Luke laughed and shoved Bumblebee playfully. The six of them celebrated around the corpse of the Prismatic Hydra. Seneschal Cormac was walking over to where they stood, but he had to walk around the valley to avoid the Purpleheart Ents.

  While they waited on him, Luke pulled up the notice he got earlier.

  Pushing mana into the skill to keep it going for longer must have tipped the skill over to level six. That was the big number. Now that he had a level six skill, he could level up his War Machine class to six.

  Come to think of it, the hydra had died at the same time as the skill up. Did that mean he had leveled up to six? Luke attempted to pull up his stat sheet, but found that he couldn’t. A different message popped up instead.

  Luke smiled. He had leveled up to six in War Machine. That would mean more skills. His first instinct was to say no and discuss it more with Cormac first. But he had already done that. He had discussed the threshold with the Seneschal in his office and he already had a good sacrifice ready. He had several monster cores in his mech’s compartments, ones they had collected over the last few days.

  With a quickly beating heart, Luke reached into his hip storage and pulled out a tier three core. He pushed his intent into the blue screen, accepting the prompt. The monster core warped and twisted, disappearing into nothingness. Luke felt his core shift inside him. He felt fuller and was getting fuller, like he was going to pop. Something within him popped.

  A feeling of peace washed through him. All was right with the world. With the universe. He felt a floating feeling before he was suddenly brought down to earth. A quiet chime rang in his ears, one that echoed through his being.

  He felt better, bigger somehow. He wasn’t physically bigger, but the level up had changed him somehow. A check of his stat screen showed what had changed.

  His buff from War Machine had gone up. Way up. Two extra points for every single stat. That was like six levels worth of points right there. He felt better because he was a bit stronger, faster, smarter, everything.

  The biggest difference was in his perception. It hit that magical number of six and it was much stronger than before. He felt something new, an awareness of everything around him that went beyond sight and hearing. Like his sense of touch extended to the air around his suit. He knew exactly where the bush was behind him, two feet from his left leg. It was amazing.

  He was distracted from the sensation with another popup.

  Luke’s heart jumped when he saw the skill Frictionless Slide pop up again. He had been hoping for that one, it was an amazing movement skill. He still forced himself to read all of the descriptions before he chose anything.

  Overcharge - Double the effectiveness of machine embedded runes for triple the degradation. Lasts 24 seconds per skill level.

  That would be a handy skill to have in emergencies. Doubling his mech’s strength and agility for half a minute would be literally lifesaving in so many situations. The downside was tough though. Degrading his runes faster would mean he would have to spend time repairing his mech way more often. That would also limit his ability to practice with the skill, because of the cost in mana dust and repair time afterwards. If he never leveled up the skill, it would be rarely useful.

  The next skill was even worse.

  Cascade Failure - Target an enemy construct and cause ever strengthening mechanical and magical failures. Must have uninterrupted visual contact. Costs 2 mana per second.

  He hadn’t seen a single construct on Kalibutan, let alone an enemy one. They clearly existed, but he would never run into one. He planned on killing monsters, not fighting wars with other mechs.

  Field Communication - Allows conversation between allied forces using entangled sympathetics. Must be within twenty yards to initiate connection, afterwards communication is possible within forty miles.

  This one was much better. He had just been wishing for walkie talkies. Being able to communicate over a distance with his squad would be invaluable for ambushing monsters. It was a strong contender for his second pick.

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  He read on to the last skill.

  Frictionless Slide - A movement skill to allow your bonded machine to quickly slide across 2.1x yards of ground where x is the skill level. Composition of ground is irrelevant.

  It was just as he remembered it. Being able to quickly move across the ground would be fantastic for dodging or attacking. That last sentence about the ground being irrelevant meant that he could get up to some real shenanigans with it. At level six, he could slide almost forty feet in one go.

  Luke went ahead and chose Frictionless Slide. That left him with one more choice. Field Communication was probably the best of the remaining choices, but it didn’t excite him. He was pretty sure someone from the Earth military had already invented a solution to that particular problem.

  Overcharge was calling his name. If only it didn’t have such a drastic downside. He couldn’t afford to always be re-inscribing his suit. And if he burned up his runes in the middle of the fight, he would just be killing himself in a different way.

