Chapter 19

It was five days after the initial teleports to the training planet started, when they encountered the first group of Republic delvers.

It was a group of four. They were walking the opposite way in the canyon, and as they crossed paths with Matt, Liz, and Aster, they stopped. The group waved them down, and Matt received a message.

'A match for an equivalent prize? We are willing to wager a Tier 5 tailoring thread that increases lightning resistance.'

Matt and Liz looked at each other, and Liz sent 'Team or single fights?'

The response came back quickly, 'Teams, of course.'

That was as Matt expected, as they had a two-person advantage, but he felt confident. They were peak Tier 4's, but their cores felt airy. They either hadn't bothered to compact their essence, or had relied on essence stones for their advancement.

He and Liz had cores like steel. Monster essence was by nature more compact, and as they both had only advanced with rift essence, they never had to worry about secondary compression. On top of that, their teamwork had only gotten better over the last few days of delving untouched rifts.

Matt thought over the loot they had, and offered the Tier 5 blacksmith catalyst they had found. With the prizes settled and everyone’s AIs linked, they squared off.

The leftmost enemy shot out a crescent of wind, which Matt simply barreled straight through as he closed the distance. It was less of a blade and more of a small cyclone. The blunt wind damage had no chance of breaking through [Cracked Phantom Armor].

He was intercepted by the opposing team’s two melee fighters. One had large gauntlets that glowed a yellow. Matt got the impression of an earth affinity from them through his spirit sense.

The second melee combatant had a thin saber of some mysterious make that Matt’s AI couldn't immediately identify. The thin blade twisted like a snake as its wielder lunged for a stab at his shoulder.

Matt was surprised. Two enchanted weapons of the fifth Tier? That confirmed his suspicions about this group coming from money. And they certainly did spend it. Tier 5 weapons came with a large price increase, because they usually had an embedded skill. Making a weapon of that caliber usable by a lower Tier only added to the exorbitant price.

It also gave up the game they were playing at. This group used their weak spirits to lure in teams they felt they could handle, using their superior equipment.

When Matt brought his sword down to parry the slithering saber, the gauntlet fighter landed a clean blow to his ribs.

He felt the skill activate. It tried to bypass his armor and deal earthquake-like concussive force to his weaker insides. A good anti-armor skill. Unfortunately for the gauntlet fighter, [Cracked Phantom Armor] didn’t behave like physical armor. Matt’s skill stopped the damage in its tracks, letting virtually nothing leak through.

If they were a true Tier 5 weapon, the gauntlet’s tremors would have easily disrupted [Cracked Phantom Armor]’s structure in his spirit. But weakened as they were for the weilder’s sake, they lacked the power required.

Matt was knocked back but otherwise unfazed from the first combination attack. He created an opening against the opposing swordsman by disarming him with a flourish of his longsword, and took advantage with a powerful downward slash.

The swordsman's armor was as good as his weapon, so Matt used his full strength. It was a clean strike, but it had only staggered his opponent. The saber user was wearing light armor to maintain freedom of movement and speed, but there were still heavily reinforced sections. Matt was unlucky to hit a particularly well padded section of pauldron.

He had more essence in his physical core than anyone of his Tier, and while this man's core was filled to its peak, his physical cultivation paled in comparison to Matt’s at low Tier 4. If it wasn't for the expensive armor, the opposing swordsman’s arm would be dangling off his shoulder by frayed tendons.

Suddenly, an arrow slammed into his neck from his blind spot. It wasn't a killing blow, but if [Cracked Phantom Armor] hadn't stopped it, he would’ve had to leave immediately for emergency treatment. His AI hadn't even had time to warn him. The information he received after the fact showed that the arrow was shot at Liz, but twisted in the air, making the path unpredictable.

Matt took his anger out on the saber user, who continued to dance around him. Predicting their next move, he tucked his arm into the side of his body, and threw it out sideways, towards the direction of the swordsman’s slash. He easily tanked the blow to his arm, knocking the saber user off balance in the process, and brought the enchanted blade of his longsword down on his opponent’s exposed hip.

He felt bone break and saw blood fly, sending the man to the ground, screaming and clutching at his waist.

Matt didn't understand the words the man spat at him through his agony, but he definitely understood the venom behind them. He could venture a few guesses at what kind of emphatic curses were sent his way. His AI however, did not consider the words important enough to translate mid-fight.

The gauntlet user retaliated by tackling Matt to the ground and trying to grapple him. It was a good way to counter heavily armored foes. Armor doesn't defend against limbs bending in ways they aren't supposed to.

