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  “I’ll be able to help! The lix attacks from close range, you attack from farther back, and I can cast shields on you both,” she announced, holding a hand out insistently. “Give me your card. This way, you won’t have to worry about everything at once, and my level’s higher than yours, too. That makes my shields much better.”

  “She wants to come with us, and she’s level seven,” Tailyn said to the lix without getting into the details. Ka-Do-Gir just growled something in a dialect the boy didn’t understand, flitted over to the nearest door, pulled it open, and flashed into the building. Tailyn followed right behind him, ready to bring an electric strike down on anyone they came across. But the small space was quiet, dark, and empty.

  “Signal for the others to come here. No sounds.”

  As Tailyn stepped out, Ka-Do-Gir stared at Valia. Level seven was higher even than he was. Having someone like that around was definitely going to be helpful, especially since she was a mage. The only two things that bothered him were how old the girl was and the fact that she’d already be taken prisoner once. And while the first one wasn’t such an issue—his partner was young, too—the second was. She wouldn’t fight to the end the way Tailyn would. Anyone who surrendered once was apt to do it again.

  Slowly, the room filled up. Dort crouched by the wall, keeping a wary eye fixed on Valia. Happily, he did it silently and without inserting his foul self into the situation. The numericals huddled in a corner, only Valanil risking a peek out the door only to pull back so quickly she knocked Tailyn off his feet. Three white minions were making their way up the stairs to the tower—the eighth, seventh, and sixth. The group had just made it out in time.

  The lix closed the door, just leaving it open a crack. After a couple minutes spent anxiously waiting, the minions came back out. Their pompous majesty gone, they were practically flying down the stairs to the city below. They certainly looked as though they were aware there was an intruder. Tailyn exchanged glances with Ka-Do-Gir and shook his head—there was no combat status, though the boy’s cards still appeared in his hand.

  A little while later, everything made sense. The white creatures had mixed everything up.

  You introduced division between One’s minions and the black lixes. The minions think Mor-Do-Gun destroyed One’s 14th, 15th, and 16th minions before himself falling victim to their magic.

  You receive a boost to a random attribute.

  Enhancement +1 (6).

  Tailyn couldn’t suppress a happy shout. More than an attribute, he’d basically just leveled-up. All his parameters were boosted, and he suddenly had 170 mana to his name. It was a stroke of luck. But suddenly remembering himself, Tailyn looked around guiltily, ready to explain, only to notice that nobody was paying him the least bit of attention. Everyone who’d been pulled out of the trap had gotten a gift from the god.

  Shouts rang out from somewhere off in the distance. Tailyn listened closely—he didn’t know the language, but they were definitely lixes. It was impossible to mistake their guttural tone. In return, there was a disgusting gurgling sound, presumably the minions replying. And while everyone was looking over their upgrades, the boy opened the door and peeked out to see a crowd of almost ten white creatures and four black lixes over by the portal. The minions were all pointing insistently in the direction of the portal. The lixes were forced to concede, pushed back little by little until they finally disappeared into the shimmering film. One flash later, and Ka-Do-Gir was the last remaining six-legged creature in the city. The rest had been banished.

  “Let’s head over to the second tower and look for the book there. Tell everyone to stay here.” Ka-Do-Gir wasn’t about to wait for the minions to return to their positions. The two towers in the back weren’t visible from the courtyard, so they were a great target. Of course, there was loot to be gained, and the lix was right up against level ten with the upgrade he’d gotten to his enhancement. While he wanted to go home, he definitely didn’t want to walk away from a location like that. It looked too juicy.

  “I’m coming with you!” Valia announced from the doorway, where she blocked their way out. The lix loomed over her as if about to move her out of the way, though she stood there firmly. Tailyn translated for her and was surprised to see a message pop up:

  Ka-Do-Gir invited Valia Levor to join Partners without the right to loot.

  The lix had decided—what was one more human? If another mage was looking for an adventure, so be it. He just didn’t want her expecting any of the god’s gifts for herself. Taken aback by the turn of events, the girl’s habit of being in the center of attention told her that it was better to go without loot than to sit the whole thing out. She accepted the invitation, and two frames popped up in front over her, one the lix, and the other the boy. And after glancing over both of them, Valia was shocked. She hadn’t been expecting that. Barely able to keep her jaw from dropping like some commoner’s might, she looked over the mana and magic attack values, finding that at level seven, she was the weakest in the group. Both her new partners came in well above their levels. Tailyn, in fact, could have passed for level ten.

  They got to the first tower without a problem. After making sure the palace shielded them from the courtyard, the lix grabbed both mages and dashed upward. Valia, not expecting that, squealed, and Tailyn instantly shushed her, the embarrassment he’d been feeling in front of her instantly forgotten. The last thing they needed was for the creatures to come running to see what the sound was. Happily, their status didn’t switch to combat. Still, Tailyn flashed Valia an unpleasant look, only able to let his breath out once they ducked through the door and began heading downward. It was the same couple dozen flights. Finally, they reached some closed doors. With no locks on them, all the group had to do was pull them open in order to find themselves…where?

