by S Bailey
“Well, that’s still some pretty powerful shit, and it amazes me that you’re able to see the cameras from all the drones in your mental onboard.” Sam said, as they continued running up the mountain.
Jen thought about the system message they both received right after arriving at the cabin.
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System Message
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Congratulations! Full implementation complete. Attributes and skills will now increase 12 times faster until your departure.
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Just the few days since receiving the message, their training had them running at almost Olympic speeds and duration. Initially, Jen felt that a growth rate multiplier of 12 would simply give them the benefit of 12 months of training in one month. However, the multiplier not only applied to their growth rate, but their recovery rate, too. Sleeping one hour was like sleeping 12 hours. Catching your breath after a run for two minutes, was like resting for 24 minutes. Resting after a set of dumbbell curls for 2 seconds was like resting for 24 seconds.
Jen joked while they raced, and said, “I can’t wait; I’m going to build me a giant mech suit like Ironman that I can control with my mind and take over the world!”
Sam laughed with her, but mainly he was relieved that she was able to keep a sense of humor about the whole thing, sort of.
They both knew that they were probably going to simply die in some sort of glowing rainbow transfer, or they were going to be some kind of alien abduction torture subjects. The odds clearly gave them a 95% chance of death. Sam didn’t care, he was focused on savoring every remaining moment with Jen, and the training and joking was a great way to distract them from their potential death.
Later, Sam was sitting at the kitchen table with an AM/FM radio. He had an idea to try and power-up the radio with just his mana, but only after taking out the batteries, killing any stored memory, and then draining every ounce of electricity out of the device. “Any ideas before I charge it with mana?”
Jen looked up from the drone she was working on, shrugged, and said, “maybe think about trying to direct the mana up through the electrical cord, the way electricity would work. I don’t know.”
“Here we go.” Sam pushed his mana into the radio and almost immediately yanked his hand back like he had been bitten by a snake and grunted, “Shit that hurt! Another device turned to slag, but the damn metal sliced pretty deep through the side of my palm.”
He was about to go get a bandage when Jen waived him down and said, “Wait, wait! Stay right there, I want to try something first.” She came back into the kitchen with a washcloth and wiped his hand clean, ignored his grunt of pain from the alcohol she poured all over the cut, and then she pushed her mana with the intent of healing his hand.
They both stared dumbfounded as they watched the cut in his hand visibly heal. Jen then received a system message:
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Jen
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Minor Mend Level 1
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After they high-fived each other with excitement about her minor mend spell, Jen looked suspiciously over at Sam. He was holding up a small knife with a wicked grin as reached for the alcohol and said, “OK Jen, I’m sure you want me to practice, too.”
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Sam
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Minor Mend Level 1
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Chapter 9:
Bovine
Jen and Sam watched and researched everything they could find out about the Lottos. Jen was discussing the disabled man that walked with a sever limp, and how he took his service dog with him, when Sam’s head perked up and he immediately grabbed the laptop and pulled up the video and then watched several more videos, and he said, “I’ve got an idea. Let’s go!” He waved for Jen to follow him out to their truck.
Jen said, “What’s going on, where are we going?”
Sam smiled and said, “It’s a surprise, you’ll see.”
From the phone calls Sam made while they were driving out of the mountains, Jen found out that they were going to purchase a cattle trailer, fencing, cattle feed, and three cows.
When they finally returned to the cabin, it was late, but with their reduced need for rest and their greatly improved physical skills, they started building a small fence coral for the cows. Sam refused to tell Jen what the cows were for, and she finally settled on her theory that he planned to possibly use them for food, or barter, or who knows depending on where they actually transferred to.
Just before morning as she was nailing the fencing to another post with only the horrible flood light to see with, Jen remembered one of the powers she read about in the agency files. She concentrated, focusing her mana on the darkness around her for a few minutes, then said with some excitement, “It worked! I don’t know why I didn’t remember this earlier.”
Sam looked over at Jen with curiosity, “What did you figure out?”
Jen turned off all the flashlights and floodlights they were using to light the work area. It was so dark in the wooded mountains that Sam couldn’t see his own hand in front of his face.
Sam said, “What are you up to?” As he strained to see or hear where Jen was, but he could only barely get a sense of her walking around.
She finally laughed as she snuck up right behind him and whispered, “It’s night vision! Do your best to try and see what’s around you while willing your mana to help you see, and poof, you can see in the dark!”
A few minutes later Jen saw Sam move his head around in surprise as he started focusing on seeing everything. They both received a system message telling them that they received the skill “Night Vision.”
They finally got everything settled with the cattle just before morning. Then they took a 40 minute “nap” which translated to a full eight hours of rest and started training again.
With Jen’s psych skill she could sense the emotions of the cows, and she could send her intentions to the cows making it possible for them to almost understand what she wanted. Jen was happy that the cows quickly bonded with her as she fed and groomed them.
Sam started getting the cattle trailer ready, and said, “With only a week left before we are scheduled to be teleported, transferred, or whatever to the Seven Decks, I think they’ve bonded with you enough, and we don’t really have additional time anyways.”
Jen shrugged in agreement. “Let’s go then.”
