“Who are you people? Seedlings that got here less than a month ago don’t have exceptional cards. Not one, let alone four of them. I arrived on the second layer, so I know everyone got a common card. Common citadel cards don’t have magic effects. So who are you guys, really?” Bisrat said and held the red ball up higher in a menacing manner.

“Calm down, we aren’t secretly strong,” Max said with his hands raised. “We have better than average cards because we had some crazy first days when we arrived on the third layer.”

Bisrat tilted her head. “Now you are expecting me to believe you made it from the third layer to here as seedlings? Do you think I’m actually dumb enough to believe that?”

“I’m not lying,” Max said, starting to get frustrated. “We had help from a Lunuk guide through most of the third layer, and some Igra helped us out even more when Gus won a bet.”

“It’s true. Trust us, Bisrat,” James said. “I can tell you are a good person. Just listen before you act, ok? We’ve had a wild few weeks, but that doesn’t mean we are lying.”

Bisrat slowly lowered her hands. “Maybe you are all seedlings. No one that has been here for a while would expect anyone to believe such an outlandish tale. Did that all really happen or were you trying to impress me with braggadocio?”

“It really happened,” Max said firmly. He listened to the door behind her. There were still occasional attacks to the dungeon walls.

James said, “Hey, we have time. I can tell you the whole story if you want.”

“Ekki segja henni neitt,” Gus said and held his arms up in a cross.

“What’s that, Gus? You want us to tell her everything? Even our secrets? Ok, will do,” James said with a shit eating grin.

Gus grumbled and James told Bisrat all about what happened to them since they got there. Max made sure he left out details about their magic cards, but he was fine with James telling her all about the big events. It was cathartic to tell her about everything that had happened to them. It was a lot in retrospect. He told her about the swarm of monsters that were drawn by guns, the titan that almost killed them all, and the dozens of monsters that attacked them along their way.

Lily jumped in to explain the betrayal of Feng and Fern and the escape from the war in Wild Plums. James gave a blow by blow of the mandatory dungeon run right afterwards. Max took his turn telling the story of the boss fight and the loss of Ashley, but he didn’t mention how they killed the boss or what card Ashely held. Next was their adventures in city of Twelve Meditations, then attempted card stealing, first by the mind controlling Lunuk. Then by Ebba’s Elders, if not Ebba herself. The whole story was depressing actually.

Other things came up in the retelling that helped Max feel a little less gloomy. The countless times Ebba saved their lives, the kindhearted innkeeper Hammurabi, the generous Igra that sped them along.

“That is ... quite the story,” Bisrat said. She had sat back down during the telling and knocked her fingers on her tail. “I find myself believing your unbelievable tale. It’s too wild for anyone to have made up. My own history is far less dramatic.”

She got more comfortable and said, “I arrived on the second layer, a few miles south of Beetletun. All the towers still worked then, so we had a gentle introduction to Spinworld. Too gentle, really. We were unprepared for how brutal this world is. Half of us died our first night outside the tower.”

James shivered at the thought.

She rolled her hand, “Anyway, the survivors made it to Beetletun and we joined a caravan to the first layer. It’s much safer there. My friends and I formed a party, we were successful dungeon climbers for a time. Then I got thrown in jail.

“I had a misunderstanding with the scion of the Governor of New Pants, and she had me arrested. My friends tried to win my freedom, but they failed. Paj rarely find justice in human run cities. In the end, two of them sold their cards to free me. I was very grateful, but the incident destroyed our party. Three of them left, and I do what I can to support the other two. Without a card, there aren’t a lot of opportunities to make money. I was lucky to keep my Acceleration card and carve out my niche as an artifact assayer. I try to send them money regularly, but times are tough in our little metal ball.”

Max nodded along. “I’m starting to realize how rare it is to survive, let alone thrive. By the way, why does everyone freak out about heart cards? It seems like people are willing to do almost anything to steal or swindle them away from the newly arrived.”