  The lix reached toward the first door, but Tailyn stopped him. The boy had a plan based on the simple fact that there was nobody yelling in pain from the other side. Either the minions had already killed everyone, or there weren’t any humans in there. Perhaps, there weren’t any minions, either. Either way, the boy had a solid idea for how to win the battle before it ever started.

  “Can you tell if there are any humans in there?” Tailyn asked Ka-Do-Gir, getting a nod in reply. The lix really didn’t need more than a split-second to get the lay of the land.

  “Perfect! In that case, let’s do this.”

  Ka-Do-Gir heard the mage out and was forced to admit that his idea was a good one. After making sure the boy had his card out, the lix waited for the signal, threw open the door, and leaped inside.

  Status change. Current status: combat.

  The three minions were in the middle of a lively discussion next to the black stone, gurgling quietly back and forth. There were no humans in the room. At least, no living humans—there was a whole pile of dead ones by the far wall. The monsters began turning to see who the unexpected guest was, their tentacle arms raised, but that was when Ka-Do-Gir leaped right back out of the room. There was nobody left alive to protect.

  “Fire away!” the lix yelled as he started closing the door.

  Ka-Li.

  A terrifying howl hit the group’s ears, soon turning into croaks. The door jerked a few times. But the creatures inside weren’t enough to shove it open, and the eight seconds of fire doing 870 damage a second was too much for any of them to survive. Tailyn even regretted spending so many charges. The next time, he was going to cut the number in half.

  You used Wave of Fire-I 10 times.

  You destroyed One’s 11th, 12th, and 13th minions, level 18 creatures.

  Charges remaining: 16 of 50.

  Status change: combat complete.

  Valia stared in shock at the messages that had popped up. She’d just leveled-up, getting all the way up to eight. Meanwhile, neither the lix nor Tailyn had progressed beyond levels five and one, respectively. How was that possible? How did the kid beat three level eighteen creatures with just one card? And what was
the card? How did a provincial nobody have it? The girl had a hundred questions for the strange pair, though nobody was in any hurry to answer them.

  Ka-Do-Gir walked into the scalding room and bent over the three shimmering boxes right by the door. While the minions had been surprisingly resilient, Tailyn’s plan had been impeccable.

  Dividing loot…

  Ka-Do-Gir receives Fireball-I card.

  Tailyn Vlashich receives Fireball-I card x2.

  There was no key, but that was fine with Tailyn—he was holding a veritable fortune, two completely charged cards. Looking to pay off his debt as soon as possible, the boy handed the card with just a few charges left back to the lix, looking over at the black stone as he did. It was the same kind of terminal he’d seen in the other tower. With eighty-three coins in his account, he glanced at Valia and decided to buy her and Ka-Do-Gir some food. Valanil never had given the lix anything.

  “Here, this is for you. Give it back to me when it runs out.” The boy gave Valia one of the cards, turning her into a weapon. “Okay, just a second, I’ll be right back.”

  Unlike the previous terminal, that one decided to just hand Tailyn access right away, both to the store and to the workshop. The boy spent three coins on empty retorts and got to work making mana elixirs. He was going to need them.

  You created 30 Mana Restoration Potions.

  Mana -30 (140).

  That was perfect. Each retort restored seven mana, and there were thirty of them. That was 210 mana, or twenty-three charges. Of course, Tailyn was going to run out of lavender and daisies soon enough, but he knew he could buy some more if it came to that.

  Heading over to the store, the boy bought ten packets of food, and he was about to jump back out when he decided to ask a question that had been bothering him. Why did his cards have that I on them? Logically, it had to be level one since they were simple cards. But did that mean he could turn them into rare versions? Or did you just have to find Wave of Fire-II?

  Processing request…

  To level-up a card, you need to combine three of them (the charge level doesn’t matter). Level 2 cards have more charges, do more damage, and have a larger mana and Wisdom requirement. To get a level 3 card, you need to combine three level 2 cards, and so on. Cards acquire an additional quality with each new level.

  Tailyn was shocked to see such a long text, though his breath caught in his throat when he finished reading. It was time to head over to the next tower.

  Ka-Do-Gir had swept the room, though there wasn’t any more loot to be found. Getting another card was fine if useless in the moment. But what the lix did appreciate was that his partner had taken care of the group by handing a weapon to the second mage—he would have done the same. You never knew when you were going to need another pair of hands. Tailyn was too excited when he came back, but he declined to explain, just suggesting they move on to the next tower. Ka-Do-Gir agreed, even if he didn’t see much of a point. It was already clear that the other two were going to have the same three minions and miserly reward for killing them. There was no book copy to be found.