The issue with that strategy was that it didn't account for Matt’s superior strength. He was easily able to gain the upper hand with a reversal, and the gauntlet user quickly found themselves in a nasty arm bar. With some leverage generated from a hip thrust, Matt snapped the Republic brawler’s arm at the elbow.

Looking up, Matt saw that Elizabeth had shredded the archer's armor, and incapacitated them. She was using their blood to batter the wind mage, who was hiding in a bubble of circulating air currents.

Pushing the mage back with blow after blow from bludgeons of blood, it was only a few more moments until Liz got him to step near a puddle of blood. With the trap sprung, Aster froze the puddle over. With one final blow, Liz pushed the mage back onto the frozen blood, and they lost their footing on the slick ice. The wind shield dissipated with their concentration broken, and Liz was quickly able to finish the mage off.

Matt turned the translation feature of his AI on and asked, "So where's our prize?"

They didn't receive an answer, and a small spool of thread was thrown to his feet as the lights signaling teleportation enveloped their opponents.

The vanishing figures made sure to fit in a few yelled curses regarding their lineage as they left. One even referenced some supposed sexual deviancies with various wild beasts.

“Such a beautiful language.”

With a chuckle, Liz walked over, with her stolen blade slung across her shoulders.

"Some people just don't like losing. I didn't know I was the daughter of a pig fucker."

Matt laughed. "Huh? I'm apparently an otter fucker. I wonder, why an otter though? Seems random."

Liz had no answer, and they shared a few more wise cracks about the outlandish insults.

The armored blood mage looked around and asked, "Want to head back as well? The auction will be starting in two days. And I'd like to get there a little early."

Matt weighed the options and agreed, "Sure, most of the rifts have had their first delve done already. Better to sell our loot, and head back out with better gear and an extra skill."

He had a thought as they were reaching for the beacons. "Wait, do you want to go try and dig up your bag? Now that we aren’t in any rush to delve, it might be worth a shot."

Liz perked up "Good idea, I was just gonna hire an earth manipulator to dig it out. Worth a shot to see if we can do it ourselves."

As they jogged to the landslide, they encountered a standoff.

"Hold up." As Matt sized up the fighters, he recognized one. It was the mage who had blocked him from entering a rift a while back.

The mage was battling against a group of Republic delvers.

From a safe distance, they watched as the battle started. The group of republican delvers was a party of 4. There was a massive man in full plate, carrying a mace and shield. The group also had an archer, a mage of some type, and a whip user.

The lone mage didn't seem perturbed. As they slashed out with a hand, and the same [Mana Spear] that blasted Matt shoved the shield-wielding tank back several steps.

As the archer took aim and loosed an arrow, the mystery mage sidestepped and returned fire with his [Mana Spear]. This one was bigger and faster than the one launched at the tank. It ripped through the cold air with a scream.

The weaker [Mana Spear] had staggered the likes of Matt and the tank. This one punched right through the archer. He had dodged, but the blast of mana curved slightly to catch him in the side. The now wounded archer fell, and tried to staunch the bleeding from the new hole in his side. After a moment, his band lit up, and he was teleported away.

While the archer was taken out, The Republic group’s mage and tank tried to mount a counter attack together. Using the tank as a shield, the Republic mage launched a steady diet of [Fireball]s at the mystery mage. The whip user tried to use his range advantage to flank their opponent, but being so lightly armored, he was much more worried about dodging the perilous blasts than attacking.

When the armored tank closed within melee distance, Matt expected the mage to retreat. Instead, he shoved a glowing hand at the tank's shield, and a [Mana Spear] punched completely through, denting the tank’s heavy armor. The man's chest plate had an indent at least three inches deep. Matt highly doubted that the tank’s ribcage was still intact. He was quickly removed by a flash of light, just as his partner before him.

The remaining two of the Republic group held up their hands, and were gone in a flash, retreating with their injured teammates.

The victorious mage turned their head to Matt, Liz, and Aster. The trio took a step back. They didn't need to talk to know this was a fight they couldn't win.

Matt’s AI was giving him feedback, and had calculated an eighty percent chance of the mage’s [Mana Spear] punching right through [Cracked Phantom Armor] at full power. They wanted no parts of this fight, and Matt began planning a way to cover Liz and Aster’s retreat. If the mage showed the slightest inkling of hostile intent, he would do whatever it took to protect them. Battle plans were running through his AI and transferring to Liz's as fast as his mana throughput would allow.

