by S Bailey
System Message
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Multi-Focus,
Novice Level 1
You can split your mind and focus on two tasks simultaneously. Masters of this skill can split their minds 100 times and work more and faster on projects or multiple projects at the same time.
You can focus on two things for about 30 minutes before your tiny brain overheats.
==
Mana usage dependent upon number of split focuses and length of use.
==
Ok, that confirms my newest note:
The Decks are crazy. You earn skills for everything you do, but if you do not work at improving the skill, it will not get any better. It’s like the people on this world probably received skill messages every day when they were born, but if all they did was farm every day, as they grow older, they might not receive a new skill or skill up for years because they did not keep challenging themselves or trying new things.
Everyone in the Decks understands whatever language you are speaking. Sam spoke both Mandarin and English when speaking with Ronald, and Ronald did not bat an eye. If I didn’t KNOW he was switching to Mandarin, I would have thought he was still speaking English myself.
Sam and I don’t have any offensive power without our guns. We may be in places where we cannot use our guns, and we will run out of ammo relatively quickly. We need to develop some sort of offense that will work in the Decks and start leveling it up now!
What’s the difference between a spell and a skill, and an enchanted charm? Spells and skills seem to be capped at the amount of mana in your body at any one time, but what differentiates a spell from a skill? Charms or enchantments create a much stronger spell because they could be charged up to their maximum capacity over time, but they are difficult to create and the number of uses is limited.
Generally, it is much easier to learn to cast a spell or skill if you had hands-on experience and knowledge associated with the topic of the spell.
Sam and I need to make a list of our skills and abilities in order of priority, and we need to make sure we focus on, and grind each of the important spells and abilities every day.
Unclear, but there appears to be two, possibly three ways to increase abilities and spells. Earn experience points to increase your level and add ability points to the corresponding ability, or gamble for ability points. On Earth we were able increase the points in our physical stats with training. Will that work in the Decks? Would something similar work for mana and mana regen?
Jen continued with her list and sat watch as long as possible, when she realized her head was bobbing up and down like a tired trucker, she said. “Wake up Sam, your turn for watch.” She hated to wake him, but she couldn’t keep her eyes open.
Sam groaned, “I’m awake. Your turn for some shut-eye, Boss.” He could tell she felt guilty for waking him. “Silly kid,” he thought as he got ready for watch.
As Jen was laying down on her mat and pulling her poncho liner around her shoulders, she yawned and said, “I want to go over my notes with you after I get some sleep.”
“Why don’t you just send your Seven Decks wiki notes to me, and I will review them while on watch?”
Jen nodded and then groaned, “Will do, and that just reminded me: I forgot all about the gambling quest for Casino City. We need to go there first thing, even if we don’t gamble any ability points. There is sure to be more information on the Decks there, and my strategy for our level and skill growth could be all wrong.”
Sam looked sternly at Jen and said, “Don’t forget to text me the notes, but you need to quit talking and go to sleep now. We’ve been through more in the last month than anyone should.”
Sam wanted to get to the seventh deck as quickly as possible, but he knew that Kelly would never forgive him if he got Jen killed trying to get there too quickly. Heck, he would never forgive himself. He thought of Jen as young, brilliant, loyal, kind, and she deserved to live a little as well.
Sam lifted his eyebrows with surprise as he read through Jen’s notes and theories on The System. “She’s smart. I don’t have anything really to add.”
His whole body ached, and he spent the rest of his watch trying to soothe his joints, muscles, and tendons. His mana pool had recovered enough for him to try to experiment just a little bit.
Sam started out trying to use his Minor mend spell, but it had no effect on the damage his increased agility movement was having on his body. He then pumped his mana towards the knee that was bothering him the most, as he simultaneously focused on the idea of the mana surrounding and infusing strength and healing into the tendons, the muscle, and the bone.
==
Body Constitution Enhancement
Level 1 (novice)
Someday if you become a master, you will be able to instantly rejuvenate and strengthen someone’s entire body.
==
“Wow, that worked!” Sam said to himself in amazement. He then used his Body Constitution Spell (BC Spell) on all his joints. Unfortunately, he only wanted to channel the spell at the same speed his mana regenerated, and it took him several hours to work through his entire body. Sam also gained the skill “Body Scan” after he kept trying to “see” which tendons and muscles were torn while his mana was channeling at the same time.
“Why is the Body Constitution a spell and the Body Scan a skill? I just don’t get the difference.” Sam thought to himself, but finally gave up just deciding to let Jen figure it out.
==
Body Scan Skill
Level 1 (novice)
Someday if you become a master, you will be able to scan individual DNA and understand how to make changes to the body.
==
Sam was famished, so he ate some rations while he used his Body Scan on Jen’s sleeping form and casting his BC spell on her injured joints. His healing clearly released some tension in her body and allowed her to rest better.
