As the teleportation rainbow and fireworks fell on Jen, she received a System Message:

System Message:

ALERT - mana cat has been identified as a member of your party. The storage of personal items by your mana cat violates the terms and conditions of the Oracle Deck Quest.

Option A: The System will store all the personal items being carried by your mana cat until you return from the Oracle Deck. If you do not return from the Oracle Deck within six months, the personal items will be forfeited to the System Shop.

Option B: The System will not teleport your mana cat to the Oracle Deck, and none of its stored personal items will be removed - default option.

You have 5 seconds to make a selection. If no selection is made, the default option will be selected for you.

Jen immediately selected option A as she thought, Damnit!! Slim's going to be pissed, and where in the hell are these terms and conditions?!

Jen's thoughts soon came to a halt as the mana was ripped out of her, and she found herself lying on the ground dry heaving.

****

Tamako was sick from the teleport, but still on her feet, and she moved to place her naked self between the manic Pudding, who was on his knees screaming, while gripping the stick he'd filled with mana. Tamako similarly started to draw the mana from the stick she was carrying, but even with their mana sticks in their hands, the rest of her party was still lying on the ground, vulnerable from the mana drain caused by the jump. That’s when she noticed the growling noises coming from the woods around her.

Pudding turned towards the growling noises, vomited, brought himself to his feet, and screamed, “Come and get me!”

Pudding leaped towards the first wolf-roach that moved into the clearing, baiting it with his left forearm. The beast was the size of a small dog, and it's head looked like that of a typical wolf, but it's back was a brown shell like that of a roach, and it's feet allowed it to swarm up and down trees with ease. As the wolf-roach charged and sank its fangs into his arm, Pudding ignored the pain as he twisted with the wolves lunge to try and pull it off balance. He then jabbed the thumb of his other hand deep into the wolf-roach's eye.

The wolf let go of Pudding and dropped to the ground dead, but Pudding stuck his thumb into his mouth swallowing the brain gore, then screamed, “You now be mine! Attack!”

The wolf-roach rose from the ground with its gored-out eye and charged the other wolf-roaches that were leaving the tree line and starting to swarm towards towards him. Pudding spared a glance towards the others and saw Tamako using a large branch to fend them away from Sam and Jen.

Pudding knew Tamako would be overwhelmed and unable to defend Sam, Jen, and Slim, who were still lying on the ground mostly defenseless. He ordered his twig-mover stick minions to quit protecting him and intercept any of the wolf-roaches going after the others. Another of the wolf-roaches was already snapping one of his stick minions with its jaws, and Pudding grabbed the wolf-roach by its ear and similarly killed it by jabbing a thumb deep into one of its eyes. He again swallowed the gore from his thumb and took control of the dead beast, but sent this one off to defend the others.

Sam was initially too sick to physically join the fight, but he was functioning enough to absorb the mana from his mana stick. He spit the storage rings out of his mouth while rising to his knees, he then weakly swung his stick at the beasts that were trying to get past Pudding's stick creatures. Sam then called out, “Pudding, get over here, circle up and help create a defensible perimeter.”

Pudding was screaming manically as he was bashing and smashing at one of the wolf-roaches that was latched onto his legs with its' teeth, but Jee had recovered enough from the teleport to direct Pudding to follow Sam’s directions. Pudding shuffled over to form a small circle with Tamako and Sam with the wolf-roach still ripping at his leg as he tried to get a grip on it and attempt to jam a thumb into its brain matter. Tamako saw him struggling, and stomped down on the beast's back smashing it like... well a bug.

Pudding swore, "Damnit! It's no good to me now."

Tamako ignored Pudding's rantings as she continued to stomp, punch, and kick the wolf-roaches back. She knew she was losing too much blood from the multiple bites on her arms and legs, then she felt the healing spell wash over her.

*****

Jen's body was weak. She had a guess, but didn't really understand why her and Slim's teleportation sickness was so much worse than the others. However, while still lying on the ground, as soon as her body generated enough mana, she started casting weak healing spells on the others. Her spells were weak and slow to cast without her healing tattoo, but they would stop the bleeding and partially strengthen the fractured or shattered bones the others had sustained from the beasts.

Jen couldn't see very well from her position on the ground, but she noticed there were now three or four of the beasts defending them instead of attacking.

****

Pudding swallowed the gore from the fifth wolf-roach’s brain, and screamed, “Now mine you be! Attack!” The dead wolf-roach rose from the ground, and with his other dead zombie wolf-roaches, they relentlessly attacked the rest of their former pack. The remaining wolf-roaches were hesitating, and looked like they were about to run.

Pudding screamed, “Hurry! Kill dem, no let dem escape!” as he raced forward and jumped on the back of a wolf-roach that had started to turn and run.

Sam wanted to let them scatter, but before he could command everyone to form back up, Tamako also dashed forward killing another, and then the rest ran off into the woods.

Jee jumped out in front of Pudding clearly giving him commands. Sam was disgusted as he watched Pudding thumb-jab the beat's eye and swallow its brain-gore.

