“Oh stink, what do we do now?” Jennifer blurted, apparently in leftover panic.

  “It’s the Rangers, shout back so they know it’s us,” Heather said. “Actually, let me, I have a Skill I’ve been dying to try out. Activate Amplify Voice,” she added, obviously to her System. Then she spoke and it was as loud as a shout while sounding as calm as if she was still talking to just Jennifer. “This is Healer Orellana with Sent Jennifer and party. Good timing, Rangers, we just killed the wildcat as requested. Please come finish the Healing, though!”

  “Whoah. Nice,” Cynthia said. “What happens if you actually yell while it’s on?”

  “I don’t know,” Heather said, still amplified. “Ack! Cancel Skill!” Danielle could just hear the Rangers chuckling as they jogged towards them through the trees. “Ahem,” Heather said, confirming that her voice was back to normal. “I don’t know, that’s the first time I actually activated that Skill. I guess either you’d be able to hear me a long way off, or I’d blow out the eardrums of everyone nearby, or both. I might need to be careful with it, but hopefully it’s not too dangerous.”

  The Rangers were fast – Speed Improvement fast, Danielle wondered? In any case, they covered the last few hundred feet quickly and looked over the party.

  “I saw a pretty big mana burst, there,” Ranger Flo said. “Is everyone OK? Anyone feeling strange?”

  “I, I just leveled,” Lauren said. “I got the level and a Career Trait and two more Traits leveled and two Skills did too and there’s something about mana crystals??”

  “That sounds about right,” Danielle said.

  “Right for what??” Lauren said, turning to her in shock.

  “It’s about the same as what I got for a big mana burst that leveled me from 1 to 2,” Danielle said.

  “I’m so glad you knew what to do,” Lauren said. “That was so intense!”

  “I think the rest of us all got Career Skills too,” Dana said. “It sounds like a bunch of us did, at least.”

  “That’s a normal thing for people who are exposed to a big mana burst but don’t have a clear enough stake in the fight to open them up to full absorption,” Ranger Flo said.

  “Let’s do some quick introductions,” the Ranger beside her said. “I’m Ranger Michael, this is Ranger Flo doing all the talking, heh, prowling around over there is Ranger Juliette, and the guy who looks like he’s looking right through things there is Ranger Wilhelm.”

  “Call me Helm,” the latter said distractedly. “Are we sure this thing was tier 3?”

  “It was the last time anyone logged it, or it’d be dead,” Ranger Juliette said. “The body’s here if you want to look at it properly, though.”

  “Right, thanks,” Ranger Helm said, walking over to the dead wildcat. “Stink, it’s a cougar. There weren’t any hunting this area this spring!”

  “Yeah, well, there weren’t 1200 Sent who never got their game management unit in science class out trapping bunnies this spring,” Ranger Juliette said. “I’m amazed it moved in so fast, though.”

  “Moving right along,” Ranger Flo said, “Point us at whoever needs healed, please?”

  “Start with Brome,” Heather said, pointing to the lean-to. “The guy on the ground died just a minute before the cat, and Miriel’s pretty much healed – I mean, don’t let me stop you from giving her a checkup, but she was OK enough to stand and join the fight again at the end.”

  “Blast,” Ranger Flo said. “I hate it when a Healer call turns into corpse patrol.”

  Ranger Michael, meanwhile, had already knelt down next to Brome and reached out to touch him with one finger; activating a Skill, Danielle thought. “Yikes. That’s pretty nasty,” he said. “Flo, we’re gonna want to double-team this, he’s got a tourniquet on it because it needs a tourniquet.”

  “Lemme check blood supply before you start cutting knots, then,” Flo said, kneeling down with him. “Oh, yeah, let’s just top you up a bit before we open the hole again. You didn’t lose any fingers or anything, right?”

  “No, it just, um. It got me where people cut to, um,” Brome stammered.

  “To um?” Ranger Flo took his hand and tugged to make him stretch his arm out. “Oh. Right, I see, right across the artery. That must’ve been terrifying. Why did you put the tourniquet so high up, when – no, never mind, I see the other cut now. OK, Michael, I’ll take this one and you take that one?”

  “Can do,” Ranger Michael replied. “Are these the only two cuts you’re aware of, sir?”

  Brome sputtered. “Sir? Really? You’re calling me sir?”

  “I’m being polite to a young adult who’s had a very hard day,” Michael said, his voice rich with humor. “Seriously, though, just the two?”

  “Yeah, I got my staff in between both times but its paw was so wide it didn’t block all the claws,” Brome admitted. “The infuriating thing is, I was so busy defending – poorly, obviously – that I barely even managed to give the thing a stubbed toe. I only got 45 mana from the burst. Well, and Trait: Pain Resistance, and I guess a mana enhancement on my staff that’ll make it shock things that hit it. I kind of feel dissed, you know? Like the System’s just going, ‘you really need some help with the basics here, man.’ Or something.”

  Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

  “A shocking weapon is useful – it doesn’t just do damage, it can also stun or disorient the monster and give you or your allies a chance to get in a hit without it retaliating,” Ranger Michael said. “OK, now, this knife is enhanced to not cut living flesh, so here’s the deal: you look away, I’m going to cut the tourniquet, and then Flo and I are going to heal your arm. It’ll hurt some, but it already hurts, right? Once it’s healed, the pain will go away, and we’ll replace your shirt – and that one that looks like it was used as a compress over the artery wound before you got the tourniquet on.”

  “Oh, that was on Miriel’s leg,” Brome said, looking out towards his teammate. “The Sent Healers did the double-team thing on her, too.”

  “We’ll check her over and make sure they didn’t miss anything before we leave,” Ranger Flo promised. “For now, I’m ready when you are, Michael.”