This took several more hours, but Sam was going to let Jen sleep until she woke up naturally and was fully rested. He noticed some experience points messages, but honestly, they didn’t follow a logical pattern, at least not one he could identify, so he just sent the messages to Jen’s “onboard.”
He then focused on his onboard and was able to set it to automatically forward a copy of all his system messages to Jen. “Yes” he thought excitedly and grinned to himself; “let her figure all that crap out.”
Sam was emotionally and mentally exhausted and decided to quit grinding any of his skills or spells for the moment. Without Kelly’s encouragement, he hadn’t meditated in several years. It was one of those things he knew he should do, but always found an excuse not to. However, he couldn’t ignore his need for it right now. Sam kept all his senses alert while he meditated on peace, love, body, and mind, just like he and Kelly would do together several times a week. It helped calm down his memories, and the meditation was bringing back some of the peace and love Kelly brought into his life.
==
Congratulations!
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You have gained the Meditation skill: Novice Level 4
You have gained 1 point in mana and 1 point in mana regeneration!
==
“Goddammit,” Sam swore to himself as the notice interrupted his moment. He knew it was a great message; meditation would increase mana like running would increase stamina and stamina regen, but…. “OK, relaaaaaaaaaaaaax peace, love, body, mind.” Sam spoke several relaxing mantras to himself.
While meditating, Sam found that he could sense the mana, and he noticed that the mana actually ran through his mana channel like blood through blood vessels. The mana channel felt like it flowed peacefully as it worked in harmony with his body. He also felt there were multiple channels in his body that the mana could not flow through. Sam thought to himself, “Maybe I should try to figure out how to direct the mana towards those channels…. NO, that’s for later. Keep meditating and keep your eyes and senses on your surroundings, that is what your
soul needs right now.”
Chapter 17:
Killer Attitude
The next day Jen woke around 10ish. Sam wasn’t sure about the exact time in the Seven Decks, but the Sun looked as though it was only a couple hours away from being at its zenith. Jen was famished, and it made Sam happy to see her well-rested, eating, and excited about the new skills and spells they had learned. He could tell that as soon as she finished stuffing her face, she was going to get right into Boss mode. “She’s the best. I just can’t let anything happen to her,” Sam thought to himself as he watched her.
When she was almost done shoving the last of the canned peaches away, Sam looked at Jen to get her attention. He wanted her to know that he was being serious. “Jen, I want to beat these decks and bring Kelly back more than anything. We’ve had to kill some pretty evil bandits over the last few days, and we were able to gain a lot of experience points and levels. I mean, they deserved to die, and we didn’t really have a choice. The Decks seem to be a hard, unforgiving, violent place so far, but I don’t think Kelly would want us to lose our soul to get to the top. We may have to defend ourselves, much more than either of us want to in this new future of ours, but I want us to focus on gaining experience points and levels in as positive a way as possible.”
Jen paused and slowly blinked at Sam before saying, “Duh! you old man! Did you think I was becoming some blood-thirsty killer because we gained a few experience points and levels from defending ourselves? You’re ridiculous sometimes! Now that your speech is over, let me tell you the plan for teaching each other these new spells and travelling to Casino City.”
Sam just looked down slightly embarrassed, chuckled with relief, and replied, “Yes, Boss!”
Chapter 18:
Fart Jokes
“Are you still pouting about your language skills being useless on this planet?” Jen texted to Sam as they moved up in the line to enter Casino City.
“It was literally the first skill I received, and it’s useless since the Decks translates for everyone,” Sam replied.
Jen looked at him with disgust as she texted, “You have 12 skills…spells...whatever; our muscles, bones, and joints are getting tempered with the BC spell. Travelling here we learned the spell “mental overclock” which has allowed our mind to keep up with our agility, and for some old-man reason, you wish it was more difficult to talk to people, so you could use your ‘Words of Understanding’ skill. Jeeze Boomer, get over it.”
The “Boomer” comment finally got Sam to crack a smile.
Jen noticed that most of the people wearing peasant clothing like them were level 3 and 4 farmers. As they approached the gate, Sam was going to answer questions and pay the entrance fee, while Jen would use her psych ability to “Forge” their levels, stats, and abilities to make it look like they were level four instead of Level eight. They weren’t sure if other people had the psych ability, but they both had the paranoid survivor title for a reason.
“What’s your reason for entering the City?” droned the gate guard. Sam gave the same answer that all the other peasants entering the city had given. “We are here to buy some supplies for our farm and do some gambling.”
Looking past Sam and Jen, at some of the more interesting people in line, the guard held out his hand and said, “That will be eight copper or try your luck at spinning the wheel.” Sam handed over eight copper, and they entered Casino City without incident. Jen seriously doubted anyone would even remember them entering the city.
The city streets were laid out fairly well, but the crush of people made it difficult to get anywhere quickly. According to Ronald, the city was supposedly one of the larger Cities in the First Deck with around 500,000 people. There were commercial districts and traders’ districts. There were also clearly defined and separated residential districts for the poor and for the ruling powers in the city, but most importantly to Sam and Jen, they could see there was a crafting district where they had hoped to find out more about tools, weapons, and mana.
