(tentative) Play It

The bright lights of the operating room greeted me when i finally got back to camp and laid down, closing my eyes to almost instantly wake back up again as if i was not actually allowed to have rest in any way shape or form while i was part of a group. My legs seemed to finally be aware of my morning workout as i climbed down from my operating table and actually struggled to support myself, gripping the edge of my table firmly until it seemed like i was completely back in my body and could take my first step on my own toward where some of the others were already gathered by the open doorway and Doc while the rest were steadily waking up one by one and being cleared by the technicians. "You don't look too good," Hitome says as i joined the group by the door, sizing me up and down in my clean mundane clothes the same way that i had done with her in the game before fighting the scrowlers.

Returning the gesture by examining her noticeably vascular arms and shoulders and defined calves in her form-fitting tank-top and high-waisted shorts, i say, "Every workout day is going to be leg day for me while i am here, so I'll get used to it. I would ask if you were okay, but we both know you can handle yourself. Mind if i ask you about your combat training?"

"I was raised in a martial arts family and made money working in my parents' dojo, what you saw was naginatajutsu," she informs me simply. "The art of fighting with a lance or polearm weapon, a naginata more specifically though there are severl different polearms that fall under the style. We're Japanese by the way, that's usually the first question people ask me. Most people have never seen me fight, though," she adds, watching people waking up as if she would rather be on her way back to the operating room than getting ready to leave it.

"Naginatajutsu..." i say to myself, enjoying the way it rolls off of the tongue and sounds in my voice much to Hitome's amusement. "I studded staff and spear styles both Chinese and Japanese, but not as much as i probably should have. May i ask how it is you were a Novie and not an Apprentice at the start? You're probably the best and-or most versatile fighter in the group- more so than either Harold or myself."

"I asked Professor Harlen the same thing," she replies with a shrug. "The starting rating takes into account your real body, including its faults, and i have bad knees in reality from doing gymnastics on top of martial arts. I take medications for the lack of cartelidge and have had surgeries to remove scare tissue, but they got me through college and that's all i really need in this world unless some drunk decides he likes little asian girls. In the game, though, I'm now sixty-percent Apprentice, and that was before i awakened my magic on my own. It's entirely possible, if your magic type isn't still pushing your lead, that we are now equals in rating."

"Or you're better, even with my two sources," i argue in her favor, watching as the last of the others start waking up and getting disconnected by techs. "We should go hunting some time and settle this for ourselves, see if Doc won't give us a fun minigame and see who can tag the most animals."

"I guess i wasn't the only one playing tag for a minigame," Hitome says with a smirk. "Chitters, eleven. Only because I was out of practice and using an untipped spear so only thrusts drew blood."

"Gelpies, twenty-three," i say with a broad, triumphant smile. "I was using my quartz and amethyst daggers in waist-deep water, gelpies are these weird frog things that live in mud and brackish water like the clay bowl- you may have even seen a few if the scrowlers didn't keep them all in hiding. I was using one-eighty-degreee attack patterns and calculated thrusts, but my bladed weapons definitely gave my game of tag an advantage over yours. Maybe i can make it up to you, make you a proper naginata before we go out and die."

"Yari," she says quickly. Then, after a few moments of my silently racking my brain for the translation, "It's the straight-bladed polearm spear, lighter about the end than the naginata's broad, curving blade but longer in the pole to make up for it. I want mine to have a shorter pole, though, as tall as you are with at least twenty-eight inches of double-edged blade- think you can do it?"

"I would definitely love to try," i answer honestly, running the numbers on carving a mold for something like that before deciding the depth of the lasering would take too long and weaken the rest of the mold. "I would have to piece together a mold from particulates, might take most of my aura to do it quickly, but could have the object magically ready for your final touches around an hour after i start making it."

"Wonderful, you just helped me secure your seat in second place," she says boastfully.

Our lunch break passed surprisingly quickly despite my having to answer a question here or there about magic, finally clearing up everybody's issue with generating heat in their flames by explaining the difference between natural airflow and forcerd airflow, because we did not have any major plans to prepare for besides our own designs or hunting trips for the weird arborial rabbit that i had been hearing so much about. Because we did not fully understand the mechanics of how the hunting and actual enemy spawns worked in this game yet, it was decided that the first team of six would travel to Hitome's island not long after waking up to split into three pairs to split up and divide hunting grounds in her dense cane forestry while the next team did the same at Harold's old island of tropical forestry with a hopeful arrival at noon. After having agreed to make a special weapon for Hitome as well as challenged her, i was not only stuck heading out on the late away team but also taking care of the camp and everyone's awakening practice in the absense of both Harold and Emma.

*

My recent days of pushing myself moment after moment both physically and mentally in my body and magic seemed to have finally caught up with me when i opened my eyes to a clear early morning sky, every inch of my body was fatigued and aching as i slowly sat up from my A-frame bed and rolled my legs out of bed with only a little less struggle than i had gotten up from my operating table less than half an hour ago for lunch. There was a slight twinge in my jaw when i stretched out and unleashed my mighty morning breath up into the air in a loud yawn, the twinge turned into an audible pop when i started working my jaw around, though, telling me that the scrowler boss must have unhinged or jarred my jaw in some way during that pass attack that had ripped my face open. Sighing in some relief as a load of strees seems to be lifted from my face and neck before climbing to my feet, reaching out toward the communal storage structure with my hand and willing my aura to come to life and find food for me.

The response was not as sudden and intuitive as it had been yesterday, instead it was sluggish and lazy in that it took nearly a full minute to even awake after yesterday's almost automatic awakening and even longer still before i was able to locate a fillet of crocodile meat just to see what it tasted and several coconuts- but at least the overall amount of energy used in my actions had not seemed to change much. Looking around the camp as i ravenously chew through the tough, dried meat and start opening a coconut to wash it down with, i soon realize that the others were experiencing somewhat similar symptoms as the camp groggily came to life around me with gripes and groans of all sorts as though everybody had woken up hungover. "Ether tea..." i groan as realization dawns on me, realizing the excessive usage of magic we had all put in after drinking the tea must be what was causing these nauseated and fatigued symptoms in both our bodies and magic.

"I might actually get sick," Emmer whines from her bed, not even leaving her shelter to get ready for the hunting trip. Setting about using most of my dried herbs to make several liters of herbal tea with my magic, i pour a cup for Emma to drink before making my why haggardly around the camp passing out cups and filling drinks to help everyone recover as many people decided to just stay in bed and be miserable. "You're a godsend," Emma says gratefully when i return to my shelter with the last liter and stop to pour her a second before drinking straight from the liter.

"It's what friends are for," i say with a dismissive wave of my hand after my first draught of hot herbal tea, perking up considerably as soon as it was in my stomach before i start in on my fillet-o'-crocodile. Then, a little more quietly, "People have been telling me recently that I'm an asshole and need to be more outgoing, but this is really just me trying to keep you and Harold off my back for a while."

Snorting once loudly and getting everyone's attentions- especially a surprisingly swift swivel of the head from Hitome- Emma quickly stifles herself until the others go back to their own focuses and then she says, "I'm going to get you back for that. One way or another... maybe not today, maybe not even today IRL... you'll regret making me do that."

Shaking my head with a broad smile, i say, "Never will i regret hearing you snort like that, even if i died a thousand deaths because of it. Each death would make the memory that much more gratifying. So fear not, little lady, whatever you have in mind will only make make you snort again." Then, as an afterthought in a solacious whisper, "I bet i can make you snort."

She snorted. Then, whining similarly to an upset puppy as she retreats deeper into her shelter away from the laughter of the others who had finally figured out where the sound was coming from as i almost spill my cane of tea with my own laughter, she says, "I'll kill you in your sleep. I asked the professor about it when we first started, you respawn will all of your gear and clothes unless looted by another player- you still keep your primary weapon and outer armor like a coat- but you're going to respawn naked next to a naked you and I'll be here waiting for you to wake up."

"You don't have to go to such extremes just to see me naked," i say carelessly, thoroughly enjoying myself as i finish off the cane of tea and hop up to my feet feeling twice as good as i had moments ago. "All you have to do is ask." Then, to the camp as a whole as Emma starts to let loose some form of quip or retort, "Alright, everybody, we got magic drunk last night, but i feel great now so the rest of you should be feeling alright enough to get up and get to work. We have a time frame to keep. That means you, too, Harold. Especially you, Harold," i add, knocking on his shelter like he had knocked on my bed in the previous session.

Everybody had something to gripe and groan about as they set about coming back to life, but nobody said anything to me or stayed in their shelters which was more than satisfying results as far as i was concerned as i measured out my aura to a little over thirty-five feet before thinking back to the vague designs given to me by Hitome for her naginata. Creating a mold for her weapon from sand with a blade spine of over one inches thick and blade widths of just over one-and-a-half inches from atop a solid iron pole portion just over and inch in diameter for a one inch shaft, i quickly glass the sand at over a thousand degrees and maintain the heat for as long as i can as i continually add more sand and condense the glass into a quartzite like my old snake golem that would handle both the heat of molten iron and its weight. Looking back at camp to see not only Hitome's eyes on me fromwhere i worked near the edge of the slab, i wield the flash frozen mold as though it were the actual weapon and momentarily consider synthesizing and actualy crystalline version of the weapon for myself as i experimentally thrust and swish the blade through the air before carefully spinning the weapon in front of me and over my head between my hands.

