CVETKA KRALJ
The Salamar were strong opponents. With her iklwa being ineffective, all she could do was to smack people when they seemed to get into a trance and when hit to reflect the damage. She was in a lot of pain when the last of the Salamar fell. And tired. And low on health. However, when the rewards were distributed, she was first at the chest. “There is an iklwa as a system item. I would like to claim that one, as, as far as I know, no one of you uses one.”
The others nodded, and she took the item and attuned to it for a ridiculously low price of 10 Lira. She had brought her wallet, so for her, it was just done by linking her payment card and then ten Lira were deducted automatically.
Slashing at a corpse of one of the Salamar, she saw that the system weapon did damage the scales. For future battles against Salamar, she had a weapon that could do damage without the assistance of gravity. While she was busy testing the new weapon, she heard Crystal announcing a sword: “This is called the Sword of Revenge, so...”
She was interrupted immediately by Rush: “I take it.”
Igor looked at Rush and complained: “The hell you are going to do! It fits my style more than yours! This is a sword to be used with a shield and some common sense. Not a sword about your own size!” He pointed at Rush’s two handed weapon.
Rush responded in anger: “I am going to take it and there is nothing you can do about it!”
Igor responded: “Try me! Your daddy ain’t gonna save you now!”
Crystal interjected: “Let’s not fight, let’s first look at all the rewards first.”
The others murmured in agreement, but Rush didn’t let it go: “Stop interfering, or are you on Igor’s side?”
“I wish,” Igor grumbled, then he turned to Rush: “I feel that this sword is much more appropriate to my fighting style, you use a two-handed sword, I use a one handed one. So, I would like to ask you to stand back.”
Rush shook his head: “I am trained in both, so I have two responses for you: the first is no and the second one is fuck off!”
Igor looked at him with barely concealed rage: “You could at least offer me something to step away from your claim, you know?”
Rush scoffed: “I give you a fist to the head if you don’t!”
Crystal started to ignore the two almost combatants and called out the next item, gauntlets of spirit. Another discussion emerged, this one between two other members of the group. Crystal shouted: “For the love of the System, we had learned what to do upon loot disputes! Do we have to solve this like barbarians‽”
Rush shouted: “Yeah, these were written for earth. We are on fucking Tsanh! The worst planet ever! There is nothing here! Not enough alcohol, not enough water, and the worst heat I ever encountered. I feel annoyed that I have to hang out here until the tournament is won and I miss having a decent bed that is not covered in sand. I am out of charitable, I am out of civil and I am out of fucks to give about this! I just want off this planet and I want to do so fast, but this fucking place wants me dead!”
Igor responded: “Do you really think that you are the main character? Don’t you realise this is the same for every-fucking-one here? We all want off this planet as fast as possible, and it wants all of us dead. Do you get that? Or do these words go in one ear and out the other because there is nothing in there interrupting their journey‽”
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Rush stopped for a moment, looked around, then looked at Igor: “You know what? Keep that damn sword!” He threw it to Igor.
Eventually, the loot was distributed without too much loss of hitpoints. Cvetka and Crystal left the dungeon as one of the last ones, not wanting to expose their backs to the quarrelsome rest of the group. Crystal looked at Cvetka and asked: “You agree with Rush?”
Cvetka shrugged: “He seems to be quite frustrated with everything here and doesn’t see the positives. We have one fragment of our life where we can do things without everyone in our families interfering all the time. Where we are held on a longer leash for once. Yes, no one but Sarah wll like this weather or the sand here, but at least we have places to stay, food to eat, water to drink – well, and booze. Have you ever looked at the absolute state that the scorpion settlements are in?”
Crystal shook her head: “No, I mean, I wasn’t aware that pictures were available…”
Cvetka smiled: “Everything is available for a price.”
TEKI
Teki hated the pod for its narrowness. He felt the urge to just break through it and swim in the sea, but as he knew that this would cost his life – or get him discovered by the local wildlife (including monsters) and then cost his life if he wore the watersuit, he pushed the urge down. He looked at the dungeons and saw a surprising amount of first clears. The drop bears did their grade 2 dungeon with no casualties. The grade 9 dungeon was surprisingly the first clear. He checked the team composition, realised it made no sense, was about to investigate when he reminded himself that nothing on this planet made any sense. All he would catch was material that could potentially be used against him. Things that no one would initially check but would then be held against him for not checking.
He sighed and tried to meditate to cope with being cooped up in such a tiny place. Just when he thought he was getting somewhere, he received a call, he checked the name and saw the name Darwin Greenland. He sighed and answered: “Teki speaking.”
The voice was angry: “Any news on my daughter?”
He checked the dungeon records to make sure: “She defeated the grade 9 dungeon with a party of 6 in a first clear.”
Darwin’s voice became somewhat softer: “She returned and found a group to do a clear with? Good to hear that the rebellious streak got ripped out of her already. Who was in her group?”
“The party was her, Shivers-in-Sunlight, Nourishes-and-Cares, Burrows-in-Case-of-Trouble, Swims-in-the-Stream, and Nketjdi.” Teki said.
There was a pause: “The first clear went to a local group?” Darwin asked in confusion.
“Well, not quite, there was Skips…, I mean Sarah,” Teki explained, “so technically, it was mixed.”
He responded icily: “She is still with the natives living out her rebellion? I thought I taught her better. Did she at least take a good class? Or has she been a total disappointment?”
Teki checked: “Solidarity’s Longstrider is her class.”
He scoffed: “Is that what I pay you for? To get her such a bizarre class that no one ever heard of? No!”
Teki sounded tired in his response: “If she didn’t change her species so the initiation fragment no longer matched, this could’ve been avoided.”
There was another pause: “How did she manage to do that? Do I want to know?”
Teki wasn’t sure if he was lying but decided not to check the logs: “Basically, something caused a deviation making her a Human-of-Tsanh instead. Something akin to a Sygia, I would assume.”
Darwin made a sound that showed that he was displeased: “That is so typical of her. Such a mindless rebellion! And like the Sygia it will only end in defeat! She really has no idea how the real world works. And all the talk about there being already a system, that was the case on many worlds already. All it means is more rewards for integration.”
Teki responded curiously: “More rewards for a second system? I have not found anything like that on my paycheque.”
Darwin laughed: “Only for people who work on managing the integration, you know actually working on the integration. Don’t worry about it!”
Teki coiled up, ready to strike, but kept his demeanour unchanged: “I understand.”
Teki ended the call quickly, then he frowned. He didn’t want to do this, but he felt like he had been cheated a few times too much. He used to believe in Unlimited Potential, but he had recently felt that this belief had been extinguished. “Solidarity, second system, however you call yourself, I have been betrayed and for that reason would like to humbly ask you for integration.”