“They have a portal tower here in town. And theirs works,” Ashley said as she waved her hands around. Everyone was gathered on the second floor of the hotel in Yang’s room.

“Yeah, so? They got to arrive in a city and we didn’t. Boo hoo,” Gus said with an unimpressed look.

She shook her head. “You don’t get it. Our tower didn’t work. It’s supposed to keep mana out so you can slowly get used to the mana or whatever. Then the next floor unlocks and they get used to that level. They got like twenty people up in that tower, and they don’t have to leave the city. They feed them, teach them about the world, train them in magic, everything. They get to live in luxury instead of being death-marched across two mountain ranges.”

Max said, “Yeah, I assumed as much. People in town said something about the tower. Apparently the crystal guild owns it. Sucks that we didn’t end up there, but whatcha gonna you do?”

“I’ll tell you what we’ll do, we’ll join them!” Ashley said, her eyes wide. “I talked to the guard and he said if we pay them enough, he’ll open it up just long enough for us to slip inside.”

“Really? And that’ll work?” Max said. “Won’t letting us in let some mana in too? I think it works a little like radiation, right?”

“I don’t know about radiation. All I know is that I can pay to get in and I’m going to. It’ll cost my titan core and a magic card, but that’s well worth it to me.” Ashley said. “I ain’t gonna die to a stupid monster out there.”

Max shook his head. “Hammurabi specifically said we shouldn’t sell our heart cards. They are crazy rare and we can never replace them.”

Ashley waved away the concern, “Yeah, that’s why I’m giving away someone else’s heart card. We all have more than one, remember?”

Max was stunned into silence at her flippant response. Sixteen people had died so that everyone could get an extra card. Not that all of them had a heart card, but still, people had died for that.

“What about the rest of us that don’t have a titan core? How are we going to get in?” Fern asked.

Ashley nodded, “Good question. I knew you guys wouldn’t have one. He said if you pay him 150 whites, that would be enough. I don’t know how much a white is worth, but I guess you can sell your monster cores to earn enough.”

“A good monster core is worth about ten, and a common one is worth 5,” Max said. “We know because we traded out our colorful cores for white orbs so we could buy a healing potion.”

Ashley sucked in through her teeth. “Ooh. Shouldn’ta done that.”

“Did you think we were just going to let her die?” Lily said with her hands on her hips.

Ashley held up her hands, “Look, I’m just the messenger. The guard will only let us through if we can pay. I know some of you can afford it. I’m going to swing by the hotel to pick up my bag just before nightfall. If you can pay, you can come with me. We have to go in as a group,” she said and headed out.

They stared in shock. She left them without even looking back. No pretending to care, no nothing. The room was quiet for a bit while they all came to grips with that. Yang lay back on her bed with a thump. She had woken up during the conversation, but hadn’t joined in.

“Grandfather’s ashes,” Feng muttered, translation magic hinting he was cursing.

Fern stepped closer to him and gave him a one-armed hug.

Max sighed. “You said it, Feng. But we don’t have to give up. None of us have enough monster cores to buy our way in, but that’s not our only assets. We have extra cards and we can sell stuff we won’t need. Maybe someone out there really wants a nice tent. Let’s work together to buy a pass for everyone. What do we have to work with?”

“I chose Specialize in my system, so that means I can’t take any cards out of my deck now,” Lily said.

Max tsked. “Me too.”

“I have two extra cards,” James said. “Well, I can share one if I have to spend one to get in the tower.”

“I have some extra cards too, but I ain’t giving them up,” Gus said with his arms folded. “I’m buying my way in even if you all can’t. I’m not gonna pass up this chance.”

“What the hell, man?” Lily said, getting up in his face.

“Wait, wait,” Max said as he got in between them. “Gus. I know you gotta think about yourself first. But if we collect everything else we need, will you help us get in?”

Gus looked away. “Well, I really shouldn’t. These cards are worth a lot. But I guess if my cards are the only thing keeping you from entering the tower, I can spare two of them.”

