by S Bailey
She finally broke herself out of her focused trance to go to the bathroom, and she noticed Sam slumped over asleep. Jen decided sleep was next on her list, too.
“Good morning, sleeping beauty,” Sam said to Jen as she stretched and pulled the blankets over her head.
She mumbled, “what time is it?”
Sam laughed, “It’s time for you to get up. I already went downstairs and extended our stay for two more nights. I also brought up some lunch for you,” he said placing emphasis on the word “lunch.”
While Jen was eating, Sam began to talk. “Two things: One, I gained enough experience from learning the true language of the Seven Decks that I am now level 9. I haven’t spent my ability points. I wanted to wait and talk to you first. Two, the translation you read is correct, but it does not tell the whole story.”
This comment got Jen’s full attention. “How so?” she said.
“Well, it’s like when you read a comment on Facebook from someone you don’t know, and you take it seriously, but the person was writing it in jest, or with inside humor, or to belittle someone, or they intended it to be sarcastic. Since I don’t know the author, and I don’t know the actual rules of the Seven Decks enough, I can only say there is a lot of all the above in the System book. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you how this might change the interpretation to specific passages, rules, or other information in the book.” Sam explained with obvious frustration.
Encouragingly, Jen said, “Well, at least you leveled up. I would suggest putting both your ability points into mana. That will bring you to 20, which is the minimum amount necessary to transfer to Deck 2. That way, when we’re ready, we can go.”
Sam nodded his agreement and returned Jen’s smile, but he had a look, as if there was something else he might have figured out. “Anything else?” Jen said curiously. She knew Sam would tell her anything if it was important.
“Not yet, but my gut is telling me that understanding the real meaning of words in the Seven Decks is going to be a good thing. I will tell you once I figure it out. I just think my subconscious needs to work on it more,” Sam said.
Chapter 22:
Meet-Cute
Jen and Sam were walking towards a blacksmith’s shop where they were hoping to get a few small good-quality knives for defense, when Jen’s psych sense felt an evil, intense hate. This caused her to look over just in time to see a man about to thrust a knife into a small well-dressed woman’s back. Somehow, Jen also took notice of the woman’s really cute ass. Jen’s agility allowed her to move the five feet almost instantly, and she slammed the man to the side causing him to miss his knife strike.
The small woman moved fast, maybe not as fast as Sam and Jen could move, but fast enough. She turned and with one hand slapped the man to the ground with such strength you could hear the bones in his face and body snap with finality. Simultaneously the woman used her other hand and grabbed Jen’s wrist.
Jen was powering up her forgetme charm with every bit of mana she had, hoping the woman would let her go. The woman kept her focus on Jen’s wrist, the one she had grabbed, and said, “I can feel something pushing at my mind, but until that pressure goes away, I am not letting go of this wrist.”
Sam messaged Jen. “Talk to her. I’ll stay out of sight and out of mind, and back you up if necessary.”
When Jen quit powering the charm, the woman lightened her grip on her wrist, but didn’t let go. She looked into Jen’s eyes focusing on her intently. Jen could tell that the woman had enough strength to snap her arm like a toothpick.
After the briefest of pauses, the woman released Jen’s arm and said, “Please call me Tamako. I wanted to thank you for your assistance before you ran off. There are not many in the Decks who go out of their way to help a stranger.”
Jen had the feeling that, even with her speed, this woman had the ability to stop her again if she wanted. Jen kind of liked the idea of being “caught” by the small sexy woman again, but couldn’t help giving her a wicked smile before saying, “Look, Tamako, I was happy to help and all, but I am really busy and don’t want to be caught up in any investigation by the city guard, or anyone else, so if you don’t mind, I’ll just take my leave.”
Tamako raised an eyebrow at Jen and smiled just as several of the city guards came rushing from around the corner.
Tamako stepped in front of Jen, partially blocking the guards’ view of her, and ordered the guards, “Drag this filth away immediately and leave me so I can get back to my day off.”
The guards grabbed the man and were gone without a word in a matter of seconds. Tamako turned back around to Jen and said, “I have the impression you wish to stay out of the spotlight, and in appreciation for your help, I will make sure your involvement stays anonymous. However, that does not make my debt to you paid. Please let me give you the contact information for my personal sound wave.” Tamako then pulled from a ring a card with her contact information and pointed to the device in her ear. Then she gave Jen a wicked smile of her own, and said, “Or you can simply ask any of the city guard for Captain Tamako Blackjack.”
Jen tried to keep a straight face, but her surprise did escape to the corner of her eyes.
Tamako smiled again and waved goodbye to Jen as she turned to continue shopping, but called over her shoulder to say again, “Please contact me if you need anything.”
Jen and Sam met at the blacksmith’s shop after each of them made sure they were not followed. Jen looked like she was going to be sick when she spoke to Sam. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking, I should have stayed out of it. Do you think we need to find another city to set up in?”
Sam leaned his head back and placed both his hands over his face and made either a crying or laughing sound; Jen couldn’t tell.
