A golden pulse of light flashed over Bertha, rocking the truck sideways.

Mana integration complete. Soulbound Modular Vehicle ‘Bertha’ has been integrated with the following features and abilities:

Class upgrade required to proceed.

“Woah.” Babu said. “I’m guessing it worked?”

Jill nodded. “Yup and...” She said, her eyes fixed on Bertha’s windshield. Tiny pops and pings sounded as the glass began slowly fusing together, reforming into its original state. “Hell yeah! She’s fixing herself.” Jill grinned and punched Ras hard on the shoulder in thanks. “Nice save.”

The punch didn’t seem to hurt at all and the swordsman gave a satisfied nod, but didn’t reply.

“We’re back in business boys! Let's get the fuck out of here,” Jill said, putting words to action and swinging herself up to the cab with renewed vigor.

There was a bit of awkwardness as the brothers climbed over her to get in instead of just going around to the other side, but Jill didn’t care. She was too engrossed in the changes that were happening to her truck. Mostly, they were repairs. Small dents and dings from decades of hard use, grime and stains that resisted her cleaning efforts, they all faded away. The leather seats were plush and perfect, no hint of the gore Jill must have ground into it over the course of the night remaining. The steering wheel was unmarred, the patches of bare metal that her hands had etched over the years gone, but replaced by indentations that fit her grip perfectly. Even the air was fresh and clean, like new-truck-smell only better. Jill twisted around to look at the tiny living area behind the seats. The bed stretching the width of the cab had been adequate enough before, but now it looked positively inviting.

“Shotgun!” Babu called out, slipping past Ras and claiming the passenger seat for himself.

Ras looked around awkwardly and gestured at the bed. “Would it be ok if I…” he trailed off, face flushing and his gaze not meeting Jill’s eyes.

“Where else are you going to sit?” Jill replied.

Babu started gleefully taunting Ras over his ‘innocent maidenhood’ but Jill wasn’t paying attention. Bertha’s cosmetic repairs were one thing, but actually running was something else. She reached for the ignition but froze when she didn’t find a keyhole. Instead there was a covered switch with a simple ‘On’ and ‘Off’ written under the label ‘Mana Engine’. No option to turn on the glow plugs or block heater at all. She wondered if they were even there and if the truck even ran on diesel anymore.

“Huh,” Jill said, looking over the dashboard for more changes. The speedometer was still there, but everything else was either gone or different. The gearshift had no gears marked on it anymore, instead just having ‘Forward’, ‘Neutral’, ‘Reverse’, and ‘Park’. The fuel indicator looked much the same except it was now labelled ‘Mana Reserve’, and while nearly empty it was noticeably rising by the second. Where the tachometer had been was a gauge labelled ‘Mana Consumption’, its needle bouncing just off of the zero point, each bounce coinciding with the sound of a metallic ping announcing Bertha’s repair of some other bit of body damage. On the consumption gauge was an additional needle labelled ‘Mana Regeneration’ hovering about halfway through the gauge’s range.

Jill lifted up the cover of the engine switch and flipped it to ‘On’. The mana consumption needle immediately rose, but was still far below regeneration. Instead of the usual growling rumble of a big diesel engine, Jill could feel a slight, but powerful, deep bass hum in her bones. The quiet would certainly make talking easier, even if she would miss the old familiar sounds. She pressed down on the accelerator gently and the truck eased seamlessly forward, the smooth acceleration reminding her of that of an electric car. Ras and Babu stopped their arguing as she picked up speed, levelling off at eighty miles per hour.

“Fuck yeah!” Jill said. “Look at that!” She pointed at the mana consumption, which was sitting moderately below regeneration. “We’re at speed and the tank’s still filling up. Hell, other than switching driver’s we’ll never need to stop! ” She winked at Babu. “It's not magic, but I could get used to this System shit.”

“Everything is labelled ‘Mana’,” Babu said. “It's definitely magic, dont’cha know. Now,” he shifted his weight forward, excitement in his eyes, “you have got to tell me what Class Powers this gave you! Ras wouldn’t tell me.”

“It's personal.” Ras said. Jill glanced back and saw that he had stretched out on the bed and had his eyes closed.

“It can’t be that personal, you just don’t want to share your toys.”

“Boys!” Jill said, interrupting what she could tell was going to be another spat. She normally wouldn’t care, but she actually wanted to find something out. “I’ve been meaning to ask you two: how did you get your Classes? The boxes keep telling me I need to upgrade mine.”

“I looked through the list right after the System integrated,” Ras said. “A box listed the different ones I could pick, and Swordsman looked like the best one. All the rest were Basic instead of Common. After I bound my kirpan the class changed to Bound Swordsman and my Spirit gain per level increased by 1. ”

“That puts him at just under Uncommon classes for total stat gain, at least I think so,” Babu said. “I picked right at integration too but got offered Enchanter, which is Uncommon. I had to spend my Perk Point on it but” he shrugged “it seemed worth it to get magic. Did you, uhh, not read your list?”

“I was driving.”

“Yeah, Ras was too,” Babu said. “So?”

“Jesus’ taint, your fucking generation,” Jill said. “Those boxes are worse than goddamn texting, popping up right in the middle of everything. No wonder you crashed into a tree.”

“The truck died first!”

“Suuuuure,” Jill said, drawing the word out. She did believe Babu, and the man hadn’t even been the one driving at the time, but he was surprisingly fun to tease. She could see why Ras did it so much.

“So you don’t have a Class yet?” Ras asked. “I can drive to let you read through everything, but you should really get one. The stat gains alone, well. They’re worth it.”

Jill hesitated. Driving a big rig wasn’t as easy as people thought it was, especially when monsters might pop out at any moment and try to eat your bumper. Then again, Bertha was handling smoother than ever now that she ran on Mana, and there weren’t any gears to worry about at all. Plus, as long as they survived a crash, the truck would fix itself.

Babu nodded. “You definitely should. And tell me what your stat gains end up being! I’ve tried to ask the System for more details but it only gives basic info, nothing to plan a build around.”

“Alright then,” Jill said. She brought Bertha to a smooth stop. Ras came forward to take the driver’s seat, and Jill looked meaningfully at Babu, then at the bed.

“I called shotgun though,” he said, but quailled under Jill’s unimpressed look and gave up the seat to her.

“Ok, crash course,” Jill said to Ras. “Don’t fucking crash. If something smaller than an elephant steps in front of the truck hit the brakes, but don’t you dare swerve out of the way or we could jackknife. I have no idea how fast the old girl can go now but eighty seemed safe. Got it?”

“Got it.”

“Ok,” Jill said. She took a big breath in, then let it out in a rush. “System! Show me my Classes!”