Their sense of dread was for naught, as the mage turned, and entered the nearby Tier 5 rift.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Liz said, "Well, shit. He sure hit like a truck. Peak Tier 5 if my spiritual sense was right."

Matt hadn't been able to get that clear of a scan, but he didn't need one to know the mystery mage was stronger than him. He had already been beaten once. He didn’t need a second example of their power.

They finished their jog to the landslide in silence. Matt was busy contemplating what he could possibly do to fight an opponent so much stronger, but was coming up blank. If he was so outclassed, only relying on [Cracked Phantom Armor] to stop the blow was suicide.

With their spirits a little dampened from being humbled, they arrived at the landslide, and started to dig where their AIs approximated the bag to be. After an hour of digging, they came up with nothing and called it quits. Even with Liz burning through mana to dig with a blood scoop, the radius provided by the AIs was too wide to completely cover.

Deciding to cut their losses, they activated their non-emergency teleport beacons and waited. Matt had a thought and mentioned, "Oh, I have guild-level access to the auction, so we won't have to pay the full fees. That'll be nice."

Intrigued, Liz asked Matt to explain, leading to a quick synopsis of how his mana donations had helped to start the teleports early.

Liz whistled at that information. "When I was in line, I heard the higher ups in the guild were super happy about that. A full day's head start on the Republic means more first delves, which means better loot. Damn, we need to take advantage of that. Gotta see if we can get out ahead of the second wave."

That made Matt smile. Liz clearly intended to keep their collaboration up. He was going to suggest it after they split the profits of their loot, but it was good to already know her mind was on the same track.

They worked well together. He was able to keep enemies off of her, allowing her to build up blood reserves, until she was like a tidal wave, crushing all that stood against them.

They weren't a perfect team, but they were a good one. If it meant delving more rifts faster, what was the point of disrupting something that was clearly working?

They had already encountered rifts that completely countered one or the other. Matt with flying creatures, and Elizabeth with creatures lacking the blood she needed to supplement her powers. The only thing really hampering them was the mana cost to Liz's skills. Even with her quickly converting mana stones, they were only able to delve two or three rifts before the mental strain wore her down.

When they were teleported back to the city, they arrived on a platform covered in blood.

The team of medics looked up, and seeing they were standing on their own power, went back to their screaming patient with severed legs. The healers were trying to reattach them, but there was a corrosive green liquid eating into the severed ends.

Matt, Aster, and Liz quickly stepped off the platform. Seconds later, a mechanical voice said, "Emergency transfer incoming. Party of five"

As they were exiting, Matt received a message from Simeon. 'Glad to see you’re back. If you have time, the higher-ups are willing to give full guild level access to the rift information we’ve accumulated, in exchange for another 'donation'.'

Matt relayed the offer to Liz, and she deemed it was fair. They would be spending a few days in the city for the auction and skill exchange anyway. He agreed with her reasoning, and replied to Simeon. He wrote that he would be available tonight, after they settled their rewards.

When they arrived at the processing building, the line was so long that it wrapped around the building twice.

Liz took one look at the debacle and said, "Ok, Mr. Mana. See if your guy can get us through this line. We’ll be waiting for half the day at this rate."

Matt sent a view of the line, and Simeon quickly granted them access to the guild VIP appraisers. It was on the second floor, and they felt the glares digging holes into their backs as they bypassed the line.

Once upstairs, they found an open booth. After a few minutes, they pulled out their rewards for the appraiser for when they sat down.

Matt hadn't realized that they had found so much loot until it was all laid out on the table. The bathtub sized pocket space in his bag was stuffed with rift rewards. The weight wasn't heavy enough for him to notice the difference. An extra sixty pounds was no strain at all on his Tier 4 physique.

The clerk was pleasant enough, and sorted out the goods into piles for the appraiser to verify. When he was done, they waited for the appraiser to finish with the table next to theirs.

When she was finally finished, and sat down in front of them, she said, "My name is Emily, Tier 8. Appraiser with 40 years of experience in rift items. If you have questions about my assessment, please feel free to have a second or third party verify anything you wish."

Matt also received a packet of information through his AI, verifying what she had told them.

She quickly went through the crafting supplies they had accumulated, and offered a price of forty Tier 6 mana stones. They were only ten mana stones away from a Tier 7. A fantastic reward, even when split in half.

When Emily came to the items, things got a little more detailed. She took her time, reviewing every item carefully with a variety of tools.