The mold itself was not unbalanced but was also fairly light and bespoke nothing of the heft and power of the actual polearm that i was about to make, but i momentarily wondered if a solid metal weapon of this size would not be too heavy for the structurally small girl at around thirty pounds of solidified iron. Taking the mold back to camp and to Hitome's shelter that was almost directly across the fire from Emma's where Hitome herself was watching me like a hawk, i simply say, "This is going to make a big heavy weapon. Are you fine with this?"

Looking at the weapon mold in my hands without even reaching for it, she says, "I'll make it work. Just make sure you temper it like you did your weapons, except cool the shaft outward from the middle going soft toward the ends. If you can make it like that, we'll be in business."

"Great, I'll see you in an hour or so when my magic is recharged enough to actually fill the mold," i say flippantly before turning and walking back to my shelter as Harold and his hunting team all equipped with bows and arrows, spears, swords, and my daggers in place of their original starting knives. The uniform coats were honestly nice despite a few ragged lines here and there that looked like claw streaks, but the leather cargo clothes that we all wore were starting to look worn and loose from lack of proper care and constant exposure to water and were in need of some replacing. "You guys honestly look pretty good," i admit cheerfully before, "but we all need to wash these cargos."

"You're one to talk," Emma quips quickly. "I can't even tell which is your blood and which is the scrowlers."

"It's so hard to take you seriously when you use a word like 'scrowler'," i tease with a smirk, disregarding her bitterness as her face starts reddening from both anger and fighting her own laughter. "Anybody got their magic yet or is everybody just going to wing it and hope for the best?" Only Harold's and Emma's hands went up. "You guys are starting to upset me, if i were team leader i would make you suffer magic hangovers every session until you activated your magic, now show Harold some love for being team leader instead of me and do you best out there because him and Emma are going to need it."

Just because i had to be a part of the team did not mean i could not be the kick in the arse everybody needed to get themselves together as Harold started in on his own pep talk and lecture about his awakening the previous session while leading the group off from camp with Emma glaring at me until i finally waved bye. Turning the Eric, Hitome, Angel, Billy, and Maxine who were to be my away team, i say, "Anyone without magic at their disposal, get it. Anyone with it, put it to work. If you have nothing you feel you really need to do while recharging, meditate. I want results of some sort by the time i get back from exploring- the bigger ridge formations around the back of the island were pitted with cracks and faults that probably contain mineral deposits or any kind of goodies."

"Including any kind of enemies, Journeyman," Billy calls out. "I ain't got magic yet, but you should still take somebody with you. You said it yourself, that scrowler thing had a thing for you, which means Professor Harlen has a thing for you. Maybe you should take Eric or Hitome with you."

"Both are both types of magic users represented by everybody in the beta but me, they need to remain around camp to offer guidance to you guys working on their magic while I- Bravo Leader- go check out the possibly dangerous areas," i argue matter-of-factly, brooking little argument. "If it turns out there is anything there, i will send up an exploding flare and start running around the outside of the island to lead them away before ditching them back to camp if my power works. If not, it's up to Eric and Hitome to lead the full team to the flare location where i will double-back to. For the record, if i actually throw up a flare, it's something i am not capable of taking down on my own, so be ready for something big or multiple big somethings."

"Sir, yes, sir!" Billy says quickly while the others make their own acknowledgements, going back to honing arrowsheads to awaken his sorcery with Angel who was trying to awaken his wizardry with his hands held over a still arrowhead resting on its boulder. At least they were being useful about it, unlike Maxine who was performing kickboxing moves with sudden cries and spurts of strength in the attempt to unleash her own sorcery.

Tying my sword and dagger to either hip in front of the crystalline daggers that always remained on my person, i go ahead and adorn my belts of arrowheads with the intent of replacing them with real knives later in the day and strike off from camp toward the back side of the island and its greater ridge formations than the relative foothills surrounding out campsite. Walking through the island seemed incredibly slow as i wound my way among rubble or scaled ridges to shorten my paths, despite the fact that finding my way to camp with my pallets had taken much longer, but it was less than an hour before i found myself on an inclining ridgeline that lead up to the closest face of the greater formations. When i finally got to the end where i could look around on all sides, i soon discovered that the closest faulted area was below me by a several yards where a pile rubble lead halfway up to where differently grained portions of slate formation were breaking away outward like a crater from a deep central position.

Knowing i should prbably start my search with the pile of rubble for mineral samples rather than try to climb down and around through the cratering, i start lowing myself down around the slope of the side of the ridge where it stretched out from the ridge formations over twice as high as i was now before having to turn around and face the steadily sheering face of the ridge to climb down one hand and foot at a time. The rock formation here seemed older than my old slate steppes, providing me with twice as many secure and insecure places to set my hands and feet that sent little shivers through me with the sound of every settling stone and crumbling layer. Finally, though, after only a little while of climbing down, i could finally set my foot into the cratering edge of the eroded pit in the slate face where i can start angling down around the curvature of the crater unti reaching a point near its lower side when i could climb around and over the edge to actually stand in the funneling crater.

Within the shadowed alcove of the cratering in the rock, i could see that the crater did indeed funnel inward toward a shrinking point from which i could not only hear but actually feel the blowing of wind coming from the actual darkness in the lower middle of the crater that told me where i was going lead somewhere else entirely. Casting Ignite not only for light as i walk along the wall of the water for something to lean on, i prep the ball of fire to launch in the air and explode by filling it with stored oxygen and magical energy that made it glow even brighter than before from its position in the palm of my hand held high overhead to illuminate all but the dwindling depths of the crater. Those depths turned out to be a rabbit hole of sorts, a broad but skinny shaft of breaking stone through which wind seemed to blow start up and flicker the fire i held, but none of the inner walls or the gently sloping floor of the crater bore any signs of minerals like quartz or even pure feldspar schists, just broken bits of slate that had formed and cooled with different grains from its surroundings.

What was odd, though, were all of the present grain patterns and directions in the stone that were causing the weathering of the crater. I was no geologist, but from my understanding of geology and the lay of the island itself, this island had started as a thermal vent not unlike the ones that propelled the archipelago that poured forth minerals up toward the top where it it cooled in a pillar connecting this island to the others and all of the slate from around the island had originally been connected to the grater formation. Ridges like the one i was standing in should have had but one grain pattern from the runoff flow leading away from the greater slates, but here in the side it seemed like it had been poured or somehow pooled here at some later point in time and run out all over the preexisting ridge of the time to create all of these mismatched lines in the slate. Now i just needed to figure out why it was only breaking away on this side.

At the actual drop in the funnel of the crater where the wind was coming from, the slate began taking on a superficial glassy appearance from its feldspars being super heated and drawn to the surface surface in the area where the new slate met the original ridge because the glassy floor around the hole all ran in a single uniform direction. Breaking away a small candle flame on the end of my index finger from the baseball sized flame flickering in my hand, i load it up with gaseous oxygen and hydrogen compressed as tightly as i can manage until the second flame was as big as the first and i simply drop it down the hole where the wind grows stronger and stronger to the point of bursting my flame around a bend in the tunnel some twenty feet down the decline of the hole. Bearing in mind quartz's ability to project visible lights and colors, i draw the quartz dagger from my hip in my aura and place my awareness within before stretching the dagger out into the flickering light of the flames still burning down in the tunnel while using the quartz to filter firelight into optical sensory data.

I could see nothing but the windblown tongues of fire trying to come back up the tunnel, at first, but as their fuel burned away and the flames began to shrink, i could clearly see the reflections of purer feldspars further down the slightly winding tunnel and focus on a set of these reflection to glean more visual info. Roughly ten feet along the tunnel from the first bend come a second drop with a smooth glassy tunnel that looked as though it was worn by water as well as heat and wind from the minor mineral build-up along the top from running water, but after this drop the chamber opened up into darkness somewhere below the actual ground. "It's cold up here, by now, but this wind coming from the tunnel is actually coming from the original magma chamber that produced most of the island," Doc's voice says from beside me as he appears a few feet away looking down into the hole in my firelight, "which means the wind is coming from inside, not somewhere else outside. This is the only way in and out of the island's infrastructure."

"So you're telling me... iron island is a giant hollow hunk of rock riddled with tunnel systems?" I ask curiously, withdrawing my aura and dagger from the tunnel.

"They all are," he admits casually. "The actual volcanoe of the island is designed to sit on top of the planet's underwater vents and volcanoes and fill up its inner chambers for minerals and resources so that the celestial being who owns the archipelago does not need to constantly spend its own energy to make islands. Every island has at least one tunnel system that can lead back to the central island, but the underground of the archipelago is not for beginner players- or for you. The darkness within breeds only strength and survival instinct, anything you come across under the islands has never known a moment's peace in its existence and will spend the rest of its or your existence doing the same to you. Every island has an enemy specifically for a player that visits or multiple of it for multiple players, but every underground has one boss-level enemy made to keep anything from the surface from entering the tunnel- making the Drifting Catacombs one of the hardest dungeons in the game, although the rewards are well worth it with that first chamber below being a large coal deposit from the sifting of oceanic organics and the constant soot gathering in the wet caves."

