by S Bailey
“That’s as good a theory as any right now. Hey, try charging one of the charms and see how much of your mana is used.”
Sam held the charm in his hand as he focused on his mana infusing the metal for about 5 seconds, and said, “Looking at my stats; I think it took about ¼ point of mana.”
Jen sighed with relief, “Not great, but much better than my worst expectations. Crap! I just realized our psychic mental texting has been drawing on our mana pool. OK, let’s go through our skills and determine the mana draw of each. First, I’m going to activate my night vision just for a few minutes to determine its mana draw.”
After watching Jen test her night vision, Sam messaged, “Do you think we will have enough mana by nighttime?”
Jen shrugged, “I also just now checked our psych texting function, and it costs next to no mana, so….we can use it as much as we want. If the nighttime on this world is 10 hours or less, and we rotate watch, I think the night vision skill would cost us each about 5 mana. After you get to five mana, I want you to start charging up the forgetme charms. Also, earlier, while I was going through the inventory, I sensed the emotions of some large beasts that felt like they were pretty far away, but if they get close, we should do our best to avoid getting their attention.”
“Good plan, Boss,” Sam replied as he adjusted slightly while still keeping his eyes on the transfer pad.
Chapter 14:
Aim for the Legs
Jen decided to spend the next day in place to maximize their mana, and have Sam power-up more of his charms. The area they were in was covered in beasts of all levels. Most of the beasts appeared to be unsure of them and kept their distance. Jen’s psych ability turned out to be incredibly helpful, allowing them to avoid the apex predator beasts as they scouted their surroundings.
She was also getting more confident in sensing the emotions of the beasts that were running from predators or chasing prey.
Sam’s forgetme charms, had turned out to be invaluable as well. The night turned out to be about 7 hours long and there were a few times the beasts made their way close enough to sense them, but they would power up the charms and the beasts just kept on moving past. However, one level 9 beast made them burn through two charms before it moved on.
Jen hadn’t had time to try and inspect the stats of the bandits when they were ambushed, so she had no idea what the average stats were for people on this world. With their agility enhancement skill activated, they moved so quickly that they blurred through the forest. However, the faster they moved, the more it drew from their mana pool. Jen also didn’t know if everyone on this world could move this way with mana.
They were still concerned with other bandits coming to look for the bandits they killed, so Jen and Sam became familiar with the surrounding forest in case they needed to run.
It was just after midday, and Jen and Sam decided that the next morning they would leave and start looking for Casino City, when Jen messaged, “Something is happening. Large beasts are getting spooked and leaving the area. Go get in position.”
“Got it, Boss” he messaged back, as he immediately moved into another ambush overwatch they located, allowing for greater fire coverage by both of them. “In place, Boss,” Sam messaged a few moments later.
After about 15 minutes passed, Jen noticed two bandits that appeared to be dragging along 5 people, or slaves maybe, they were being ridiculed and beaten as they were forced down the trail.
System Message:
The Greater the Risk, the Greater the Reward!
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Gambling Quest: Free the Slaves
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Requirements: Free the slaves from their captors!
Before the bandits leave the transfer pad, free the slaves – odds of dying 87% Reward of 3 ability points and 1 euphoria for every ability point gambled, maximum bet of 3.
Reward of 1 ability point and 2 euphoria for every ability point gambled, maximum bet of 3.
==
Accept: Yes/No
==
The bigger bandit was powerful, Jen could feel his strength through her psych link. She used her psych ability and was excited that she was able to pull up his stat sheet. He was level 22 with most of his points in strength and stamina. “That explains why all the predator beasts were fleeing the area, and why he was clearly unconcerned about making noise, or using advance scouts as he moved down the forest trail.”
Jen sent a quick sitrep (situation report) to Sam and told him, “I can’t sense any other bandits in the area. We are going to free these slaves whether we accept the gambling quest or not!” Jen adjusted her rifle’s aim to cover the smaller bandit. “We will take these bandits down. I will provide a countdown, 3, 2, 1, fire, and on fire, I will take out the smaller bandit, and you use the larger 308 assault rifle to take out the big one with all the fancy armor. If anything goes wrong or we lose sight of either bandit during the ambush, we take off and meet up at the rally point. I’m going to accept the quest with a bet of 3 ability points. Up to you if you want to accept the quest.”
“Got it, Boss,” was all she received back from Sam. Jen started the count down.
Sam watched his “on board” as it counted down, “3, 2, 1, fire.”
They fired simultaneously. Jen didn’t stop firing, putting two more rounds into the smaller bandit until he was down and no longer moving. She quickly shifted fire to the big ass bandit.
Jen could tell that Sam had already fired 3 or 4 of the larger 308 rounds into the bandit, and he was still standing! Sam’s steady firing into his center mass was keeping the bandit from running, but he wasn’t going down, and he looked like he was reaching towards a ring on his hand.