No matter which district of the city they walked in, there were mini casinos and gambling stalls. One could spot system gambling junkies everywhere at the gaming tables. They looked like the heroin addicts back on Earth. Sam kept his eyes on their surroundings and directions as Jen constantly used her psych skill to scan for any hostile emotions and intent.
“It was almost too easy,” Jen thought. She would notice most of the potential problems in advance, and for any sudden changes in attitude toward them, Sam would power up the forgetme charms. “The beasts in the city are just like those in the forests,” Jen mused.
While looking towards a garment stall with fancy robes for sale, Jen received a random gambling quest.
System Message:
The Greater the Risk, the Greater the Reward!
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Gambling Quest: Steal a robe from the merchant!
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Requirements: Steal at least one robe from the merchant and successfully escape!
Steal a robe and escape in the next 10 minutes – odds of failing 74% Reward of 1 ability point and euphoria for every ability point gambled, maximum bet of 3.
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Accept: Yes/No
==
“NO,” Jen immediately selected. “What the hell is this crazy shit!” she messaged to Sam, as she forwarded a copy of the quest she declined.
After Sam read the gambling quest, he understood why Jen looked so stunned and replied, “These System messages encouraging chaos is perverted.”
As they continued exploring the city, every couple of hours, one of them would get a similar quest. They learned to just automatically ignore and decline the messages.
They went to an appropriate restaurant for peasant farmers, which meant it was disgusting, but they found a secluded booth. “We’ve been burning through the forgetme charms. I’ll need to craft some more tonight,” Sam texted.
Jen and Sam always mentally texted anything important. Every now and then, they would grunt a word or two to each other to appear like normal peasants in the City.
“I agree; let’s first change clothes, and then find a reputable place to stay tonight.” Jen texted, as she was inspecting the contents of her ring.
Their “food” arrived a short time later. Surprisingly, it was edible, but maybe that was because they had been eating rations for the last few days.
After finishing their meal, they spent the next few hours getting a better feel for the city, while also slowly upgrading their clothing by going to multiple stores, hoping not to draw any attention.
To any outside observer, their movements appeared to be random as they finished crossing the city, and making their way towards one of the luxury inns they were referred to by a tailor.
The inn they were staying in was expensive, but it was clean, and came with security to protect its guests. Thanks to the silver looted from the bandit Ganjo, they discovered they had plenty of money to last them several weeks in the city. They learned there were 100 coppers to 1 silver, and 100 silver to 1 gold, and 100 gold to 1 platinum. Based on the cost of items they had seen so far, Jen estimated that one copper was like a dollar, and one silver was like a $100 dollar bill, and one gold was equivalent to $10,000 dollars. Jen was determined to figure out a way to collect on the 1,000 silver bounty while staying anonymous.
“First thing tomorrow we need to find a library or bookstore and learn more about the Seven Decks, learn how we can collect the Ganjo bounty, then start working on a plan to gain experience while earning money.” Jen said.
Sam spent most of the night making more forgetme charms. He was complaining to himself, “These charms are so frustrating to make. I get almost no experience from them; they burn up quickly, and I know there has to be better material in this world to make them from, soon I want some quality time to experiment on making better enchantments!”
After several hours of working on charms, Sam’s stomach was not feeling good from eating the peasant food. He looked over at
Jen, and thought how serious she looked going over her notes, and that’s when a plan came to him.
“What is he up to?” Jen thought, as she watched Sam walk slowly over to her with a strange look on his face.
Sam leaned over Jen, pretending to look at her work, then he laid five pieces of paper down on the table with the word “Stay,” and then he activated them. He immediately let out the wettest and nastiest sounding fart.
“Oh my god, that’s disgusting. What crawled up your ass and died? Paybacks are hell!” Jen screamed at Sam, as she was stuck in place.
She then noticed Sam’s look of alarm as he clinched his butt cheeks and waddled off to the bathroom. Less than 10 seconds later the enchantment wore off, and Jen was finally able to get out of the area of contamination.
Jen would get him back, but a big part of her was laughing inside at hearing that 51-year old giggling about a fart joke, as if he was only ten. “I wouldn’t trade true family for anything,” Jen smiled to herself.
Chapter 19:
Deck Dropper Chaos
Jen and Sam went down to breakfast the next morning and took an extra-long time eating while Jen used her psych skill to eavesdrop on the conversations around them. She heard the waitress complaining to the cook. “You did warn me about the ‘quarter years,’ Jack. It’s good to make all this extra money from all the guilds and gamblers entering the city, but it’s only halfway through the year, and I’m sick of it already!”
The cook replied, “Just be glad you’re not one of those Earth Transfers. There’s only been a few teleported near our City, but The System gambling quests for their death or capture are enormous. They are either being forced into shitty guild contracts, killed, or worse!”