The next day, Jaden woke from a fitful sleep twenty mana stronger. Niko sat on a log nearby, tending a small fire. They had drawn straws the previous night, and Niko had been given the last watch shift.

“Morning.”

“Good morning.” She replied quietly. Jaden heard what sounded like a car crash in slow motion, and glanced to his right. Lois snored loudly nearby, and Niko snickered.

“That’s new.” Jaden said, moving to sit near Niko.

Niko snickered. “She is like big cat.”

Jaden laughed softly. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.”

Niko looked up at him, smiling. The moment stretched as their eyes locked before Jaden looked away. “Quiet night?”

Niko nodded. “No danger. Sounds far away, cats fighting.”

Jaden smiled. “Sounds peaceful.”

“Yes, nice night. Nice to sit with fire.” She replied wistfully.

“I know what you mean. I used to love camping.”

“Used to?” She asked, english skills having improved enough to pick up on the word.

“Ya, my dad won shared custody rights when I was ten. We hunted deer once a month every month after that before I turned eighteen. These days, spending time in the wild like this reminds me of him.” He poked at the fire with a branch in frustration as he talked.

Niko stood, and walked around the fire to sit next to him. Silently, she leaned into him; resting her head against his shoulder, and held his hand.

“How long since you saw papa?” She asked after a few minutes.

“It’s been… six years now. When I think about it, I’m happy he’s dead. He was a piece of shit, and not having to worry about him is one of the best things about this world.” His free hand stabbed the fire, causing a small flurry of sparks when a log collapsed.

“Then why be angry?” She asked, taking the branch from him before he could attack the fire again.

Jaden sighed. “Life never makes things simple does it?”

Niko laughed bitterly. “Agreed.”

Jaden turned, and used his free hand to hug Niko to him. Niko released his hand to wind an arm around his back, and burrowed her head into his chest as best she could. Jaden petted her head softly as they silently hugged.

“This is simple.” She said quietly into his chest.

“Hm?” He asked in surprise.

She grabbed his hand. “We hug, we feel better. Simple, yes? Hold hands, feel happy. Simple.”

Jaden laughed. “I like that. You’re right, it’s nice.”

Niko smiled in embarrassed happiness as he brought her hand to his lips, and winked.

“So bold.” she said, stars in her eyes.

Jaden smiled. “I can’t blame the booze this time either. Guess that’s just me.”

A yawn sounded from nearby, and the pair broke apart like children with their hands caught in the cookie jar.

“You guys can go back to what you were doing, I just can’t stomach sitting here pretending to sleep while you flirt anymore. Seriously, ugh.” Lois pantomimed vomiting as she pushed herself to her feet.

Niko laughed loudly while Jaden blushed, expression turning sheepish. The mood broken, the trio of adventurers split apart to tend to their morning rituals. Two more days of training passed before the trio felt ready to push toward the nexus. Having little to prepare before they broke camp, Jaden pulled up his stat page to eye it critically as he waited.

*************************************

Jaden Harris

Max MP: 83

Free MP: 41/41 (50%)

Stats

Strength: 10 (0%)

Agility: 10 (0%)

Fortitude: 10 (0%)

Endurance: 10 (0%)

Charisma: 10 (0%)

Intelligence: 52 (50%)

Magic Resistance: 10 (0%)

*all stats are rounded to the nearest whole number

Jobs:

King of Games Level 2

Skills:

None

Titles:

Fop Level 1

Originator Level 1

Status effects:

None

*************************************

Jaden contemplated redirecting some of his investment in intelligence to some other stat. He had learned from experience that rather than increasing his true brainpower, intelligence helped him channel more raw mana at once. It also allowed him to have better control over his thoughts, and better direct the outcomes he wanted; thus increasing the efficiency of his magic, but he had quickly realized he was unlikely to need much unless he was casting extremely complex, or mana intensive spells. Luckily, the nature of his card magic made the stat less necessary.

Before he could make any decisions, Niko patted his shoulder. “Ready?” Niko asked him.

Jaden closed his stat screen, and stood from the log he had been sitting on. “Ready.” He confirmed. With that, the trio set out into the jungle.

Several hours passed without incident as they forced their way through the thick foliage. Jaden was almost ready to call a break when the sound of a twig snapping came from in front of them. The party stopped, all three going on silent alert at the sound, while Jaden crept forward. Glancing around a large tree, Jaden spotted something like a cow covered in small spikes calmly munching on a bush. Jaden almost yelped in surprise when Niko bumped into him, using him like a shield as she peered at the beast.

As silently as they could, the party retreated to a safe distance.

“So, are we fighting it?” Jaden asked, glancing at the others.

Niko nodded. “Can’t get strong if we run.”

Lois shrugged. “I don’t think we should. We’re not really suited to fighting something covered in spikes. I mean, all we have is our bare hands, and a children’s card game.”

Jaden puffed out his chest. “Just for insulting my sport, I’m siding with Niko. You’ve been outvoted.”

Lois sighed, and shook her head. “Niko, you’re dating a child.”