"Since you're here, you either really don't want me to go down there or you want to make a game of it," i say with a grin. "I'm guessing it's game time."

"No, it's not," Doc states simply. "Not only are they still being worked on- we are simplifying the paths between islands while making the islands themselves more labyrnthine. Not only that, but the boss for this island is a rock wyrm, a giant serpent like the sea dragons except that they have scales made up of collected minerals from digging and spew molten rock when threatened. The one two more chambers down is two hundred years old and covered enirely in garnet- the crystalline scales not only making it magic resistance but untouchable by your weapons. Even if you use your power to displace the wyrm into you and your sword like you tried to do the with the unique scrowler, dimensional displacement will still push the two masses away from each other because they cannot reside in the same space at the same time- or did you think you actually kept from running into that tree on your own?"

"I don't really have a use for coal, anyway," i say instead of actually answering the question. "I'm sure a synthetic diamond will carry a magic signature that lets people know its not natural, diminishing the value in a location like this simply to personal use."

"If that were the case, would not the electric rings i gave you all be considerably cheap?" He asks in argument, leading me to question the rings for a moment.

"The rings were crafted by an administrative account without an actual mage's signature, just energy," i muse as i recall syncing the auras of the ring and coat and spine to my own. "Not only was it not made by a 'person', they were also made from breaking down the carbon of a dead dragon and imbued with what remained of that dragon's magical charging. Making it a unique type of diamond, synthetic or not, because it carries the signatures of the dragon's organics and magic rather than the structures of compressed and heated coal by human or mortal hands. If i wanted to make gems of value in a resource rich economy like these islands, i would need to make them from something- like collecting brain matter from water animals to oxidate aluminum build-up caused by the water exposure to natural and other ores into corundum to blend with natural quartz and synthesize necro-rubies or something."

"Draconic diamonds and necro-rubies," Doc says as he rubs his stubbly chin thoughtfully. "That could become a thing. Any animals or people who drink the water here would be building up heavy metals of all sorts, but people like the outlaws and smugglers like you are so worried about would actually be the best to harvest- their brains and bodies can collect more metals over longer life spans than normal or most magical animals. Then again the alchemical or metallurgical components of gems are not as widely understood in this world as they are back home, so synthesizing gems is only done by the best and brightest in relative secret, but yes a jeweler or mage could tell it was synthesized- jewelers betters than most mages because they know stones better than most mages in general."

Sighing tiredly, wondering if i should not go down and see if i could not wound the wyrm before bringing the entire team in later in the day, i turn and start walking back out to the entrance of the crater while asking, "I got less than half an hour before I'm really late for making Hitome's yari, you got any tips for where to look on my way back?"

"I smell a minigame," is his merry reply. "Tell you what, if you can get back on top of this ridge in one move, i will not only tell you where a nearby mineral deposit is located but i will also... huh, you guys shouldn't need anymore water today, weapons are taken care of, you already have a hunting challenge for hides today, both teams will be bringing back plenty of resources from their outings... oh! Because i could not let you enter the underground, i will give you an event location! Does this sound acceptable to you?"

An event location? I ask myself skeptically even though i knew the professor could hear my thoughts. Then, knowing it would have to be something good to make up for the closing off my access to the underground, i say, "Fine, I'll take it. All i have to do is get up to the top in one move? You brought up my spacial ability earlier, so i can only assume the answer is in the context, and you mentioned dimensional displacement of masses, so all i should have to do is move myself high enough into the rock that the top of the ridge is the closest release point at the end of my jump so i get repelled to the surface instead of back down into the crater where i will probably die. Right?"

"Try it and found it," is the only reply he would give me with a twisted sort of smile, leaving me to look up at the ceiling overhead and thinking back to my spacial jumps from the previous session and how random they had been as i simply tried to stay out of reach of the thirty-yard distance the scrowler seemed to cover with every move. Thirty yards in this instance would have gotten me up to the ceiling where the top of the ridge i had descended from should only be twelve or fifteen more yards, but a single misstep or miscalculation in my distance or trajectory could have me thrown straight down into the floor of the crater with a sickening splat. Worse yet, i had not used my power yet today and had no idea if it required circumstantial activation.

Doing my best to draw confidence from the fact that i would not be given a task i could not complete as a minigame no matter how sinister the professor had tried to look, i close my eyes and focus on the memory of the world slowly distorting around me before being rushed to another location. Then, i jumped, as hard and as high as i could to blindly traverse from dim to dark to light again before the rush of air around me leads me to open my eyes to find myself falling wildly through the air several stories above the ridge. The realization that i had continued jumping through the repulsion to the surface to be flung farther than i had ever intended dawns on me as i found myself falling, naked, front-down toward the ridge where Doc was now standing holding a large bundle of what looked like my clothes and gear, but just before i actually made contact with the stone i abruptly stopped so close that my dirty blond hair falling down about my head lay about the slate.

"Somehow i knew you would take the bait," Doc says as i remain suspended in place, unable to move for several long moments before i finally collapsed onto the slate with a groan. "I had already answered the riddle before the riddle, and with a mind like yours and mine it would have only been obvious what the answer was, but from the way you looked at me and thought about it i knew you knew something was wrong. Wanna know?"

Sitting up and holding my hand out for my gear, only for the professor to take a step back, i start to get irritated and say, "Oh, do tell."

"Ever since we streamed the fight with the dragon, we have been playing everybody's better scenes throughout the building putting together agreeable content for a special-relese trailer after the beta," he begins explaining as i climb to my feet, taking another step back. "Earlier this session i was giving Emma and Harold a minigame of shooting paralyzed chitters for pelts when she told me about how upset she was because of you embarassing her in front of everyone this morning- which the entire building saw, but she doesn't need to know that. So, i offered to make it up to her by embarassing you in some way and it just so happened you don't know how to adapt your ability to other objects yet because you don't fully understand what it is yet. Now is the part where i tell you this scene will be played in the cafeteria during our next break period and that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Here are your clothes," he adds after continuing to back away for every naked step forward, obviously unprepared to fight somebody who was naked, throwing the clothes up into the air at me before walking backward up the cliff face of the greater ridge.

Hurriedly dressing once more in my gear and donning my weaponry, i call up to the professor, "No, you get down here and you fight me. I didn't make Emma get naked in front of thousands of people, i made her laugh!"

"There's a very large mineral deposit if you follow this body of rock back toward camp, only a few dozen feet off the ground beyond the next runoff ridge," He calls back without moving from his position twelve feet overhead and over ten yards away. "The main ridge's grains are horizontal, that's how you will recognize the proper fault, there are a few of them in the area that are vertical and belong to this island's particularly nasty wyrm after the celestial here closed off its main entrance. They are merely air holes at this point, but go ahead and stay out of them. I'm sure i will find a way to make this unfortunate event up to you, though."

I charged a jump to try and close the distance without the unpredictability of displacing myself, but as soon as i left the ground the professor was gone and i landed on nothing but empty cliff face that i adhered to with my aura through my feet. "I know you can hear me, Doc," i growl angrily before closing my eyes and using breathing exercises to calm myself. "Whatever you do to make this up to me, it better be good."

I regretted not bringing any food or drink with me, i had really only planned on walking around and not even climbing at all, but i had at least managed to find something of value and from it more valuable information on a deposit that would likely be heavy with garnet and amethyst considering the amount of iron in the terrain. Climbing the second ridge was the hardest part, taking all of the aura i had managed to recharge while traveling to take break both going up and coming back down from over fifty feet off the ground, but then i finally got to the bottom where i could take a break and realized what Doc had meant about the one horizontal crevasse in the rock among many verticals because there were five thin, vertical splits in the rock face with only small amounts of breakage on the ground over a one-hundred yard span of main ridge. The one horizontal fault in the ridge was fairly close, only a hundred or so feet from the bottom of the runoff ridge, and was close enough to the ground with so much natural breakage that i could climb the piling of rubble to get to the mineral deposit.

The sun was only a few hours away from its peak at the top of the sky when i finally got to the top of the rubble pile, finding some of the rocks bearing partial samples of broken crystals that i had to avoid more than examine while climbing from one rock to the next as well as whole bodies of agates that would layer have separated a mineral deposit from the rest of the slate. The cravesse itself was tall enough at the middle of the opening that i could sit upright on my knees within and the entire crevasse stretched out for twenty thinning feet in either direction, but even from the dim lighting at the entrance i could see patches of dusty gleams that brightened up as i crawled inside and cast Ignition. The flame i produced was small so that i could sustain it with the few feet remaining before reaching my critial points, but was plenty to illuminate the forming tunnel around me that reached further back into the ridge than my light.

Most of the crystal formations were large prisms growing out of clefts in the ceiling with breakage littering the floor before me, but all of them seemed to be some form coralite combination of amethyst and garnet and citrine and quartz variants with the largely shattered pieces about the floor were more individualized. Wishing i had listened to Billy and brought somebody with me who had magic so they could reach the more valuable coralite samples, i set about carefully picking my way over the floor searching for the largest pieces that i could fit in the pockets of my cargos and the large pockets lining the inside of my coat. Many of the samples i collected i had to briefly spit shine a spot on to identify by coloring, but i was able to load up on long shards of only prismatic amethyst and garnet as well as fat rock-like chunks of similar samples until my pockets were all but overflowing with stones.

