Max swore softly. If a single day counted as two cycles, they would have 14 days, not 28. Ebba had told them they had plenty of time to make it to the first layer, but 14 days didn’t seem like enough.
He made breakfast while he thought about it. Powdered eggs and instant coffee. It wasn’t good food, but at least it was Earth food. The food hadn’t had the time to soak up ambient mana so it was safer than the tastier options around them. He was pretty sure he saw a mango tree a few hundred feet back, but he didn’t dare check.
Dawn came like a runaway train. He heard something strange in the distance, rapidly approaching. Light swept across the jungle and a few seconds later came the rain. It sounded like torrential rain, but the canopy softened it to gentle drips by the time it got to the ground level.
Ebba was awake and held a large leaf over her head as an umbrella. Most of the humans woke up wet and confused. Max snapped a few leaves off and hurried over to help. It wasn’t very effective, everything was damp before he got there. The rain passed. After a bit of grumbling about lack of warning, they hung up the sleeping bags to dry.
Once everyone calmed down Max started serving up the food. He gave everyone a little less than what he considered a good breakfast. He needed to stretch the food as much as he could. He couldn’t afford to feed nine people for a month with what he brought in his pack.
While they ate, Max said, “Hey, Ebba. My mandatory quest shows 26 cycles until we have to be on the first layer. Does a day count as two cycles?”
“No, a cycle is a day. The words are interchangeable. Your cycles probably went down because you had an eventful day yesterday. Leveling up probably reduced your counter. Either that or you ate too much mana rich food.”
Max shook his head, he had been careful about not eating the food around here. “What happens if we keep leveling up? There are monsters everywhere. Can we make it to the first layer in fourteen days?”
“That would be tough, but possible. I wouldn’t worry too much about it, though. Your timer will count down slower once we get to the second layer. I would guess everyone has 24 days even if you level up a few more times. If you are worried about it. try not to absorb more mana than you need to,” Ebba said lackadaisically. She was eating a mango, juice dripping down her chin.
Max narrowed her eyes. Was she teasing them that she could eat a mango and they couldn’t? He shook his head and said, “Alright, everyone. Let’s pack up. The sun will rise soon and we’ll want to be walking by then.”
As they started packing up, Gus stopped and stared at Ashley. He said, “Where did you get all those orbs? I thought we divided things fairly.”
Ashley stuffed them deep into her bag. “I picked up some unclaimed ones. Don’t worry about it, ok?”
“Wait. You took the orbs from the dead people? You robbed corpses? How could you?”
“What the hell are you talking about? We all took the cards, but you are upset I took the orbs too?”
“You rifled through their pockets and kept everything to yourself! You are a grave robber!” Gus said, his arms flailing.
“Gus, knock it off. Arguing about it won’t change what she did and we need to get going. Ashley, you know keeping the orbs for yourself was wrong, quit trying to defend yourself. And talk to the rest of us before you consider doing something like desecrating the dead,” Max said. He was starting to get tired of breaking up fights between those two.
Gus scowled and put his hand up like he was going to hit Ashley. When she flinched, he stepped back and scoffed at her. He went back to packing up. Max joined him, making sure to strap the two war hammers he had made to the sides of his pack.
Max said, “Ebba, you ready to go?”
She wiped her hands off on her silver tunic. The juice absorbed into the cloth and left her hands and tunic spotless. “Sure, I was just waiting on my little nestlings to be ready. Let’s go.”
Ashley grumbled something in response, but not loud enough for anyone to hear. They headed out. Just like yesterday they walked in a single file with Ebba leading the way.
Max dropped back to walk with his friends. He said, “How are you guys doing today?”
“I can’t believe I don’t have blisters,” James said. “Yesterday was the most I have ever hiked in my life.”
“I did have blisters,” Yang said. “Dress shoes aren’t exactly the best hiking shoes. But when I woke up this morning, they were gone. I had some scratches and bruises heal up as well.”
Max looked at her shoes for the first time. He winced as he thought about how uncomfortable they must be. She hadn’t complained once. Yang was more of a badass than he had realized.
“When we get to Plum City we should see about finding a cobbler,” Lily said. “I don’t know what kind of quality we can expect, but I hate seeing you in pain.”
“Don’t worry about my feet. I’ll take care of myself,” Yang said sternly.
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“I’m just trying to be nice. You don’t have to be snippy about it,” Lily fired back.
“I bet they will have magic cobblers. I mean, Max has his hammer card, maybe someone out there has a shoes card,” James said blithely.
Max did his best not to sigh. Sometimes James really couldn't read a room. Max had to tell people more than once that James wasn’t autistic. But telling people that James' mom had him tested twice for autism wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement.
