by S Bailey
“Well…you better!” Jen said before storming off to her room.
“Misery is the source of innovation Kelly,” Sam said to her memory while working. Sam was in a depression of guilt as he fabricated a small box that held both his cold enchantment charm and his breeze enchanted charm. He upgraded the material he was using for the charms to hardened steel he purchased from a blacksmith.
Two days after the incident with the gambler, he finished and placed these enchanted boxes around the store, their living area, and even their warehouse, creating the first air conditioning system in the First Deck.
Sam explained to Jen, “We will burn through about 16 charms every three days just cooling the store and home. I can make each charm in about 10 minutes at my current level of dexterity and agility, so it shouldn’t be a problem to maintain them.” as he placed two of his AC boxes right at the entrance of the door so people could feel the blast of cool air when they walked in.
“Worth it! Those are great!” Jen replied with an overly positive attitude, trying to release the tension from their argument.
While the store was open, Jen used her psych ability on each customer who came in, practicing and testing her ability to read their stats, emotions, and increasing her eavesdrop skill, all while helping customers with purchases.
The customers already knew what and how much they wanted to purchase by the time they were finally able to get to the front of the line, but they would want to linger because of the relaxing and cool AC in their store.
Jen tried to rush them through their purchase unless they were talkative about the Decks or other enchantments they had used or seen. Sam primarily handled the healing customers. He could sell them the healing charm and monitor their use, while using his multi focus to literally craft charms behind the counter at the same time.
After three weeks of running the store and making adjustments to how it operated, Jen said, “Meet Long Bi and his wife Ji Bi. I have hired them to sell the charms and administer the healing charms.”
The store had performed so well, they had agreed to hire someone to do the grunt work. “Nice to meet you!” said Sam.
He knew Jen would have used her psych skill and found the perfect employees.
Jen then pointed at two children that looked to be between 12 and 14, and said, “Their kids will keep the line orderly, and to speed up the purchases, they will describe the charms to the customers while they wait in line.”
A few days later Sam changed the operating hours to 5 days a week, and said “Great job, Jen. You really know how to hire good employees. I’m surprised that Long and his family learned how to manage the store so quickly.”
Jen replied, “We’ve been neglecting our skills growth while getting the store up and running. The stats we know we can grow through training are strength, agility, stamina, and stamina regen. We aren’t growing at the 12x rate like back on Earth, but we know we can grow them without earning ability points or experience points from The System. Get ready, because unless there is an emergency, we are going to push our limits on these stats first thing every morning.” With that statement, she sent a training schedule over to Sam’s onboard.
Sam groaned inwardly as he thought he was past this type of training at his age, but he knew Jen’s plan was needed if they were going to get Kelly back.
A few days later, sweating and tired, Sam said, “You were right, Jen,” as he was wheezing for air.
Jen looked at Sam indignantly as she lifted her hands up in the air behind her head, trying to get her breath back and said, “Of course I was right. We just gained 2 ability points in strength, stamina, stamina regen, and 1 point in agility. That’s like gaining 3 and ½ levels. The odd thing about the Decks is that experience points can get you levels and ability points right away, but when gaining ability points through training, it won’t not increase your experience points for a level gain, but those ability points that will grow your power.
It surprised Jen and Sam to learn how little interest there was by people in transferring to higher decks. The farmers were mostly content with being left alone to run their farms. There was so much of the First Deck that still hadn’t been explored, the adventurers in the guilds didn’t see any reason to transfer to a higher Deck. Especially since Deck Jumpers were drained of all their mana, and they couldn’t take any of their hard-earned gear when being teleported naked.
The only reasonably safe way to transfer up a Deck was to be part of a guild that would protect the Deck Jumper when they arrived. However, even then, the jumper was naked and had nothing to offer or any method to increase the power of the guild. New jumpers ended up being a lacky for one of the stronger guild members for many years until they could eventually acquire enough power to contribute to the guild.
The only other option was to take an unprotected transfer pad out in the wilderness, but that almost always meant certain death at the hands of gamblers or wild beasts in the Deck you jumped to, just like those transferred from Earth.
After learning more about Deck Jumping, they didn’t want to join a guild to teleport up, and they especially didn’t want to tell anyone their secret about taking gear inside of dead animal party members.
Chapter 32:
Duke Card
The first big break for Sam was when a blacksmith named, Victor, brought in a sound dampening enchanted anvil. Sam agreed to try and fix it in exchange for the blacksmith teaching him about the different metals that were available, and how he tempered the metals for making all different kinds of items from horseshoes to swords.
Victor turned out to be a high-level blacksmith who did a lot of work for the major guilds. It was a double win for Sam; he basically obtained an enchantment that he could use to make silencers for their guns, and he gained knowledge about different metals that could help him in making better quality enchantments.
The silencing rods were mana-intensive; they identified the sound waves coming from the anvil and sent out a counter-sine wave to negate the noise. That was when Sam had an epiphany. He created another space ring, but added the runes for identifying sound waves, but only sounds waves, and then increased the absorption area to anything within five feet of the ring. The ring would store any sound waves made within 5 feet when activated. His space rings saved the day again when it came to mana usage. It took much more mana to create something like the counter-sine wave from nothing, than it did to just store incoming sound waves into a space ring.
