Steven became very frustrated at the alphabet exercise very quickly. He found that he had no problem saying the letters in order, as it is something he has been doing since childhood, but he didn’t even know the alphabet backwards well enough to write it. He decided he would become proficient in writing his alphabet backwards before trying to add saying the letters at the same time.

He sighed. Even writing the letters taxed his focus.

“You ready yet?” He asked Garth with a little more annoyance in his voice than he intended. “Sorry, I have a bit of pent up aggression I need to release.”

“Not a problem,” replied Garth as he placed his dishes from his meal onto the magic elevator counter. “I’ve been in your shoes before. Just keep at it. Yes, where was it you wanted to go first?”

“Do you mind?” Steven asked as he held out the paper and pencil to Garth, who shook his head. He stashed the writing supplies in his pouch, intending to continue to practice when he had a chance. “Thanks. I want a magitab. I’ve seen some other people carrying them around. We had things like that on Earth, before I died. I just don’t know where to get one.”

“You had those?”

“Yeah, they weren’t magic though. They used the internet.”

“The internet? Is that like ARPANET?” Garth asked, as the men walked out the door.

“Yeah, but bigger. Global. Where are we headed?” Steven asked while he opened his contacts page and accepted a party invite from Garth.

“There’s a small shopping arcade nearby the Sarenton Estate that sells the magitabs.” Garth said when he tapped on the Red Eye just outside the room door. “There’s also other useful shops there, and you can buy or sell goods.”

“Oh! Hang on then.” Steven went back into his room and fed the axe into his pouch. He came back out and nodded at Garth.

The two men materialized in front of the Sarenton compound, and began to walk down the road. The short trip allowed Steven a chance to take in the scenery.

The area looked much nicer and more busy than the streets he walked down when going to the church to find Garth. All the buildings were the same grey stone as everything else, but a few of them had some colorful decorations adorning the outside. One house even looked like it had a shag carpet hanging out of the window, and the house next to it had a small flower bed near the door with a few garden gnomes hanging out protecting the flowers. Steven noticed that not a single house had paint on it though, and upon asking Garth about it he learned that the stone building’s magic would just eliminate the paint after a short while.

They walked down the stone road for a short while in silence. Soon the smells of grilled meat and baked goods permeated the air. Steven just ate, but the combination of the smells and some exotic spices he couldn’t place made his mouth water.

They had arrived in the small shopping area and passed under an arched sign over the road that named the place Blitzer’s Arcade. Just to the right underneath the sign was a Red Eye. Steven walked up to it and activated the transportation node.

He dismissed the notification telling him he can teleport to the node and asked, “Why didn’t we just teleport here?”

“I needed the walk to wake me up a bit. The longer you’re in the dungeon, the less sleep you need, but fatigue still sets in eventually,” Garth answered.

Steven looked around at the buildings. Each one had a sign out front with the name of the store. There was a florist, equipment vendor, general goods store, and a bakery just within the first few buildings of the strip mall. He wondered where the shop was that sold the magitabs.

“There’s an accessory shop a little further down that sells the magitabs,” Garth said, as if he heard Steven’s thoughts. “I have no real business here, so I’ll probably browse nearby until you’re done.”

Steven wandered off down the road. He peered in the window of the equipment shop as he walked by and saw shelves lining the walls covered with different types of weapons and armor. He heard the clang of a blacksmith out back as he moved past the building.

The accessory shop was just three buildings down, in between a barber and a tailor. The barber shop even had the spiral striped pole out front. It was strange that the dungeon was so similar to Earth. Though after thinking about it for a second, he realized that as people died and were brought here, they most likely brought some of their culture and advancements that Earth had enjoyed. It would explain why there was a tablet, probably the person who died and reinvented it in the dungeon was filthy rich.

He heard a small bell ring when he entered the front door of the accessory shop. The store wasn’t what he had expected. When he thought of accessories, he figured it would be magical rings and bracelets. It turned out that was only half true. There were shelves stocked with purses and canes. A rack near the door held ties of all styles and colors. Near the counter where an attendant stood waiting, there was a case that had jewelry.

As he walked to the back of the room with the counter and attendant, he peered down the short isles which held random odds and ends that included ones he couldn’t identify. He saw a plethora of belts, shoes, watches, and even a couple of pouches similar to his own.

“Can I help you, Mr?” the attendant asked.

“Steven,” he said as he inspected the case which held the jewelry. Some of the items had gems and stones that gave off a smoke-like aura in differing colors.

“Mr. Steven, what can I do for you?”

“No, just Steven. Uh, I’m still kind of new here, and I’ve seen people walking around with some magitab things. I was hoping to get one here. It would be a great distraction to keep me occupied after floors,” he said.

