Sam handed Jen the two rings of holding he received from the two bandits, “These space rings have all the loot we just received. I took a quick look, but there was so much shit in the big bandits ring, I just figured I would let your inventory dealio take care of it.”

Jen rolled her eyes at Sam, “Hey Boomer, they are called rings of holding, not space rings!”

At that moment, Jen saw Sam’s shit-eating grin, and she knew she had taken the bait. Now that he knew it annoyed her, he would intentionally call them space rings or some other weird name. “You’re a pain in the ass, old man,” she replied at his grinning face.

Jen could also tell Sam was about to pass out from exhaustion. “Eat and sleep. I will wake you when I get too tired for watch….Wait! Let me look at you for a second.” She used her psych skill to read his new level, but she also pushed her mana to flood what she imagined his onboard looked like, focusing on unlocking his stat sheet. It took her a minute, but she was eventually able to draw out his ability points. Jen gasped with the exertion and with the ensuing headache but was rewarded with a level-up message.

She had been pushing her psych power all day, and the level ups were driving her like a drug to continue to improve, but now she needed to start filling her mana pool back up.

==

Psych Power – Level up

Novice – level 10

==

Jen said to Sam, “My psych skill showed me that you are at level 8 and very close to level 9. I can also see that you gambled 3 ability points on that quest.”

“That’s right!” Sam said surprised at how much she could see.

“You also have 9 ability points from the quest and 8 ability points from leveling to distribute. I think since we worked together taking down the bandits, we split the experience points, because I received the same amount of experience points and levels as you.”

Sam looked at her and said, “You’re getting pretty impressive with that psych power.”

Jen inwardly smiled; she ate up the praise that Sam and Kelly always gave her. Jen’s family had always been cruel and belittled everything she accomplished. She would do anything for Sam and Kelly, because she knew in her soul, if the tables were turned, they would be risking the Seven Decks to get her back.

“OK, old man, eat while I talk. I got the impression from overhearing those slaves that everyone in the First Deck is focused on strength and stamina. It’s the Cro-Magnon level of the Decks: ‘Me big and strong; I break you with my bare hands.” Jen mocked and went on to explain her reasoning. “We can’t compete with the fighters here, because even though we could use our ability points to match their strength and stamina, we would not be able to raise our skill level in fighting to match theirs.”

Jen continued to talk as she cleaned and reloaded her assault rifle in preparation for them heading to Casino City. “The reason we are not dead right now is because we ambushed the bandits with our rifles, and they had no time to prepare a defense. There are three problems with relying on our guns for our offensive power: 1) We need to hide the fact that we have rifles and pistols and only use them as a last resort. 2) We will eventually run out of ammo; and 3) At higher levels, I’m not sure if our bullets will even take them down.”

Jen paused to take a breath, and to see if Sam had any comments before she continued. Sam simply nodded his head as he ate.

Jen could tell he was tired, but in case there was an emergency, she wanted him to distribute his ability points before he went to sleep. Jen continued, “To summarize, we are going to change the game from one of strength against strength and make it a contest of strength against agility. I’m fine if you want to do something different, but I am going to put 8 of my points in agility, 2 in mana, 3 in mana regeneration, and 2 in stamina.”

Sam mumbled sleepily, “Ditto. Works for me, Boss.”

As Sam was about close his eyes, he saw Jen glowing and quivering. He jumped up and rushed to her side, but Jen waved him off saying, “It’s Ok. Just give me a second.”

“What happened, what going on?”

“I’m feeling pure euphoria! It started when I accepted the gambling-quest reward ability points. I mean…Wow!”

Jen continued to glow for a few minutes, but then looked worried as she shuttered, “I’m craving more of that euphoria. Ohh shit…It’s addictive. I mean it’s more addicting than the drugs that shit-bag in my dorm laced the free donuts with one time! I didn’t really even pay attention to the part of the quest that mentioned the euphoria.”

Sam was worried and shocked that The System had included some kind of addictive euphoria with their quest ability points, and he said, “Should I refuse the quest rewards?”

Jen looked very nervous before answering. “If I could steal your euphoria and ability points right now, I might do it, but the urge is starting to lessen a little. We really need to take advantage of those ability points for our survival. It’s up to you, but I think with your discipline, coupled with the fact that there are no other immediately available gambling quest points right now, you should be OK.”

About 10 minutes later, after Sam got control of himself, he said, “Ditto, that is some seriously dangerous shit!”