He was too happy to care.

“Well then, let’s get on this new quest.”

He looked at the path the slowly flowing water took, which led to a bend he couldn’t see around. The other directions were a wall behind him, the wall with the water flowing out from under it to one side, a wall with no opening in front of him, and, also in front of him, the embankment he’d taken a happy little tumble down.

“Into the unknown it is!” he shouted with a laugh.

Sin squawked, reminding him there were more shards, and the rest of his items to retrieve.

“Ah, yeah. Okay. Hurry up. I’ll just sit here in this pleasant water.” He plopped himself down in the cold stream.

It was refreshing.

[https://i.imgur.com/Ls4tykN.png]

By the time Sin finished gathering all the remaining shards, plus all the monster parts, the effects of the joy shard had worn off.

Joshua rubbed his face, feeling like the morning after that Christmas he’d drunk the wrong eggnog. That slight unsteadiness, the feeling that if you move the wrong way or eat the wrong thing you might vomit—but without any actual feeling of nausea.

“I need to be more careful. That could have been dangerous, wandering around without a care in the world.”

Sin squawked in agreement from his shoulder.

“I’m going to be deaf by the time I get out of here.”

Sin squawked again in agreement, slightly quieter, though still loudly.

“Progress is progress.”

His legs did feel better, and he wondered if the joy shard might have healing properties.

A quick glance at his legs, however, revealed that if the shards had any power to heal, it hadn’t been enough to make a dent in the visual appearance of his wounds.

Sin had deposited the shards and monster parts on the small ledge, and Joshua now climbed atop it to get out of the water. He’d have to get back in to go anywhere, but he could at least get out of it for a bit while he went through his items.

“I guess I got that shower I wanted.” Though he was still caked with blood and gore. It was going to take a good scrubbing to get it off.

“Well then,” he looked at his pile of disgusting loot, “let’s start with upgrading my storage.”

Talent ⧼Divine Guide⧽ has ❬0❭ enhancements. ⧼Divine Guide⧽ must be at ❬1❭ enhancement to enhance any of its bestowed Spells.

“Um, okay. Go ahead.”

He braced himself.

The pile of spirit shards in front of him shifted as some were turned to mist and absorbed into his body.

“Oh, I don’t have to breathe these ones in to use them. Handy.”

[Spirit Shard] used on Talent ⧼Divine Guide⧽

⧼Divine Guide⧽ enhanced from ❬0❭ to ❬1❭

⧼Divine Guide⧽ now displays status effects.

Bestowed Spells may now be enhanced to ❬1❭. Bestowed Spells must be enhanced individually.

[Spirit Shard] used on Spell [Storage]

[Storage] enhanced from ❬0❭ to ❬1❭

[Storage] capacity increased to 20.

An icon appeared floating at the top right of his vision. Focusing on it brought it to the center of his field of view. It was a white flower with a superimposed blue skull.

As soon as he began to wonder what it represented, text appeared beneath it letting him know it was for the starmist venom. There was also a countdown timer with an estimated four hours remaining.

Above the icon was a bar with little tick marks.

“What are those?”

He got no answer.

“So status notices are a DLC. Or would that be considered a microtransaction? Well, at least there is a path to buying my way to power. Boring in video games, but great outside of them.”

He brought up his inventory, which was now a cluster of twenty cubes rather than a single one. With a thought, he could cause it to move in front of him, allowing him to easily access any slot. The wolf organs within stayed firmly immobile.

He could also cause the whole thing to spin in the air, but this didn’t seem to have any purpose.

He turned his focus back to the pile of monster parts Sin had carried down.

The bird was stronger than it looked, and had looked even more ridiculous than normal carrying the large and heavy wolf meat. Draped from Sin’s talons, it had resembled an anatomical version of the wolf, and Joshua had thought it odd that the meat was grabbable, but the wolf itself hadn’t been.

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He loaded all the monster parts into his newly expanded inventory except for the unihorn, which he left by his side, and the octovine daemon shard, which he kept in his pocket.

“Nice. No more disgusting pack to carry around. Speaking of which…” He looked down at his hands, which were very dirty.

He gently climbed down from the embankment and rinsed them off, then climbed back up and sat down.

He next tested putting the joy shards into his inventory.

As he expected, they stacked, a superimposed number showing the size of the stack. Each new shard he put in caused the previous ones to shrink down to make room for it, rather than stacking like in a video game.

It was disappointing they took up a slot rather than having a currency counter though.

The spirit shards didn’t stack, however, so he could only fit one into each slot.

He took the spirit shard back out and returned it to the pile in front of him. Since he didn’t yet have enough joy shards to gain access to the bazaar, he laboriously loaded all ninety-nine into his inventory, resorting to shoving handfuls at the floating black cubes. Some missed, and some went into the wrong cube, but it was still faster than doing it one by one.

“That’s better. No more hauling stuff around like a peasant for me.” He clapped once and rubbed his hands together, smiling. “Now, what else can I enhance?”

Enhancements

Enhance Talents, Spells, and Aspects using spirit shards.

