In short order Emil and what were apparently his fisherman friends had jumped out of their crumbling fortress to harvest the rats. Ozzy wasn’t convinced it’d be very good eating though he had to admit he was a little curious. He’d never eaten rat before, which was largely on purpose, though maybe murk rats were a local delicacy.

  Gradually, Ozzy had been working to put things together in his head. There were of course the issues of supposedly being in a different world, but he hadn’t really given it much thought until he’d started talking to the group. The human brain was a powerful thing, and he was certain he could dream up a magical traipse through a swamp if he’d been hit hard enough upside the head. Having an intelligent conversation with multiple different individuals however was way out of scope for a dream. So he decided moving forward with the idea that everything was very real was probably his best bet, at least for now.

  “Wanna give me a hand Oz?” Emil called.

  Ozzy realized he’d been staring at the man and blundered over, totally not stumbling over himself as he made his way over.

  “My bad man, just uh, ya know in my head and all that.” Ozzy said, excusing himself from all accountability.

  “Right… you wanna be a brother to help me with this bastard?” Emil gestured at the biggest of the rats.

  “I mean I’d love to, but I might fall little short when it comes to my rat skinning skills.” Ozzy said.

  “Skinning?” Emil said, looking more than a little concerned.

  “Yeah, cutting up the meat and peeling all the skin off to get the hide right?” Ozzy asked.

  “I’m gonna stop you right there kid.” Emil put a hand between them, “I’m gonna assume it’s the crazy still talking and that you’re not actually gonna do that to them.”

  Emil fiddled with a pouch on his belt for a moment before pulling out a long circular rope. As it slid out of a pouch that was entirely too small for it the rope jangled as little wooden tokens tied to the rope clacked and jangled against one another. Still glancing warily at Ozzy, Emil handed him a portion of rope.

  It was yet another chance for him to look incredibly foolish as he did his best to follow Emil’s lead. For his part Emil busied himself laying the rope out around the giant rat in a perfect circle. Ozzy tried following suit, only to be pushed out of the way as Emil went about making sure all of the wooden tokens sat on the inside of the circle.

  As he watched Emil finish arranging the circle Ozzy noticed that each token had a set of symbols etched into them. They were faint and the whole system seemed a little worn, with spots of frayed rope and tokens where the symbols were less faded which were probably replacements. It was all very “ritualistic” and he couldn’t help but wonder if he was going to see something cool.

  As Emil stepped out of the circle he went to go crouch by the far end of the circle. Watching intently Ozzy noticed a singular token that had been left outside of the ring. Lazily, Emil placed a finger onto the token and closed his eyes. Light flared through Emil’s finger in the token he pressed and from the token glowing lines of power flowed down either side of the circle until they met at the other end with an electric hum, each token lighting up as the power flowed by them.

  There was a small pop and like magic the rat dissolved into a pyre of tumbling motes of dark green light that fell down and through the ground. In their place where the rat had just been sat a few teeth, a pile of jagged green balls, and a long sharp piece of crystal about the size of Ozzy’s forearm. As he looked closer at the items in the circle the glow of the tokens dimmed as Emil let go of the token he’d been holding, ending the flow of power.

  With mouth agape Ozzy stood transfixed. Everything up to this point had been intense, confusing, and lightning fast. As he watched the circle dim however he was struck by how impossibly clear the magic in front of him had just been. Even as he ran through arguments and rationalizations for the act of transmutation he’d just witnessed he felt each and every idea fall short, each thought becoming more elaborate than the last in their attempts of understanding until slowly, magic became the most rational answer.

  “So you really are a stranger then aren’t you?” Emil’s question shattered the web of Ozzy’s thoughts, bringing him back to the moment.

  “What?” Ozzy stared at the pile in the circle, unable to take his eyes off it.

  “You’re not from here.” Emil said, a tone of awe hiding beneath the heavy waves of his accent.

  “Pretty sure I already told you that man.” Ozzie’s words came out unfocused, as if he was speaking to himself.

  “I guess you did.” Emil nodded. “I can’t say I’m in the practice of taking strangers for their word in the swamp.” He paused, “Normal strangers I mean.”