Pudding then commanded the zombie wolf-roaches, “You all be mine! Guard and protect your master!” The wolf-roaches formed a perimeter around the group, facing outward in a defensive posture.

Jee ran over to Jen waiving at her emphatically. Jen was still coming out of her mana sickness, but she assessed Jee's actions and the situation in a glance and commanded, “Golem Mage, 3,2,1, sit and meditate!”

Pudding immediately responded to the hypnotic trigger Jen had planted in his mind, and sat down on the ground meditating. Jee then ran back over and sat with Pudding watching over him.

Sam started to cast some healing spells, when Jen said, “Sam, save your mana and be prepared for a lightning attack if needed. I am much better at casting healing spells than you.”

Sam noticed Slim stirring and getting to his feet. As he moved to ruffle his fur, Slim hissed and ran off into the forest. Sam looked at Jen and asked, "What's wrong with Slim?!"

Jen quickly explained The System Message she received and that Slim was furious at her for allowing The System to take his stuff. Sam was pissed at Slim's treatment of Jen, but there was nothing he could do about it at the moment, so he just buried his frustration.

*****

While Jen spent the next few hours healing everyone back to full health, Sam had said to Jen, “Wow, how did you have enough mana regeneration to perform those healing spells so quickly after the teleportation, when we were under attack?" Sam and Tamako had used the stored mana from the sticks just so their body's would function.

Jen shook her head weakly saying, “I used my mana manipulation ability to direct the mana away from my body functions and into my healing spells instead. As a result my body's mana is out of balance, and it's going to be a while before I recover fully."

Sam frowned with confusion, and replied, "I still don't get it. Why was Tamako and Pudding able to recover more quickly than me?"

Jen closed her eyes to rest as she answered, "I've got some guesses, but man there are so, so many things I don't get about The System and these Decks, and why they work the way they do. Maybe some day we'll know more, but until then, we've just got to keep muddling through it." Jen then said to the group, "By the way, have you noticed? Look at your mana signatures. The concrete virus is gone."

Tamako tiredly replied with some cheer, "Hell yea! Finally!"

Sam grunted an acknowledgement to Jen's comments, and looked around at the blood-covered naked group, he couldn’t help but think, "This is one freaking weird world we’ve been dumped into!" He shook his head to bring his focus back to what needed to be done and called out, “Tamako, you’re in charge until Jen gets back to 100%.”

Tamako rolled her eyes at him, but took control and replied, “We’re staying here until everyone’s recovered. The noise and blood may attract more predators, but this open area around the transfer pad will allow us to maintain a perimeter. Plus, a large pack of beasts like that, I’m guessing they are the alpha predators in this area.”

Tamako then continued to snap limbs off nearby trees breaking them in a way to create sharp ends. She stacked these hillbilly spears in the middle with some throwing rocks she was also collecting.

Sam was hoping his mana would have time to charge back up before they were needed again. He then searched around for the storage rings, and found that they were not infected by the concrete virus, but they were still crusted over with concrete. He announced to everyone, "The storage rings are still useless from the concrete, but as soon as possible, I'll see if there is anything I can do to get access to their storage spaces."

*****

It was cold, and they had no protection from the elements. Sam started gathering wood and digging a Dakota fire pit with his bare hands and one of the hillbilly spears Tamako had created. He then used just a touch of lightning to start the fire.

By the time the fire was going, Jen was much better off. Sam asked Jen, “I know we talked about this earlier, but there must be some rational reason. We have similar stats, why is your physical recovery so much slower than mine?’

Jen replied, “I wondered the same thing when we arrived on the Second Deck. My guess is that its a result of my link with Slim. His connection with mana is significant, which slows down our recovery. Slim still isn’t recovered as much as me. I think... the greater the mana connection, the longer the recovery. I believe this is probably why that Deathless brute was the first one to track Pudding down. I’ve been thinking that his regeneration was a result of spells that had permanently changed how his physical body actually worked, and not the result of him constantly using mana to cast regeneration spells during our fight with him. I'm purely guessing here, but I think it's different, but similar, to the body enchantment tattoos we use. His body needed mana to regenerate, but it seemed more like a part of his permanent body that would charge up each time after we temporarily killed him, rather than a part of his mana channels or pool that would then cast a regeneration spell on himself, so like Pudding's mana sticks, his strength and regeneration would not get drained of mana in a teleportation, only what little mana he had in his mana channels would probably be drained by a teleportation.

Jen watched as Sam’s eyes widened and the gears in his head started turning at a thousand mile an hour, and she said, “Earth to Sam, well not Earth, but stay focused. What the heck happened when we first dropped here and those zombie beasts?”

Sam looked over at Pudding and shrugged as he answered Jen, “Pudding called them wolf-roaches. They attacked, and Pudding went all Zombie master on them while defending us with his twig minions. You’re going to need to talk to him to find out what the hell is up with the zombie wolf-roaches.”

Jen then moved around to the other side of the fire pit to sit next to Pudding as he meditated, and she said to Sam, “let’s hope his mental state didn't relapse too much from the stress of the teleportation and battle.”