The dagger they had found turned out to amplify wind attacks channeled through it. Useful, but not amazing. The biggest selling point was that it was a Tier 4 weapon with a skill amplification. Neither of them wanted the dagger, so they gave it to Emily to add to the auction.

Next up, the necklace Matt had found in the zombie rift. Emily said it was a weak spell of underwater breathing. Essentially, it would last around twenty minutes, independent of mana expenditure, before the wearer had to surface..

It was useless on this planet, but could be worth a decent sum on a water world. The only issue with this particular reward was that it was a bound item. Once it was activated, it was permanently tied to the user, and would only work for that person. That greatly lowered its value. To the auction it went.

The earrings they found at the trap rift were determined to be completely mundane. The proclamation made Matt grit his teeth, but he tried to keep a smile on his face. He barely succeeded.

He sent Liz a message through his AI as they exchanged a glance, ‘One last ‘fuck you’ from that damn rift, huh?’

The boots they found had a feather fall enchantment, which slowed downward momentum. They would be useful, but the boots were a smaller size than either of their feet. Enlarging the item had the chance to break the enchantment, so they decided to put it on the auction.

The second to last item was one Matt and Liz were confident was worth a hefty price. It was a wand that felt exceptionally powerful. Emily's assessment agreed with their prior notion. The wand would lower the cost of any ranged magic spells, regardless of affinity. It was a proper Tier 5 weapon, and they were confident it would rope a few interested parties into a bidding war.

The final item was the reward Matt had received from the office rift, when he fought the second boss. The intertwined pair of rings. This item took much longer to analyze than the previous ones. Emily went through every tool she had, and finally just gave the rings a blank stare, before shifting her gaze towards them.

"I need to get my manager to confirm what these are. One moment please." With that, she hurried to the back through a door behind the booth, and left Matt and Liz to ponder what her actions meant. Matt hoped this was a good sign. Maybe he could sell these items for another skill.

He felt at them with his AI and spiritual sense, but the rings only felt wispy to his senses. If Emily couldn't get anything through her expertise and array of tools, how could he possibly find anything meaningful through his own senses?

When she returned, Emily came with a woman who had slight wrinkles around her eyes. "Tina Tier 15." That was all the woman said, before taking Emily's seat and going through the same routine.

When Tina had finally finished her appraisal, she addressed them with a stern look and said, "This is a mighty fine reward. These are a bound pair of rings. They let the wearers swap places and teleport short distances."

Matt wanted to jump and cheer; there was no way he was going to sell these. Teleporting was rare until the skill shard [Side Slide] appeared in Tier 20 rifts. Let alone proper [Teleport]. Being a Tier 44 skill, Matt could go a thousand years without even a whiff of it.

Tina pressed her lips and leaned in. "That's not all. As far as I can tell, they are mana expensive to use. Somewhere near a thousand mana to swap places on base, and double that for a teleport of a few feet. The mana cost after that would increase exponentially every foot."

That crushed Matt's dreams. That was a lot of mana. Enough that most cultivators wouldn’t be able to use the rings effectively.

He hopefully asked, "That can be stored, yes? It doesn't have to be the full cost... Right?" it was his only hope of being able to use them.

That earned a surprised look from Tina's, but she remained professional when she answered. "Of course, it can be pre-charged. That's one of the aspects of rift items that makes them so valuable. It also can be charged with mana stones or personal mana. That's because this is...” she cleared her throat softly, and whispered, “This is a growth item."

That didn't mean anything to Matt, but Liz rocked back like she had been slapped.

She quickly leaned in to ask, "How sure are you?"

Tina seemed offended at the suggestion and said, "I'm confident."

Liz leaned in as well, quickly scooping up the rings. She whispered, "We'll be logging a formal notification of a growth item with the Empire systems. And we’ll be attaching your names as the verifiers."

Neither appraiser seemed thrilled at the declaration, but they showed no signs of protest either.

Liz continued, "Also, we need this skill shard verified as a [Puddle Jumper]."

They did so, and Liz brusquely dragged Matt out of the room.

When they were outside, Matt tried to get some answers out of Liz, but was quickly hushed. She looked around then asked, "We have to go fill the mana. Where is that? Let's go. No questions till we can get inside."

Matt trusted her enough to stay quiet and lead her to the room he went to before, in the town center.

When the three of them were safely inside, Liz scoured the room for listening devices, even checking under the chair.

"Wha-"

"Shhhh!"

Matt stood quiet, until Liz slumped against the door, and an AI message popped up in his field of vision.

'No talking about this out loud. This is important.'

