The rustling in the bushes revealed a person, but not a human. It had two legs, four arms, and a head. It had purple skin and silvery clothes. Max scrambled to his feet as it walked towards them. It had a strange sort of ethereal grace, flowing around the plants instead of touching them. It stopped a little ways away from the building.

The strange person held up all four hands and calmly said, “Don’t worry, I’m not here to hurt you, I’m here to help. Please do not run away.”

The five overeager people raced back into the building. Max wasn’t sure if they were following its instructions or just wanting to get away from the four-armed person.

It continued in a soothing voice. “It’s alright, it’s alright. I’m on your side. In a few moments, you’ll get your heart card assigned. You will be much safer after you have magic.”

Max started to relax. It sounded like this alien knew what was going on and was here to help. He would keep an eye on it, but it seemed to be benevolent. If it was here to harm them, it wouldn’t wait until they had all gained magic powers.

“Who, or what are you?” the leader of the five shakily asked.

“Your kind enjoys the exchange of names, correct? I am called Ebba Bibi. My people are Lunuk. I can see you are human, what is your name?”

“I’m Kathrin Simmons.”

“Glad to meet you, Kathrin Simmons,” Ebba said. “My people are kind and have sent me here to you. We know it is difficult to survive as newborn hatchlings, I am here to guide you.”

“Al-alright,” she hesitantly said.

“Excellent. You are welcome to exit the tower, but do not stray too far. The jungle is dangerous,” Ebba said and stepped to the side.

The twenty humans slowly started filing out, keeping an eye on the alien standing there. Max decided to think of Ebba as a her. She looked feminine and the translation magic gave him the impression Ebba was a female name. His mind went on a brief tangent about how important genders were to humans. The four cautious people who had tried to stay on the top floor joined them a few minutes in. There were whispered conversations, bringing them up to speed.

Ebba was over seven feet tall and had a presence that evoked thoughts of roman goddesses. She had mottled purple skin, dark like the shadows. Her eyes were small pools of darkness without an iris. Her nose was almost flat against her face and her mouth disappeared when she wasn’t talking. Max couldn’t decide if she fell into the uncanny valley or not.

He glanced past her to the dense jungle. The riot of flora was almost overwhelming. The plants crowded up against each other, desperately vying for a bit of sun. Thick trees stretched high over their heads, an almost impenetrable canopy. The heady smell of loam and plants filled the air. It was like someone cast a fifth tier growth spell on the world. Max wondered if this was a whole jungle planet, or if there were a variety of biomes. Either way, he was endlessly grateful that it wasn’t too hot and muggy.

A bright blue light appeared around Kathrin and her group. Everyone flinched back at the sudden visual assault. Once the light faded enough to look at them, Max saw a blue hexagon hovering in the air in front of each person. A moment later, the hexagons broke apart and the blue light absorbed into their chests.

A few seconds later, the blue light appeared around Max. A hexagon appeared in front of him as well. There was alien writing covering the floating object. He felt his heart beating faster and faster. He reached out to touch it, his hand passed partially through it before the card snapped into place. It was interesting interacting with the magic card. It seemed insubstantial, but he could pick them up and move them around. He pulled it into his chest. Writing appeared in his vision, the system writing only he could see. Each of the six sides had a title and there was writing in the center.

Advanced

Hammer

Citadel

Transmutes mana neutral matter within aura into a claw hammer based on the cardholder's size and species.

Mana Cost: 24

Refresh: 1.3 Hours

Card Level: 0

Max tilted his head as he tried to parse the information in front of him. His magic power was creating a hammer? Transmutation was changing one thing into another, so he couldn’t even create a hammer from nothing, he had to turn something else into a hammer.

It was literal magic, but he still felt a bit disappointed. He already had a hammer, he brought his brother’s hammer along. He sighed and shook his head. This was just the first step among many. The voice talked about opportunities to grow stronger and he would take advantage. And who knows, maybe this world didn’t have metal and being able to create hammers would be very valuable.

Stories from home led him to believe that if he focused on the tabs around the edge, he would get more information. To his delight, he was right.

