“Max, why? What were you thinking?” James said, his eyes wide.

“Batman made me do it,” Max said as he fingered his new dungeon artifact.

James laughed and punched him.

Max rubbed his shoulder exaggeratedly and said, “It’s just that he has this cool utility belt and I wanted one for myself. I knew it might be cursed, but I guess my love of caped crusaders was too great.”

“Max, you are smart, but you make some stupid decisions sometimes,” James said as he shook his head.

“Hey! I resemble that remark!” Max said and shoved him.

James laughed and headed out of the dungeon. Max turned back to the belt on his waist. It was an impulsive decision, but in his defense, it seemed logical at the time.

Gus had picked the Ring of Time Travel. Once he had it on, he was able to read a longer description of the item. It wasn’t cursed, it just had limited use. He said he planned on using it as the ultimate defense against an attack. There was nothing better than simply not existing while the attack landed.

Max guessed that the items with clear disadvantages wouldn’t be cursed. That meant the Ring of Justice was certainly cursed, and the Utility Belt probably wasn’t. Only one of the six pouches on the belt was useful, so the item wouldn’t be cursed, right? Wrong. As soon as he clipped the belt on, it gave him a longer description.

Utility Belt

Benefits: Once a day, five of the pockets will be filled with something new from the user’s homeworld. Sixth pocket is a dimensional pocket that can hold 3.7 cubic feet regardless of weight.

Drawbacks: Belt is bound to the user and will return within hours if taken off. Dimensional pocket will always be the last pocket opened. Five new objects will be created daily. The utility belt’s objects must be used for their intended purpose (as defined by the wielder’s understanding) before the dimensional pocket can be used for the day. If objects are not used that day, the stored contents of the dimensional pocket will be lost forever.

Basically, it was a pretty good bag of holding, but in order to use it he had to complete five tasks every day. If he ever forgot or failed a task, he would lose whatever he stored in there. If he got the hang of how to use it, it would be a wonderfully useful belt. The insidious part was that he might be lulled into a false sense of security by a few easy days and then bam, he has to use a suicide pill or something.

As far as curses go, it was fairly mild. If he wanted, he could just not play the game. As long as he didn’t put anything in the belt, there wasn’t anything to lose. He would still be stuck with the belt, but that was barely an imposition. The real danger came from the impulse to gamble. To put something heavy and valuable in there and hope that he would be able to use the items every day until he wanted to pull stuff out.

Only Max and Gus decided to risk picking up a reward. The rest of them headed out as soon as the exit door opened. They found Ebba waiting for them under a nearby tree. She was ecstatic to see them.

“My nestlings, no, my fledglings! I am so happy to see you survived. And so many too. I know the first level was very easy, but you are all new to this world. Great job!” she said.

“There is nothing to celebrate. We still lost Ashley,” Max said.

There was a conspicuous silence as no one backed Max up. He may feel guilty about his failure as a leader, but everyone else was still thinking about how she had invaded their privacy with the Listen card.

Ebba said, “You should always strive for better, yes. But do not let perfection kill good. Nestlings are always lost along the journey to adulthood. It’s why we should revere our elders because we may one day die too.”

“That’s a pretty cavalier attitude about the deaths of babies,” Lily said. “Do all Lunuks think like that?”

“Of course. The weak die and the strong live.”

Lily jerked her head back, surprised at that answer.

Ebba curled her fingers in a smile. “Ah, yes. I remember now. Humans cherish their babies and ignore their elders. Lunuk cherish their elders and do not interfere with their hatchlings' fate. There is a reason Lunuk are the most numerous species on Spinworld, and humans the least.”

Lily sneered at her and said, “I guess I can’t expect aliens to have any humanity.”

Ebba sliced her hands in agreement. “Come, fledglings. Night will fall soon and I have arranged to stay the night with some Igra. They are camped nearby.”

As they walked, Gus disappeared. He was there one instant, gone the next. A few seconds later, he reappeared. He stumbled and caught himself. He chuckled and did a little happy dance.

Following his example, Max tried out his new belt. The belt was white leather with pockets that felt like they were made of woven metal. He popped the button on the first pocket and reached inside. He pulled out a novelty pencil, one two feet long and an inch thick. There was no way that fit in the four inch square pocket. Magic shenanigans.

He tried another pocket, but it wouldn’t work. He had to use the pencil first. He drew a squiggly line on a nearby tree. Moments later, the pencil dissolved into motes of mana. That was handy. He would have instant feedback for when the belt considered an item used.

The next pouch opened when he tugged on it and he pulled out an electric fan. The cord swung in the air, uselessly. Max slowly blinked. Did the belt expect him to find a socket? He tried switching it on anyway. To his immense relief, it worked. He fanned his face and it dissipated.

