“Whoa! Five coins a body!” Yanesh exclaimed as he stared at his log, the bodies around them having disappeared.

“Hey! You’re supposed to be watching for monsters while the rest of us heal,” Neil snapped. “I got to get something for healing…” He stared at the markings on his armour and the slow dribbling blood from his leg where he had his leg clamped around it. “Should I just get a healing skill like you?”

The last question was asked to Sarah who stopped looking at her own Shop interface to stare at Neil. “Don’t ask me. Ask him.” A jerk of her head to Lance. “He’s the one who knows it all. And I’ve told you, you need to learn to make your own decisions. That’s why you never got promoted!”

“As though getting promoted from Accounts Receivable to Accounts Payable would matter that much,” Neil said. “You know they were going to promote Dick anyway.”

“I told you, if you just…”

“Enough, you two.” Lance cut-in, rapping the head of an arrow on the ground. The archer was slumped against the wall, blood still leaking from the hastily bandaged wound in his stomach. “I don’t think you’re going back to working for your company even if it still exists.” He rubbed his chin and continued. “Or if it’s even viable.”

“Hah! You don’t know our boss. I bet he’ll be calling tomorrow at 9am, bitching all of us for leaving early and wandering where we are.” Sarah snorted. “Well, they can kiss my ass. I was going to leave anyway.”

“You were!” Neil said, horrified.

“In a few weeks. I was waiting for my signed employment agreement. Going to work Outwest Elevators as their sales manager.”

“Elevators?” Neil said. “What do you know of elevators?”

Sarah shrugged, giving him a grin. “Nothing. But I had two weeks to learn all about it.”

“Shop.” Lance snapped, forcing the two shut up. “We got a lot of coins now, thanks to this fight. Time to look up what else we can get.”

The group fell silent, knowing he was right. Their prolonged battle had drawn even more monsters to them, forcing them to keep fighting in the corridor long after they had meant to stop. If not for Neil’s injury to his leg, they might have pulled back; but with Yanesh’s healing ability on cooldown, they had been stuck.

It left all of them battered and injured, with only Sarah – thanks to her healing ability – and Yanesh still functional.

“Gotcha,” Neil said, slowly relaxing his grip on the bleed around his leg. He waited for a second and then relaxed, seeing that it had finally stopped bleeding. “You know, maybe someone should be looking at getting an instant heal spell rather than a time delayed one.”

“HoT,” Yanesh corrected, absently as he watched the corridor and his Shop menu at the same time.

“Really? I thought this place was rather chilly” Neil replied.

“No, no. HoT. Capital H and T. Healing over time. Sort of like DoT. Damage over Time,” Sarah replied.

“What?” Neil said.

“How are you an accountant and not a geek?” Sarah threw her hands up.

“I am too. I like Harry Potter, Twilight, the Hunger Games…”

“Wait, did you say Twilight?” Lance said, looking up from his own perusal.

“It’s a good trilogy!”

“That’s like saying the Star Wars prequels are a good trilogy,” Sarah replied. Lance nodded along while Yanesh turned about.

“Don’t you start on the Prequels! They cement the motivations of Anakin-” Yanesh began.

“Oh gods, you’re one of those kids,” Sarah said, burying a hand in her face. “Please don’t…”

“SHOP!” Lance raised his voice, cutting the group off. “Seriously. There’s no telling when more monsters are going to arrive.”

“Fine. But I still say an instant heal spell would be better,” Neil grumbled.

“I’d love to, but they’re too expensive. The cheapest start at over two hundred and fifty coins, and they’re a Trivial wound spell with a daily use limit of five. The next step up is four times the cost,” Yanesh said.

“So, better to get a personal healing skill then…” Neil said, waving his hand around to browse his Shop interface.

“Yeah, about that…” Yanesh trailed off.

“What?” Lance said, knowing that tone of voice.

“I think there might be a limit on the number of Skills you can purchase from the Shop.”

“WHAT!?!” The three chorused together.

“Yeah, look up Slot Increase,” Yanesh said.

The group quickly did as he said, all of them finding the same information.

Skill Slot Increase

Increase the number of Skill Slots available to purchaser by one

There was a profound silence, as they read over the information before Lance voiced what they were all thinking.

“There’s no indication of how many we get…” Lance eyes narrowed and he flicked over to his own Status page. It was the same as before.

Lance Erickson Status

Skills: None of ???

Abilities: Exemplary Archery

Coins: 187

“No. So you guys might want to be careful about your build.” Yanesh confirmed.

Sarah grumbled quietly, but after flicking through the options chose to hold off on spending any of her coins. Not till she got more at least. Even if her armour was looking a little battered, she could last. Neil bit his lip, debating between the two before doing the same.

Leaving Lance to stare at his own bar. So. This was why there were equipment with the same effects. He wondered if there were a limit to the maximum amount of enchantments there were too or that you could use Probably, he would have to assume. If that was the case, he would have to be careful.

For now though…

“I’m good then,” Lance said, pushing himself up the wall with a hiss. The damn magical bandages were healing him, if slowly. “Yanesh, your spell up?”

“For now.” Yanesh said, nodding. “Recharge every five minutes.”

Noise from ahead made the group all face it more squarely, as the all too common noise of goblins muttering to themselves and even more centipede dogs had them grimacing.

“Alright, let’s do this. By the numbers.” Lance replied, standing wobbly for a second as he nocked an arrow. Drawing and firing was going to suck…