  Unless.

  Could his Repair Craft skill undo the damage that Overcharge inflicted? That would neatly overcome all of the skill’s downsides at the cost of extra mana. He didn’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work. His repair skill had elements of time magic, so it should be able to undo damage, even damage created by one of his other skills.

  He looked up at Cormac who was only a few minutes away now. He could ask for help, but that would be revealing that he had two skill choices. He would be using Frictionless Slide at every opportunity, so if he asked about another skill choice, it would be obvious that he had two. As far as he knew, that would out him as having a Platinum class. After his conversation with Cormac about it, he knew that would be a bad idea.

  With a small amount of trepidation, Luke selected Overcharge as his second skill. He felt the skill settle into his core, another spell waiting for him to press that mental button. The Repair Craft skill felt a little different, like it had expanded and was more flexible now, more than just a button press. It was probably because he had evolved it beyond its original form.

  Before he forgot, he assigned his two stat points he had gotten from the level up. They both went into his dexterity, something he figured he would need if he was sliding all over with his new skill.

  While he was focused on his internal world, Bumblebee had retrieved the Blood spear and was using it to dig into the hydra’s trunk, searching for the mana core. It was slow going, even in death the monster was unreasonably tough. The spear was sharp, but couldn't pierce the scales without slipping underneath them and sawing through the gap.

  Luke walked over to help him out. Both of them had helmets with a version of mana vision inscribed on them, so they knew the general area where the large core hid. It was still a bloody work, more butchery than surgery.

  Shepard walked over and put his hands on his hips as he watched them. “Are we going to get a bonus for today? I know you said you wanted a lot of cores, but one huge one is worth a lot more, right? I think we should still get a bonus today.”

  Luke plunged his hand in and pulled out the monster’s core. It was huge, as big as his robotic palm. At least a tier six, probably seven. “Oh, yeah. I think we can afford a bonus for everyone. I think this baby is going to set off a bidding frenzy.”

  “I’m afraid that won’t be possible,” Cormac said as he walked up. He scratched his patterned skin awkwardly. “I was given a direct order from our lord. He will expect the core as proof that I accomplished the task, and it is his due as the lord of these lands.”

  Luke’s heart dropped and he stared at the core in his hand. It was dark purple with streaks of iridescent green swirling about. Blood was sliding off its surface, slowly cleaning itself. If he sold it on KaliBay, he might get a million bucks for it. Maybe more. And now Cormac wanted him to give it up, and possibly all of the other huge cores they collected.

  Cormac held his hand out expectantly, but he wasn’t exactly in a position to demand it. If Luke wanted, he could probably take out the orc alone. With the help of the five others around him, the battle was a forgone conclusion. But that would mean that they would be criminals and wouldn’t be able to return to Kalibutan. He would be giving up a slow and steady paycheck for a quick buck today.

  With a sigh, Luke handed it over, uncaring that he dripped blood onto Cormac’s hand as he did so. Shepard huffed with annoyance but said nothing.

  Luke belatedly noticed that the orc’s other hand had been resting on the pommel of a shortsword by his side. It had a white handle and white leather sheath, so he hadn’t noticed it before. It was almost guaranteed to be runed, and the greenskin would certainly have the skills to use it. Maybe the fight wouldn’t have been a sure thing.

  “You don’t have to leave the fight without any reward, hydra scales are great for scale armor. Not as prized as drakeskin, but still valuable,” Cormac said. “You wouldn’t be able to sell it here, of course, but I’m sure people on Earth would pay you well.”

  Luke looked back to the body. The hide wasn’t in great shape. There were several holes and cracked scales all over. However, there was a section on its left side that was mostly undamaged. They might be able to harvest a long stretch of it.

  “Shepard, you do get a bonus today, but we’ve got to skin the beast before we can head home. I doubt there is much demand for scale armor on Earth, but we are going to find out. Let’s get to work,” Luke said and clapped his hands together with a clang.

  Green and Davis groaned in disappointment. Shepard was more professional and got to work right away. They used a combination of elemental swords and brute strength to pull off a large section of scales. It ended up being cleaner than expected, just peeling off in large swaths.

