The others took one look at Max’s food and made him the camp chef. They had spent the day eating snacks and granola. Max had dozens of delicious freeze dried meals. The decision was an easy one.

He grumbled about it, telling them all they would hate anything he made that required more than boiling water. He wasn’t really upset though. A large chunk of his pack was full of camping food and if it didn’t get eaten now, it would be wasted when his exoskeleton legs failed and he had to ditch most of his pack.

His pot wasn’t big enough to boil water for nine people at once, but he should be able to get it done in two batches. His cooking gear was fairly simple for how expensive it had been. He had a single burner on a small stand. It worked with a small gas canister and was just big enough for the large pot and pans that went with it. The reason it was all so expensive was that it was light, specially made for those backpacking deep into the wilds.

While he was waiting for water to boil, the others were quietly chatting. Feng was flirting with Fern. To Gus’s astonishment, it was working. Ashley was trying to get to know Yang and Lily, who were being as minimally polite as possible. Kezhi and James were on opposite sides of the group, each practicing their magic cards. James was experimenting with a row of ferns, probably trying to improve his Decay technique. Kezhi was trying to create a glass shard and hold it before releasing it.

Max realized with a shock that he hadn’t tested out his modified Hammer card yet. He excitedly pulled out his kindle paperwhite and mentally crossed his fingers that it would still work. It did! It was e-ink so Max guessed that low power gadgets would last longer than other tech.

It didn’t take long for Max to find what he was looking for. There was a whole article about them with links to other entries for specific types of war hammers. He decided to go with the standard one in the picture. It was three feet long with a wooden haft. It had a small head and a spike on the back. Max grabbed an appropriately sized stick and focused on the hammer.

After getting the image firmly in his head, Max clicked that mental button to activate his card. He could feel the magic trying to create a smaller hammer, he focused harder and pushed his mental image into the card. Dancing lights started near his hand and rushed up the stick, transforming it as it went. Within ten seconds, he was holding an almost perfect replica of the war hammer in the article.

The only difference he could see was that the materials were different. The metal and handle were made of the same materials as his carpentry hammer, instead of the ones in the article. Max didn’t mind. The metal in his hammer was probably much better than the one they used in medieval times.

The whole thing was lighter than he expected, even with the extra metal. He wasn’t sure if that was a mistake in crafting, or if the real thing was light. The article did mention that they weren’t that heavy.

The pot of water was boiling by then, so he portioned it out into five pouches. The water would rehydrate the food inside within a few minutes. He insisted everyone wait to eat until all the portions were ready. Ebba had rejected his offer of food, so it would be just the nine humans eating soon. He plopped a few more water berries in the pot and lit the gas again.

While he waited, Max stood up and walked a little way away from the group. He wanted to practice using his war hammer. He fell into a karate stance and gave the hammer a few test swings. It was well balanced. It didn’t take more than a few swipes for him to realize he had no idea what he was doing. He had done some training with a spear and knife, but none with a mace or hammer. He decided to stop before he built bad habits. The only thing left to test was his hammer’s super-strike.

The first test was to see what it took to activate. He tapped a nearby patch of dirt. Nothing happened. He hit it harder and harder, trying to find the sweet spot. It never triggered. His expression fell. Did war hammers not come with a super-strike? Maybe there was a mental component. This time he tapped the dirt, but with the mental image of a strong blow.

Dirt exploded up as his hammer flashed blue. Max coughed and spit dirt out of his mouth. He shook his hair to clean it off. Once they saw he was fine, the group laughed at him. Even Ebba was laughing with all four hands.

Max shrugged in embarrassment and walked over to her. “Hey, Ebba? Can I ask you about my Hammer card?”

She was arranging huge leaves into a small bed in the crook of the tree. “Yes, but only a few questions. Your kind talks too much and the day is almost over.”

“Sorry for all the questions today. Everything is so new. I will be quick. First off, what do you know about the mana powered hammer strike I just used?”

“Not much. I don’t have any weapon cards in my active deck. All I know is that a small few of them have an extra magical effect. It’s always related to its form. Swords cut better, arrows fly faster, that kind of thing. I guess your hammer hits harder.”