Only inches of my aura remained as i tiredly climbed out of the mineral deposit and back to the ground, but it slowly continued charging inch by inch as i started making my way back to camp bearing a few dozen pounds in crystals. Much to my surprise upon my return to camp, everybody was out practicing their magic while waiting for me, burning and catching not only rivet bars but also heating and hammering ingots of their own design at already made, blocky anvils into long bars and broad, slightly curving sheets that all lay in the sand nearby. Hitome was the first to notice me when i arrived, facing my direction while wielding her hatchet-hammer with little to no problem to flatten the end of a ten-pound ingot held by her magic, stopping to take a break as i walked into the camp area spreading my coat out to reveal long prismatic shards of dusty purple and reds only to remind myself of my future nude scenes and quickly close my coat again.

"Did everyone activate their magic or did you just sip the Kool-Aid while i was gone?" i ask loudly with a smirk as Hitome sets her tools on her blocky anvil and the others quickly stop their work as i gain their attention. I could not feel their auras with mine at only half strength, but from the way they looked worn and haggard i could tell they only had a few buffs from normal tea and herbal cream about their faces.

"You're late, i had to make my own yari," Hitome accuses me with muted anger, a small stormcloud behind a false sea of calm. "You're not going to mess up the hunting trip, are you?"

"No, I'm going to unload and take a sip myself to be in peak condition for when it's time to head out," i reassure her and the others quickly who looked upon my own worn and sweaty visage with notable disapproval. "I found a perfect mineral deposit, though," i add hopefully when their expressions do not change, even when i flash my coat open with a weak smile. "Look, I'm sorry it took so long, i ended up using my minigame to find the deposit and it got pretty ugly. No, don't ask me about it, you'll all get to enjoy it pretty much firsthand later," i add before stalking off back to camp to unload my burdens in my jewel chest before seeking out last session's pot of ether tea.

Returning to where the others were working and Hitome was now waiting with a completed polearm almost twice as tall as she was in one hand and an unbroken portion of its quartzite mold, i soon find that top portion of mold flying through the air at me like a beautifully thrown knife when i come within range of the girl. I caught it in the edge of my aura even as i was reaching up in the hopes of physically catching the possibly deadly objects, but the instant it was stopped it was invisibly snatched back by Hitome where it returned to her hand before she started walking toward me. "At least i didn't have to stop it," she says as the others drop all to watch whatever continued to transpire, "so maybe you won't hold me back during the hunt. I thought you might like the top part, so i kept it whole and even used my magic to make it solid, but you don't get to have it until after my sword is tempered. I would do it myself, but you would probably do it better than me."

I could not help but appreciate the sentiment that nearly got me killed, but getting a magical object bearing creation signatures from two different mages would definitely be an interesting tool to have. Accepting instead the unsharpened spear over the crystalline sword version of it, i wordlessly set about the task of walking the length of the slab with the heavy spear held out along its surface to sharpen for about a minute at a time before changing sides. It took several passes around the entire camp slab to bring all four blade sides to the beveling of an actual sword, i start raising the temperature of the weapons to critical while holding it in my aura before quenching the blade person in gradual lines outward from the spine while lowering the temperature by fifty degrees all of the way to four-fifty at the edges and quenching the connecting portion of the blade and shaft gradually for several inches of transitioning lines to keep the area from becoming soft enough to bend from Hitome's requested patterning. Starting at the new center of still critical iron pole and using Freeze to continue quenching by Hitome's request, i soon hold the tempered weapon in my hands and marvel at the surprising amount of balance while holding it just ahead of the critical quench areas and thrusting the spear lightly ahead of me before slithering the blade upward and slashing down and out before sweeping imaginary legs with a deft flick low to the ground before drawing in and thrusting the spear completely out in one hand at chest height.

Ignoring the playful cheers and calls from the others lounging around camp, i set about circling the slab once more as i complete the cutting edges of the tiered spear blade even when Harold and the others returned about twenty minutes before i was finished. Rejoining everyone at camp where they were regaling the others with stories of their minigame hunting and continued efforts to gather wood while my team told them about their work at the anvils while making it clear i had disregarded my duties to go chase after rocks, i simply remained silent while i traded the supposedly short yari with Hitome for the crystalline sword that she had made. Emma, bearing a thick stack of large pelts almost as big as my entire torso, eyed the exchange but said nothing when i returned to my shelter that she had built next to hers to start working on a sheathe for the guardless, naked crystalline sword from the scraps of leather the others had returned to me when they finished theirs.

Sitting down at the edge of my A-frame by Emma's shelter to brew some tea from the chests of water canes the others had brought back with them, i say, "Doc got me back for you, if he hasn't already told you. Should be pretty good... i made you laugh in front of our friends and he got me good. Gonna show it to everybody in the cafeteria during our next break. Since i bet right about being able to make you snort, you're probably going to love it."

"I'm still going to kill you in your sleep," is the only response i get as she works noisily within her shelter.

Ending up naked is getting old, i think with a twinge of both anger and regret, sipping my tea before putting on my quartzite sword behind my amethyst and iron daggers opposite my iron sword before getting up to call Bravo team together. Most of us were already equipped with the tools and weapons that we wanted to bring along, in lieu of axes or hatchets or picks everybody was adorned a sheathed machete for their wood tool of choice alongside their swords and daggers and the odd spear slung over their shoulders while Alpha team gave up their bows and quivers of remaining arrows. Wearing the bow and quiver that i had made for Emma after having them shoved into my hands in stubborn silence, i make Bravo team go through a final weapons check and stock up on arrows from the depot structure before finally leading the way out toward the marina with a fully magical team.

Taking Harold's barge instead of my raft to conserve my own strength and stamina, i tell the others, "Buddy up! Your rowing partner is also your hunting partner. I got Hitome since we have a standing challenge, the rest of you divvy up and take your places," i add as i board the raft, taking the front left rowing seat of stacked and bound canes while Hitome takes the seat on the other side of the raft from me.

The journey to Hitome's old island did not take long, hers was opposite Emma's from my old island and therefor only and hour and some change of current fighting away, but when we finally brought the barge to the shallows at the back of her pumice riddled island of cane forestry everybody was dog tired and i resolved myself that for the sake of my future teams i would take my raft where i could power stroke straight to my island from the iron island and follow its off-branching currents if we ever made this trip again. Sipping some of the normal herbal tea that i had brought with me in my flask as the others do likewise after anchoring the long barge half in and half out of the water, i cork it and replace it on my belt before informing the others, "Now seems as good a place as any to split up and head inland.

"If any of you come across an actual threat, no matter what, one of you send up a flare while the other distracts," i go on as we split back up into our teams. "Please believe me when i say i do not mean to steal your kill, i simply don't want anybody to get unnecessarily hurt. If you feel like you bagged enough or get tired of not finding anything, just head back to the raft and wait or try another location. Use your auras to your advantage, they can pick up noises and so on that you can use to find likely targets. Maxine, Billy, you guys head inland toward the left from here between the beach and the middle of the island while Angel and Eric go off toward the right, Hitome and i are going straight up the middle. Keep your conversation to whispers and stay focused, we need to get all we can as fast as we can and get back to camp to make our armor- if all goes well, we get tomorrow to do whatever we want."

The others made tired acknowledgements as we set off on our separate paths with bows in hand across the beach, me stretching my aura out in every direction collecting bits of quartz sand from the beach to use for reciving visuals within my fifty-plus feet of sensory recieving aura. Every once in a while a strange bird or large insect would pass through my awareness, but as much as feather fletching would increase the flight time of our arrows we were after more selective targets with furry skin that seemed to elude my aura or just not exist as we went deeper and deeper into the island. Finally, among thick towering cane trees that encroached in on a copse of oak and ash trees surrounding by thorny berry thickets that included the yellow herbal berries, Hitome says, "This is where i had my minigame. I had no idea then that the berries were so useful, but i'll be sure to load up on plenty of them before we leave."

"Well, it's the dead center of the island," i remark as i stretch my aura directly out into the filtered light of the trees with a string of sand to survey the area and get my first look at the flemish sized cratures. Like the scrowlers they had a short bushy tail like a squirrel but they had long stiff ears like a rabbit despite being rounded near the tops and constantly swiveling about like a dog's or horse's ears. "There's two in all but that big tree, it has a loaded nest of a lot of babies with like three fat mamas on guard. Do we leave the nursery tree in the middle alone or go for the extra-large pelts?"

"Oh my God... with ears like theirs i bet the babies are so ugly and adorable," she says, attracting the attention of every last living creature in the area when she squeals the last words like a screaming fangirl. Then, very aware of how loud she had just been with shock-widened eyes, she whispers, "I want one. Now. Kill 'em all and bring me the bebehs."