A bow tie was next. He felt a little silly putting it on without a dress shirt, but it disappeared before anyone saw it. The rusty nail made him laugh. He had just what he needed to use it. Once he hammered it into a tree, he reached into the second to last pocket. It held an acorn.

How do you use an acorn? He could eat it, but he was pretty sure acorns were poisonous if you didn’t cook them first. Maybe it wouldn’t harm him if it dissolved into mana once he chewed it up? He took off the little cap while he considered it. Then he smiled.

He put the acorn’s cap on his thumb and danced it around a bit. It was his thumb’s hat. The belt seemed dubious and the acorn didn’t dissolve. The description said that the wearer’s understanding was the decider and he knew lots of people used acorns as tiny hats. As soon as he had that thought, the acorn fell into tiny motes of mana.

He did it! All five pockets were used, so he should be able to use the sixth pocket for the day. He wasn’t sure if that was until nightfall, or until twenty-five hours had passed. He wouldn’t put anything important in there, just in case.

It was actually slightly difficult to decide on what to put in there. He had already thrown away everything unnecessary. In the end he threw a cassava root into the pouch. The root was wider than the opening of the pouch, but it sucked it in anyway. He buttoned the flap of the pouch out of habit and unbuttoned it right away. He reached in and pulled the root back out. It worked like a dream. 3.7 cubic feet was actually a lot of space. He could fit his entire pack in there now that he had tossed some stuff. He didn’t attempt it though. He decided to test the limits of the belt much more before he risked something like that. Maybe even wait until the mandatory quest was over.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Ebba led them through the forest and up to a dense thicket. It wasn’t until they were right on top of it that they saw it had been built, not grown. Ebba turned off her Disregard field and announced herself.

A section of the thicket swung out and a person appeared in the doorway. It was about four and a half feet tall with two legs and two arms. It was thickly muscled under layers of armor. It wore black woven metal with silver plates attached on top. The helmet was flat topped with a Geordi La Forge eyepiece.

“Welcome, Ebba. Your friends survived after all. Wonderful. Come on in,” it said and gestured inside.

The six of them filed into the space inside the thicket. It looked like someone had woven spiky branches together to form a small room, complete with a leaf covered roof. Four more Igra sat on the dirt and looked up as they walked in. All of them wore armor that completely covered them, but each had their own style. No two armors were alike.

“Friends of Ebba, thank you for joining us. We are happy to sleep well tonight with her card protecting us. I am called Chunus. What are your names?”

“I’m Max, and this is James. Gus is the tall one, Lily is the woman with the red top, Yang is the one with the white top.”

“Excellent introductions, I will follow suit. This is Bootus. Furtis is the one with the pointed helmet, Fooby has the black chestplate, and Borts has the green chestplate. Remember our names, we will test you later.”

Max thought he heard a smile in Chunus’ voice. Just in case, he fixed their names in his head. Chunus, Bootus, Furtis, Fooby, and Borts.

“Nice to meet you all. Thank you for letting us stay in your camp.”

Borts nodded. His armor was in different shades of green, much like military camouflage. “No trouble at all. I made this shelter in two clicks of a clam shell.”

Fooby the Black Knight said, “We were just finishing our game of hounds and jackals. You can play next round if you like.”

“Ooh! Or if you have your own games, we would love to play that,” Chunus said. “I heard a lot of humans carry around rectangular playing cards.”

Max smiled and said, “Yeah, I have some rectangle cards.”

He rummaged through his bag and brought out a standard deck of cards. Earth standard, anyway. He suggested they start with Crazy 8s. All of them wanted to play, but Max suggested a smaller group for learning new card games. Chunus, Borts, and Fooby stayed and the other two asked the remaining humans about the games they had.

James got out his travel set of yahtzee and taught Furtis and Bootus how to play. Night fell not long after, but Fooby threw up a U shaped light on the ceiling so they could keep playing.

An hour later, Max was the only human still awake. It had been a long day for all of them. He begged off playing and Fooby took up the dealer position. When he slid into his sleeping bag, all five Igra were playing poker with a quiet intensity.

The next morning Max woke to find them still playing. Gus had joined them and was teaching them Texas Hold’em.

“Did you guys play cards all night?”

“Nah, we are all tier three. At our levels, we only need 3.2 hours of sleep a night. We took a break this morning,” one of them said.

Once Max was fully awake, he realized he had no idea who was who. In the night, they had switched armor pieces around. Now he realized what Chunus meant when they were going to test him about their names. This was another game.

A different Igra held up his cards and said, “We do like your rectangles. They can play so many different games.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Max said. “Humans have literally hundreds of different games you can play with those cards.”