  Glancing away from the pile Ozzy looked over at Emil. “Normal strangers?”

  “You’re from another world right? There are some stories and rumors about your kind. They call you cosmic strangers, outsiders, and strangers.” Emil explained.

  “How did it happen though, and why would you come here of all places?” Emil asked.

  “I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to say honestly. I was home one moment, right outside of my cabin, and then I was here. Naked in the mud with this stupid watch.”

  Silence hung in the air between them for a few moments until it was broken as Emil inhaled and sighed loudly.

  “Tell me about the watch?” Emil asked leadingly.

  As if on cue his watch lit up. Tapping the watch face twice he watched as the holographic screen phased into existence in between them. He was a little pleased to note a surprised expression on Emils face.

  *BEEP BEEP*

  Notice

  Objective: Kill the remaining Murk Rats in the area and save the besieged fishermen.

  Bonus Objective: Eliminate all remaining rats without sustaining any injuries.

  Rewards: Core, potential bonus rewards.

  Objective completed

  Bonus hidden objective completed: Save all of the rats victims before the Swamp Wagon becomes inoperable.

  Objective rewards granted: Rat core

  Bonus rewards granted: Affinity Shard

  As if magically a second forearm sized piece of crystal fell into the pile of rat loot. It was followed closely by a small green colored rat statue.

  “Well cover me in mud and call me a murkrat” Emil glanced back and forth between the holographic screen and fresh arrivals to the loot pile, a massive smile on his face. “You’ve got a harvesting ability!”

  “This things told me I have AN, as in a singular ability. It hasn’t mentioned anything about a harvesting ability so far, just my gun.” Ozzy said casually, summoning the firearm back into his hand to substantiate his claim.

  Emil frowned at the firearm as it was summoned, “You see that’s the other thing, what’s a gun? Is it some kind of extra loud wand? It sounds like it shoots lightning and-.”

  “I mean it’s a gun, there’s a bit of metal inside called a bullet that gets shot out super fast by a super heated gasses. The bullet goes super fast and really ruins whoever’s day it hits. It’s kinda like a crossbow but instead of a bolt it just has the broad head, instead of the string it has an explosive propellant, and rather than a neck on the crossbow it has a pipe with grooves that keeps the projectile accurate.”

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  Emil stared at Ozzy for several moments, “You could’ve written that down, washed the ink out into a bucket, thrown it at me, and I’d’ve gotten more out of it than from what you just said to me.”

  A few moments passed as Ozzy took in the sarcasm. “I could’ve just let the rats have you.”

  Shrugging in response he pointed at the pile of loot. “But then you’d’ve missed out on this here nice pile of loot.” He paused as something occurred to him. “If you’re happy to miss out on it however… well I’d be happy to pack it up for you.” He offered graciously. “After all, wouldn’t want to just leave it lying around for the critters now would we.

  “I’ll take it,” Ozzy frowned down at the unusually large man sitting on his haunches. Then glanced from the large pile to his limited pocket space. “And a bag.”

  The group made short work of the rats in the clearing. Emil and Norman were the only two able to power the magic circuits that looted the rats. Emil had explained that anyone with cores and the correct know how could power a circuit, he’d even promised to show Ozzy how once they got to someplace called Myreluck.

  Once all the loot had been gathered Ozzy was amazed to see the sheer variety of items in the pile. The loot ranged from large crystals to pelts and teeth, along with plenty of strange objects Ozzy couldn’t identify. At the forefront of the pile however sat a choice set of treasures that Emil had hand picked from the pile to set in front of him.

  With a shooing gesture Emil waved the fishermen off who’d been staring greedily at the pile and sat down with his legs crossed next to the pile of treasures he’d selected. Patting the ground beside him he motioned for Ozzy to sit. Delicately he picked up the small green rat statue, and held it out to Ozzy, and in an oddly serious tone began to speak.

  “This is an attuned core. You’ve obviously already got one or you wouldn’t have that fancy…” He took a thoughtful pause. “Wait did you call it a pun?” Emil gave Ozzy an incredulous look, “Like the joke kind?”

