December 21, 3:53 PM

  Cloud Sector, Plane: Earth

  “Welcome back!” Lindy stood up to kiss her husband as he walked back into the common area. “How did it go?”

  “It went well.” He replied. “Both of us leveled once. I got an upgrade to my resistances, too, so I can fight like a level four. A whole extra point in my physical statistics did wonders.”

  “We brought back tons of meat and monster parts to sell. We’ll be able to buy some things from the system shop. Do you guys have anything in mind?” Claire asked, pulling out the monster parts she herself had gathered on the way to the store. “We’ll need to get rid of a lot of this stuff if we want to buy anything useful.”

  “I think priority one should be something to defend ourselves with tonight. We have a couple hours until night.” Lindy said, worried. “Some armor for you and I, dear, and maybe for Claire. Some special arrows, or potions? Whatever they sell that sounds like it would work, honestly.”

  “Metal armor…” Rich began, “I wouldn’t say no to it, but I think it’s a bit out of our budget.” He began to pull out the monster parts from the bag, laying it down on the ground.

  “Any ideas, Claire?”

  Claire had a thought, pulling up a description of one of her abilities. “I have an ability that we might be able to use. It’s called Ritual Casting, and I can anchor a spell I know onto a surface, then pay the energy cost through an external object. From what I know of our energy, the ritual will be more powerful and more expensive than a regular casting.”

  Seeing their gazes, she continued. “I could probably make a shield that covers, this room probably. Or personal shields for all of you guys that buff you when they take effect. Or, a giant ritual energy blast.”

  Rich looked up. “You can… power up the explosion attack that killed a whole pack of coyotes instantly? The same one that slagged monsters over your level focused specifically on defense?”

  “Uh… maybe?”

  “They’re DEAD!” A high pitched voice shouted, laughter accompanied by light footfalls. “Pooped, Farded, FUCKED!”

  Shooting around in surprise, Lindy raised her voice. “James Arthur Fletcher, where on earth did you learn that kind of language?”

  Rich spat out the water he had been sipping. He restrained his laughter quickly, matching his wife’s tone. “James, little man.” He paused to collect himself, shaking his head. “God. Lindy, this is all you. Claire and I should talk, about, ah, rituals.”

  Watching Lindy catch the child and bring him to where their beds were set up, Claire opened up her screen for the system shop. Ignoring the juicy offers of gear and weapons, she navigated over to the “sell” portion.

  “I’ll sell all of the stuff so we can buy more expensive things if need be.” She said. “Don’t know if we can transfer money.”

  “Sounds good. I’ll look through the things we might need, and let you know if there’s anything we should get. What was it that you needed to cast the rituals?”

  “Uh, the system says I need mana storing objects to power them. Do you think we should go for the large approach, though? Like the area shield, not the personal ones.”

  “Tough choice, honestly.” He replied, stroking his hand over his chin. “Going big would feel like putting our eggs in one basket. I do like the idea of a shield that they can’t get through, though.”

  “Mmm. That would help with the fear factor, maybe? If they came to the store and saw a force shield protecting it.”

  “Right. Or we have one big ritual that explodes a huge chunk of rock, for example, to kill them all in one shot.”

  “The other solution is the personal spells. I think it would be harder for me to do, personally, but it would be a lot more flexible than the giant alternative.”

  “The personal shield you mentioned earlier, but you also would be able to make ones with damage spells, right?”

  “Yeah. I think with our budget, we should stick to necessities only. Shields for everyone, of course, and maybe a few aces up our sleeve in the form of energy blast spells or an energy infusion.”

  “What about cost?”

  “System’s telling me I’ll need a different tool for each type. Array flags and anchors for the big approach, and a talisman quill for the second.”

  “Arrays and talismans, I see. Let me pull it up in the shop… I got them. Array stuff looks like they are multi-use, while talisman ink needs to be consumed each time. Talisman stuff is significantly cheaper, though. We’ll have enough for plenty of those, but only for one array.”

  “Honestly I’m leaning towards talismans. If we had enough for two arrays, to defend and attack, it would have worked. But the flexibility of talismans are winning me over.”

  He paused, a quizzical expression on his face. “I guess so.”

  “Great! What was your recommendation for the talisman quill?”

  “There’s one here, the Sparrowheart Feather, that has a chance to give a movement speed bonus on talismans its used on. Uncommon item, so it’s not that bad. The Magus’ Quill, which comes equipped with a spell you can use to write or erase any text. The Whirlwind Quill, which is like the Sparrowheart but it buffs attack speed. There’s also a Clear Star Brush, that provides a flat buff based on the quality of energy used. And a brush that also works as a spellcasting wand. Those last two are only common, though.”

  Claire shrugged, noncommittal. “Any more?”

  “Yeah, there’s ones with elemental aspects. But from the spells I saw you use earlier, you don’t have an elemental disposition, right?”

  “Yeah,” she replied, not sure what to think about Rich’s conclusion.

  “Plus, they were all common. The ones I listed were just the interesting ones I could see.”