I had to admit that the small, six-legged mammals whose middle limgs were more like diminutive arms and hands than legs and feet were pretty cute, no bigger than my entire hand and clinging to one another with their middle arms and their flaps of excess skin like morphed baby sugar gliders. I, too, wanted one. "There's like eighteen babies, everybody can get one of their own and you can hoard seven of them. We would have to get in closer for me to use my aura with enough substance to grab them or use a weapon, but that's not happening after your pretty princess moment. Can you use your aura to recieve sensory data? We can tag them with our auras and use our magic to guide our arrows through the trees."

"Nope," she states simply. "I can get an arrow sized stretch out to almost one hundred feet, but the trees are at least fifty yards and thats at least sixty out of my reach. Think you can take them out one by one quick and quiet if i make some little ice darts you can shoot at them like you did the arrows at that dragon? I could probably feed you my energy to make up the substance of your magic or whatever," she adds, carefully placing her hand on my shoulder and reaching out to my aura with her own while closing her eyes. I openly accepted her currents along my own flows, allowing them to fuel my own outstretched aura with her energy to increase my reach and substance just as she had predicted.

Linking a tendril of aura into each adult chitter's chest to make contact with their hears, i forgo using projectiles at all by forming a tiny blade at the end of my aura entering every swiftly beating heart before using Freeze on the bodily fluids passing through my aura and then expand to almost instantly explode all nine adult chitters present and continue holding their bodies by their sternums so that i can quietly bring them to the ground. Releasing the connection to Hitome's aura, i walk out from behind the cluster of young canes we hid behind toward the trees and say, "I get first pick of the litter, then you can choose yours, and everybody else can pick the rest."

"Gimme all those teenie weenie runts," she says, rushing out of cover and running past me without even glancing at the bodies of the chitters about the ground. Luckily, i had used mostly her energy for the actual magic, so i still had plenty of juice after a minute or two of recharging to dress the bodies of the scrowlers with magic as Hitome struggled to climb main, elder, oak of the trees with her mostly depleted aura. I had already seen the baby i wanted and was not worried about her choices, so i left the task of getting to and examining all of the baby animals to the over enthusiastic Asian girl while i went about collecting the hides and considering the possibilities of what i could do with all of the meat and organs that we really did not need.

Using up most of my aura as Hitome loudly coos and coddles the loudly unsettled creatures, i launch all of the whole naked bodies far and wide into the sky toward the beach in the hopes of attracting more predatory animals from either the island or the water to the beach for when we made our way back to the barge. "What are you doing?" Hitome calls loudly from the tree as one small carcass after another whirls through the air, fighting to hear over the now slightly muffled baby chitters. "I could use some help getting down! I have them all in my coat pockets, but i don't want to accidentally hit them on anything on the way dow, could you hold my coat out for me? Yes, i know that's probably an invitation to look at my butt."

"Why do women always make things weird," i groan aloud by accidently, only looking up to see where my aura was going as i reached out with even my critical energy to hold her coat steady so that she could begin climbing down from the tree. I did not know if it was because she had said something about it or not, but i could not help but look at her butt at least once while she was hanging from the lowermost branches where i could grab her legs and bring her to the ground.

"There's nothing weird about butts. What are you, twelve?" Hitome asks with a surprisingly loud laugh as i let go of her and stand up. "Even i like butts. Both butts."

"To each their own, I'm just... awkward," i say while holding up my hands in a helpless shrug. "Call me cute and innocent, i guess, just not old fashioned. I like butts, and i guess yours is cute, but I'm trying to stay focused here. Now, gimme Spot."

"Spot?" She asks, feigning ignorance as she opens one side of her coat wide to reveal bulging pockets while sticking her hip out to one side and emphasizing her butt almost comically if not for how well her legs filled out her leather cargos. "I don't believe i have a Spot, can you find out if i have a Spot?" I suddenly understood how it felt to be Emma.

"As wonderful and hilarious as this really is and as much as i will probably regret not rifling about your person myself, gimme," i demand with a slight grin, holding out my hand for the special chitter i knew she would want to keep.

Letting her coat close and standing up with proper posture, she pouts as she reaches instead down her shirt to take out the largest chitter in the litter that was almost to big to sit on her small hand. This chitter was dark gray whereas the others were different shades of earth browns and tans with some mottling of other browns and tans, and over its entire face was one large, black spot. "Oh..." i say softly before i can stop myself as i cup my hands underneath Hitome's and the little creature actually steps down into the much large support so than i can cradle it to my chest.

"I thought making you blush was cute, but that face and sound just now..." Hitome starts to tease until i give her a withering glare and my baby chitter turns to look at her as well with eyes squinted against the forest light as though it were glaring as well. "Nevermind. Why don't we head back to the raft? Where are all the skins and bodies?"

Looking back down at my new little friend with a soft smile, i say, "I launched them back to the raft to attract predators in the hopes of getting some extra skins. If we're really lucky, maybe a croc will come up and i can get my own skin like Emma's, or give her the second croc hide so she can make a full suit of scaly armor."

"Scaly butt," Hitome says with a wicked smirk, earning another brief glare before i turn and walk away while murmuring to my chitter who was starting to cling to one of my chest pockets.

Spot could just barely fit inside of my pocket sitting on its tail curled up from beneath her legs, holding the edge of my pocket with one tiny raccon-like hand while holding its tail to its chest and face with the other, nibbling at berries i stopped to pick and hold in front of its face while Hitome set about gathering herbs from the bushes around the trees, but we made it work with his head sticking out of the side of the pocket flap as my aura filled the rest of my pockets with berries for chitter food. I could tell from the way it would look into my coat when it opened that it could smell the bloody hides of the adult chitters, but she never seemed to care as i kept holding berries for her to eat and eventually let Hitome raid my lower jacket pockets for berries to distribute about her coat. Finally, when we were both ready to head out from the trees, a flare of bright orange fire went up into the air from somewhere on the beach and exploded in a broad cloud of soot and low thermal red expansion to show that it was made without extra fuel in haste.

Moving out of desparate haste to answer the call, i pick Spot up from my chest pock in one hand and simply set the chitter wet with berry juice on Hitome's chest before making a spacial jump toward the beach. I only made it to a few dozen yards within the cane from the beach, but from here i could clearly see where Maxine, Billy, Eric, and Angel were all fending off just the predators i had hopes to see. A group of three ten-foot crocodiles whose heads and tails were the size of the one i had killed but with bodies of matching proportions with plated ridges twice the size of those i had landed on previously like prehistoric reptiles more than any modern mundane creature. The others were fighting from the barge, Eric and Angel keeping the two reptiles in the water from trying to capsize them with their spears while Maxine andBilly tried to work spear-and-sword to keep a croc already halfway on the barge from the land from completely boarding where it could take them out to into the water with just a sweep of its powerful tail.

My next jump from the high ground of the forestry brough me to a position several feet over the head of the boarding croc with my iron sword in hand, landing hard with a foot on either of its break reptilian shoulders that crumple under my weight before i drive my sword down through the back of the middle of the top of its head with a jerk of its massive body that swung the tail end of the raft around along the shore. Right on top of one of the remaining crocs who swings its tail up over its body to knock the raft up and throw Angel from the barge toward the other. I tried to leap out into the water from the back of the croc i stood on while the croc in the water opened its jaws wide, but i did not have to as Angel rolled in midair to face the croc and just stopped falling completely just outside of the reach of the reptile's snapping jaws.

Landing in the water beside the croc as Angel begins flailing wildly from where he was suspended in midair and kind of rocked around a bit, i lunge forward and throw myself on top of it while wrapping one arm around its neck and taking a deep breath in preparation for the roll that almost immediately followed. This croc was not injured like Emma's had been, and was much bigger, so i was not surprised when it spun about with so much speed and strength that i could not reach for one of the weapons about my person or concentrate through the constantly changing light and sounds to use my magic, leaving me incapable of doing more that hanging on for dear life while the others hopefully dealt with the remaining croc. I was reminded of Emma telling me that i had been underwater for a lot longer than i had thought as my chest and lungs began to burn and ache for air while i focused on keeping my eyes squeezed tightly shut to distract myself from slowly dying.

By some blessed chance, the crocodile's deathrolls had brought us high enough into the shallows that i began to brush against muddy sand with every pass, giving me something to time and press against to make a spacial jump while tightly clinging to the crocodile. Air rushing not only around me but into my lungs as soon as i felt it all around my body was all that i was aware of as i let go of the croc after the jump, then a split second later i was slammed into loose dry sand where i rolled for several yards on an arm that had broken on impact in my forearm and breached the surface as a compound fracture during rolling. A long groan of clenched agony that i was not even aware of escaped me as i simply lie on my side and stare at my hand hanging limply from where my arm rested painfully on my side, only vaguely aware that the croc was only momentaily stunned further down the beach on its back and slowly coming around with small pulls of its body.

I could hear footsteps as ifelt warmth flowing through the woven layers of my coat sleeve, but they were Hitome's coming from somewhere too far away to do anything as i slowly pushed myself up on my good elbow while the croc tried to rock about and right itself. Maxine and Eric were in the water with the remaining croc, taking turns stabbing it about the sides and neck with their spears while Billy tried to help Angel down from the air while Angel himself was yelling at Billy about my croc making it to its feet while i was still getting to my knees. Billy was too far away by now to have done anything, either, as i tried to hold air in my bruised ribs and lungs well enough to get to my feet, but i had spent too much time depriving myself of oxygen in the water before making this desparate move and my body still refused to respond to my urgency.