  “A gun.” Ozzy said, emphasizing the word a little more than he probably had to.

  “Right, right, anyways then.” Emil got back into teaching mode. “You already have a core, I’m not sure which one it is but-”

  “Oh it’s called the gun core.” Ozzy interjected helpfully.

  “Right, as I was saying however-”

  “My watch told me when I scanned it.” Ozzy once more added, appearing to not notice the frown entrenching itself across Emils mug.

  “AS I was saying.” Emil paused, as if he expected someone to interrupt him before clearing his throat and continuing. “Ahem, you already have a core and whatnot blah blah. This is another core, you can have three of them.” He let out rapid fire until stopping and looking up at Ozzy under raised eyebrows.

  “Problem?” Ozzy said, mustering all the innocence an until just recently naked swamp stranger could muster.

  “Just testing something.” Emil said, only slightly lifting his suspicious gaze as he continued. “A normal human can absorb three cores while they sit in the first circle. You can get more later I’m pretty sure but that’s not important. When you absorb a core it gives you a power, it’s the same with the other two. There’s a little more to it than that though. For each core you have you can get four extra abilities, ranging from kill stuff powers to more conventionally useful things, like some guys can talk to fish.” He gestured with his head over at Norman after sharing the last little factoid.

  “Wait he can talk to them?” Ozzy’s voice rose as implications of his power and profession rose up.

  “Yep, and not just talk to them but understand them too.” Emil nodded, eyes wide in a thank the Gods you understand expression.

  “That just-” Ozzy shuddered, “It gets worse the longer I think about it."

  Ozzy glanced over at the pile of fish forming over by the waters edge as Norman and the others waited for Emil to finish his magic 101 talk. The men had started up pretty quickly after realizing their conversation would take a bit and though it had only been a few minutes there was already a sizable pile forming behind the group. Most impressively, Norman had caught just over half of the fish in the pile.

  “You’re telling me man, I’ve even heard him apologize to some of them. That’s sick right? Like how do you eat something that you can talk to? I heard em’ tell Seamus that trout are his least favorite fish to catch, he said it’s because they beg the most. When I tell you I’ve never seen eating fish the same way again I mean it.” Each of Emils sentences came faster as what Ozzy was sure were days of disturbing fishing activity were brought to light.

  “I don’t think I’ll be able to fish for a while.” Ozzy blanched.

  “If ever!” Emil declared, only it was slightly louder than he probably meant and he turned away as Norman paused his clubbing of a frantic catfish to look over.

  “That dude creeps the hell out of me. I’d report him if I could but who would make any laws to protect the fish?” Emil ran his hands over his face as the two of them worked their way through what was slowly becoming the worst moral quandary Ozzy had ever been exposed to.

  “That’s not important though.” Emil said, turning the conversation in a 180 that left Ozzy reeling. “What’s important is that you can get powers from things like this.” Emil proferred the small rat statue and one of the long crystals.

  “It won’t be anything like the power to talk to fish though right?” Ozzy questioned.

  “Absolutely not. Now we don’t know what kind of affinity this shard has but this core here.” Emil hefted the rat statue. “This is a core attuned to the concept of “rat”, mostly people just call em rat cores though.”

  “Huh…” Ozzy took the proffered rat core and shard from Emil, looking over them with childlike wonder. “How do you find out what kind of shard it is?

  “Well some folks have a power to identify or appraise things. Or you could just use the right magic ritual and you’d be set.”

  Tentatively Ozzy raised his hand and pointed his watch at the shards and core. When nothing happened he put a little willpower towards activating the scanner and just like before a bright red beam began scanning up and down the crystal before gradually slowing and fading.

  *BEEP BEEP*

  Affinity shard identified. — Claw Shard

  Contains the attuned powers of claws.

  Rarity — uncommon

  Absorb? Yes/No

  *BEEP BEEP*

  Attuned Core identified. — Rat Core

  Contains the manifested concepts of rats.