You have four Spells, two Talents, and four Aspects capable of enhancement.

“What do I get for enhancing aspects?”

Enhance Divine Aspect from ❬0❭ to ❬1❭ to increase the power of your Divine Aspect.

Enhance Body Aspect from ❬0❭ to ❬1❭ to increase the power of your Body Aspect.

Enhance Mind Aspect from ❬0❭ to ❬1❭ to increase the power of your Mind Aspect.

Enhance Soul Aspect from ❬0❭ to ❬1❭ to increase the power of your Soul Aspect.

“Ah good, back to being unhelpful. Is there a list of everything I can enhance?”

Total Enhancements: ❬1❭

(Aspect) Divine: ❬0❭ enhancements

(Aspect) Body: ❬0❭ enhancements

(Aspect) Mind: ❬0❭ enhancements

(Aspect) Soul: ❬0❭ enhancements

(Talent) ⧼Sinister Pigeon⧽: ❬0❭ enhancements

(Spell) [Map]: ❬0❭ enhancements

(Spell) [Loot]: ❬0❭ enhancements

(Spell) [Identify]: ❬0❭ enhancements

(Spell) [Grand Purpose]: ❬0❭ enhancements

He noticed his Divine Guide talent and Storage spell were missing from the list.

Is that because I’ve already enhanced them? he wondered.

Talent ⧼Divine Guide⧽ has been enhanced the maximal number of times for your rank.

Spell [Storage] has been enhanced the maximal number of times for your rank.

Attune Body and Mind Aspects and enhance all Aspects and Talents to ❬1❭ to increase in rank.

“Huh. Will increasing in rank make me more powerful?”

Though his Divine Guide didn’t answer him, Sin squawked once in apparent confirmation.

“What will enhancing my other spells give me?” He shook his head in wonder. “I actually have spells. That’s crazy. I kind of hate this place, but that part’s really cool.”

Enhance Spell [Map] from ❬0❭ to ❬1❭ to enable indicators, including direction, corpses, nearby identified lifeforms, and automatic and manual points of interest.

Enhance Spell [Loot] from ❬0❭ to ❬1❭ to increase the spell’s range.

Enhance Spell [Identify] from ❬0❭ to ❬1❭ to gain more information from identified objects.

Enhance Spell [Grand Purpose] from ❬0❭ to ❬1❭ to increase quest rewards.

As soon as he read the last enhancement his pulse sped. He absolutely was going to do that. If other quests gave spirit shards, it would eventually make the upgrade free anyway, depending on how much rewards were increased by.

[Spirit Shard] used on Spell [Grand Purpose]

[Grand Purpose] enhanced from ❬0❭ to ❬1❭

Quest rewards from [Grand Purpose] increased.

“No specifics? Like, ten-percent more rewards?”

He waited.

No response came.

“Oh well. Let’s see what we get if we enhance you,” he said to his familiar.

Enhance Talent ⧼Sinister Pigeon⧽ from ❬0❭ to ❬1❭ to increase the number of familiars from 1 to 2.

“Only one copy? Seems expensive. Especially since your fighting chops aren’t exactly breathtaking. I’d need a swarm of you to be effective.”

Sin squawked indignantly.

“Yeah, I might as well. I have enough spirit shards to enhance everything.”

[Spirit Shard] × 2 used on Talent ⧼Sinister Pigeon⧽

⧼Sinister Pigeon⧽ enhanced from ❬0❭ to ❬1❭

⧼Sinister Pigeon⧽ familiars increased from 1 to 2.

He frowned as he read the message. “Wait, what? Why did it cost two shards?”

Enhancing Talents and Aspects requires a number of spirit shards equal to one greater than your total number of Enhancements.

“That could get really expensive.”

If he was interpreting it correctly, it meant his next enhancement would cost three shards, then four, and so on. Which meant he needed to be careful and enhance only the most useful things.

At least it seemed the spells he was granted by Divine Guide wouldn’t cost as much to enhance since their cost didn’t increase in step with his total number of enhancements.

He brought up the list of things he could enhance again and saw his total enhancements was listed at two now, even though he’d enhanced three things. “Are spells not counted toward my total enhancements?”

Enhancing Talents and Aspects requires a number of spirit shards equal to one greater than your total number of Enhancements.

“That’s the same message you just showed me. I was looking for confirmation, not cheek.”

Would you like to view the table of contents to [Divine Guide User’s Guide]?

He sighed. “A sarcastic divine guide. Great.”

Sin squawked in annoyance, fluttering off his shoulder and landing in front of him.

“What are you complaining about?” He tilted his head. “Are you bigger? You seem a little bigger.”

Sin squawked again, flapping its wings impatiently.

“Oh, you want me to test out your new ability?” He shook his head. “It’s both weird and awesome that I can somewhat understand you.”

Sin stared back at him, head cocked almost completely upside down.

“She’s down there!” an uncomfortably familiar voice spoke loudly, echoing around the cavern. “I can smell her!”

Joshua looked up the embankment. “Ah crap. They found us.”