Bisrat smoothed her hair spines. “All magic cards are worth a substantial amount of money, but heart cards are special. They can be merged. Two common heart cards of the same type can be merged into an advanced card. You can’t do that with a regular card. Not outside of Specialization anyway.

“The rich and powerful in Spinworld hit a limit to their card magic quickly. The only way they can continue to advance is to get more powerful cards. That means incredible risk to life or limb on the fourth and fifth layers, or simply taking enough heart cards from seedlings. If you were in their position, what would you do?”

James nodded, “They set up bounties on heart cards. It’s one of the few rare resources on Spinworld.”

Max nodded along. It was nice James was opening up to someone new like that. Maybe because she was a green alien it bypassed his social anxiety.

While they were talking, Max refocused on his system.

He had two points to use to upgrade, and Bisrat hadn’t really been helpful. Well, that wasn’t true. She hadn’t told him the “correct” upgrade path, but that just meant the decision was up to him.

With that in mind, Max opened up his system and put both points into Flow. He felt the change wash over him from the inside out.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

When he was back on Earth, he used to donate plasma. They would replace the plasma with saline at the end. If the saline was cold, you could feel it working through your body, every vein protesting one at a time. This was much like that with a spreading change washing over his body from the inside out.

The feeling quickly passed and Max stood up to test out the dexterity difference. He almost fell over. It was like having rubber bones. Every movement went further than he was expecting. It was an odd sensation. He stretched out, finding his new limits.

Every part of him was more flexible, even his spine. He would crush the limbo competition back home.

Thankfully, he adjusted to the change quickly. He was more flexible now, and more in control of every movement. He also checked himself with Inspect and his internal magic seemed faster. It was still kind of fuzzy, but he got that impression.

He wanted to test out how his magic behaved now, but there wasn’t any random junk in the small atrium he could use.

Bisrat cleared her throat and said, “It doesn’t seem like the herd outside is leaving anytime soon. What do you all say to a quick dungeon run while we wait?”

Max shrugged. “Actually, I wouldn’t mind doing one or two of the lower floors. But I won’t consider it if we don’t have hundred percent buy-in. What do you guys think?”

Lily looked at the door into the dungeon. “What’s it like, Bisrat? You said you’ve been running this dungeon for a week, right? What’s the set up?”

“I can’t say for certain, dungeons change their layout and monsters all the time. Sometimes multiple times a day. But the layout has stayed the same since I got here and I can tell you about that,” Bisrat said and ‘stood up’.

“There are three main dungeon types. We call them Training, Entertainment, and Grinder. The first type teaches you something, like how to do an alien job. If you do the job well, it provides additional rewards. The second type has a story and playing along makes things much easier. The Blue Forest Dungeon is currently the third type, a grinder. There is no lesson, no story, just killing. Although again, things change and you should be prepared for anything.

“Grinder dungeons don’t have a way to make the climb easier. The only way to progress is to kill the monsters. On the first floor there are wraith fish, metal urchins, and shadow kraken. The second floor has all that plus sliver striders and chain umbrella. The third floor adds-”

Max cut her off and said, “I don’t think we’ll get that far. We almost died doing one floor in our last dungeon. We’ll probably call it quits after one or two floors, depending on how easy it is.”

Bisrat made a face and said, “The rewards after only two floors would be meager. How about you make a decision after every floor on whether or not to proceed?”

Max shrugged. “Fine by me. We still haven’t decided if we are going inside at all. Gus, do you have any idea how long your troll form will last? I don’t want you to lose it halfway through a fight. And we aren’t stepping a foot into the dungeon without you acting as our tank.”

Gus opened his mouth then closed it in frustration. He growled, a low sound that rumbled their chests. He nodded and held up three fingers.

“You do have a sense of how long it will last, three somethings. Minutes, hours?” Max said.

Gus pointed to him as he said hours.

