One more Qek remained, so Erin dismissed the loot display that had popped up and focused. The beast-man whirled on the spot, bright yellow eyes narrowing as he spotted her atop of the hill. It roared a threat at her, full of rage and hate and Erin began to have doubts about her decision to launch an attack.

No going back now.

As the sole survivor went down on all fours, and loped toward her, it became apparent what their unusually long arms were for. Erin took an involuntary step back in surprise at the speed, and almost fumbled the fresh fireball she had conjured. She only just managed to hold the magic together as the monster bore down on her.

Fwip! fire launched from her palm and streaked down the hillside. With unexpected agility, the monster juked to one side and left the fireball to hiss harmlessly into the snow.

“Shit!” Erin screamed in panic while she gathered the magic for another. As the third fireball in less than ten seconds fwooshed! To life in her hand, Erin was glad she’d selected the Mind slot for this first spell. Still, fatigue was creeping in as she churned out magical attacks. She leveled her arm once more, preparing to strike, but the monster was upon her.

It slashed at her with one clawed hand, and she stumbled back as droplets of her blood arced through the air. Pain lanced through her leg and it took everything she had not to fall into the snow. Even standing upright, Qek were considerably shorter than a person. Once down on all fours its face was at roughly the height of her knees.

[Kick it.]

Lisa chimed in and Erin moved without thinking. Still off-balance from its swipe her boot caught it square in the muzzle. The creature slid backward through the snow howling in pain as Erin blinked in surprise. She knew she had not kicked the thing hard enough to throw it back, and yet…

[Kill it now.]

Erin couldn’t help but agree, so she leveled her fireball at the monster reeling from the blow to its delicate nose and let it fly. Even distracted the Qek was fast. It moved its face out of the line of fire and took the spell on its chest and shoulder, Flames spraying over the front of it's body. Embers smoldered in its fur and the forest filled with its cries of pain and rage. Without thinking, Erin leaped forward to meet it before its next charge could build up momentum.

She landed atop the monster and pinned it face down. The Qek fought violently to throw her off, wriggling its body as its claws sent snow flying everywhere in a mad scramble for purchase. Erin barely maintained her position as she conjured another fireball in her hand. The effort of willing the magic into being made her dizzy, and it was clear she was hitting some sort of limit. Aiming it at the creature's head, and releasing the spell. Thankfully, with the Qek pinned she was able to finish it off with the last fireball.

It was at this moment, however, that she discovered she was not fireproof. Heat rolled off the spell at impact, and she fell backward in her haste to get away from it. The Qek gave one loud cry of pain as its head burned before collapsing into the snow, and growing still.

[You have slain: Qek Scavenger, would you like to loot?]

Erin held her hands up in front of her face as she lay on her back in the snow. They were pink and shiny from the heat. As she tried to catch her breath, the wave of adrenaline passed and the return of the pain in her leg reminded her that she had more than one injury.

“Ahhh…” she groaned as she pushed herself into a sitting position so she could inspect her leg. A long, shallow gash ran at an angle along her thigh. The bleeding had already slowed, but not before it had run freely down her leg, turning her clothing into a mess. She shook her head, and then pushed herself back onto her feet. Pain shot through the leg, but it wasn’t unbearable.

[You suffered some surface damage. Luckily the muscle is intact.]

Lisa informed her once she was vertical again.

“What about my hands?” Erin asked, looking them over again.

[First-degree burns, but you should be more careful. You have seen the kind of damage your spell is capable of. You should collect your loot.]

At Lisa’s reminder, Erin nodded.

“Yes.” She said, finally answering the prompt. Once more a display of light, like her character sheet appeared before her eyes. This time, however, she didn’t dismiss it.

Qek Scavenger Loot 1 of 2 Default:

8 Copper Maefars, 2lbs of Qek meat Equipment: Select this option to discover loot

Erin's eyes scanned the display, and she frowned. She’d never seen a loot system like this before.

“What’s all this about?” she asked as her hand made a general indication of her display. Erin made her way over to a tree so she could lean against it, while Lisa filled her in.

[Every monster you kill will provide you with a base amount of loot. This is the default. The coin and meat are yours regardless of the choice you make in this case.]

“But the only choice is the equipment?” Erin questioned, “What’s the point in that?”

[In this instance, yes. It is the only choice, but that will not always be the case, and rejecting your loot is always an option. That is why it gives you a choice even if there is only one selection.]