I tried to make another jump from my knees as the croc shook its head and took notice of me, but i only managed to gain and extra few feet in slide from the failed attempt that sends me sprawling back to the ground in a weak heap. "You think... I'll die... that easy?" I blearily ask the croc and the world at large as it makes its way raggedly toward me as it too continued to recover from its landing, reaching for my magic even as i struggled to close my eyes and only finding the ring on the hand i reflexively held out toward the croc. "Eat it," i mutter, releasing what i hoped was only a small portion of the ring's stored and augmented electricity along my middle finger to fire off a small chain of burst lightning that hits the croc face-first from only a few yards away and explodes everything from the shoulders up into a charred crater between those shoulders.

Bits rained down around me as i lie back in the sand and just groan from the constantly flowing crimson staining the sand under my broken arm, struggling to find my aura as fear of bleeding out pulled at my focus. I was getting lightheaded all over again by the time Hitome got to me, carefully kneeling down beside me with Spot's head sticking out from between a gap in the buttons of her leather cargo jacket, but i was just reaching my aura to the point where i could pour energy into my arm and at least stop the bleeding. "My arm is broken..." i croak tiredly as i start to relax from the fear of death with the stemming of my bloodflow, "and i can't concentrate on magic. Put your consciousness into your aura, your energy into mine, and pick up the Magic Scalpel spell where i left off- just start pushing everything back together with your energy and my energy will do the rest. Hey Spot," i add weakly to the chitter who was squealing loudly at the scent of my blood and dead predators about the area while the others finally started coming in from the water with the other dead crocs and the barge.

"I don't think i know how to do that," Hitome argues as Spot retreats deeper into her shirt and makes my face heat up from watching. "Stay focused, Zai, now isn't the time to turn into the average joe," she adds, knowing well enough by now why i suddenly had to look away from her. If this is what being a team player is like then i am making my armor and ditching everyone, i decide internally, trying not to enjoy my predicament.

"Close your eyes and focus on your aura itself," i tell her from behind my own closed eyes. "Feel or sense or whatever the energy and follow it, swim through it while directing it into my broken arm. When you're aware of the injury, you can actually kind of look around and study it, but please feel free not to take your time. Once you're in there, pull my arm out straight and push all the torn stuff back together, the magic should speed-heal everything once its connected. No pressure- hurry please."

"It's hard to focus with a baby animal clawing my boobs," she actually seems to growl, the guttural tone of her voice quelling the squirming going on about her shirt.

"I was just trying to put it back where i found it," i try to joke through the sudden pain of Hitome's aura joining my own in my wound and increasing the pressure of energy. "Mmm that feels great, like a hot iron in a bullet wound, but i can feel it doing something. Keep it up, you're doing find, i promise my eyes are still closed as well."

"Like I care... just stop talking," she says before my wrist and hand suddenly start stretching up and out from the bone jutting out of my forearm within my sleeve. "It's absolutely disgusting in there, a couple of bits of bone i have to move around and put back in place and i will free of this ick. I could never be a doctor, and I'm not even touching it."

"Mm, mhm, mmhmm," i grunt along with everything she is saying, trying not to kick and squirm and disrupt the process in any way. "From this point forward.. nobody travels without some- damn!- gelpie venom in their flask. Sorry, not your fault, just wasn't- ready!" I cry out suddenly like a hiccup as Hitome moves the second bone fragment around in my arm to whereve it might fit. Then the third, and finally a fourth before my entire forearm was finally smushed in on itself to trigger the flash healing of the torn tissues inside and the open gash on top of my arm. It continued to burn like a liquid nitrogen was freezing my skin back together for several agonizingly long moments after Hitome sat back from her work and further opened the top of her cargo jacket to pull the fretful Spot from her clothes to set on my chest.

"Everybody who wants one of these," Hitome says while taking off her coat and laying it out in the sand beside her where the shitters in the large deep pockets inside begin stirring, "go through and pick your favorite. Zai did have berries to feed them, but they're probably all smushed or just plain gone by now. How did your hunts go?" She asks, then, finally buttoning her top back up when Maxine tries to make a discreet gesture that both Hitome and i watched from behind Angel and Eric who were either obviously trying not to look or uncaringly checking Hitome out.

Checking my pocket to find only smushed remains of berries watered down by salt, i sigh as Spot curiously scampers up to the nape of my neck and sniffs about my face without even caring for the berry juice seeping from my pockets and staining his footing. "Mine's name is Spot," i say quickly as the others set about looking through Hitome's coat with varying degrees of enthusiasm, "which means Spot is taken." Maxine was the first to settle on one, stealing from Hitome a creamy tan runt that fit snugly in the palm of Maxine's hands which ended up being named Coffee, then Angel picked one of the biggest that was a dark oaky brown with splotches of light gray about its haunches that he named Fuffy after its long, thick fure, and Eric eventually settled between a light yellow tan runt and a light yellow tan normal on the normal after Hitome gave him a withering glare when he started to hang on to the runt.

I ended up making displaced trips to the trees where we found the chitter litter to forage for more berries to keep in several pouches Maxine had claimed to make from her tutorial threat wolf's lungs and stomach and bladder. I honestly wished that i had though to be so crafty as to recycle containment organs like these, and that she had thought to say something after the scrowler fight, but just getting to use them to gather food for our new pets was good enough for me as i wondered at the size of crocodile lungs and bladders that they others dressed on the beach. If the sun was not only an hour or two from the top of the volcanoe by this point, i would have tried to stay longer to collect more berries after washing my gathered organs in the ocean channels but as it was we needed to head home while there was still light to start crafting our armor by.

We arrived back at iron island with our haul of pets and crocs and almost thirty overall pelts between the group of us after only half of an hour of rowing across the current and hopping islands only one while Eric and Maxine argued over how to divide the skin of the croc they had killed together. I ended up giving Maxine the croc with a head to keep if she could drag the one without back to camp while the rest of us anchored the raft and unloaded the few supplies we were able to gather before i took up my remaining croc with the underside of its tail on my shoulder to start dragging back to camp. Hitome ended up burdened only by the baby chitters while the rest of us carried everything else, but the baby chitters were slowly becoming a handful as they grew more accustomed to the surroundings and then curious enough to try climbing about the weaving of her coat.

As soon as we were back at camp the others came rushing over to examine our haul of crocodiles and help us bring the goods back to camp where everybody was forcefully given a baby chitter and hanful of berries at relative random by a distracted Hitome. People made jokes about Maxine getting mad at her croc and biting its head off as it seemed she was prone to do with others during magic practices, but then everything got awkwardly quiet when she pointed out with reasonable anger that i had been the one to blow the crocodile's head off. Everyone recovered quickly while setting about skinning and butchering the crocs under Harold's watchful guidance, the one which belonged to me i took over to Emma's shelter where she was playing with her tiny gray and brown spotted runt.

"I'm sorry, i know i upset you and wish i hadn't," i say quietly, setting the rolled crocodile skin on the edge of Emma's bed as she pretended to ignore me.

"Why don't you give it to Hitome," she grumbles when i sit down at my shelter with a small cane of herbal berry and coconut tea for both Spot and I.

"She doesn't have one she is already making and upper armor from," i reply simply, sipping my tea before almost spitting it out when things finally click into place in my head. "Emma... are you made at me... because you think that i am trying to... talk to... Hitome and you at the same time?" i ask slowly with extreme caution and hesitation, very wary of causing a sudden explosion far worse than any snort.

"Maybe?" She says quietly instead of anything that i was anticipating, thoroughly shocking me to the core. "I don't know, you're just really nice and cute and funny... and temporary. It's hard to let myself think about it, so i don't, and then you do something really nice like this or something really mean like this morning and somehow... i just end up thinking about it."

While i had originally made humorous speculations about rescuing a damsel in distress, i had no idea she might actually end up liking me for my playfully obnoxious behavior, and thinking about being called temporary made me realize we would only be seeing each other in reality for as long as the beta and in the game for as long as we decided to stick together but session times from personal lives after the beta probably differentiating would take up most of our time together even if one session was the better part of an entire day. "I never really thought about it at all, until just now," i say after a long period of silence in which i simply watch Spot play in her shallow cup of tea. "You pretty accurately guessed my life history the night we met, aside from one really weird and fun relationship between a college professor and myself, so i honestly never try to think about it. Which is probably weird since I'm kind of hot, now, because i really should be out there like every other dude trying to make up for lost time. Then again, you were pretty accurate about the whole... temporary... thing, too. Honestly, I would love to give it a shot if you would, but if not then that's cool too, but right now we should both probably get to work on our armor." She said nothing in response.