He nodded, and sat down to start filling the crystal with mana. He kept it at 10 mana a second, just like last time. No reason to advertise his ability’s growth per Tier.

'Ok. So this is a fairly big deal. Growth items aren't super rare, but they are special. They’re all bound items, and expensive as hell to grow. It's also the reason that training planets are left for so long to accumulate essence. That ups the odds for one of them to appear massively. Dual Stars probably only pull ten or so growth items a decade. Who knows how many others people get and keep to themselves.'

'Most growth items only shine after a few upgrades. That’s why it's so expensive to upgrade them. Rare resources, and a shit load of essence. Still, it’s worth it. They’re like a skill that grows with you. You'll never get a fire sword to aspect to water, but they can cover a weakness. The only other catch is, once they’re bound, they break with the death of the person.'

'Weapons and armor are the most desirable, but support items have their advantages as well. Growth weapons and armor reign supreme at the higher Tiers, but the support items are generally useful at all Tiers, minus the spike at the top.'

'Following?'

Matt agreed with a nod, and she continued, 'They’re usually bought up by the rich to give to their kids. It's a safety measure. While they’re expensive to upgrade and expensive to buy, they can be a cornerstone of a fighting style, or a life-saving treasure. But from what I understand, a lot of base growth items are weaker than something the average person can buy, because the upgrade requirements are so rare and expensive.'

Matt followed that to the logical conclusion, 'But support items don't have that problem. It's not a sword or armor that’s being used to fight.'

'Exactly, and that's what makes them so valuable. It's a lot easier to get Tier 14 materials when you are Tier 15 or 16, but by then, a sword would have lost most of its value. At least until you could rank it up, then it would out class everything at its Tier. The rub is how difficult it is to get upgrade materials at your tier from equivalent rifts'

‘Support growth items are amazing regardless of Tier, because you don't have to upgrade them. It's a good thing the mana cost is storable on the rings. It’s so high, it would have cancelled out a lot of the advantages of a teleport skill.’

Matt paused at that and sent, 'Yeah, but I don't have that problem. I can fill 1000 mana pretty quickly.'

Liz just nodded at that.

Matt became lost in thought, and Liz left him to it, preoccupying herself by petting Aster while he considered the possibilities.

'What would this sell for? Here and the open Empire market?'

'Hard to say. It’d be a lot though. Maybe a few Tier 20 mana stones. While it is a Tier 4 item, it's useful for everyone up until the 30's. Even then, it's still useful for the swap ability, as it could get someone out of danger.'

Matt stared hard at the small and silvery interlocking bands that lay in his hand. They would be amazing to use, but he couldn't use them alone. That meant the best option was to sell them, and buy a skill or two to round out his repertoire.

The more he marinated on the thought, the more he hated that option. Skills were nice, and the right ones would last him a lifetime, but this was a chance at something different. Something unique.

All the best delvers had special advantages that they leveraged into greatness. Whether it be their Talents, or a lucky skill, they made it big with whatever opportunities they were presented with. They didn't sell their advantages. They took what they found, and pressed it for every bit of advancement they could.

Another part of him whispered that at the same time, he also had no idea of the number of delvers that took the same risk and paid for it. More often than not, leaps of faith lead to early deaths, instead of long, prosperous lives.

Maybe he was misguided by arrogance from his prowess with [Cracked Phantom Armor], but he felt like this was a risk he was able to take.

He looked to the blood mage leaning against the wall. She had helped him, even when she had no stake in these rings. She could have let him sell them for far less than they were worth.

He thought through their last week of interactions, and all about how they were able to fight and laugh together. They made a good team.

Matt knew the logical choice wasn't the right one. The safe bet was to sell the skill, and get a high Tiered, channeling attack spell but...

Matt made his decision.

He held the bound rings out to Elizabeth.

She looked honestly shocked when the second ring was dangled in front of her.

'This is too much. I really can't take it.'

Matt had already thought of that, so he sent the message his AI had prepared.

A moment later, she grasped the growth item offered to her, and when they each pushed essence into their interlocking rings, they separated.

The pair both put on their newly bonded rings. Pushing his sense into the ring, Matt had a faint impression of where its twin was located on Liz's finger. Before he could get lost in exploring the connection, he received the message confirming that Elizabeth Moore had accepted his invitation to form a permanent party.

"Welp." Liz seemed stunned, "I guess that means we’re in it for the long hall. Hitched together like a horse and a wagon going off a cliff."

Matt wasn't sure he liked that expression. It was very morbid.

Then she smiled. "Oh! Now I get to see what your Talent actually is."