  Rarity — rare

  Absorb? Yes/No

  *BEEP BEEP*

  Affinity shard identified — Gun Shard

  Contains the attuned powers of firearms

  Rarity — Unknown

  Absorb? Yes/No

  Emil stared on with interest as he watched the watch scan the two magic object. “So no looting power but you do have an identifier.” He nodded appreciatively. “That’ll save us quite a bit of roqs.”

  “Rocks? We’re saving rocks?” Ozzy asked.

  “No not rocks, roqs. They’re like rocks, but they’re roqs, mana roqs.” Emil clarified.

  “You’re messing with me, right?” Ozzy asked, waiting for Emil to crack a smile, however the one that came was not one of humor, but pity.

  “I can see how it would be confusing.” He chuckled. “I’m not talking R. O. C. K. S., I’m talking R. O. Q. S. Roqs are little bits of mana that form into a little ball. I guess some moron thought it would be clever to call them roqs since they look like rocks without really being rocks, because they’re roqs. you get what I’m saying?”

  Despite not getting it at all Ozzy nodded, desperate to leave the subject behind.

  “Why would it save us money though?” Ozzy purposely avoided the word roq as he not so subtly moved the conversation along.

  “Oh well normally you have to pay an appraiser if you don’t want to get cheated out of any good ones. Most things sell based off of rarity, especially when it comes to cores and shards. There aren’t really any going rates for em, they just sell on how many are around, how hard they are to find, and how much people are willing to pay for them.” He gestured at the rat core. “On a good day that one’ll go for an even 500. You’ll probably get closer to 400 though. Or you could always just attune it. That’s what most people do and it’s normally the smart thing too.” He finished with a grin.

  “Oh okay-“ Ozzy said, moving his finger over to select yes on the holographic screens Absorb? Yes/No.

  “Now I don’t know anyone who’d want a rat core but-“ Emil continued but Ozzy was no longer paying attention.

  Emil watched as Ozzy’s finger descended and pressed through the holographic screen. He paused his explanation as he looked on curiously, wondering what Ozzy was doing. It was the first time he’d ever seen an ability like the watch and he was certain it was full of tricks and surprises.

  Bracing himself as he remembered the pain the gun core had inflicted he grimaced as he watched the statue. It began to emit an almost imperceptible glow which slowly overtook the matte surface of the statue. The two men watched as the rat light up like a glowstick, casting bright green light over his hand until with a flash, its eyes shone red, and it shivered.

  Shaking off the chains of scientific reasoning and general possibility the statue began to move. It glanced at Ozzy then Emil, and squeaked as it settled its’ gaze on Ozzy. They stared at each other for a moment that seemed to stretch itself infinitely on before the glowing rat reared up its head, and bit down on his palm.

  “Oh no-“ Emil was instantly cut off as Ozzy let out a shriek.

  “What the-“ An incoherent stream of what were most likely curses stumbled their way out of Ozzy’s mouth.

  He stumbled to his feet, waving his arm about like a drunken bar fighter who was just trying to get a good slap in. Like any good bar fighter worth their booze however, he was getting trounced by the sober newcomer. Except this newcomer had not only sobriety on its side, but the magical ability to cheat.

  The magical rat sunk, well, magically, into his arm. What followed was a something that made grabbing hot pans seem like a fun Friday night activity. A sensation akin to that of a full sized rodent burrowing its way up his arm and to his shoulder dropped him face first onto the dirt. The pain was unimaginable and he was left clutching at his shoulder where the pain had turned world consuming. If he’d been able to think through it all he’d have guessed the neon rodent was building a nest inside of him, thinking however was beach food and shade as a tsunami of pain crashed over him.

  By the time Ozzy had made it to the ground a group of concerned fisherman had surrounded the twitching Alaskan, each of their faces etched with concern and just a little bit of confusion.

  “What’s gotten into the lad?” Norman whispered the question to Emil, not wanting to disturb the apparently wounded swamp man who’d slaughtered a bunch of monsters not even half an hour ago.

  “Shut your freaky fish blathering hole Norman, the poor bastard just absorbed a Rat Core.” Emil hissed at the fisherman, but his eyes never left Ozzy.

  “Just what kind of man are you?” Emils voice barely registered over a whisper and he couldn’t help but think, things were about to get very interesting on their trip.