  “I like the sound of the Magus’ Quill.” It had a practical part that might be nifty. The spell attached would let Claire write out new runes in her spellbook, and erase any text she came across. “I wonder how far someone can stretch the spell, though.”

  He laughed. “If anyone could stretch it to its limit, it would be you. But I think there might be some value in the ones with the movement speed or attack speed chances.”

  “I don’t really want to gamble on an off chance.” She couldn’t deny that they had an appeal, but there was too much variability with those items.

  “Fair, I guess. I think you should consider the flat buff, in that case.”

  Claire paused, considering the Clear Star Brush. “It sounds good, but it’s just a common. Not worth it when we can get an uncommon, right?”

  “True, it might not work as good as the uncommon one.” He shrugged. “It’s your brush, and I think you have a better idea of the magic than I do.”

  Nodding, Claire quickly found the Magus’ Quill in the system shop, ordering the item then navigating to energy storages.

  “Anything fancy with energy storages I should watch out for?” She asked.

  “Nope,” he replied. “Just the size and the capacity. For us, we should go for the smaller ones with medium capacity, no?”

  “Yeah, it looks like the tiny ones are cheap enough and should pack enough of a punch.” She didn’t understand what units they were measured in, but Claire hoped that they would be able to power a shield for at least a few hits.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  A bag full of twenty tiny energy storage stones dropped onto Claire’s lap. Not opening it, she put it aside.

  “Now for talisman paper and ink.”

  “I’m seeing a beginner talisman paper that’s made of some kind of rock. Can you toss me the energy stones real quick?”

  She tossed the bag to him. “They look like they should fit inside, Claire. The tiny crystals were the right buy.”

  She shot him a smile, catching the energy crystals. The rest of her materials dropped on her lap— some sheets of slate rock with a soft texture and faintly glowing black ink. She waited expectantly for the Magus’ Quill to appear, tapping her foot on the ground.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Quill doesn’t want to order.”

  “What does the system say?”

  “Let me check, real quick… uh… that the order could not be completed. Some kind of internal error.”

  “Does it tell you why?”

  “Yeah, it sold out apparently. I’ll get the other one, I guess. At least they refunded us.”

  Rich nodded, watching a pure white brush with blue runes running up and down the side drop into Claire’s waiting hands.

  She held it up, twirling it around in her hands. “It’s cheaper, and looks prettier, I guess.”

  He smiled, letting out a deep breath. “Got that goin’ for ya.”

  After hours of work, Claire was done. The talismans had not come easy, the process of only carving the glyph being difficult. She had been forced to sell her dead-wizard gear to buy more ink, as it was destroyed on every failed attempt. Thankfully, the slate talisman base stayed stable. If it hadn’t Claire would have probably needed to sell her current uncommon items and maybe even the last stockpile of monster meat.

  It all seemed to pay off, though. Twenty talismans. Seven spiritual shield spells, which would run until the storage crystal ran out, and the rest of high-powered energy blast spells. She had decided to test one of the first she had made by pointing the talisman out the door and activating it. The whole thing turned to dust, creating four blasts instead of the normal three from the remains. They had enough juice for almost fifty blasts.

  Overkill? Eh, it would depend on who came.

  Lindy had decided to take a nap after scolding James a hour or so ago. He ran around a bit, trying to play with the talismans Claire had made, but she kept the boy far away from the dangerous weapons.

  Rich had bought sturdy leather tops for them all with his share of the money. He couldn’t afford three enchanted ones, so Claire’s and Lindy’s were normal while his carried a boost to physical strength. Wanting to practice, Rich had left while Claire was crafting, promising her he would come back as soon as he finished practicing his new skills from the level up.

  Picking up the talismans she had worked so hard on, she opened the system description.

  She would keep one of the more expensive shields for herself, for emergency use, and the remaining would go to the others who couldn’t cast shields themselves. Enough to protect them for a few hits, but Claire hoped that they would only need to use one.

  The time leading up to sundown were filled with a apprehensive silence. Lindy had joined her in the main area, so had Rich, and as the sun dimmed they ate some of the monster meat that Claire had brought back.

  They were excited about the talismans, the energy blast ones in particular. Although, she thought, they were the objectively less cool one, Claire had to admit that a physical class conjuring a spell that would be powerful for a level five wizard did have its appeal.

  Rich and Lindy shared a long look, the two glancing at James who was eating his food with a smile on his face. Rich stood up, pressing his lips together. “Hey, buddy,” he choked out, swallowing. Then he forced out a smile. “Like that steak?”

  “Yeah, Dad!” he replied, oblivious to the torrent of emotions undoubtedly rushing through his father’s head. Still looking at his meal, he picked the meat up with his hands and took a bite out of it. “It’s the best steak I’ve ever had!”

  Rich crouched down, getting on eye level with his son. “I’m glad you like it.” Feeling as though something was wrong with his father’s tone, James looked up at him with an expectant look. “What do we say,” Rich continued, “when someone does something nice for us?”

  “Thank you, Miss Claire,” he recited in a practiced, singsong tone. “This is really good!”

  In the lull of sound that followed his words, three hard knocks sounded on the front door.