“How often can I use it? I mean, it clearly uses mana, but how much? It has to be a lot, so I need to plan out my super-strikes. I used it once in the fight with the titan and couldn’t use it again for the rest of the fight.”

“What? No. You don’t use your own mana for that. Stupid hatchling. Your hammer pulls in ambient mana to recharge itself. That’s what the refresh tab is for. It tells you how often you can use the weapon’s magical effect.”

“Oooh, that’s what it’s for. I thought the refresh was for how often I could create a hammer.”

She scoffed, “No, of course not. As long as you have enough mana, you can use your cards nonstop.”

“Ok, thanks for the clarification, Ebba. I’ll quit bothering you now,” Max said and walked back to his pot of water.

The revelation about refreshes changed how he thought about his hammers. It was too bad that no matter how big his mana pool got, he would never be able to constantly send out super-strikes. However, it also meant that if he had time to prepare, he could have a dozen hammers ready. That way he could use super-strike twelve times in a row without touching his mana pool. Nice.

The water finished boiling then and Max poured them into four more pouches. He folded over the tops and had everyone gather together for dinner. He wanted to build a fire for that camping vibe, but Ebba had nixed that earlier. The smoke would draw in monsters for miles. Once everyone was gathered together, Max handed out the meals.

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“So yummy, Max,” Lily said as she did a little happy wiggle. “I was expecting to have to rough it out here, but this is as good as you can get in a restaurant.”

“Maybe a really shitty restaurant,” Ashley said. When she realized everyone had heard her, she added, “But I am really grateful, Max. Thanks for making dinner.”

Max smiled. He didn’t mind her insulting the food. He had given her one of the worst packets, the mountain chili. He only brought it along because it came in a variety pack. His own meal, the Thai chicken curry, was delicious. The only one better was the bison chorizo hash, but he was saving that one for when he needed a pick-me-up.

“By the way, everyone,” Max said between bites. “I just learned something from Ebba about the cards. If you have a citadel card, the objects you create can have a magical effect. The refresh timer is how often you can use it.”

Lily pointed with her fork and said, “Oh, oh! I learned some magic facts too. We should all tell each other stuff about the system. Our own little tutorial.”

They had a discussion about system and magic cards with everyone sharing. Max already knew most of it, but he learned a few new facts.

Fern softly said, “I was having trouble keeping up until I picked Levitate. It made me lighter right away, maybe twenty pounds. I can walk easier and jump higher now. The only drawback is that it’s bad for you if you keep it on too long. I can turn it on or off whenever I want.”

Max perked up. His exolegs were going to fail soon, if he invested heavily in Levitate, he would be able to carry his heavy pack because he wouldn’t have to carry himself.

A few moments of consideration had him discarding the idea. It would be dumb to make a permanent decision to solve a temporary problem. He thought that he would love to be able to fly, but he would do more research before making a choice he couldn’t undo.

“Couple of you picked Specialize. Anybody pick Broaden?” Lily asked.

“I did,” James said. When everyone turned to look at him, he suddenly focused on his meal.

“Anything you can tell us about it, buddy?” Max said.

James looked at Max and said, “Well, I had to pick Broaden because I don’t want to become an afflictions specialist. I want to be a good guy, not an evil wizard.” He looked around and faltered. Max gave him an encouraging look. James said, “So anyway. Each point will allow you to add another card to your deck and you can take it out if you want. It has to be a different suit though. All six new cards have to be a different suit.”

“Interesting. So do you already have three cards slotted now?”

“Uh, no. I have two Clover suit cards so I can’t slot the second one.”

Gus said, “I have a Cup suit I don’t want. I’ll trade you.”

“Is it the flower one?” Max asked with a grin.

Gus turned to him, “How did you know?”

“You were saying it out loud earlier. What does it do, create flowers?”

Gus shook his head. “No, it induces growth and blossoming. It would be great for a farmer.”

“Ah, thanks but...” James started and trailed off awkwardly.