There was a pause, and she cocked her head as she looked at him.

"That's absurd. At that rate, you'll make..." Her eyes flicked back and forth. "Way too much mana. You realize you'll have more mana at the one percent mark than most mages have after Tier 25, right?. And once you get to Tier 12 or 13, you'll be able to transition to a full mage build..."

She trailed off, contemplated him with an exaggerated glare and said, "I'd like to file a complaint with the heavens."

"And your skill. How do you have that? Did your sponsors suck off the Emperor? That is not a low Tiered skill. What?"

Matt had to re-explain the situation at Benny's, and Liz just shook her head at his story. "Yeah, they were dumb to think it was a useless skill. Even a normal mage could use it for a few minutes. Even if it wasn't a core skill, and a little less efficient. But damn, it synergizes well with your Talent."

Matt examined her profile, while smiling at her continued threats to lock him in a box and sell him as an unlimited mana source.

Name: Elizabeth Moore.

Age: 17.

Bloodline: Phoenix. Grade: High. Purity: High.

Tier 1 Talent: All skills brought into the Core Spirit or Inner Spirit gain blood aspect.

Tier 3 Talent: One with blood. Grows with Tier.

Skills: [Blood Manipulation].

The world was truly unfair. She had said her mother was a Flame Sparrow. Bloodline of the Phoenix, what bullshit was that? And it was both high grade and high purity, which meant it gave even more advantages. Though he didn't know what the phoenix bloodline gave on base, as a peak fire creature, it was guaranteed to be strong.

He sent Liz his best glare. She didn't even have the decency to look sheepish.

"You say I'm broken?" he hissed. That only served to enlarge her grin. "And what about your mother being a Flame Sparrow? I remember that being explicitly stated. My AI noted it down."

"I said she was a Flame Sparrow, if you assumed I meant she evolved to only have a human form, that's on you."

Matt wanted to pull out his hair.

"Just how strong are your parents? I had assumed around Tier 20. But now I don't know."

"Does it matter? I'd rather not say. It has nothing to do with me. I'm on The Path to escape that exact situation. People just assume I’m nothing more than my parents' Tier."

There was heat in her voice, and it brought Matt up short. After thinking it over, he understood. He wouldn't want to have every accomplishment credited to someone else, just because they gave birth to you.

That didn't mean he wouldn't give her shit about it.

"Ok, miss double high."

That got a blush out of her. "Well, ok. That has its advantages, and is from them. But I didn't ask for it!"

"What does the second one actually mean?" Matt wanted to be vague out loud, but Liz understood what he was asking, and sent him a message explaining.

'My Tier 3 lowers the mana cost of all blood skills and makes them easier to cast and control. It's not much right now, only a few percent, but it helps. And it’s also like a crappy version of [Regeneration]. I heal slowly from pretty much anything that doesn't kill me. It's just really slow. So slow it's useless at this Tier.'

'It's also the reason I can absorb other people's blood. It changes to my blood type, which is easier to manipulate.'

Matt ran his hand over his face. He thought Melinda had the most absurd combination of Talents, but maybe Liz might beat her out.

'What about the skill?'

'Oh, that was a gift from my sponsor. It was originally [Water Manipulation]'

Matt peeked through his hand at the smug blood user sitting against the wall. His head hurt.

He decided to change the topic. "So what do you want to trade the [Puddle Jumper] for?"

Liz sat up, and spilled the napping Aster out of her lap, inciting some yips of annoyance.

"I want [Create Water]. It's a fairly cheap skill that should show up here. Not too many people take it, as a canteen can nearly do the same. Only water mages, or me."

Matt understood what her idea was, and was impressed. It was similar to what he was doing. Take a skill most overlooked or couldn't use, but change the paradigm, and make it strong.

[Create Water] would become [Create Blood] with her Talent, and would cover her weakness of needing to slowly siphon blood from her enemies.

"Think we can get both for one [Puddle Jumper]?"

Liz was laying on her back, half-heartedly trying to grab Aster, who kept just out of reach. "Probably. The skill exchange takes place after the auction, so we'll have some mana stones to cover the difference, if needed. It's a near-flight skill so..."

They lazily watched movies while Matt fed the crystal half a million mana.

Liz could have left and done the shopping she needed to do but stayed.

There was a closeness growing between them that forming a party had only solidified. This wasn't a temporary team-up, but a near-permanent one. A leap of faith into a budding comradery.

Matt could feel it in the air, and it felt nice.

Warm.

Comfortable.