“Have you checked your level and stats yet?” Jen asked Sam as they were breaking camp the next morning.

“Yes, I’ve made it to level 24. Did you and Tamako get any experience points from the battle?”

“Yes, the System included both of us as part of your group. Tamako reached level 21 and I reached level 22.”

Tamako replied, “At these levels we should be jumping to the Third Deck, not the Second.”

Jen replied mimicking Sam’s voice, “Slow is Fast, Fast is Slow”, “Slow and Steady Wins the Race”, “Hasty Climbers Have Sudden Falls”, “Less Haste More Speed”.

Instead of laughing as Jen expected, Tamako looked seriously at Sam and said, “Truly wise words.”

Sam laughed at Jen giving her the finger, “See!”

Then Tamako continued, “are the more surprising when said from the mouth of a child!”

“You two keep it up, I’ll get you back,” replied Sam laughing.

Tamako said, “I agree though, it is a good plan to be powerful before starting a fight.”

“Jen, did you see the shit-ton of ability points I won from the gambling quest on your escape!”

Tamako looked at Sam in horror, “You are using euphoria!”

Jen interjected, “Sam’s luck stat is so high that he gets some gambling quests that don’t include euphoria.”

“That’s what the luck stat does? Just how high is your luck stat?” Tamako asked.

“My luck stat is 32, but in addition to winning ability points without euphoria, the System sometimes offers other types of rewards.”

“What kind of rewards?”

“For me, the rewards help my enchanting skill.”

“But what about all the strength or agility you’ve lost by not putting those points in your stats,” replied Tamako.

“True, but I would never have received the ability points from gambling in the first place if I didn’t increase my luck stat, and we’ve learned ways to grow the other stats.”

Tamako replied, “I’ve already distributed my ability points from my level increase, but even so, I’m still not sure I would place them in the luck stat.”

“Each to their own,” replied Sam as he continued to clean up their camp site.

Sam loved how quickly you could pack up a camp using space rings, but he found it a little frustrating with only one arm. When he finished, he asked Jen, “What’s the plan?”

She replied, “We’re not returning to Casino City.”

Sam didn’t disagree with Jen’s decision, but asked “Why not?” out of curiosity.

“The New City Lord and all the guards think Tamako took off with part of the City Treasury. Additionally, I like the idea of everyone thinking we were either killed in the battle or killed by the retreating Roulette soldiers.”

“So where are we headed?”

“The remaining Roulette troops roaming the forest are heading back towards their territory. We are going the other direction towards Big Money, which is a small trading outpost about two weeks travel from our current location, and from there we are going to Rolling Dice, a port Deck-City about four weeks travel from Big Money.”

“What’s the general plan once we get there?”

“Rolling Dice is the closest city with an established Arc Guild, where we can decide if we want to use a guild’s service to jump to the next deck or wild jump from the untamed lands.”

Tamako just listened to Jen’s plan and nodded when she finished, and said, “I’m ready to go when you two are.”

Jen said, “Sam, you just keep healing yourself and be ready to heal us, keep up, and stay out of the way. Tamako, you and I are going to take care of everything else until the one-armed bandit over there recovers.”

“Ha! Good one Jen. You’re finally learning,” joked Sam.

“Oh my goodness, your terrible sense of humor is rubbing off!” groaned Jen.

The trip to Big Money was pretty uneventful. It took them a little longer than expected, but Sam was able to completely re-grow his arm by the time they arrived. “Good times!” Jen thought to herself as she wistfully remembered all the fun she had mocking Sam’s little T-rex arm as it grew to full size.

Jen and Sam spent quite a bit of time answering all of Tamako’s questions about Earth. Surprisingly, she was not too freaked out. Everyone had heard stories of those in the past that were transported from other worlds and into the Decks.

Jen struggled with teaching Tamako the psych ability. The concept of using an onboard computer in her mind was so strange and foreign to Tamako that she had very little natural aptitude in learning the skill, but it was paramount that she learned to at least suppress her level and stats. This also caused her to struggle with learning the messaging app that Sam and Jen used to communicate. Finally, the best Tamako could do, was envision a sound wave device in her status screen, and this allowed her to message Jen and Sam mentally.