His brother’s potential affiliation with a war mongering city was a problem for future Max. Today he needed to find some food and a hotel, in that order. They started walking through the human part of town. It was crowded, moreso as they got further from the walls. Max looked up to the twelve hills in the distance. This city was huge, maybe ten times the size of the one they had just left.

They slowly walked along the street, taking in the city. Interestingly enough, there wasn't any glass in the windows. Maybe it was hard to make here, or maybe it wasn’t worth it when it only rained for a short while in the morning. The more they walked through the city, the more it seemed intentional that it was built to resemble a frontier town from the old west.

James hitched his thumbs into his belt loops and started walking bow legged. He spit out imaginary chewing tobacco and said, “What you reckon we should do tomorrow? I was thinkin we might track down some cattle wrestlers.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Gus said.

“Ignore him, James. I think you make a fantastic cowboy,” Max said. He tipped an imaginary hat at his friend. “Let’s find something to eat and a place to sleep before we hunt down any varmints.”

The ring of human made buildings around the city was a few blocks wide, adding up to much more land than the human neighborhood in Wild Plums. It didn’t take long for them to find a delicious noodle shop. After Lily paid for everyone, they headed out to look for a place to stay.

There were several hotels and a few inns, but all of them were full of refugees. They had to spread their search wider to find open rooms.

“I don’t have any spare rooms, exactly. Igra hotels have communal quarters. I’ve been told humans call it barracks style. I can rent you five beds for the night. Half an egg.”

“We don’t have any of the local currency. You take white monster cores?”

“Monster cores, ey? You lot must be cardholders. Don’t get a lot of those in Twelve Meditations.”

“That’s a problem here too? Vultures preying on newly arrived and swindling them out of their cards?” Max asked, disappointed. He had hoped that it was only the third layer that was so cutthroat.

“You’re going to find that sort of thing in every enclave. Most people are decent, regardless of species. It doesn’t take a lot of bad apples to ruin it for most of us,” the innkeeper shrugged his pauldrons. “Just keep your cards on you and do your best not to make a bad deal. To answer your original question, one white core is worth three whole eggs. So the beds for the night will cost you a sixth of a monster core. I can make change for you.”

Max handed over a core and said, “Thanks.”

The innkeeper held out two small metal eggs and a half of one. “Actually, if you want, we can make a little wager. Let’s play a game of hounds and jackals. If you win, I’ll give you back your core. If I win, I’ll keep the change and you all still get to stay the night.”

Max shook his head. “Betting against an Igra is a losing proposition. I’ll take the change.”

“Ah, can’t blame a helm for trying, right? Your beds are on the far side of the room. Look for numbers 18-23.”

Max nodded and headed back to the beds. It was a windowless room with dozens of small divisions. There was a curtain across half of them, the others still open. The floor was wooden and the walls porcelain. It reminded Max of shower stalls at the pool.

The center of the room was a long table with low stools. A half dozen people played a board game on the far end of the room. None of them looked up as they walked in. Max collapsed into his bed, only just remembering to close his curtain. Not being able to take his belt off was uncomfortable, but he had an eventful day. He quickly fell asleep.

...

Why was the ceiling made of swords?

Max blearily stared at the ceiling as the events of the last few days slowly percolated into his mind. He was in an Igra inn. He hadn't noticed it before, but the ceiling was made of tessellated swords, merged together into one. He had been woken by the morning rain on the metal roof.

The first thing on his to-do list today was exploring how his belt worked. Actually, that would have to be his second thing. The first was to double check his timer for how long he had before he got turbo-cancer.

Mandatory Quest

Your body cannot handle the level 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 [24] cycles or you will develop incurable cancer.

Max sighed in relief. They had plenty of time. Twenty-four days was well over the five days Ebba thought the trip would take.

He smiled as he turned back to his belt. If he could still use the dimensional pocket this morning, it meant the belt refreshed at the same time every day. If not, it meant that it refreshed overnight.

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

He reached into the upper right hand pocket and focused on pulling out the cassava root he had stuffed in there. Instead, he pulled out a hacksaw. Well, that answers that. Every morning he would have five tasks to complete to unlock the usage of the pocket of holding. He looked around for something disposable he could cut. Moments later, the wooden bedpost had a tiny notch cut into it. Max made a mental note to reimburse the innkeeper.

The next thing he pulled out was a toothbrush. How convenient. He headed over to the communal bathroom and brushed his teeth along with his normal morning ablutions. The toothbrush dissolved into mana when he considered his teeth clean. Once he was back at his bed, he pulled out the next item.

It was a plush unicorn. He furrowed his brow. It was a decoration for kids. Could he just put it on the bed near his pillow? To his delight, the answer was yes. The pink unicorn dissolved into motes of mana and he moved on to the next pocket.

This time he held a charm bracelet. It was made of silver metal links and dangled a variety of dice. It was DnD themed. Max chuckled to himself as he put it on his wrist. Once it puffed into a cloud of mana, he pulled out his final task of the day.