Travel slowed down a bit today. The trees were thicker in this part of the jungle. That meant there was less underbrush to cut through, but it also meant that Ebba couldn’t lead them in a straight line anymore.
Boredom had him thinking about his gloves card. He asked Ebba about how it would affect his deck, but she didn’t have answers for him. She chose Generalize instead of the Specialize he had chosen.
If he was going to get answers, he would have to risk it. He spent a few more hours thinking about the pros and cons. Eventually, he pulled up his system and leveled up Specialize two more times. That left him with 9 free points in case he needed them.
As he expected, the change gave him two more slots he could use to absorb a card. He pulled the Gloves card from his pack and pushed it into his chest. He could almost feel his cards changing as they merged closer to each other.
The first thing he checked was the descriptions of his Hammer and Augment cards. They were entirely unchanged. That was unexpected. Why had both cards changed the first time, but not this time? He shook it off and read the new Gloves card. Its description had changed.
Advanced
Gloves
Citadel
Transmutes mana neutral matter within aura into gloves of the cardholder’s design.
Mana Cost: 22
Refresh: 1.2 Hours
Card Level: 1
Instead of a common card, it was advanced like the other two now. It had gained a card level and cost more mana now. He thought the refresh rate had gone down too. Most importantly, the card said he could make gloves of his own design. Maybe that meant he could make gauntlets now.
He had to try it out right away. Nearby leaves were sacrificed for transmutation material. He didn’t exactly know what a gauntlet looked like so he pulled out his kindle. To his surprise, the e-ink reader still worked. The Wikipedia article wasn’t very clear about how to make one, but thankfully there was a picture. When he felt ready, he clicked that mental button and watched little white lights bend matter to his will.
The resulting gloves were gauntlet-like. They were long gloves that had metal plates sewn onto the outside. He loved them. It meant that he could hold everything with the comfort of well fitted gloves, but the back of his palm and forearm were protected by metal plates. They were lighter than he expected, but still sturdy enough to protect him. He put them on right away.
“So cool!” James said.
Max turned and grinned. “Yeah, they are. They probably have a magical effect too.”
“Oh, so like a super punch or a mana shield?”
“Something like that. You want a pair too?”
“Nah. I’m barely surviving as it is. I don’t think I could handle even two more pounds to carry around.” James said huffing and puffing.
Max nodded. If he didn’t still have the exo-legs, he might feel the same way. James’ suggestion about a super punch made him want to try that out. He punched a nearby tree a few times. Nothing happened. That didn’t bother him though. He already had an attack with his war hammers. Hopefully, the gauntlets would provide some defense or other magical effect.
He looked around to ask someone to hit his gauntlets as a test. James was too exhausted to talk, let alone swing a weapon. Feng was nearby, still flirting with Fern. He always seemed to know the right thing to say. There might be a budding romance there. He passed them to walk near Yang.
“Hey, Yang. I wanna test out a new card. Can you hit me?” Max said.
Yang nodded and punched him in the chest strong enough to make him stumble back.
Max coughed and said, “The gauntlets. I wanna test out the gauntlets.”
Yang shook her head. “Why didn’t you say so?”
She pulled out a knife. Max hurriedly put his forearms together and hid behind them. Yang scoffed and stabbed the metal plates a few times.
She hid the knife away and said, “Any other tests?”
“No, that’s quite enough. Thank you. I thought they might have some magic defense, but I guess not.”
Max was a bit disappointed. If they weren’t shielding gauntlets, it probably meant that the magic effect was something related to gloves. Maybe he could handle acid or something now. Not that he would want to test it by dipping his hand into something caustic. Maybe he could get the gloves appraised or something.
With the gloves card a mixed bag, Max turned his thoughts towards using his points from leveling up. He didn’t have another magic card, so there was no point in leveling up his Specialize again. Maybe he could choose a different option on his system and level that up instead.
Max Kraft (Level 6)
Sight or Insight
Flow or Resistance
Presence or Paranoia
Quicken or Broaden
Weight or Levitate
Specialize 3
⬣(9 free points)⬣
Max still had five choices to make. Better senses, or the ability to see magic. Using magic easier or resisting magical attacks. Become intimidating or fade into the background. Faster mana and health regeneration, or bigger pools of each. Get tough and heavy or light and agile.
Each one of those choices were permanent and life altering. He had already discovered unexpected drawbacks to the choice he made with Specialize. That should convince him to take his time making up his mind for the rest of his system choices. It would be careless to pick before he had properly researched.
Still. He wanted to pick one now.