Jen took aim at the bandit’s less-armored legs, and it took her 6 or 7 rapid shots, but she finally scored enough hits on his legs that the bandit went to the ground. However, he still wasn’t out. They both continued to fire into the big bandit as he was trying to get back to his feet almost as if he was going to just shrug off being shot so many times. Jen heard Sam fire at least 3 or 4 more rounds before scoring a headshot, and then another headshot, finally taking the bandit down permanently.
“Holy Shit! We didn’t bring enough ammo!” came up in Jen’s “onboard.” Both Jen and Sam received system experience, increased level messages, reward messages, and a bounty ticket, but they waved them away to review later.
The slaves were all huddled together on the side of the trail after watching the bandit leader GanJo get killed. “They must be gamblers” one slave said to the others around him, as he tried to look as unthreatening as possible.
“What is he holding?” the female slave said while pointing at Sam’s rifle.
“Maybe they are here to rescue us and let us go” another one prayed.
“He’s keeping his face covered and look how fast he is moving down the slope towards us; I can barely track his movements. He is like one of those legendary Rangers,” said another.
The slaves hadn’t noticed Jen. She was staying in her ambush overwatch keeping her sights trained on the slaves, in case they tried anything.
Sam heard some of their comments as he moved towards them, and he was shocked that they spoke English, but he didn’t let that distract him as he walked slowly towards the two downed bandits. Sam approached the two bandits on the ground and without comment put another round in the head of each of the bandits from close range.
“Overkill is the only way to kill” he thought to himself, remembering the comment his Team Sergeant had always used. “Plus, that big bastard was scary. How could anyone take so many rounds before going down?” he thought, as he kicked and looted both bandits.
“Is he crazy for blood or something? They are already dead?” one of the slaves squeaked with terror.
“Hello, what’s your name?” Sam asked in a calming voice to the slave who looked somewhat in charge.
“My name is Ronald, Master Ranger,” the terrified man said as he lowered his head out of respect, as w
ell as out of the fear of being killed by this blood-thirsty gambler.
“No need to look down, Ronald. Are there any more people or bandits coming behind you?” Sam asked.
Ronald shook his head “No, that was the infamous GanJo with a 1,000 silver System bounty placed on his head by the Casino City Lord. Ganjo feared no one and kept his bandit gang small. He did not like to share his loot. The Bandit GanJo captured us and made us do all the work around his camp, and…. other horrible tasks,” Ronald said, as he turned a pitying eye on the female slave in his group.
Sam messaged Jen, “I am going to see if they can understand other languages besides English.” He switched to Mandarin, and said, “I’m going to check the trail behind you, just in case someone heard the noise and is coming this way.” Sam watched for any reaction from the slaves while he spoke Mandarin, but they appeared to understand him perfectly. “I will be back in a few minutes. Stay here, my team has this area secured. If any of you wander around, my team may think you are bandits and accidently kill you.” he warned Ronald and the other people.
“Yes, Master Ranger we certainly don’t want to be accidently killed,” Ronald said, reading between the lines.
Jen could hear the people talking while Sam was gone. “I don’t think we should leave,” said Ronald.
“These gamblers have won their bet, and now they are going to make us their slaves; we should run now,” said the woman.
“They are gamblers, if we don’t do what he says, he will spread our blood all over the forest. Gamblers are evil men,” said the thin man sitting on the ground.
“Exactly, we can’t trust anything they say,” hissed the woman.
Jen messaged Sam with a plan while he was checking the trail. Before the slaves finished arguing about what to do, Sam had returned.
Sam approached the group. “Ronald, where are all of you going to go now?”
“Master Ranger, we would like to return to our farms on the outskirts of Casino City,” said Ronald.
Sam frowned slightly thinking about the gossip this group would spread about their ambush.
Ronald noticed Sam’s frowning response and immediately said “I propose a gambling quest – I bet all my ability points that I can keep everything I have seen, heard, or learned today, secret, in exchange for Master Ranger and his team allowing us to go free.”
The other people immediately made the same proposal.
==
System Message
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Ronald’s Proposed Gambling Quest – Accepted by the System
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Requirements – allow Ronald to go free unharmed
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Requirements – Ronald must keep your secret or lose all his ability points and have a system bounty placed on his death.
Accept: Yes/No
Sam received a similar message for all the people present. “Wow, that’s weird but better than we could have hoped for!” Jen texted to Sam.
Sam nodded to the group, accepting the gambling quests. The people really wanted to leave right away, but Sam and Jen knew the importance of intel.
He asked the people many questions about the Seven Decks, local politics, the economy, weapons, armor, magic, and many other topics. They would have asked them even more questions, but they wanted to let the people go with enough time to get back to the road before it got too dark.
Jen found she could push her hearing ability with her psych power and she was able to hear the people as they headed down the trail towards the road.
“Did you see how fast he moved?” said one of the men.
“He gave us silver, weapons, and healed us. I’ve never heard of gamblers helping people out,” said the woman.
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Psych power – level up
Novice level 8
Combining your mental connection with the power of your hearing allows you to hear what others want private
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The minor mending spell Sam performed on the slaves really pushed his mana limits. He couldn’t heal them completely, but he was able to close some of the smaller open wounds they received from the bandits’ beatings. He was also famished from all the physical exertions.