Even with the bright bed of coals that had been drying out racked scrowler meat since the night before that illuminated the entire camp in a soft red glow, i did not plan on doing any of the actual weaving and piecing together of my armor with the sun only its own length away from the top of the volcanoe, but i still had plenty of time to measure my salvaged furs against my body to cut out swaths from which to make a high-collared vest with inward facing fur into which i could flare a rolled sleeve into either side to lace and then weave together with padding into an inside-out fur sweater. Cutting sleeve lengths and swaths from my next fur and setting the remains and trimmings aside to cut into weaving material later, i set about sizing up a knee-length skirt of inside-out hide that i trim down to size before using my last two whole salvaged furs to measure out lengths of hide wide enough to wrap around my legs from groin to ankle for my leggings. Using these patched of leather cut sut out a second layer from scrowler hides, i set aside my five chitter hides for a future project and set to work on all of my trimmings as Spot watches everything that not only i do but everything that the others do about the camp from her seat in my hood laying back between my shoulders.

Cutting the hides down into finger-width strips of unshaven leather turned out to be a much longer and tedious task than i had expected, consuming all of the remaining daylight just to make enough cordage to wrap around my own torso several times before i finally stop to eat something. Spot almost fell into the coconut that i opened for her, but she eventually learned how to hold onto edges of the coconut held tightly between my legs and dip her body in deep enough to drink the milk within. From how well they took to eating and drinking on their own, it was obvious that they had already been through the weening phases, but these squeaky little pups were still too small to travel about their own tree without supervision and i honestly wondered for a moment if they would be safe while we were logged out of the game.

"Hitome told me how you guys found these incredible little hairballs," Harold says while making his nightly rounds about the camp, stopping between both my tent and Emma's while addressing me and chasing his mostly gray mottled with creamy brown Fatty about the front of his cargo jacket and sleeves. "We're all stealing your Magic Scalpel and the spell you used to k- uh... bag... yeah, bag the animals with. Do you have a name for it?"

"Pspychic," i say with a shrug, throwing out the first thing to come to mind. "Spelled like 'psychic', but with the extra 'p' from spike. It uses the Freeze spell to form the actual spike or blade at the end of your aura, but the process can me incorporated into spell memory for Pspychic. Distance and a moving target renders it useless as an offensive weapon unless you use Telekinesis to continually attack with the one or multiple spikes like a barrage form of Pspychic, but overall it's an insta-kill stealth technique of nearly limitless possibility- unless against a magical opponent because it would probably be detected upon entering their EMF."

"Pspychic..." Harold seems to mull the word over as her finally catches his chitter only to place it on his shoulder where it goes back to scurrying about his body. "I guess it fits, but to say it out loud... it would probably better fit your surveillance ability, like 'spy' and 'psychic' together. How about... Psykill instead?"

"I like," i say with a slow nod of appreciation for the name he thre out. "Pspychic and Psykill, they are kind of a combo in the way i used them so the matching names lead to a whole line of possibilities. Maybe everybody else can come up with more variations. Or, better yet, your own spells that you can teach me. I'm going to work on storing exercises before bed, you guys enjoy your night," i add, receding into my shelter to lay out among the remains of my furs as a bed with my chitter pelts as a pillow and coat for a blanket with the hood placed over Spot in the middle of my chest.

*

Somehow i was not the first person to log out that evening in the game, both Maxine and Angel were both waiting by the doorway with Doc when i was finally unhooked from the table and allowed to sit up, sharing a quiet conversation while watching me stand up before bringing it to a close. "Okay," i say loudly after glancing around to see no signs of anybody else waking up before heading over to the doorway. "What's the juicy gossip for I'm not allowed to hear? You have to at least tell me if it's about me."

"I was just asked about having sex in the game," Doc states nonchalantly despite the twin looks of betrayal and horror on Maxin and Angel's faces, having no qualms with sharing the conversation about his game. "It seems you are attracted attention both negative and positive because the only people you talk to are Emma, Harold, Hitome, and once with Angel when not on a group level. It seems you look like a player of different games to some, and i was reassuring them that not only have marital or pre-marital acts never been performed by players in your server but sex and so on is also very possible in the game- while at the woman's sole discretion if she gets pregnant or not should protection or caution not be exercised."

Looking Maxine dead in the face, i say, "I actually just had a talk with somebody similar to this. If a relationship or just fun ever come up, i wouldn't say no, but I'm not out here chasing skirts. I'm sorry that i have never personally talk to you, or have only talked to you just once," i add in Angel's direction, "but if you haven't noticed from my horrible behavior as team leader today, all i am good for is fighting. I'm usually a soloist, so everything i do is revolved around being able to do myself- wipe that smirk off your face, Angel- and i am preoccupied with all of the things i feel like i need to do myself. Like the mineral deposit. I really would like to continue working with you guys, you are honestly pretty brave and stong people that i like having on my side, so please do not let this misunderstanding get in the way of the team."

"Wow," Is all that Maxine could manage to say at the moment after having been addressed by my apology speech as the representative of the female faction in this currently contained issue. Then, as the team leader himself starts coming to, she quickly says, "You and I are cool, as long as you talk to Emma and Hitome about it."

Speaking quietly as Harold yawns mightily after sitting up from his operating table, i say, "Emma was who i had the other conversation with, Hitome is next available opportunity- not that way, Angel," i add in a fierce whisper when he starts cracking up.

"Something juicy i should know about?" Harold asks in an eerily similar way to my entrance to the conversation.

"Just asking Doc about having sex in the game," i reply somewhat honestly, earning looks of open-mouthed shock from Maxine and Angel but even the professor as well. Then, still somewhat honestly, "I have been having problems with women playing jokes on me recently, so i decided to ask if intercourse was an actuall possibility in the game so that i could use it to call a bluff or two if they ever come up again. Sex is legit, so that was no bluff, but i doubt they would seriously let it go far if i even did try to call the bluff that way."

"I mean, considering all the players besides the beta have been Harware Lendustries employees..." Professor Harlen offers somewhat cautiously. "It's against company policy for employees to date or have physical relations to keep from compromising work areas, which i have maintained in the game as well. I'm not saying that everyone should turn this into a dating sim, but we have no current data from play-on-player... chemistry... so if anything did happen to happen i would let it happen and enforce privacy by limiting game feed to code only for the technicians and myself. Strict code disables the AI overseeing the game from recording any sexual player activities except that what transpired in the game can always be pulled up in code format for review in the event of legal inquiry. Just because its impossible in the game for somebody to walk by and grope another player or Non-Player Character does not mean coercion is impossible as well and statutory situations will inevitably occur. The first attempt at something like consciously groping another player or an NPC will result in a god delivered public message, any futher attempts will result in being banned from the game- the gods, however, seem to think peeping is permissible while garment theft from an empty home is not. Exactly half are artificially female."

"That shouldn't be made public," both Harold and i say in unison, drawing out stifled laughs from some of the tecnicians as the others began waking up and our conversation really did need to stop. "End of discussion," Harold adds, seeming to think along the same lines as i did even more than the previous statement. "Doc, your thoughts on our armor productions?"

"Simple, but effective," is the professor's quick recovery. "The use of leather bodies for light weight and supplemental metal pieces for penetration and slash resistance more than compensates for one anothers faults and the method you devised for a one-piece stud instead of a two-piece rivet saves you a lot of time and tooling that most of my employees could not accomplish until after the tutorial. In fact, one of the few to do so before you is one of our technicians here who used copper to augment their first sets of armor until they could buy armor after the tutorial. I suspect, though, that your first suits will only last so long.

"This tutorial is designed to push the player toward development more than completion," he goes on as everybody starts joining us at the doorway, now. "Whereas most people would start thr game near a body of water or something to follow to until they came across an NPC settlement of sorts. This tutorial pushes players to become stronger, faster, and smarter in order to survive because the deeper in you go the more plentiful and powerful the enemies you will face. Even a single unit like Zai would meet his match on multiple occasions before finally coming to a small fishing village or mining camp long before ever reaching the actual trade hub of a city at the base of the volcano. With this in mind, you should be prepared to make an extra suit of armor in the event that worse comes to worse."

Leading the way out of the operating room, Doc goes on to say, "Surprisingly, we are making great time today after having shaved off close to ten minutes from our three previous break periods, giving us close to an hour if anybody feels like they could use the time in Reality. Or, we just keep racking up spare time until we are done for the day and you guys can use that extra time as you want in your dorms laters."

Nobody really said anything either way, probably waiting on somebody else to state their opinions first before weighing in themselves, but after a minute of silence Harold was forced to take it upon himself to say, "I feel like i speak for everyone when i say that we can keep racking up time for later. Who knows, if we started eating meals outside the operating room, we could probably rack up enough time for a whole extra session before bed."

Shaking his head slowly from the front of the group, Professor Harlen says, "Even though we have the gym building upstairs, you guys have to actually choose to use the equipment provided. You don't really get to choose when it comes to walking back and forth around the building four-to-six times a day, part of the health requirements for hosting this closed beta to the general public beyond just having the gym. If it were up to me... there would be a male and female operating room in either dorm and meals would be delivered to the roof by service drones."

"I vote we all go to that island and stay there, this one just made me sad," i sigh loudly, much to the group's amusement.

"Don't worry, all of the work and effort will be worth it in another day or so," Doc reassures everybody who had agreed with my sentiment. "I have a big surprise that i am absolutely dying to reveal to the entire world, especially you twelve beta players. Something not even the company knows about that could change Cynaptic gaming as we know it. I can't really say much more than this, of course, but believe me when i say you guys should be just as excited as i am for me to complete this project."

"Then what's keeping you?" Eric calls playfully from the back of the group.