“Reeally? In that case, would you consider selling them?” he (maybe she) said.

“I don’t need a lot of money right now, the five of us have a mandatory quest to reach the first layer. Any chance you could help us get there faster?”

“We are on our way spinward, north two layers would be an imposition. How about this? If you can name each of us correctly, we will take you halfway there. If not, you will sell me all your games for a single white core. Deal?”

Gus shuffled his feet and said, “It’s a deal.”

“Hey, those are my cards not yours,” Max said.

“Trust me,” Gus said with a meaningful look.

“Fine, guess their names,” Max said. A deck of cards wasn’t worth that much anyway.

Gus grinned and pointed at each of them in turn, “Borts, Bootus, Fooby, Furtis, and Chunus.”

“What? How did you know! Did you sneak a peek when we thought you were sleeping? That is very rude, you know. Igra don’t like outsiders seeing them without armor,” Chunus said.

Gus rocked back and raised his eyebrows a few times, “Nope. Slept through the night. You gonna help us get to the first layer, or welsh on the bet?”

Chunus held up a finger. “Halfway there, and you have to tell us how you did it so we know you didn’t cheat.”

“Sonic Step,” Gus said smugly.

Max smiled like dawn breaking. Apparently Gus’s Sonic Step card could see through their armor. At least well enough to tell who was who.

“Blind Bats,” Chunus cursed. “I hate that card and the builders that crafted it. Curse the tree they were born under. We’ll take you halfway there today, but you must let us hold that card until we arrive.”

Gus laughed and pulled out his card as he said, “Deal.”

After breakfast and once everyone was packed up, Borts waved his hands and the thicket shrunk back down into the ground.

Fooby grumbled as they started walking. “This is going to take days. Chunus, you don’t get to make the next bet.”

“Hey. I didn’t see you objecting when I offered the deal,” Chunus said. “Besides. I have a plan to speed things up.”

“What’s that?”

“These humans are newbies, remember? That means they are all less than tier one and don’t have any mana resistances.” Chunus mimed throwing a ball.

“Alright. I revoke my objection. This will be fun,” Fooby said and hopped in place.

“Wait. What’s going to be fun?” Max asked. He was starting to have a bad feeling about this.

Ebba’s eyes lit up. “Some of you have an evolved mass changing stat? Wonderful. I have Levitate at twelve, so I can play along if you want. I’m assuming Borts will move the vegetation out of the way?”

Chunus waved. “Course. We need your Disregard card to cover the middle of our formation. Otherwise we’ll just be ringing the dinner bell for titans.”

Max looked around. The talk about levitating wasn’t making him feel better. The Igra didn’t seem like they were joking, but he couldn’t see their facial expressions.

Chunus pointed to the ground. “Alright, humans and Lunuk, have a seat, grab your knees tight.”

“Why?” Max said, the question echoed by others.

“I guess you don’t have to sit down. It just makes things easier,” Chunus said. “Borts, Fooby, you two ready?”

“Yep.”

“Yeah.”

Max frowned, “Ready for-”

Before Max could finish the sentence, Chunus snaked forward and grabbed his arm and flung him forward. Fooby tapped him as Chunus reached the apex of his throw. Max yelped in surprise as he spun through the air. He could see flashes of the sky and ground. He was sure he was going to run into a tree, but it bent out of the way.

He kept flying though the air, spinning around, over and over again. Max flew forever, way longer than should be possible. He stopped yelling and tried to figure out what was going on. He felt like he was falling sideways.

Chunus bounded through the air beside him, catching him moments before he hit the ground. There was a sudden jerk and he was stationary. He didn’t feel the sudden deceleration, or the acceleration now that he thought about it.

“What the hell was that?” Max said as he backed up from the armored alien.

Chunus laughed, joined by the other Igra as they landed and caught the humans. Even Ebba laughed as she landed.

Borts gestured to Chunus and Fooby. “These two have their Weight and Levitate evolved. Chunus removed your inertia to throw you, and Fooby added it back after you started flying.”

“Yep. It’s a marvelous way to travel.” Chunus said. “This time, I think you should all grab your knees. It makes it easier for me to throw you. Oh, and this time, no screaming. Ebba’s Disregard card can only do so much.”

Gus took another step back. “Isn’t there a better way to travel? You’re gonna make me lose my lunch.”

Chunus tapped his legs. “The other option is to walk. With your tier, that would take several days. We can get you there today.”

The humans shared a look. This was an extremely unpleasant way to travel, but they needed to get to the first layer quickly.

Max took a big breath and said, “Alright. We’ll do it. I’ll try not to scream."

Ebba’s fingers smiled. “Can we go faster this time?”

“Of course,” Chunus said. “Hold tight.”

Max screamed.