“Certainly sir, which would you like? We have many different models with multiple functions.” The attendant reached behind an opaque case and started to pull out several magitabs. “I have heard that on the homeworld these devices run off of a special type of magic that can transfer information through the air. Unfortunately we do not have that capability, and so each magitab has functions built in and cannot be changed without a Tinkerer at least. Currently we have an entertainment magitab, a professional magitab, and a multipurpose magitab. The entertainment selection is my personal favorite.”

Steven wanted the magitab for entertainment purposes, but he knew from experience that a tablet could be an asset as well as enjoyment. Since there would be no downloading applications, he asked, “What does the multipurpose do?”

“Ah yes. It has a selection of games for entertainment, but it lacks music. Instead, the spell space for musical storage was changed for functions such as note taking, photograph recording, calculator, and measuring device. However, it still holds a library for entertainment purposes, but the library also includes texts that contain knowledge useful to most trades. And it comes with a special pencil.” He pulled a thin pencil shaped stick out of the back of the magitab and looked incredibly pleased with himself.

“We called the pencils styluses on Earth,” said Steven. “How much does it cost?”

“And it comes with a styluses,” the attendant said, flourishing the stylus again. He frowned a bit, “It doesn’t really sound right.”

“Stylus. Singular.”

“Ah, Stylus. The multipurpose magitab cost 8,000 mana, and we are now required to tax twenty five percent for the Emperor. Your total will be 10,000 mana. Would you like to purchase our in store reparation insurance? If your item becomes damaged we will repair it in store. The magic will eventually slow down throughout the item's life, and the insurance will also be used to offset the cost to send it to a Tinkerer for another spell.”

“No, thanks,” said Steven. The cost was high, and he luckily had enough mana to cover it thanks to the floor with the ants. He would soon be replenishing his mana anyway, so he held out his hand and the attendant scanned his implant with the metal detector looking thing that took his mana. Steven waited as the attendant packaged up the magitab in a box and handed it to him.

“Thank you for your patronage, and come back again.”

Steven waved as he exited the store and walked back down the road in the direction he came from. He stored the box in his pouch, and walked into the equipment shop.

It had no isles with shelves, unlike the accessory store, but instead had weapons and armor hanging from the walls. He browsed through the different kinds of swords as he walked to the back of the store where a small desk sat empty in front of a doorway and stood for several minutes until he heard a gruff voice come through the opening.

“I’ll be wit cha en a moment.”

Steven wondered how the person knew he was here, as there was no bell at the door or on the desk to ring for help. A minute passed and a burly man wearing a leather apron came through the doorway to stand behind the desk. Steven was expecting a sort of lumberjack bearded shopkeeper, but the man was bald and clean shaven. The Mr. Clean look alike stared at Steven.

Steven took the cue, “Do you buy equipment, or just sell?”

“Aye, we buy.” The man replied, and looked Steven up and down, “Ye got one too heavy for ya?”

“Well, yeah, but that's not why I’m selling it. Plus I’m stronger now anyway.” Steven was a bit flustered, but the shopkeep chuckled and grinned at him. He grabbed the handle of the axe and withdrew it from his pouch to offer it to the man.

The man’s eyes turned yellow and he inspected the item for a moment.

“Base iron, magically structured. Low level. No enchantments. Good for beginners. I’ll give ya 200 mana for it,” he told Steven.

Steven was fine with that price, but he had another item he wanted gone too. “300 mana and I throw in the leg of the minotaur that wielded it.”

“Aye,” the man agreed without hesitation. He pulled out a metal detector device and waved it over his implant. Steven watched as a mana bead popped out and the man easily flipped his hand to catch it to hand it over.

Steven took the bead and immediately pressed it into his own implant, feeling a bit embarrassed. It reminded him of his first encounter with a bead. He thanked the equipment shop worker and left the building to walk back to the Red Eye. He couldn’t wait to finish up everything he had planned and go back to his room to check out the magitab.

He heard shouts and angry voices long before he saw where they originated, and he picked up his pace a bit when he remembered that Garth had been blacklisted from Sarenton services. It was a safe assumption that all these shops and buildings were either owned or sponsored by the Sarenton family. The sounds seemed to come from an alleyway between the florist and baker, which was confirmed by the crowd that gathered around the entrance.

Steven walked up to the crowd as watched down the alley.

“What’s going on?” He asked a woman, who was leaned over to whisper something to the person next to her.

“Bunch of mana hunters showed up, and were assaulting this guy. Like. Torturing him, instead of killing him and taking the mana. I sent my boy to fetch the guards, but they haven’t shown up yet. A black mage just walked back there,” she told him. “I wish I was in front. I can’t see what’s happening!”

Steven had no idea what a mana hunter was, but it sounded like the black mage went to intervene. He had a very good idea who that could be.

And Garth was likely outnumbered. He was a support class, but it seemed like he needed the support now.

Steven groaned. “Why are there always fights at the mall?”