"You," Doc replies ambiguously, not meaning Eric specifically but all of us. "Which brings me to my next point. Since you all completed your grace-periods and have proven to aptly understand the fundaments of the game, i no longer need to directly oversee your gameplay after having transitioned into such capable players and today will be the last day that we work together until i have prepared the final aspect of the game's testing needs. Not to worry, though, i will still be here between breaks to keep track of your progress and answer any questions that may come up. Speaking of which, absolutely marvelous of you all to acquire pets, i never thought it would be a necessity until you all grew stronger in magic and or learned about familiars but this makes a wonderful opportunity to educate you on magic once again.

"A familiar is a pet whose life is magically bonded to yours," he goes on quickly, changing the subject away from abandoning us that might have actually been upsetting him. "This bond can only be done voluntarily between you and another non- or sub-sentient creature, and if you ever find a way to bind something to you by force the gods label you a criminal until you and the 'abomination' have been put down. Anyway, all of your baby chitters have taken to you very well, it helps that your magic subconsciously tells them you are the most powerful things in the area and you're not trying to kill them, so bonding with them should not be much of an issue. All you really have to do is synchronize their aura to yours in the same way that you synchronized my rings or the weapons from Zai, and while any animal can be bonded magical creatures tend to have the greatest affects and growth rates but bonding with your chitters will awaken any magical potential they may have and give them what they did not. Cast independant spells? No. Develop special traits and characteristics like a magical variant of mundane animals- such as Zai's boss scrowler? Certainly."

I had chosen my chitter because it had similar coloring and patterning to the scrowler that had ripped my face open and because it was the biggest of the bunch, which now made me satisfied instead of just hopeful that i would find more use for the animal than just cuddling. Then, Doc seems to have an afterthought with, "Chitters themselves are a non-combative game animal, so you can expect magical traits and abilities that are more passive than anything else, but even these are completely random and can be anything that will affect you from the animal. There are certain rituals and ceremonies that you could perform to awaken their magic before bonding and change the overall strength and growth of the creature and enable future metamorphosis, but none of them are currently available to you."

"So..." Emma says slowly in the ensuing silence. "Just because Em won't be able to breathe fire doesn't mean having him around won't make my fire hotter?"

"In a way, yes, but having a familiar at all offers several passive benefits from the start," Doc replies casually as the conversation maintains, probably only too happy to be discussing anything but player sex lives like we had been earlier. "To begin with, not only do you have access to an extra source of power but your own power capacity is increased by the familiar's capacity after bonded awakening. While taking on a lot of familiars really early on would potentially help a beginning mage, the responsibilities of so many animals so early in the game would hinder most other areas of development and if your familiar died you lose all but a consolation buff you recieve at the end of your familiar's life. Yes, you could genocide a bunch of familiars to farm for possibly permanent buffs, but I'm sure someone somewhere will take offense to this- such as the goddess of life and nature- and deal with it at their discretion. You can't be punished if you didn't actually break any rules, but players can be cursed and plagued for nearly anything."

"What roles do the gods actually play?" Hitome asks, possibly for the first time speaking as part of the group in reality. "You had told us about some of their administrative functions, but if they are part of the game then certainly they have purposes for the players as well."

"In fact, they do," Doc replies cheerfully, his strangely forced upbeat behavior was beginning to grate on my nerves. "Not only do they actually oversee their own factions of the game's religion system that serves many purposes for players, but they also hold contests and mass events or missions for players from time to time in both reality and the game. Since the world's health began declining with the use of cynaptic gaming that renders the body useless during player, i have been doing what i can to keep players active and using their real minds with game contests and events- but the company and I cannot actually tell people to run a mile a day if they want their character to have double stamina during an event period. An aware AI from the game, however, can.

"Beyond that there are prayer and favor and alignment systems that players can make use of," he goes on in a more casual but still merry manner. "Your alignment tells you which gods you should seek favor with, favor with each god increases the things you can pray for in the game like buffs or random mini-bosses, and prayers are similar to the magic system in that you can make your own as long as they follow respectful and reverent guidelines. You are all too young in the game to have any alignment but Neutral, but you have still gained favor with different gods for different reasons which offer some options. Which, finally, brings me to something that i have honestly been trying to avoid. In-game menus and settings," he seems to sigh, deflating from his previous positivity.

"Like in most games, you have to hold your hand out to open you in-game menus, but the first time that you do it here you need to bear in mind a recognizeable shape and color to determine the visuals for your windows," Professor Harlen explains with a dismissive wave of his hand. Then, using me for an example, "Say, for instance, you held out your hand and swipe with two fingers while thinking about green octagons, your menus will be octagon and tesselated in octagons bearing options and icons and so on. After you open your menus for the first time, you get your HUDs, which will let you know what buffs you have as well as your magical and physical conditions- magic is a meter and health is a diagram of your body that becomes color coded as you sustain damage of all sorts, and you will start taking notice of points of interest. I believe that i have been over most of this with all of you , except for the use of windows themselves.

"First window opened is character information, bearing basic diagnostics for any current injuries and buffs as well as tabs for your many statistics and inventory which extends to lands and so on you may come to own," he goes on as the elevator finally comes into sight. "After the stats and inventory tabs are settings for further customizing your windows, factions for any official parties or organizations that you own or are a part of, and the map menu that shows named regions and countries but keeps everything you have not been to or at least seen hidden under the usual FOW- or Fog Of War. We debated giving magic its own tab, but affinities and powers and learned spells are listed in one of the stats pages- because of the character information most people will not even be aware of having access to it will cause sudden jumps in character development, which is why i have been avoiding it."

I would finally learn about my power, i realize, suddenly wishing we were allowed to do all of our beta work from the dorms while wondering what kind of powers everybody had as we piled into the elevator. Nobody seemed to have anything to say as all of this information settled and began unraveling possibilities, so Doc went on somewhat aimlessly after the elevator doors closed, saying, "Maps are probably the most useful behind stats, it's a somewhat detailed topograhpical overview including forestry and color coded based on mineral makeup of the upper layers of soil and rock depending on the terrain, but also comes with points of interests you may have seen and don't even know. I imaghine everybody's armor day is going to also become an exploration day. Zai..." he adds, the grating positivity returning to his voice, "we're almost to the cafeteria."

"You tell the company that i said if you or anyone ever want to try me then come at me, but until then my goal is just to kill you for this," i say quietly and darkly in the ensuing curious silence following the professor's taunting statement that brought all eyes to me. "I warned Bravo team that something was coming," i add, bringing the dawn of realization to almost half of the faces in the elevator.

My wait to face the music after that was a short one spent in an awkward silence created by the group's own anticipation of what was to come, the elevator descended into the overlapping voices of the cafeteria muffled by the safety glass of the elevator as normal except that we passed large holoscreens facing down and outward from the ceiling in a wide circle so that everybody in the room could see scenes of every player in the beta playing from our first few days in the game. Once the doors to the elevators opened, however, the once soundless screens above went blank and uttered a single long, high-pitched whistle for almost three full seconds before the screens all showed the same image- Doc and i standing on the floor of the cratered ridge face having a discussing about the underground.

"Uh... what, exactly, are we supposed to be watching here?" Harold asks as the group simply stands in front of the elevator and stare up at the ceiling, unaware of my skulking off to go sit at the table by myself.

When the scene finally came up with Doc issuing the minigame challenge, nobody really understood what they were watching until i started displacing myself and the video went into slow motion as my already blurred body shot straight up to the ceiling where it seemed to blur and expand even futher while deflating my clothes as i got closer and closer to the ceiling. "No..." several voices now gathered around the table whisper as the camera remains at the ceiling of the crater in real-time to watch my clothes and weapons fall to the floor, showing that they finally understood what was about to happen. When the scene finally changed after Doc caught my clothes and laughed, it showed the professor standing on the ridgeline looking up before changing few to show me in full nudity with a mosaic about my lower body falling face first toward the ridgeline where Doc catches me with his powers and begins taunting me.

The cafeteria was in an uproar of laughter as the Doc retreated up the face of the ridge to keep away from me, but everybody at the table was thankfully silent as only Alpha team watched the continued scene of me dressing and Bravo thoughtfully ate their snacks. "Professor..." Emma starts, eyes wet and threatening to run as she turns back to the table from the screens above. "I had no idea... i didn't mean something like this!"

"Well, it happened," i say before anybody else can put in on the conversationg, "and i hope everyone enjoyed my uncensored ass in the cafeteria while they ate. That was a nice touch."

Hitome snorted, almost choking on her vegetable smoothie, which made Emma laugh so hard that she snorted several times, and then everybody at the table was laughing and i suddenly did not feel so bad. Even if i did not know most of these people, yet, i was beginning to enjoy having them around. Until a softly spoken word in the back of my head reminds me that all of this was but a single depressing word. Temporary.

Our break did not last long after that with an unsurprising lack of appetite throughout most of the group, but everybody was hungry for information about menus and magic and how inventory worked when we were all limited to what we could carry. Doc did his best to refuse most questions, but gave Eric a very frank answer about properties and the different uses of the word. Then, in almost no time at all, i was free of the shame i was currently shackled with in reality by logging into the game.

*