It was an extension cord. No actual device, just the cord. This one might be harder than the others. The first thing he tried was to plug it into itself. Didn’t work. He rummaged through his stuff and remembered his solar charger. He hadn’t used it since his exolegs broke. He set it up and plugged the extension cord into the solar charger and then into his kindle’s charger. Once he had everything connected, the cord disappeared.

That had been close. He didn’t know what he would have done if that hadn’t worked. Right now, he only had a cassava root stored in there, but one day he might put something important in there.

He tilted his head to the side. Actually, there might be a way around the belt’s drawback. He re-read the belt’s description to be sure. He only had to use random items once a day and then he would have access to the dimensional storage all day. He could put his whole pack into his belt and he wouldn’t have to carry it around all day. As long as he took his pack out at the end of the day, there was never any risk of losing it. He decided to go ahead throw the pack into his storage belt.

Just to be safe, he decided to take out the important things, his remaining five white monster cores, and the two magic cards. The rest of his stuff was important, but he could purchase replacements.

He pulled out the Actuator card right away, but Ashley’s old Listen card wasn’t there. It should have been right next to the other card in an inner pocket. The hexagonal card was missing. He grumbled to himself and started taking things out one at a time to track it down.

The Listen card wasn’t there. He checked through all the pockets again without any luck. Max stood up and ran his hands through his hair. Where had it gone? Had he dropped it somewhere accidentally, or had someone stolen it?

He packed everything back into his pack and shouldered it. He paused. He was planning on testing out his belt before he noticed the missing card. Might as well try now.

The pack came back off his shoulders and he held it to the pocket. He had been expecting it to get sucked in, but that didn’t happen. He tried again, putting a strap into the pocket first. This time it worked, the bag dropping into the pocket like it was falling to the floor. Nice. That improved his mood a bit.

He still had to deal with the missing card, though. He looked around as he walked out of the alcove. Gus and James were playing a game with a trio of Igra on one end of the table, Yang and Lily were quietly chatting on the other end of the table. Both women were wearing skirts. It was Yang’s first new outfit, other than the chitin armor. The material was red with a slight shimmer. They must have gone clothes shopping and bought something local.

Max called the humans together and said, “I think someone stole the Listen card.”

James turned to look at the Igra. “Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure. I just spent the last ten minutes going through my bag twice,” Max said and looked at their faces. “Someone stole the card, probably listening to our thoughts right now.”

“How do we know you didn’t take it for yourself and want to blame us?” Gus said and gave him the stink eye.

Lily shook her head, “Don’t be an idiot, Gus. Max and I both picked Specialize. We can’t use a bell card like Listen.”

Gus scoffed and said, “I knew that. I was just testing you. Trying to see if the real thief would reveal themselves.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “Whatever. It’s clear you didn’t steal it, your beer gut would have gotten in the way of any sneaking. James is too timid to steal something like that. Besides, he’s Max’s best friend, he would just ask him for it. That leaves just one person. Someone with a Deafen card to make sneaking in easy.”

Yang turned to Lily with a hurt look on her face. “I did not steal it.”

Lily squinted. “Alright. I believe you. It must have been one of the Igra.”

“Just like that? Interrogation over? Why do you trust her anyway? We know she’s a criminal.” Gus said and pointed an accusing finger at Yang.

“Because Yang isn’t braindead. She wouldn’t steal it the first night we had the card. All the clues point to her, she would have to be a moron to steal it. We would suspect her right away,” Lily said with a wave of her hand.

Max shook his head, “It doesn’t really make sense that an Igra would take the card. How would they know that I had it in my bag? And if they were stealing stuff, why did they leave my other magic card?”

Lily tapped her chin. “Good point. We don’t really know much about the resources or motivations an alien species might have. But it does seem strange that the Listen card was stolen and your other card wasn’t.”

“Yeah,” Max said softly. There was a silence while they looked at each other suspiciously.

Gus stood up, “Y’all are creeping me out. I’m heading out to eat breakfast. Don’t none of you come with me.”

Mas shook his head as Gus walked out, bringing his pack with him. “Whatever. I didn’t want to use the Listen card anyway. It just bothers me that someone else has it now. That and the lost money.”

“Don’t worry, buddy,” James said and patted him on the shoulder. “You can create a hammer that makes monster’s heads explode. Money isn’t going to be a problem.”

Max nodded distractedly. He suspected everyone of stealing the card, but mostly Gus. He hadn’t liked the bearded man when he met him. Fighting with him by his side had only slightly improved his opinion of the man.

He kept telling himself that it didn’t matter. Who cared if Gus could hear Max’s thoughts? Max wasn’t the one keeping secrets. His heart wasn’t listening to his head. The whole thing made him feel violated and angry.

He stood up. He needed to move. To do something, whether or not it would fix things.