[Advanced: the third of six quality ranks. They are in order: Fragment, Common, Advanced, Exceptional, Worthy, Treasure]

Interesting. That meant his card was two steps above the baseline. He wondered if that was rare, or if most people had advanced cards. He focused on the next tab.

[Hammer: A blunt tool used in construction, crafting, and fighting.]

A blindingly obvious description. He knew what a hammer was. Still, it did remind him that hammers were useful in a variety of situations.

[Citadel: The card suit focused on transmutation and permanent creation]

Interesting. Magic cards came in suits. He would have to ask the others what suit they got. He tried to focus on the other three tabs, but he got no new information. He knew how much mana it cost and how often he could transmute a hammer now. Hopefully both of those numbers would improve when he advanced the card level.

Max looked around for the first time since he got the card. He had to stop himself from laughing. More than half of the portal jumpers around him were still zoned out. The rest were trying in vain to use their new magic card. Some concentrating hard, others throwing out their hands, and the rest were shouting the names of their new cards.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Pierce!

...Firebolt!

...Sonic Step!

...Pangolin!

...Empower!

...Flower!”

Max lost it at the last one. The firearms fanatic that had shouted out ‘flower’ turned to him with a scowl, but Max couldn’t stop himself. The idea that he had flower magic was just hilarious.

Ebba thought it was funny too, if her smirk was anything to go by. Max did a double take. The four armed Lunuk wasn’t smiling, she didn’t even move her mouth. So why was he still sure that Ebba was amused by the silly humans? She didn’t even tilt her head.

It wasn’t until he looked at her hands that he figured it out. She was curling and uncurling the fingers on her lower limbs. His mind was just interpreting it as a smile. He guessed it was the translation magic that was telling him that that specific curl of her fingers indicated amusement.

Max decided to find out if he was interpreting things correctly. He walked around the zoned out humans and over to where she was standing in front of the tower. He got a better look at the purple skinned Lunuk. Ebba was wearing a sleeveless tunic. It was silver-gray and thick, long enough to almost reach her knees. She was wearing shorts with pockets, the alien version of cargo shorts.

“Do you find that as funny as I do?” Max said and pointed to the people shouting their card names.

She turned to him and laughed without moving her mouth. She said, “Yes, very. They will need more time before they have gathered enough mana to activate their cards.”

Interesting. He was right, she was laughing at them. “This translation magic is amazing. Being able to interpret different languages of humans is hard enough, let alone passing meaning between different species.”

She tilted her bald head back and forth. “It helps commerce, but it’s inconvenient at times. There is no language that doesn't translate, so there are no secrets around strangers.”

Before he could continue the conversation, Yang walked up and said, “I want to go home. How do I return to Earth?”

Ebba said, “I don’t believe that’s possible. Not by any method I know of, at least. The builders might have a portal, but I won’t tell a hatchling like you more about them.”

“Why not?”

Ebba waved dismissively, “I will not discuss them with you. Walk away.”

Yang frowned in frustration, but someone else jumped into the conversation.

One of the Chinese guys with long hair in a bun gave Ebba a shallow bow and said, “This one’s name is Xing Kezhi. May we get your assistance with accessing the stat screen?”

Ebba sliced her hands to the side in the negative. “You won’t have access to your System until after you have vanquished some beasts.”

The ponytail guy looked like he wanted to say more, but instead he just bowed and said, “Thank you for your wisdom.”

Ebba dismissed him and turned to Yang. “What are you still doing here?”

She said, “I apologize. I have a different question. I think my card is broken. Did I do something wrong?”

Ebba’s good mood returned. She twitched her fingers in a smile and said, “Your card isn’t broken, no one can use their card until they have gathered enough mana.”

“No, I mean, I didn’t try to use it yet, it just looks incomplete. Like it cuts off halfway through a sentence,” Yang insisted. She held her arms straight down and clenched her fists.

Even though she was shorter than him, Max found Yang menacing. Her suit, attitude, and the fact that he was sure she was armed combined to make him take a step back.

Ebba was unphased and said, “Pull out your heart card and let me take a look at it. Use all four- uh... two hands and focus on pulling it out.”

Yang gave her a pointed look, but did as she was asked. A few moments later she pulled something out of her chest. It was her card, hovering in front of her like a hologram. Instead of the full hexagon most people had, this one looked like a third of it had broken off.