A few weeks later, a local jeweler brought in a broken enchanted engraving tool. The enchantment, when working properly, would cause the tip of the tool to spin like a drill head. Sam easily fixed the tool, but then with the help of Victor built a dremel tool that would allow him to engrave enchantments directly into iron, steel, and the other precious metals he discovered worked well with enchantments. The dremel enchantment was a huge mana suck, but Sam couldn’t figure out any method to decrease the mana usage this time.
While Sam was working on enchantments, Jen was using her psych skill to gather intel on just about everything that might help them.
“Captain Tamako, would you be so kind as to introduce me to you friend?” said an older tall man that walked up to Tamako and Jen while they were attending an outside theatre event.
Tamako bowed, and replied, “Of course, Duke Card, this is Mistress Jen of the new enchantments and charms shop in the City.”
Jen didn’t sense any cause for alarm or concern form either Tamako or Duke Card. After a few minutes of exchanging niceties, Duke Card said, “Mistress Jen, might I have my head Ranger contact Master Sam for a confidential meeting to discuss her armor?”
“Of course, Duke Card, here is a note with my sound-wave contact information you can give her. I will be happy to make a private, and very confidential, appointment at her convenience.”
When they were alone again, Tamako said, “Duke Card is the only true Noble in Casino City. He actually puts the interests of his people before his own personal gain.�
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“Really!” replied Jen in surprise.
“Yes, really. The System creates a flood of gambling quests all over the City when his estate is looking to take on a new hire.”
A few days later, Sam and Jen were contacted by Ranger Vicki and invited out to Duke Card’s estate to inspect the Ranger’s leather armor.
“This armor has been used by the Head Ranger of the Duke’s family for over three hundred years. It contains strength enhancing enchantments. Unfortunately, while I was hunting a spiked basilisk about five years ago, its fire attack warped the enchantment. The armor is next to useless without the enchantments working,” explained Ranger Vicki.
Sam nodded at Vicki’s explanation and picked the armor up off the display rack to inspect the enchantments more closely.
Ranger Vicki was as impatient and worried as an expectant mother, and after no more than a few moments of Sam inspecting it, she said, “Master Sam, please tell me you can fix the armor!”
Sam could hear the love for the armor in Ranger Vicki’s voice, and replied sympathetically, “Ranger Vicki, I truly wish I could say yes, but working with enchantment-laced leather is beyond my skill. I was hoping the enchantments were etched on metal sewn into the leather.”
Ranger Vicki’s look of disappointment was heartbreaking to see.
Jen spoke up, and said, “I’m not sure how expensive it would be, but we could try purchasing a leather-working technique scroll from the System Shop.”
Ranger Vicki nodded while frowning a little in thought, and said partly to herself and to Jen, “He would need a high-level technique scroll to work with mana-infused leather, and I bet The Shop would charge 8 to 10 gold for one.”
Jen replied apologetically, “I’m sorry, but we can’t afford to front that kind of cost or take that much of a loss if my father is unable to fix the enchantments after using the scroll.”
“How much would you charge to fix the armor if you were able to get a scroll?”
Sam just shrugged at Jen leaving the decision to her, and she said, “Normally, we don’t charge anything if we can’t fix an enchantment. However, in this case we would have to charge the cost of the scroll, even if the enchantment can’t be fixed, but…if it can be fixed, we would agree to charge you nothing extra above the cost of the technique scroll.”
Ranger Vicki nodded at Jen and held up her hand in a motion requesting them to wait as she walked to the other side of the room and spoke with someone using her sound-wave.
“What are they saying?” texted Sam.
Jen texted back, “I’m not using my skill to eavesdrop on Vicki. It just seems like it would be ‘wrong’”.
Sam rolled his eyes at her with a slight smile when he read her reply.
Jen could tell Sam thought she was being silly, but in no way was he upset or going to ask her to do otherwise.
Vicki returned with a smile on her face, and said, “Done. Up to 10 gold on a scroll, any amount you don’t need to be returned.”
“Would you like us to prepare a contract?” asked Jen.
“No. Duke Card does not like contracts. However, I would warn you against thinking you can take advantage of his trust.”
“Of course not, replied Jen. We just like to use contracts to make sure that there is no misunderstanding between good people regarding the requested work. So, just to be extra careful and clear since we won’t be using a formal contract …”
Sam only half listened to Jen discuss the details of their agreement with Vicki as he started studying the enchantments on the armor some more.
As Sam and Jen were getting ready to leave, Ranger Vicki said, “One last thing, be careful, I heard the Farmer’s Guild is angry about you helping the independent farmers with their crop production.”
Chapter 33:
Leatherwork
“How did she like it?” asked Sam.
Jen laughed, “Ranger Vicki was so happy, she wanted to come over here and bed you!”
“It’s not her fault I’m so irresistible! If I were only single.”