They headed down the mountain and drove several hours away into a forest with no one nearby. They had driven late into the night and during the last half hour they drove without their lights on before Sam finally stopped.
Jen accessed the system and selected the three cows to join her team and help her beat the odds.
Sam sighed and said, “We’re going to have to leave any of the cows that don’t accept. We can’t have them accepting later when we get back to the cabin and setting off the rainbow and fireworks. Go for it!”
Jen then used her psych skill to encourage them to “accept” her request.
To Sam’s great relief, almost immediately the cows accepted the request. Three rainbows and fireworks went off as the system responded.
Sam and Jen quickly loaded the cows into the trailer, jumped in the truck, and they all got the hell out of there before someone came looking for the new Lottos to collect the bounties.
Chapter 10:
Crunch Time
Jen muttered with frustration as she tried for at least the 100th time to create a fireball. “Why can’t I learn this spell? There were several agency files showing how a few of the other Lottos were able to create fireballs!”
Sam nodded with a look of support. “I know it’s infuriating, because we’ve both learned that with a little more time or insight, anything is possible with mana. However, let’s consider, in the last couple of weeks, I’ve learned every major language in the world. I can create minor spell charms. We can send mental texts to each other. You can control electronic devices with your mind! We both have night vision and the ability to do m
inor healing, and last but not least, our physical stats are twice that of Olympians.”
Jen relaxed a little, recognizing the stress she was feeling and said, “Good point. I’m not going to give up on casting fireballs, but for now we need to focus on learning all the skills and spells that we could possibly need before transfer time, and before our 12x progression speed runs out.”
Jen had been making notes trying to brainstorm spells they should try to learn when she swore in anger and said to Sam, “I can’t believe I didn’t think of this sooner. It is so obvious! We’ve been training to increase our strength, speed, and agility, but we haven’t tried to use our mana to amplify these basic physical skills that we are intimately familiar with.”
Sam gave her an excited grin and said, “Let’s do it!”
By the morning of the 29th day after being selected as Lottos, the size and appetite of the three cows were that of small elephants. Jen was also giddy with accomplishment and hope after she and Sam had been able to learn several skills during their last week of training:
Strength Enhancement skill
Agility Enhancement Skill
Sight Enhancement Skill
Constitution Enhancement Skill
Stealth Enhancement Skill
Chapter 11:
Birthday Suit
Jen was trying to relax in the recliner, she could see Sam was awake on the couch staring at the ceiling, and said, “Whatcha thinking about?”
Sam took a deep breath and replied, “I can’t sleep. I need to sleep; I should sleep, but my mind is just overwhelmed with anxiety about what is going to happen tonight. My gut is just in knots. I’m worried about you, and……. Then my mind repeats the same thoughts over and over.”
Jen simply replied with a small crack in her voice, “Me too.”
No matter how much Jen and Sam wished they could view it as a new adventure or rushing into the pit of hell ready to fight the devil himself, they simply couldn’t. Neither of them wanted this.
Sam looked guiltily over at Jen and said, “Now, there are just a few last items that we need to discuss. I’ve been putting this off, and joking with you about the cows, but here is what I’ve got planned...”
Three giant dead cows lay in the yard. Sam had killed and gutted all three of them. Inside each cow was a plastic-wrapped tactical bag containing weapons, ammo, several knives, body armor, clothing, tactical boots, miscellaneous survival gear, tech gear and drones, and a crossbow and bolts. Once he finished packing all the gear inside of the cows, he then sewed them back up.
Jen had been horrified when Sam first told her what the cows were for, but when he explained, “Remember, when you were talking about the disabled Lotto with the severe limp. In his video there were no steel pins, rods, or other items left after his transfer, which must have been used in all the surgeries he would’ve had on his leg. I then noticed in the videos of many of the other Lottos being transferred, you never saw any gold teeth, crowns, metal fillings, or other foreign objects that are commonly actually inside of people’s bodies.”
Jen had become attached to the cows but grudgingly agreed it was worth trying, but she refused to participate or even watch him kill and butcher the cows she had bonded with.
After preparing the cows and gear, Sam cleaned up and called for Jen to come outside. Feeling guilty about the cows, he now felt really odd when he said, “One last thing. Take your shirt off.”
As they were waiting the last few moments before the transfer to the Seven Decks, Jen and Sam were both shirtless hugging each other so tightly her ribs were hurting from the pressure, their mouths were shut, and they couldn’t talk. They were talked out anyways, but their eyes communicated their love and commitment to one other.
Just a few seconds before transfer, Jen checked her stat screen and was stunned when she realized the odds of death upon transfer had dropped to 78%. With a little difficulty she mumbled, “Love you, old man.”
“Love you too, kid,” he mumbled back.
Then Jen felt something in the air, it felt like the mana that was inside her was turning to steam. She tightened her grip on Sam, and she could feel his grip tighten back.
Rainbows appeared out of the sky completely engulfing their bodies and the cows.
Everything seemed to disappear. All of her energy and power, along with the mana inside her, instantly ripped out of her. She couldn’t move; her whole body locked in place, but she could still feel Sam. The world came into focus, and she felt Sam release her naked body.