“Thanks Gus. I appreciate it.”

They continued talking about what they had and what they could sell. When they were done, everyone headed back to their rooms to grab stuff they thought might be valuable. Everyone but Fern. She stood in front of her room and her head against it.

“That asshole. It’s always something with her,” Fern muttered to herself.

“What’s wrong?” Max asked.

“Ashley left and took the only key.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Maybe Hammurabi has a spare?” Max said. “I need to talk to him anyway. I want to pay for the rooms now that I have money.”

“You don’t have to pay for all of us, you know. We can pay for our own rooms. Especially Ashley.”

“Sure sure. But this way I get first dibs on the next magic card we get from a monster,” Max said with a lopsided grin.

Fern laughed, but he could tell it was a courtesy laugh. Whatever. Max knew he was hilarious. They didn’t find Hammurabi at the front desk, but his wife saw they were hanging out around the desk and came to talk.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“Howdy y’all. Name’s Zayda. Anything I can do for you dearies?” she said. She was an older southern woman.

“Hello Zayda,” Max said with a smile. “Two things you can help us out with. First off, your husband let us stay last night without paying because we just arrived in the world. I have some money now so I wanted to settle our bill.”

“That man. His heart is bad for our pocketbook,” she said as she shook her head. “It’s ten knuts per room, per night. So for four rooms that’s 40 knuts for last night, 80 if you want to stay tonight too.”

“I don’t have knuts, how much is one of these worth?” he asked and held up a white core.

Zayda chuckled, “That’s enough to rent out the entire hotel for a week.”

Max handed it over and said, “We only need one night, but keep it all anyway. Maybe it’ll ease your pocketbook the next time your husband’s heart gets too generous. Also, while we are here, could we get another key for room two? ”

“Thank you so much. You are too kind, dearie. I wish I had another key, but we only have one per lock. We can’t make them ourselves because they're magical. Gotta replace the lock if someone loses the key. Do you need me to go get the crowbar?”

“No no, we didn’t lose the key. We have two people in that room, but the other one is out with the key. I won’t make you break into the room, we can wait for her to get back,” Max said, looking back at Fern to make sure she was ok with that. Fern nodded.

“Alright, dearie. But if you do want us to break into the room, we can. You paid more than enough for us to replace the locks,” Zayda said earnestly.

“It’s fine. We’ll just track down our friend and get the key from her,” Max said. “I have a different question for you. We need to make a lot of money fast. Do you think there is any market out there for camping gear or food?”

“Gear? No. The stuff they make here is almost always better than the stuff you brought from Earth. But food, that’s a horse of a different color. Everyone wants a taste of home, and some people are willing to pay through the nose for it. Get your food together and I’ll take you to visit Noma.”

Fern headed out to find Ashley and Max headed back up to his room. After setting aside some of his favorite meals, he still had plenty of food. He had almost eighty pounds of freeze dried meals and snack bars he could sell. He might have gone overboard when he packed. At least he was going to get some money for it now.

Most of the rest of the team was already out selling stuff, but James was still in their room. He was having problems deciding on what to part with. Max encouraged him to sell his snacks and come along with him.

Zayda led them spinward through the city to the heart of the human sixth. It turned out, Noma wasn’t a person, it was a restaurant. The best damn restaurant in spinworld according to Zayda. More importantly, it was a restaurant that catered to the richest humans on the third layer.

The restaurant was full by the time they got there. The delicious food made Max realize he still hadn’t eaten yet. His stomach growled, but he silenced it. There would be time to eat when this was over.

A woman in a white coat came out from the back room and stretched her arms wide, “Zayda! Always glad to see you. But can it wait? As you can see I’m a bit busy.”

“I wouldn’t be running all over hell’s half acre if it wasn’t,” Zayda said with reproach in her voice. “This here is Max. He’s a newbie with a bag full of Earth food. I can tell him to sell it at Michael’s if you want instead?”

“No, no. Come on back to the kitchen. I’ll buy whatever you have,” the chef said and ushered them back.