This made Jen feel even worse. “Sam, I know we’ve been doing undercover work for years; it’s just….” before Jen could finish her sentence, Sam dropped his hands down showing the biggest smirk on his face and put a brotherly arm around Jen and pulled her in close, and laughingly said, “Boss, for such a smart lady, when you run into someone you like, your dumb as shit.”
Jen had a shocked expression, as she looked over at Sam with a question in her eyes.
“Jen, how can I put this in Millennial speak so that you will understand it? You thought she was super hot! Tamako could tell that you thought she was super hotttt! Tamako thought you were super hottt toooo. Sooo Tamako gave you her digits! WE don’t have to go anywhere, YOU have to go get her.” Sam just laughed, and Jen blushed knowing that Sam was going to tease her like a 10-year old little brother.
“You’re a jackass Sam!” Jen said, trying to cover up her embarrassment as she turned and headed into the blacksmith’s shop to look at weapons, but all she could think about was what the heck a “soundwave” was, and how it worked.
Chapter 23:
Fan Club
The next day, Tamako Blackjack was bored while training her guards, and her mind wandered off to think about her encounter with Jen. “Why do those idiots always have to try and kill me when I’m on my day off!” Tamako fumed inwardly. “Of course, if he had not tried to kill me, I might not have met that kind and lovely young lady who thought she saved my life.” Tamako smiled to herself.
She had noticed the idiot following her, and his incompetence was interfering with her shopping, so she had intentionally turned her back to give the idiot the perfect opportunity to stab her. That was when she witnessed a rare event in the Decks: someone out of the goodness of their heart, and at their own risk, helping a stranger.
“I thought I was losing my touch and missed his accomplice,” she thought to herself. “If I had figured it out just a split-second sooner, I would not have killed that idiot. She would have saved me, and we could have escaped his grasp together.”
Tamako laughed at her own ridiculous thoughts as she casually stepped to the side, and used the side of the training sword to knock one of the guards she was sparring with on his back.
Tamako Blackjack was the fifth in a line of Blackjacks to serve as Captain of the Guard and Protector of the Casino City Lords. Her family’s name was given to them after serving the city’s lords for over 400 years.
The current Casino City Lord, Julius Caesar, the X, wasn’t the best City Lord, but he wasn’t the worst either. In fact, he really only cared about the nobility fan club that followed him around advising him of his greatness. Tamako just didn’t understand how he could be so blind to their true intentions, but more likely, he just didn’t care.
Tamako then looked up to see Lord Caesar enter the palace training grounds, followed by his groupy fan club. There were 5 young women and one young man. The women were all young, pretty, and draped in the latest fashions. The man, by contrast, had on a fine purple robe adorned with fancy stitching.
“Guards, to order!” Tamako barked out the command for all the guards to stand to attention.
Tamako was not expecting Lord Caesar, and she couldn’t remember the last time he had visited the palace training grounds. The eyes of the guards escorting Lord Caesar were pleading forgiveness from Tamako for failing to somehow give her notice the Lord was coming.
“Lord Caesar is so powerful. I heard you train the best guards yourself!” a woman said to him in a flattering voice.
“I only train the best of the guards when necessary for the safety of the city, otherwise I do not lower myself to such simple tasks. I prefer to spend my time making Casino City the grandest Deck-City in the First Deck.” Lord Caesar said, not giving anyone the opportunity to ask him to show his skills by actually trying to train the guards, and to Tamako’s sighed relief.
“You must be tired from always having everyone ask you for help, Lord Caesar. I have a few private massage skills that would help you relax,” another one of the women flirted.
“Massages? I have a skill that allows me to cook you the most delightful breakfast in the morning, that would help you recover from an exciting night out,” another whispered in his ear.
“Well, the great and wise Lord Caesar appointed me to be the head of trade negotiations for the City,” said Lee Zhang, the short fat cousin of Lord Caesar. Lord Caesar and all his groupies snickered and rolled their eyes at Lee Zhang’s attempt to impress the women.
As Lord Caesar continued to make his way through and then out of the training grounds, Tamako could see the fury and embarrassment in Lee Zhang’s eyes from the laughter of Lord Caesar and his entourage.
Chapter 24:
Singing Sam
Jen was walking down the main merchant row with Sam and messaged, “I’m kind of disappointed, we’ve been all over the city and visited several guilds, crafters, healers, alchemists, and blacksmiths, and all we have are two poisoned daggers and two sound waves.”
“How do you think I feel after finding out there are almost no enchanters anywhere on the first deck. I never imagined that almost all the enchanted gear, space rings, and sound waves came from dungeon loot drops or were purchased from the System Shop”
“True, and the guilds had some gear to sell, but it was all oriented towards heavy armored tank fighters.”
Sam replied, “considering how much enchanted sound waves and space rings cost, we might be able to make some money if I can figure out a few enchantments to place on armor or weapons.”
“I am really excited about analyzing the mana signals created by the sound waves,” Jen said, while eyeing the communicators that worked like short-range cell phones. She couldn’t wait to try and hack the mana signals the sound waves used to eavesdrop on what people were saying to each other.