Sam’s muscles, veins, and organs all seemed to tighten in excruciating pain as the mana was torn out of him, but the one thing he kept his mind hyper-focused on was the Smith & Wesson Bodyguard 380 that was tightly compressed and sealed between his belly and Jen’s.
He released Jen and reached for the gun, and the feel of the handle was one of the greatest reliefs he ever experienced. Sam was in terrible pain and wanted to collapse to the ground, but he forced himself to check out his surroundings.
Fortunately for Jen and Sam, the three bandits spawn camping this particular transfer pad were shocked when the three elephant-sized cows appeared. The bandits hesitated just a couple of seconds, before continuing their charge towards Sam and Jen with their raised swords and axes.
Sam was an excellent shot and experienced with combat stress, but his first shot went wild and hit one of the bandits in the shoulder. He cursed inwardly, “I’ve only got 6 rounds in this little 380 magazine. Every shot must count! Fast is slow, Slow is Fast” he mumbled to himself as he methodically shot all three bandits in the face.
Sam knew that he got lucky, because the sound of the first shot appeared to cause all three bandits to flinch and slow in surprise. If they had kept charging him at full speed, one of them probably would have chopped him in half.
After the third bandit went down, Jen was still feeling like she had been run over by a truck, but she had already spat the multi-tool out of her mouth and was cutting open the cows to retrieve their gear bags. She worked as fast as possible while Sam kept watch.
Less than a minute later, Jen yelled, “Here you go,” as she threw Sam’s gear bag beside him and announced, “I’ve got you covered.” Sam and Jen were still completely naked, but he noticed Jen had removed her M-4 assault rifle and body armor from the gear bag and took watch. He snatched the bag and readied his own M-4 and body armor within a few seconds.
Sam inspected their surroundings while Jen recovered the gear bags. They appeared to have been transported to a forested mountain range in the middle of nowhere. Sam grabbed his gun bag and said, “Leave all the other bags. We’ve got to get somewhere safe and fast.”
They moved off into the forest as fast as they could, considering they were both still feeling sick and weak from the transfer. Sam led the way and eventually found a hidden area that overlooked their transfer site. They laid down in the prone position, keeping completely silent, listening, slowly recovering, and watching for anything.
Jen whispered to Sam, “Did you get a system message?”
He replied, “Yes, but I swept it out of my vision immediately. Ignore it and stay focused, we are still in a hot zone. We can pull it all up later.”
Jen did not like that response; her curiosity was killing her, but she wasn’t going to take the chance and be responsible for getting them killed.
After several hours of nothing Sam whispered to Jen, “Keep an overwatch. My mana has barely started to refill, but I feel like my strength and stamina are back. I’m going to get dressed and properly equip the rest of my gear.” When Sam was fully dressed and equipped, he lay back down in an overwatch position and said, “Your turn.”
Once Jen was equipped and back into position, Sam said, “I’m going to go back down there, get the rest of our gear, and see if those bandits have anything useful on them.”
She watched as Sam slowly, painstakingly, moved back towards the bandits. He entered the ambush site like a wild animal that suspected it was ent
ering a trap. She noticed him check on one of the barbarian-looking bandits wearing medieval looking fur and leather clothing, when all of a sudden the bandit’s body just disappeared.
Jen cursed herself, “Quit watching Sam; look for the enemy!” She was just going to have to wait until he returned to find out what the hell was going on. Jen could see out of the corner of her eye, the other bodies disappearing and then all the cows disappearing.
Sam texted her, “I found some magic space rings on the bandits that I can put all our shit in. Keep watch, I’ll be done in just a few minutes.”
Jen chanted in her mind, “Keep focus, scan for the enemy, ignore all the cool magic disappearing shit going on.”
Sam texted Jen, “I tried to make the site look deserted before I left. I’m going to try to find a better overwatch position. I’ll be back in 20 minutes, but I will check in every 5 minutes. Please keep a watch on the ambush site.”
Jen acknowledged Sam’s message. She was normally the leader of their group, but she knew being a good leader required recognizing and following someone else when they were more experienced.
When Sam returned, he led her much further away in a more secluded location, but with his spotter scope from the gear bag, they could still keep eyes on the ambush site.
Once they were settled in, they remained silent and continued to only text each other.
Sam looked a little sheepish when he held up his hand with a ring on it and texted, “I almost swiped away a loot message about this space ring without reading it, because I was trying to stay alert. When I touched the first dead bandit, a system message asked if I would like to loot the body. When I accepted, the system notified me that I had recovered a ring of holding, a battle axe, weapons, clothing, rations, and 5 silver, and 20 copper.”
“So, what happened to all the stuff and the bodies?” replied Jen impatiently.
“The system then asked if I would like to place the items in the ring or deposited on the ground. When I selected to deposit the items in the ring, the ring fell in my hand. As I started to see if it would fit on any of my fingers, it automatically adjusted in size to fit perfectly. When I looted the other bandits, they each had rings as well, but those rings and all their gear went directly into the ring I was wearing. I then stored the rest of the gear bags from the cows into the rings before Looting the cows, which gave us like 300 lbs of beef and some leather hides I believe.”