Jen barked out a laugh, and said, “you keep telling yourself that.”
“Did she say anything else?”
“Yes, she loved that you moved the enchantments to the inside of the armor, and she was through the roof when I told her about the weight reduction enchantment you added. I told you to come with me to drop it off. You could have listened to her praise your skill yourself!”
“I told you. I’ve just got too much work to catch up on after focusing on that armor for the last three weeks.”
Jen had found a high-level leather technique scroll in the shop for 7 gold, but she added 3 of their own gold to purchase a technique scroll that covered multiple types of materials in addition to mana-infused leather-working in order to expand Sam’s ability.
Sam spent two weeks practicing his leather-working almost non-stop on different hides, before he felt he could take the chance to modify and fix the enchantments on the mana-imbued leather. It took him nearly another full week, but he decided that it made more sense to replicate the enchantments on the inside of the armor to help protect them from future damage. He also felt a little guilty about how long it was taking, so he added a weight reduction enchantment like the one he copied from Gango’s armor.
While decrypting the strength enhancing enchantments on Ranger Vicki’s armor, Sam learned they required massive amounts of mana to be stored in the mana-imbued leather of the armor, but for the short 10-minute fight or battle a hunter was typically in, the advantage would be significant.
Since she didn’t mention it, Sam believed that neither Duke Card nor Ranger Vicki realized that the enchantment also contained some runes that gathered and purified mana around the person wearing the armor. Unfortunately, even with these mana gathering runes, it would likely take a week of charging if all the mana were drained out of the armor in a battle.
“Do you think they will tell anyone that I was able to fix the armor without a confidentiality contract?” asked Sam.
Jen rolled her eyes at Sam, and replied, “Like I told you before, Tamako trusts almost no one in this City, but she said Duke Card’s and Ranger Vicki’s word was reliable. Everyone else on their staff think I delivered some of your healing charms for Ranger Vicki to use in emergencies.”
“Okay, okay, you know I get worried. Earlier, after you left, I was in my workshop when I heard the back door’s enchanted alarm go off.”
“What happened?”
“Not sure, by the time I was able to get back there, they had already set off the trap. There was quite a bit of blood on the floor, but they must have been carried off by an accomplice.”
Jen’s eyes tightened with anger at the thought of someone trying to break in, and she said, “Damnit, do you think it was a gambler? Or maybe someone with the farmer’s guild? Is there anything you think we should do?”
“Without being sure who it was, I think all we can do is stay alert and keep up our guard. I am going to make some more security enchantments to place around the store and warehouse, but then I have to get caught up with this backlog of charms and enchantments that I need to craft and fix.”
Jen replied, “O.K. you do that, and I’m going to start investigating the Farmer’s Guild just in case it was them.”
After spending the next week getting caught up with his work, Sam was giddy with ideas as he sat in his workshop preparing to turn the mana-gathering runes he copied from Ranger Vicki’s armor into enchanted mana gathering rods. He experimented with the code of the mana-gathering enchantments until he was finally able to get them to pull and condense the ambient mana around wherever the rods were placed, while also absorbing just enough of the mana to keep the enchantments continually powered. Sam then placed these rods around his workshop to artificially increase his mana regen ability.
Jen was in the kitchen when Sam hollered from his workshop, “I need some money for a hardened steel rod.”
“I’m sure you do at your
age boomer!” replied Jen.
She heard Sam laugh at himself, and reply, “Yea, I walked into that one, but seriously, I need some money for a new experiment.”
“How much?”
Jen ran into Sam’s workshop and pretended to have a heart attack after hearing Sam say they would cost 2 gold, “You’ve got an expensive enchanting habit! I hate to tell you this, but you and your habit are going to have to wait a few weeks until we receive the gold from the auction of Gango’s armor.”
Jen didn’t mind spending their gold on Sam’s enchanting, but she was frustrated that the cheapest anything on a psych skill was over 500 gold at the System Shop.
Chapter 34:
Rods of Gold
A few weeks later, Sam ordered from Victor the blacksmith, 20 special, small, thin rods of hardened steel that had been mixed with monster core dust. He planned to use these to create strength, purifying, and mana gathering combination rods. Victor explained that when powerful beasts capable of using mana were killed, they would sometimes drop a “monster core”. These round cores ranged in size from a small marble to that of a man’s fist. The cores were incredibly expensive because of their ability to absorb and store mana.
Unfortunately, Sam ruined 12 of the expensive rods before he was able to get the enchantments to work in sync together, and then he went through another 2 rods tweaking the enchantments for maximum efficiency. He only had six left, three unenchanted rods he was going to use on another experiment, and three enchanted rods that he could sell to the shop for 5 gold each. He didn’t want to tell anyone about these enchantments. He felt the risk of being kidnapped and enslaved by one of the powerful guilds or Noble estates was too high. He was so paranoid; he wasn’t even going to take the chance of telling their friends at the Arc guild. Sam was still constantly second guessing their decision to fix Ranger Vicki’s armor, so with everyone else, he was sticking to the story that he could only repair simple enchantments and make low-powered charms.