  They headed back then. Luke was happy to vent his frustration on the raptor and phase bear that attacked them on the way. He collected two tier three cores from them, which helped balance out the loss of the tier seven core.

  He also decided to experiment with his new skill. As far as the rest of them were concerned, he only had one new skill, not two. That would satisfy his oath to SPEAR and still let him show off.

  He checked his mana first, it had gone back up to 12 by now. It would still be a while before he was full again. He pushed a foot forward and activated Frictionless Slide. The world blurred around him and he felt like he was instantly moved forward a full body length.

  Further experimentation showed that he had to have both feet on the ground and in a stable position to activate the skill. But once activated, he would rush forward six feet, regardless of what was in the way. He slid over the top of a mound of dirt, a jagged rock, even a bush. Then his mana was low again and he couldn't keep experimenting. The System of the World did acknowledge his efforts though.

  Cormac paused when they were still north of the estate village. “I will take my leave here. It must appear that I conquered the hydra alone. Luke of Machines, please do not forget about the Hive Wolves.”

  They had just barely killed an apex predator and Cormac was already focused on the next disaster. Luke sighed. “Alright. We’ll keep looking.”

  Cormac thanked him and they parted ways. The humans swung by the runewright to pick up Jinx on their way home.

  Luke groaned as he saw his cat padding down the street towards him. The little menace had escaped again. He was going to need to find and block Jinx’s escape route before he could leave the cat with Kruro again.

  Jinx ignored Luke’s hands and hopped up to his shoulder instead. Of course.

  The naga was at the door when they reached it. She had her arms crossed and said seriously, “Luke of Machines. You have a problem with your cat.”

  “Yeah, she’s a little escape artist. I don’t know how she got out, but I promise to figure it out before I leave her with you again.”

  She slashed her hands down. “I already know how she got out. Your cat has been chosen.”

  “Chosen?”

  “Yes. The System of the World has granted her a class. She has magic skills now.”

  Luke turned to Jinx, who was sitting on his armored shoulder, surveying the world. “I didn’t know animals could get classes.”

  “Yes, it’s why the Beastmaster class is so popular. Animals can have magic and classes, allowing them to fight bigger and stronger monsters. You probably haven’t seen many because Lord Edobar isn’t fond of animals.”

  Bumblebee walked up and tried to pet Jinx. She avoided his touch as he said, “Are you sure she’s magical now? She looks the same.”

  Kruro scoffed. “I watched her walk through the shop wall. Yes, I am sure she has a magic class.”

  “So she’s a phase cat now?” Luke asked.

  “Something like that. You’ll have to consult with the Seer to learn more.”

  Luke tsked. “That guy is a bit of a creep. I think I’ll talk to him alone so I don’t subject you to him.”

  “That’s quite alright. You gave me a fortune in spices, I owe you many favors now. Enduring that man is nothing in comparison.”

  “Still, I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. Anyway, that’s something we can discuss later. We are going to head home now.”

  ???

  “Failed again, Mr. Moore,” the taxman Hector said smugly. “Snakeskin isn’t worth enough for me to tax you today. The scales become brittle and break easily when they are in a low mana environment. Nobody wants them so the value isn’t enough for me to assess your tax today. You still have to report them, but that’s something you have to do on your own. You can’t ruin my day with that huge bundle of scales.”

  “Hector, I never want to ruin your day. Just because I bring back weird stuff, doesn’t mean I want to trip you up.”

  The taxman flicked his fingers away. “Whatever, don’t be a sore loser. We don’t need you to clog up the portal room. Head on out.”

  Luke rolled his eyes and walked out.

  When the six of them arrived at the warehouse, Allen hopped up and rushed over.

  “Luke, we might have bitten off more than we can chew,” he said nervously.

  “One second, let me let Jinx out,” Luke said and reached down to the cat carrier. Jinx didn’t bother to wait and phased right out of the backpack. He sighed and said, “Nevermind, I guess. What’s up?”

  “Uhh, did your cat just ghost through the backpack?” Allen said.

  “She’s magic now. Don’t worry about it. What were you going to say?”