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Minor Mend
Level 2
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Jen and Sam did not waste another minute, they went into stealth mode and headed to their rally point to consolidate, recover, and plan.
Chapter 15:
Loot and Powering Up
Sam handed Jen the two rings of holding he received from the two bandits, “These space rings have all the loot we just received. I took a quick look, but there was so much shit in the big bandits ring, I just figured I would let your inventory dealio take care of it.”
Jen rolled her eyes at Sam, “Hey Boomer, they are called rings of holding, not space rings!”
At that moment, Jen saw Sam’s shit-eating grin, and she knew she had taken the bait. Now that he knew it annoyed her, he would intentionally call them space rings or some other weird name. “You’re a pain in the ass, old man,” she replied at his grinning face.
Jen could also tell Sam was about to pass out from exhaustion. “Eat and sleep. I will wake you when I get too tired for watch….Wait! Let me look at you for a second.” She used her psych skill to read his new level, but she also pushed her mana to flood what she imagined his onboard looked like, focusing on unlocking his stat sheet. It took her a minute, but she was eventually able to draw out his ability points. Jen gasped with the exertion and with the ensuing headache but was rewarded with a level-up message.
She had been pushing her psych power all day, and the level ups were driving her like a drug to continue to improve, but now she needed to start filling her mana pool back up.
==
Psych Power – Level up
Novice – level 10
==
Jen said to Sam, “My psych skill showed me that you are at level 8 and very close to level 9. I can also see that you gambled 3 ability points on that quest.”
“That’s right!” Sam said surprised at how much she could see.
“You also have 9 ability points from the quest and 8 ability points from leveling to distribute. I think since we worked together taking down the bandits, we split the experience points, because I received the same amount of experience points and levels as you.”
Sam looked at her and said, “You’re getting pretty impressive with that psych power.”
Jen inwardly smiled; she ate up the praise that Sam and Kelly always gave her. Jen’s family had always been cruel and belittled everything she accomplished. She would do anything for Sam and Kelly, because she knew in her soul, if the tables were turned, they would be risking the Seven Decks to get her back.
“OK, old man, eat while I talk. I got the impression from overhearing those slaves that everyone in the First Deck is focused on strength and stamina. It’s the Cro-Magnon level of the Decks: ‘Me big and strong; I break you with my bare hands.” Jen mocked and went on to explain her reasoning. “We can’t compete with the fighters here, because even though we could use our ability points to match their strength and stamina, we would not be able to raise our skill level in fighting to match theirs.”
Jen continued to talk as she cleaned and reloaded her assault rifle in preparation for them heading to Casino City. “The reason we are not dead right now is because we ambushed the bandits with our rifles, and they had no time to prepare a defense. There are three problems with relying on our guns for our offensive power: 1) We need to hide the fact that we have rifles and pistols and only use them as a last resort. 2) We will eventually run out of ammo; and 3) At higher levels, I’m not sure if our bullets will even take them down.”
Jen paused to take a breath, and to see if Sam had any comments before she continued. Sam simply nodded his head as he ate.
Jen could tell he was tired, but in case there was an emergency, she wanted him to distribute his ability points before he went to sleep
. Jen continued, “To summarize, we are going to change the game from one of strength against strength and make it a contest of strength against agility. I’m fine if you want to do something different, but I am going to put 8 of my points in agility, 2 in mana, 3 in mana regeneration, and 2 in stamina.”
Sam mumbled sleepily, “Ditto. Works for me, Boss.”
As Sam was about close his eyes, he saw Jen glowing and quivering. He jumped up and rushed to her side, but Jen waved him off saying, “It’s Ok. Just give me a second.”
“What happened, what going on?”
“I’m feeling pure euphoria! It started when I accepted the gambling-quest reward ability points. I mean…Wow!”
Jen continued to glow for a few minutes, but then looked worried as she shuttered, “I’m craving more of that euphoria. Ohh shit…It’s addictive. I mean it’s more addicting than the drugs that shit-bag in my dorm laced the free donuts with one time! I didn’t really even pay attention to the part of the quest that mentioned the euphoria.”
Sam was worried and shocked that The System had included some kind of addictive euphoria with their quest ability points, and he said, “Should I refuse the quest rewards?”
Jen looked very nervous before answering. “If I could steal your euphoria and ability points right now, I might do it, but the urge is starting to lessen a little. We really need to take advantage of those ability points for our survival. It’s up to you, but I think with your discipline, coupled with the fact that there are no other immediately available gambling quest points right now, you should be OK.”
About 10 minutes later, after Sam got control of himself, he said, “Ditto, that is some seriously dangerous shit!”
Chapter 16:
Raining Skills
Jen liked to review and update her notes while she was on watch. It was like she could split her mind between the two functions, but as she was doing this, she got the idea that if she pushed just a little mana into her focus…. “Yes! Got it!” she cheered for herself.