  “Count of three?” Ranger Michael asked, and getting a nod, he held his knife over Brome’s upper arm, by the tourniquet, and his other hand by the wound he was going to work on. “One, two, three,” he said, and on three, swiped his blade down Brome’s arm, as if to make a wound of his own; but as promised, only Brome’s tourniquet and shirt parted. He gasped, presumably from the pain he’d been warned about; both Ranger Healers ignored it and concentrated on healing his wounds.

  Heather and Nathan both watched them work, but Danielle turned to see what everyone else was doing. Most of the uninjured Sent were talking among themselves, some keeping a wary eye on the forest as they did. From what she could overhear, Danielle gathered that Dana was probably right; everyone had gotten a Career Trait or Skill, and most of them had received a mana enhancement on some part of their gear as well. It made her wonder just how much mana one wildcat actually had.

  Turning to the other side, she saw Ranger Juliette and Ranger Helm were apparently still trying to decide on the answer to that question. They had turned over the corpse for some reason and now were examining its fangs and claws. Ranger Juliette had its torn-off ear in a ziplock bag.

  “I think you should just do your break-it-down thing, honestly,” she was saying. “It’s a predator of unknown recent habits; we don’t want to let them eat it anyway.”

  “If they ask for it, we can’t stop them,” Ranger Helm said with a grimace.

  “All the more reason to break it down for examination now,” Ranger Juliette insisted. “If they actually ask, then we can compensate them with healthy, parasite-free meat.”

  “Well, when you put it that way,” Ranger Helm said, and activated a Skill.

  It was one of the more powerful Skills Danielle had ever experienced, and no wonder; it instantly separated the cat into its component parts. On this side of the tree, a skeleton; on that side a line of organs; over there the meat; over here the hide. Danielle was fascinated by the way the Skill put everything down in the same position as it started, relative to other parts of its group; the brain was set a little way away from the lungs and there were a couple of organs she couldn’t identify and then the liver flanked by two kidneys. Ranger Helm pulled a camera out of his bag and turned on a bright light to film everything by.

  The light got everyone else’s attention.

  “What are you doing?!” Lauren exclaimed. “I killed that, don’t I get to have the parts?”

  Behind Lauren, Danielle could hear someone retching. A few people drifted closer, but most of the group chose to be further away.

  “You can have whatever parts you want after I scan and film them for study,” Ranger Helm said. “Except for what we need for parasite studies; if you want those parts, we’ll compensate you with equivalent parts of previously butchered animals that are known to be clean.”

  “Well, um. I want the brain and the hide, to tan,” Lauren said.

  “The brain is a parasite study item. Would you prefer to be given a brain of equivalent size, or would you prefer me to System-tan the hide for you instead?” Ranger Helm asked.

  “System-tan?” Lauren asked.

  “Is that a choice, or a request for more information?” the Ranger replied.

  “I, uh, want the hide tanned so I can use it this winter; I don’t have to be the one to do it,” Lauren said. “I’d honestly rather not risk ruining it by using it for early practice, but I don’t know what ‘System Tan’ exactly means.”

  “It means, I tan the hide using a System crafting Skill, ensuring that it cannot be ruined by unskilled craftsmanship in the tanning stage – yours or mine!” Ranger Helm explained.

  “OK, sure, do that then.” Lauren agreed. “And I want a share of the meat. I know predators are supposed to taste bad or whatever, but food is food, right?”

  “The meat is also a parasite study item. Will you accept an equivalent weight of pemmican?” Ranger Helm asked.

  “Yes, no problem by me,” Lauren said, then turned to Danielle. “You got a wound on it, you probably deserve a share too. Are you OK with the meat coming as pemmican?”

  “I’m fine with not getting possible-parasite meat, yeah,” Danielle said. “I think it’s you, me, and two of the people that the cat wounded in its attack – at least if we’re going by the System’s mana distribution to figure out who has a stake.”

  “Eh, let’s just divide it evenly between the parties,” Lauren said. “I’m just claiming first pick for striking the killing blow. I want the hide and a share of the meat. You next?”

  “Let’s let the other party go next, they bled the most for it,” Danielle said. “Just a sec, I’ll grab someone.”

  She walked back to where the Sent and Ranger Healers were talking just in time to see Ranger Flo give Nathan a blooding pin. Brome had rejoined his party off to one side, where they were apparently talking about the dead boy. Danielle hesitated to interrupt that conversation, but Martin saw her and interrupted them himself.

  “What do you need?” he asked, clearly making an effort not to sound surly, but not quite succeeding.

  “Well, the Rangers took apart the cat – I guess they want to study it, and figure out what level it was or something. Lauren, she’s the girl that landed the killing shot, she interrupted them and asked to get her share of the parts, and brought me into it because I landed a shot too, and also because we’re the technical leaders of our respective System orgs so we’re kind of speaking for our Parties, you know? Anyway, one of yours obviously landed a shot too, not to mention the whole half hour of fending it off of the injured and stuff, so obviously you also deserve a stake. Would one of you like to come join the negotiation? So far, Laurent’s claimed the hide, and the Ranger says we can’t have the meat because they want to do a parasite study on it, but he'll give us an equivalent weight of pemmican.”

  The four exchanged looks. “You’re the best person for this job, Martin,” Miriel said. “Go make sure we get our fair share. Maybe the teeth, if the hide is taken?”

  “What are you going to do with teeth?” Martin asked.

  “I dunno, arrow tips? A cool cougar-tooth necklace?”

  “Make sure we get a fair share of the meat, anyway,” Brome said. “We’re gonna be sick to death of pemmican but that thing was heavy, they’ve gotta be talking a lot of days’ worth of food there.”

  “OK, be right back,” Martin said and came over to join the discussion.

  https://discord.gg/u5dtzpShv2