Max took a look at what counted as luxury fare around here. It was interesting. He didn’t recognize any of the food on the plates. Purple meat, hairy red fruit, glowing blue leaves. It must be infused with magic or something.

As soon as the kitchen doors closed behind them, the chef was already yelling. “Mark, plate for table four now. Susan, fire four sweetbreads.”

“Yes, chef.”

“Heard, Four sweetbreads all day.”

The chef took out an empty turkey baster and touched it to three plates. Sauce appeared from nowhere and covered the meat dishes, steam rising up from the plates.

“Gustov, service,” she said.

“Yes, chef.”

The chef didn’t stop moving, taking out various random objects and touching them to food. Sometimes spices were added, sometimes water started boiling. She reached the end of the room and cleared off a long table.

“Put your stuff here and I’ll calculate a good price for you. Any friend of Zayda’s is a friend of mine.”

“Thanks,” Max said as he thumped his pack on the table.

He took fistfulls of meal packs out, one after another. The chef’s eyes kept getting wider and wider. Max smiled as he made separate piles for freeze dried meals, granola bars, coffee packets, and jerky. James added his snacks as well, but his pile of chips and candy bars looked pitiful next to Max’s mountains of food.

The chef stepped forward and started moving the piles around. She grabbed half of the meals and all of the chips and shoved them to the side. She slid the coffee packets off the table and handed them back to Max.

She said, “We already have great coffee here, maybe better than Earth’s. What we don’t have is potatoes. Everything over here is worth at least three hundred knuts each. I still want the other stuff, but it’s worth about half as much. Still plenty though. People really want a taste of home and this freeze dried stuff is perfect for long storage.”

She stepped back and grabbed another new object. It was a hexagon with small beads on it. She used it to count the food on the table. Max thought it was a weird looking abacus at first, but then the beads moved on their own. Maybe it was an alien calculator or something.

Zayda cleared her throat and said, “Now, don’t be tighter than a flea’s ass. Max and his friend are good people.”

“Yes, you said that,” the chef said without looking up from the food. “I was going to give them a good deal, I just needed to calculate it all out.” She turned to Max and said, “How does 19,000 knuts sound? It’s the best offer you are going to get on this layer.”

Max said, “That sounds like a lot. How much is that in whites?”

She flipped the beads around a bit and said, “47 whites and change.”

“That will work great, thanks.”

She went back to a small office and came out with two bags of white cores. She handed Max the bigger one and gave James the smaller one. She said, “Eight whites in there for you.”

Max smiled. James hadn’t brought much, but apparently potato chips were very valuable. James thanked her and they tucked away their cores.

“Alright, now get out of here before the lunch rush hits. I’m behind enough as it is,” the chef said.

When they were out on the wooden street again, Zayda said, “Now, don’t let anyone see your whites. That’s a small fortune you got there.”

“Really?” James asked.

“Sure as bears shit in the woods,” Zayda said. “I mean, plenty of hunters walk around with more than that, but for most people in the city? That’s a fortune.”

Max said, “And thanks for helping us get it. We still need more though. Any other ideas on what we could sell? You said camping gear is out, but what about selling hammers or gauntlets?”

“You got citadel cards then?” Zayda asked.

“Yeah.”

“So do a lot of people. You can get a hammer for five knuts. Gauntlets sized for a human are rarer, most gauntlets are made for Lunuk or Paj. Wrong number of fingers.”

“Do you think I could get a few whites for a pair of gauntlets? They have a magic effect.”

“That is rare. Most citadel cards just create an item. I’ve never bought magic gauntlets, so I don’t know for sure. But I kind of doubt it.”

“Alright, thanks anyway,” Max said, his shoulders slumping.

Zayda patted him on the shoulder, “Don’t you worry none. You’ll figure something out. I gotta go turn over some rooms, but you know where to find me if you need something else, yeah?”

“Thanks again, ma’am,” Max said as she walked off.

James scratched his neck and said, “Soo, what are we going to do?”