  Once outside, the lix looked around. There were no white monsters on their side, and the blacks surrounding the city weren’t paying the group any attention.

  The third tower was a repeat of the second. The lix opened the door, checked to make sure there weren’t any humans alive inside, jumped back, and closed the door behind him. The only difference was that Tailyn sent in five waves of fire. Also, there were four minions instead of three, though that didn’t change the outcome. It just meant the minions spent more time banging on the door.

  You destroyed One’s 9th, 17th, 18th, and 19th minions, level 18 creatures.

  ***

  You destroyed more than 10 creatures at least 10 levels above you.

  You receive a boost to a random attribute.

  Intellect +1 (2).

  Status change: combat complete.

  Tailyn couldn’t hold back a smile—that’s why they hadn’t gotten a reward earlier. You had to take out enough enemies for the god to consider you worthy. And that was great news. But the best news was that the boy had another fifty mana to his name. Burning with anticipation, he stepped into the room. There had been four targets, so he was definitely going to get two cards. It was time to see what happened when he combined them. But the god had a surprise up its sleeve:

  Ka-Do-Gir receives Booster-I amulet.

  Tailyn Vlashich receives Fireball-I card x3.

  ***

  You have 3 identical cards. Would you like to combine them?

  Tailyn stopped breathing when he read the message. Over the past day or so, he’d learned much more about the game mechanics, and so he knew the three of them were in for a dangerous if profitable fight. He was only getting cards starting with the 10th minion. There, the 9th minion had given them an amulet, which was presumably going to net the lix a haul when he sold it. But what about the top eight? Tailyn exchanged glances with Ka-Do-Gir and nodded, reading an identical thought in the lix’s eyes. The loot wasn’t just making them stronger in the moment. The lix was going to use it to advance himself through the ranks of his tribe.

  You combined 3 Fireball-I cards into Fireball-II.

  ***

  Fireball-II. Description: an upgraded simple magic card that creates a clump of fire moving toward the target at a speed of Magic Attack / 10 meters per second. Explodes with a thermal charge that does Magic Attack * 1.5 damage, raises the temperature of the area around the target by 3 degrees, keeps the target from using magic for 2 seconds. Range: from 0 to Magic Attack * 2, though no more than 100 meters. Includes 150 charges. Charges remaining: 150. Each use costs: 1 mana. Requirements: Wisdom (2), only for creatures with mana. Can be recharged.

  As he read through the changes, Tailyn felt like he’d grown wings. He had an additional quality—his targets couldn’t use magic for two seconds. Sure, there were new requirements, but the boy matched them all so long as he was careful with his mana. Pulling his status up so he always had it in front of him had definitely been the right move. The boy looked over and saw Valia, who was discouraged by not getting anything after the battle, and threw euphoric arms around her, both comforting and sharing his own happiness.

  “Get off me, you idiot!” Valia jerked away from him with a threatening stare, but the boy was no longer paying the least bit of attention to her. He was too excited running around with his card waving in the air. Blushing, the girl still felt the pressure from his arms. She did her best to hide her pedigree, having decided that her parents’ name might influence the way the people in her life treated her, though they somehow still always found out. And they didn’t touch her like that. He was…there were no words to describe his nerve.

  “Let’s go—there’s another tower waiting for us,” growled Ka-Do-Gir. A couple minutes later, the group was at the base of the last staircase.

  “Wait here!” The lix turned toward the palace and started back up the stairs, his eyes fixed on the palace in search of any sign of movement. The minions just flitted back and forth past the windows, still carrying whatever they had in their arms, and so the lix had to continually freeze in an attempt to blend in with the stone. It wasn’t an ideal solution. If anyone had been looking their way, they would definitely have seen the lix, but happily nobody cared what was going on outside the palace. Ka-Do-Gir froze when he got to the top, checking the pattern of movement in the palace, and waited for the optimal moment before giving the signal. Both mages dashed upward. The combat status didn’t show up, and the group was looking at another series of messages a couple minutes later:

  You destroyed One’s 20th, 21st, and 22nd minions, level 18 creatures.

  ***

  Ka-Do-Gir receives Fireball-I card.

  Tailyn Vlashich receives Fireball-I card x2.

  ***

  Mission update: Look for Coordinates. You checked the City of the Dead’s outer circuit but didn’t find Lavr Nalin’s backup copy. Conti
nuing looking and find the coordinates for the stash. Additional mission: destroy all of One’s minions (remaining: 8).

  ***

  You took another step on a difficult journey and earned a reward.

  Your group receives a reward: +1 to a random skill.

  Herbalism (Amilio) +1 (2).

  “Wait, what’s that about?” Valia asked in a surprise tone. The god quickly sent a response.

  Mission update: Look for Coordinates. This is a secret mission, so you can’t tell anyone about it except level 5 lix Ka-Do-Gir and level 8 human Valia Levor.

  Chapter 15