“No dates yet. Only jungle.” Niko said regretfully.

Lois’s expression softened. “Fair enough. We need a game plan though.”

Jaden raised his hand. “I think I can do something about the weapon problem actually. One second.”

Jaden rooted around in his deck, and came out with two cards. “First I play Battle Raiments!” The spiked armor from the fight against the panther creature appeared around Lois, who rolled her eyes.

“Do you have to call the cards out every time like this is some kind of dumb anime?” She asked sarcastically.

Jaden shrugged. “The point of the cards is that they help you visualize what you want to do, which makes the spell clearer. I could do it without calling it out, but the spell would be less efficient. I’m a fan of the Magigio anime, so it’s just part of the ritual for me.”

Lois rolled her eyes, but didn’t say anything else. Jaden held his next card up. “Now I play Legendary Sword.” He intoned dramatically. A gold-filigreed steel longsword appeared in front of Niko who eyed it critically.

“I don’t know how.” She said a moment later.

Jaden shrugged. “You decided to be a barbarian, and barbarian’s generally use swords. Do you want an axe instead? The deck I have on me right now is warrior-themed, so I should have one.

Niko shook her head. “I’ll use this.”

“If your deck is warrior themed, what was with the furball monster?” Lois interjected.

“It’s technically classed as a beast-warrior. Now, give me a second. I want to try something.”

Jaden had purposely only put fifteen mana into each of his equipment spells, leaving him with ten mana available. Rooting through his deck again, Jaden produced two land cards.

“I play Plains, and link it to the Legendary Sword!” He said. His dueling grid appeared for a moment, and began flickering as if afflicted with a computer virus for several seconds. Eventually, it regained its sense of solidity, and vanished again. A moment later, a pile of dirt fell from the sky, landing directly on Lois. Coughing and spluttering, she reflexively flipped Jaden off.

“What the hell Jaden?” She asked, remembering just in time not to scream in case she drew the attention of the nearby beast.

Jaden held up his hands in his best placating manner. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t specifically controlling where it would appear.”

Lois nearly impaled herself with the spikes from her armor before she realized she couldn’t effectively brush the dirt off. She beckoned to Niko, who was snickering in amusement. “Could you please help me with this?”

Niko suppressed her laughter as she moved to brush the dirt from her friend. “More importantly, why did you just summon a pile of dirt?”

“Well-” Jaden began, before being cut off by Clip’s nasally tone. “I see you’re covered in dirt. Do you want some help with that?”

“No thanks.” Lois said in irritation, before turning with a look of surprise to see the paperclip floating in the middle of the group.

“Seriously dude, you need to stop making that joke. It got old forever ago.” Jaden said, hostility evident in his tone of voice. Niko looked at Clip silently, an uncertain mix of emotions playing across her face.

“I see your sense of humor sucks, would you like some help with that?” Clip said exuberantly.

Jaden sighed. “Why are you here Clip? I assumed you couldn’t leave our world since we hadn’t seen you the last few days.”

“I’m here to bestow gifts actually. Congratulations, you’ve created another unique magic. As a result, someone has to adjust your title. Upgrading a title is a more significant achievement than earning it in the first place, so an arbiter may choose to come in person. It’s a ceremonial thing you understand.”

Before Jaden could respond, the clerk-like arbiter of the jungle world appeared. “Clip, I believe that honor is mine, not yours. You’ve been bound to another world shard, and it is my role to perform this task.”

“Oh come off it Erudeo. You know the language around this is incredibly vague. Technically it could be either their personal arbiter, or the local arbiter depending on interpretation.”

“And I’m here to claim my rights in this matter. Go home, you’re not welcome here.” The clerk-like figure stated coldly.

“Why are you always such a stuck up prick Erudeo? You wound me.” Clip replied in his obnoxious nasal voice.

“Do you know what wounded me? What you did to Rosaer. She didn’t deserve her fate.” Cold rage pierced the clerk’s icy expression for just a moment before being suppressed again.

Clip’s body lost cohesion for a moment as if melting, being scattered chaotically, and reforming again in the blink of an eye. When he spoke, the sarcastic, nasal voice had been replaced by the voice Jaden recognized from his avatar form. “That wasn’t my fault. You know I wasn’t there for that.”

“The fact that you weren’t there is exactly why I’m angry.” Erudeo replied with calm rage.

“You know what? You can have the mortal’s moment. I only wanted to stretch my legs anyway.” Clip said, wiggling the lower half of his paperclip body. A puff of red smoke manifested for a moment as he disappeared.

Erudeo sighed, and shook his head. “I’m sorry you had to see that. It’s an old story, and not one I want to get into right this second. Now, congratulations on your success." With a flash, he disappeared. Jaden felt bewildered as he stared into the air where Erudeo had been.

"So… that happened." Lois said a moment later.

Jaden shook his head. "Let's just go kill the cow thing."

Niko pumped her fist into the air with a relieved smile. "Steak!" She said excitedly.

Jaden nodded, happy to share in her enthusiasm.