“Why would anyone say no to loot?”

[I’m sure I don’t know, but the option is there.]

Erin shrugged, made the only available choice, and selected ‘Equipment’.

[You have selected: Equipment.]

Lisa's voice informed her unnecessarily. The corpse of the Qek before her began to glow with a blue light that grew brighter and brighter until its form was lost to sight. Then, it was gone. The light, the body, all that remained was a small pile of goods where its corpse had been.

Erin dismissed her display as she approached the stuff on the ground. After a moment or two of awkward maneuvering thanks to her injury, she managed to kneel. The first thing she picked up was what seemed to be a small metal token in roughly the shape of a square. She turned it over in her hands as her eyes tried to make sense of the symbols and patterns that covered the small bronze pendant.

[That is an inventory item.]

Lisa informed her, and Erin raised an eyebrow at the hunk of metal.

“How does that work?”

[It’s magic]

She said with a hint of a smirk in her tone before carrying on.

[It’s already attuned to your soul. So long as it’s on your person, you’ll be able to access anything stored within through me.]

As she finished speaking, another display screen appeared, this time showing an empty grid with the word “Bronze Inventory” at the top.

Erin reached out and grabbed the small pouch that contained the copper she’d looted and experimentally willed it into her inventory. On the grid screen before her, she saw the pouch show up in the first column of the first row. She pulled it back out again, the pouch appearing in her hand.

“Well that’s surreal,” she said quietly, “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to magic.”

[You should store away the meat as well. The medallion will stick to your person anywhere you wish it to go, and others will find it very difficult to remove.]

Erin grimaced as she picked up the lump of meat in her gloved hands and willed it into her inventory, where an icon representing it appeared in the second square. Then, she touched the small bronze square to her hip where it clung to her unsupported.

“Isn’t it kind of convenient that I’d get a way to store items off the very first thing I loot?” She asked as she began to make her unsteady way down the hill, towards the first Qek she had killed.

[The System is not usually arbitrary. I think you will find most rewards will make sense for the situation you’re in or with regards to how they were obtained.]

As Erin reached the corpse, she wrinkled her nose. The creatures smelled pretty bad while they were alive, and being burnt to death had not improved the situation.

Qek Scavenger Loot 2 of 2 Default: 12 Copper Maefars, 2lbs of Qek meat Equipment: Select this option to discover loot. Rune Augment: Select this option to discover loot.

Erin read the lines over twice before she asked the obvious question.

“What’s a Rune Augment exactly?” She was certain that Lisa had mentioned them before, but since her death, reality had been chaos beyond the limits of sanity, and she was having trouble remembering all the details.

[An augmentation rune is used to modify the properties of a spell. You’ll notice every spell slot has two spots for augmentation.]

At this, Erin called up her character sheet, just to confirm.

Name: Erin Young

Class: Unranked Mage

Tier 2

Soul: Normal

Mind: Bronze

Body: Normal

Spell Slot (Soul):

Aug 1

Aug 2

Spell Slot (Mind:) Fireball (Bronze: Rank 1 (4%)

Aug 1:

Aug 2:

Spell Slot (Body):

Aug 1:

Aug 2:

Spell Slot (Special):

Aug 1:

Aug 2:

Boons:

Liaison

(Unknown)

(Unknown)

(Unknown)

(Unknown)

Equipment:

Inventory Item: Bronze Medallion

Artifacts:

Slot 1: Empty

Slot 2: Empty

Slot 3: Empty

Slot 4: Empty

The red-haired woman chewed on her lip as she considered her options. Uncertainty nagging at every corner of her mind. There was simply too much she didn’t know about magic or this world, there was no way to know if she was making a mistake or not. Eventually, she grew frustrated with her indecisiveness and shoved all her doubts to the back of her mind.

“Screw it. Let’s see the rune.”

[You have selected: Rune: Augment]

The dead body glowed with the same blinding light, forcing Erin to shield her eyes until it faded. In its place was a small sack of copper coins, another hunk of meat, and a small glass sphere with bronze wrapped around it in an X shape. She picked it and held it at eye level. Contained inside the sphere was a band of runes, like living ink that twisted and shifted before her eyes.

[Augment Rune: Bolstering]

Lisa informed her as Erin looked it over.

“What’s-” Erin started to ask before an all too familiar tremor passed through the ground beneath the snow.

Thump.