Jen yawned as it was getting late in the afternoon. “We’ll go to the Arc guild tomorrow, and hopefully it doesn’t disappoint after all the hype we’ve heard about it.”
“Well, I’m not going to hold my breath after what we just saw, but maybe we’ll be pleasantly surprised,” said Sam, and then continued humming a song that was driving Jen crazy.
While walking into their room, and trying to ignore his ridiculous humming and singing, Jen said, “Sam, if you don’t mind, I’m going to run some tests on these sound waves before you inspect their enchantments. I want to see how these coms devices interact with my psych skill.”
Tamako I’ve got your number
I think you are so fine
I dream of you when I slumber
What you do is make me shine
What you do is make me shine
What you do is make me shine
Now I’m calling for you
Now I’m falling for you
Jen was trying to take the high road and said, “Sam you’re just mad because Tamako was able to beat your forgetme charm enchantment.”
Cackling with laughter, Sam said, “There’s no arguing about whose ‘charms and enchantments’ really worked on Tamako.”
“He thinks he is sooo funny, when he is really just so annoying!” Jen thought to herself, but she knew she had walked into his last little barb, and she was going to get him back.
Thankfully that old man-nerd was heading to the desk on his side of the room to play with his charms, lucky charms, little charms, limp charms…Jen was going to think of something that would get under his skin.
Chapter 25:
Getting to Work
“Three low-capacity space rings, two high-capacity space rings, sword, armor, breastplate, boots, and gauntlets of Ganja, Goodja?... giant jackass, and what appears to be a firestarter,” Sam thought to himself after he looked through some of the enchanted items they had taken from the bandits. Sam had put the rest of the stuff in one of the other rings, because he was determined to figure out the secrets of how these enchantments worked.
Sam pulled up his stats to pause a minute and evaluate which of his skills or abilities might help him with enchanting. Joan’s book mentioned focusing on improving and maximizing the synergy between knowledge, skills, and abilities.
Jen felt the best strategy was for them to both grind the support skills that would complement the other person. She would focus on her Psych skill and Sam should focus on his Words of Power skill and Words of Understanding skill for making more enchantments.
“How can any of my skills help me master enchanting? Wait, with almost 30 points in agility, my eye-hand coordination and dexterity should allow me to draw, cut, bend, design, or do just about any type of physical manipulation with great accuracy. At least that should help in creating enchantments.”
Sam moved the firestarter to the center of the table to get a closer look at it.
“Damn, I so want to start with the sword or that high-capacity space ring, Kelly” Sam liked to talk to Kelly when he was working; it helped keep her alive in his heart. He could break some of the most complex voice encryption codes in the intelligence world, and now he was going to break the enchantment code of a firestarter. “Kelly, imagine what Jen’s going to say when I tell her, ‘Hey, I know how to make matches with magic’,” he thought sarcastically.
The firestarter looked like a simple piece of flint and steel connected by a small chain, and initially, that was exactly what Sam actually thought it was. When Sam went to use it to start a fire, he noticed it was not actually flint or steel, but two separate pieces of possibly…. iron? with enchantments in the forms of etched runes, symbols, and words across them.
“To start a fire, all I have to do is rub the two enchantments past one another and a very small bit of fire will spark out – I don’t actually have to strike anything. The small candle-sized flame extends off the flint-looking piece until I remove the steel-looking part, or until I ran out of mana, but even the lowest level mana regeneration can keep this little fire enchantment going indefinitely.
The enchantment is carved or etched directly into the iron, and it is much thicker and heavier than my wire charms, but on the other hand, my charms use more mana than this firestarter. Of course, my charms will burn out rather quickly, and this fire starter will probably last forever. Is tha
t because of the amount of mana used, or the type of metal, or both?”
Sam groaned to himself as he opened his on-board; he dreaded what he had to do before continuing. Last night with Jen’s help, Sam had raised his inventory skill, but he could only get it to level 2. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the immediate recall like Jen did for data in her on-board.
Also, he didn’t want to just recall the data; he wanted to be able to sort, compare, filter, and analyze the data. Sam worked at the tedious task of designing and building an Excel software App in his on-board. “Kelly, thank goodness there are no copyright issues in the Decks.” Sam discovered it was like having a computer, where you had to design your own software, but you didn’t have to code your software.
Sam realized that as long as you understood exactly what you wanted, you could use your mana, focus, and intent, and the “software” in his onboard would write itself to achieve the results. “When I created a calculator in my on-board, since I knew what a calculator looked like and all the functions of a calculator, I just had to mentally explain the results of the functions without writing the underlying code. However, even if I remembered a symbol on a calculator key, like a square root symbol, it would not work for me unless I actually knew what taking the square root of a number accomplished.”
While taking a break, Sam complained to Jen that he was being forced to spend hours designing Excel in his onboard before getting back to enchantments.
Jen was in the middle of her own research but replied a little testily at being interrupted, “Just imagine how many months and years it took the Excel developers to build the code from scratch. Also, use the multi-focus we talked about. You need to use one mind to build your onboard Excel app and use your other mind to meditate, Boomer!”