“Hours. Three hours. That should be plenty of time. We should get back here within two hours just in case that sense is off.”

Gus grunted and gave a firm nod. He clearly didn’t like not being able to talk. Max kind of preferred it. Gus couldn’t piss anyone off if they didn’t understand his racist ramblings.

“Ok, Gus is in. How about you, Lily? We don’t have to do this, I am fine with taking a nap.”

“I’m in,” Lily said firmly.

“Me too,” James said.

There was a pause and Max turned towards the corner Yang was hiding in. “And you? I wanna hear everyone’s opinion.”

Yang came out of camouflage and stomped her foot. “How do you keep doing that? And yes, I am in.”

Max smiled and tapped his eyes, “I chose Inspect, remember? I can see the wisps of magic your card uses. I bet Bisrat can see you too.”

“I can, yes. But only when I’m paying attention. Max is strangely perceptive for a seedling. It was Yang, right? Yang, I can teach you exercises that will contain your mana, making it easier to hide from people that spoil the fun like Max.” Bisrat said with a smile.

Yang chuckled evilly while Max rolled his eyes.

Gus lumbered to his feet and made a gimme motion. Max handed over his extra large hammer and got out the other weapons he had stored there. A steel hammer, his crossbow, two drills, and a circular saw. Since his mana had regenerated, he created a few more weapons. He transmuted trash into a tungsten hammer, and sacrificed some food for a tungsten saw.

Both times he used his card, he felt something new. It was like a word on the tip of his tongue, he could almost grasp something new about mana, but he couldn’t understand it yet.

Lily got one of the drills, and James the steel hammer. Hopefully they wouldn’t need them. Yang still had her saw so Max kept the rest. Once he had everything situated, he turned to Bisrat.

She was staring at him with her mouth open. “Do you have any idea how rare a storage device is?”

“No? Ebba had one, and I’m sure I’ve seen one for sale before. Besides, mine is cursed.”

Bisrat shook her head. “Bags of holding are valuable. I don’t know how much one is worth because I’ve never seen one for sale. All I know is that the super rich always have one, but almost no one else does.”

Max stared at his belt with new appreciation. “I guess it’s a good thing it can’t be stolen from me then, 'cus of the curse.” He shrugged. “Anyway. If you are climbing with us, I need to know what you can do and you have to agree to be under my command. Are you ok with taking orders from a seedling?’

“Of course. I am soft locked at level 12, and my main card is Accelerate. It’s a clover suit card. The longer it has to work, the faster the object goes. I like to use it in conjunction with this cursed ball. It never returns to me. That means I can throw it in a dungeon room and never worry about getting hit.

“I Specialized in clover, but I only have two more cards. I would prefer to keep the details secret until I know you better. I am rather handy with my double bladed knife. I’m even better with a spear, but I had to sell mine a few months ago. My previous teams have placed me on the rearguard because I can spot stealth attacks easier that way.”

Max tsked. “Having you in the backline wouldn’t be that useful. You can’t use a melee weapon from a distance. And I’m assuming you can’t make your flubber ball avoid allies, right?”

“True, the red ball can’t differentiate friend from foe. However, my card makes knives a ranged weapon. And I never said I had just one,” Bisrat said and tapped her waist.

What Max had assumed was her armor was actually a row of stilettos. She wore a few dozen knives like a skirt. Max spread his hands. “Well, alright then. You can be backline with James. We’ll have Gus up front, Lily and I right behind him with melee support, then James and Bisrat with ranged support. Yang, keep practicing stealth from behind and engage when you think we need it.”

“Sounds good,” James said cheerily.

“Thank you for including me,” Bisrat said with a little bow. “And I promise, I take no offense to having Yang act as a gardener until you trust me more.”

The corner of Max’s mouth twitched up. He intended on Yang keeping an eye on Bisrat without her knowing. She had seen through that right away. Whatever. She said she was fine with it.

“Gus, open the door,” Max said as he shouldered his crossbow.