“Oh, that. That’s not broken. It just means your card is a fragment. Most people born here get an incomplete card, there is no cause for shame. You will have to combine it with another fragment card to create a heart card. It looks like your suit hasn’t been chosen, so you can combine it with anything,” Ebba said. She waved Yang away and said, “Go ask around. Maybe someone else has a fragment as well.”

She turned and started working her way through the crowd. Max found himself following her as he thought about the builders. From context he guessed that the builders was a name for the people that built the magic system and set up the portals. It would make sense that they could create return portals. It was just strange that Ebba wouldn’t talk about them. Was it a local taboo? Not that it mattered to Max. He was planning on staying here after he found his brother.

He returned his attention to Yang on her quest for fragment cards. Most people had a complete common card. The short Filipino woman didn’t give up and kept asking around. Max started to feel bad for her as she explained over and over again what she was looking for.

The obese guy without a backpack was sitting on the ground, staring into the forest. Yang snapped her fingers in front of his face and went through her whole spiel again.

The man sighed and said, “I was so sure. I was positive there would be a character creator on this end. The Ripple System, Ultimate Jumpers, The Mayor of Noobtown, they all have character creators. Why not here? Hell, I’d be happy with A Snake’s Life. Why am I stuck with this? I just...” He trailed off and stared at his gut.

“I’m sorry to hear about your misconceptions. May I please see your magic card?” Yang said.

Max rolled his eyes at her heartless statement. She had no compassion, she was only focused on herself. To his shock, it worked.

“Sure, whatever, you can have it,” the guy said.

She walked him through the process and soon a completed magic card was hovering in the air in front of him. Yang snatched the card away and left him with her fragment card. She walked away as she was absorbing it into her chest. Max stood there in shock for a moment and then jogged after her.

“Hey, are you really going to take advantage of that guy like that? He’s in shock and you stole his card,” Max said when he caught up.

“I didn’t steal his card, we traded,” Yang said as she continued to walk. “It’s not like he’s going to need it. You and I know he’s going to die out here.”

“We don’t know that,” Max insisted.

“Have you taken a look around? We aren’t in a city, we’re in the middle of the jungle. He wouldn’t survive a day in Earth’s wilderness, let alone out here. Lily tells me there are monsters in this world. He won’t survive.”

“You are acting like no one would help him. Of course we would,” Max said and turned back to look at the poor guy, but he wasn’t there. He hoped that the man hadn’t heard them talking about him.

“Max!” James said as he grabbed his arm. “What card did you get? I got a creepy curse magic card called Decay.”

“Curse magic? That does sound creepy”

“Well, the card doesn’t call it curse magic, it says it’s in the clover suit. But the description says it directly attacks life force to break down metabolic processes. I’m a budget Jason Asano,” James said with a crooked grin.

Max smiled. “All you need is a blood sucking familiar and you will be set. My magic card isn’t that great. Mine is Hammer. That’s it. Hammer. I can transmute random stuff into a hammer. So if you need a war hammer or whatever, I’m your man. Otherwise, I guess I can supply the town blacksmith? Kinda useless out here though.”

“You aren’t useless. What if we run across some skeletons? Everyone knows they are susceptible to blunt damage,” James said. “Besides, I am sure your card will be cooler after you level it up.”

“Yeah, I bet you are right,” Max said, half playing along, half hopeful.

“Speaking of leveling up, you figure out how to access your stat screen yet?”

“No. This other guy asked the purple lady about it and she said it isn’t possible. ‘Certain conditions have not been met’,” Max said, imitating her voice.

“Huh. How am I supposed to min-max if I can’t plan things out?” James said, staring off into space.

“We talked about this, James. No min-maxing. This is real life, you can’t take a risk like that.”

“Eh, we’ll see. No promises.”

Max huffed in frustration. He turned and said, “How about you, Lily? What magic card did you end up with?”

“Decoy. It allows me to create an illusion of myself to use as a decoy. Not really great on offense, but I bet it will be very useful,” Lily said.

Max turned to Yang. He opened his mouth to say something to her, but he was cut off. They heard a blood curdling scream that cut off with a gurgle.