Gus frowned but said nothing.

Fern said, “What does your Clover suit card do, James?”

“It’s called Ossification. Basically you can make a monster's bones heavy and fuse them together,” James said.

“Eww, nasty. I want it,” Lily said.

A laugh tumbled out of James’ mouth and they started negotiating. It turned out that half the group wanted to trade cards. Fern ended up with the Ossification card and James got a Sonic Step card. Feng was happy to trade when Ashley offered a Barkskin card for his large orb. Yang and Lily traded their main cards, with Lily playing with her Mushroomantis summons right away. No one wanted Gus’ cards.

Ebba was vaguely upset about the whole process, but she couldn’t articulate why. The general consensus in Lunuk culture was you weren’t supposed to ever trade cards. She said it was bad manners, but didn’t know of any specific consequences of breaking the taboo.

When the conversation wound down, they started cleaning up. Max was still packing up when the lights went out. One moment it was daytime, the next it was pitch black. Fern and James squawked in fear and Max fumbled for his hammer.

“Calm down, hatchlings. That’s just nighttime. There is no danger,” Ebba said in the darkness.

Max put a hand to his beating heart. That had been sudden. Either something had crossed in front of the sun, or they had simply turned off the sun. Clearly the sun was artificial, so perhaps it was possible. Max didn’t put it past the mysterious Builders.

Eventually, their eyes adjusted to the darkness. It wasn’t pitch black and they could see vague shapes like there was a light on in the other room. Max pulled out his sleeping bag and pad and set them up next to James. The pad had foam inside it, so when he opened a valve, it inflated itself. The extra padding meant that sleeping on the dirt was perfectly comfortable.

James had the same type of pad, but Gus had an even better one. He was almost sleeping on an air mattress. Lily tried to set up her pad and sleeping bag right next to James.

“Uh, Lily. Does Yang have a sleeping pad? Cus if not, maybe you should share. You are both small enough to share,” James said awkwardly.

To her credit, Lily recognised the brush off and set up her pad on the other side of Ebba. Yang thanked her and they shared the pad with separate sleeping bags. Kezhi and Feng didn’t have padding, only a thin sleeping bag between the two of them.

Ebba pulled them both onto her leaf bedding and was asleep in moments. Max had to stop himself from laughing. The purple-skinned Lunuk had a different arm draped over three people and was pulling them close.

Max was pretty sure that the humans around her would take a lot longer to fall asleep. To his surprise, he was completely wrong. The exhaustion of the day caught up with him right after he laid down and he was out like a light.

Waking up the next morning gave Max a strange sense of vertigo. The feeling of bizarre unreality washed over him in waves. Was he really on an alien world with magic or was it all a fever dream? It took him a few minutes before he was fully awake and existence solidified itself around him.

The sky was still dark, but Max could tell he wasn’t going to be able to fall back to sleep. He carefully extricated himself from the huddle of bodies. Ebba had pulled them all close in her sleep. Max was the second one awake, Gus having already gotten up and was sitting on a tree root nearby.

Max nodded as he joined him on the root. They sat in silence, observing the jungle around them. There was a faint breeze flowing through the trees, making for a nice morning. It was still warm, just nicer than the heat of the day.

While they sat there, Max reached down and grabbed a stick. With a mental click, he transmuted it into a war hammer. This time around he focused on making the spike on the back sharp and thin. It worked and he happily showed it off. Gus nodded distractedly.

“You check your mandatory quest yet?” Gus softly whispered.

Max hadn’t, so he mentally prodded the core in his chest. A moment later, a message appeared.

Mandatory Quest

Your body cannot handle the high quantities of mana in the local area. Although mana is normally beneficial, healing wounds and strengthening bodies, your biology hasn't adjusted to it yet. Return to a low mana area within [26] cycles or you will develop incurable cancer.

Yesterday the message said 28 cycles, and now it said 26. Damn.

“Just did. It says 26 cycles now. You thinking it’s moving faster than it should? Maybe it’s two cycles per day?”

Gus shrugged. “We’ll have to ask Ebba when she wakes up.”