“Um, does anyone want to talk about what they got from the mana burst?” Heather asked.

  “Do you?” Danielle asked back. “Feel free to share if you’re excited.”

  Heather smiled shyly. “Um, well, I got Rapid Muscle Recovery,” she said.

  “That’s great!” Danielle and Akari chorused, accidentally in unison. Everyone laughed.

  “I might as well get it over with, too,” Sadie said. “Promise you won’t hate me, though?”

  “I promise,” Danielle said promptly.

  “Mostly Heather and Cassy,” Sadie said, looking at Heather.

  “I’ll do my best, as long as it isn’t Speed Improvement,” Heather joked.

  “Um.” Sadie started turning red.

  “You’re kidding,” Cassy said.

  “It’s not like I got to pick who got what!” Sadie exclaimed defensively.

  “Wait, really? You got Speed Improvement?” Heather asked.

  “Yeah, for real,” Sadie admitted.

  “Ooh. Cassy, we’re in trouble,” Heather said.

  Cassy chuckled. “Maybe, but I bet keeping up with them really will give us a better chance of unlocking it too!”

  “What did you get, Akari?” Sadie asked in an obvious bid to change the subject.

  “Hostility Highlighting, as a Trait,” Akari said. “I told you out there, remember?”

  “Oh, right. Well, Danielle and Heather didn’t get to hear it there,” Sadie replied.

  Danielle chuckled. “I got Skill: Bow Apprentice, possibly because the System could see I wasn’t shooting very well,” she reported. “I also checked my mana crystals while the Rangers were listening to everyone tell their own version of the story, including the ones from last time that I never got around to. Last time, my staff got a “momentum enhancement,” which apparently means it moves faster and hits harder than it normally would. The weird thing on my bag is officially called “Illusion of Immutability;” it just makes it so the bag always looks the same, including always looking empty. There’s nothing else to that one; I guess it’s because I was kind of hiding my bag from Arny. Anyway, this time, my bow picked up Target Highlighting as an enhancement. I didn’t get the dark-vision Trait I really wanted, but as long as I’m holding my bow and looking roughly at something the System can recognize as a legitimate target, it’ll show me where it is. Just one thing at a time, but you know – it’s definitely something that would’ve made the fight easier.”

  “Would you have leveled up, though?” Akari asked.

  “That’s a good question,” Danielle admitted. “It would’ve been a real risk, I think. I guess God protected me from that.”

  Sadie snorted, but didn’t comment aloud.

  “Did anyone else pick up crystal enhancements?” Danielle asked.

  “Yeah, actually,” Sadie said. “My bow makes the arrows unbreakable for a few seconds after I shoot them now. It should make it a lot safer to practice, in terms of not losing precious arrows – might need to have everyone practice with mine, actually, to avoid wasting ammo.”

  “That’s a cool one,” Akari said. “Mine is on my scabbard instead of my sword. I had been wondering why they put a crystal there. Well, now my scabbard cleans my sword as I put it in. Whatever it takes off lands on the ground a little ways away.”

  “My Necessities Store necklace turned into a shield pendant,” Heather said. “I’d be more excited about that, but I think it’s kind of weak. Better than nothing, though! It’s not like I’m not going to wear it.”

  “Hm. I’d like the party to vote on giving Heather a ring to wear, in case of future mana bursts,” Danielle said. “Any mana the crystals take up isn’t going into us, after all.”

  “We’ve only got rings, right?” Akari asked. “I propose if they’re a safety thing, we give everyone a ring – after all, those of us with enhanced weapons aren’t going to have enhanceable weapon crystals anymore, same as Heather’s not going to have enhanceable jewelry; we all used one slot, right? We should all add one slot, too.”

  “I vote for Akari’s plan,” Sadie said.

  “I’m good with that,” Heather agreed.

  “Do I get to vote?” Cassy asked.

  “Oh, um. No? I think this is a council thing,” Danielle said. “Or a room thing – it’s from the scavenging. I’m willing to hear your opinion, though?”

  “Well, um. I guess mostly, I just want to get a new crystal, too,” Cassy admitted. “I had a ring already, and now it’s something I don’t even want.”

  “What did you get?” Sadie asked.

  Cassy’s face burned with embarrassment as she confessed, “I got Career Skill: Animal Lore, and my ring enhancement is called Static Invisibility. It would make me invisible, but only as long as I’m standing perfectly still.”

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  “I don’t get it,” Sadie said. “Why are you upset about that?”

  “Because it’s a freezing-up thing!” Cassy burst out. “And the Skill is just – it’s like the System thought I was just spectating! I just stood there and did nothing the whole time! I’ve never felt so horrifically useless in my entire life, and the stuff I got is for making me better at standing there locked up in fear like a ten year old standing on a stage for the first time!” To everyone else’s consternation, she burst out in tears.

  “Um, I’m pretty sure it’ll be more useful than that,” Sadie tried to comfort her awkwardly.

  “If you really hate the ring, I could try to see if I can adapt it to an object enhancement,” Danielle said. “Maybe I can make an invisible bag!

  “What, are you crazy?” Cassy laughed, sniffing and swiping tears out of her eyes. “It’ll be completely visible while you’re carrying it around, and disappear and get lost when you set it down!”

  “I’d have to keep track of it, but maybe vine monsters wouldn’t try to steal it if they can’t see it, huh?” Danielle suggested.

  “Pft. Maybe. I don’t care much, as long as you take it off my hands and trade me a new one,” Cassy admitted.

  “New crystals for everyone?” Akari asked.

  “For everyone,” Sadie said.

  “For everyone,” Heather confirmed.

  “Agreed,” Danielle said, and went around to the kitchen to get out the jewelry boxes they’d found when they were collecting salvage along the dome road.

  After a little rummaging, she brought out one of the three identical white boxes she’d found, with their little sticker labels reading “R’bow cu zirc, rings, mens/womens/sets, 1 gross.” She set it on the counter and brought out her knife to neatly cut off the plastic wrapper – she wasn’t going to waste a panel of waterproof plastic on careless opening. Sliding off the plastic overwrap, she had a folding box of white cardstock with a flap that could be bent back, she thought, to make a display out of it. Fully closed and with the sticker set aside with the plastic, it was thoroughly unassuming; a bit large, perhaps, at roughly a foot square and over an inch thick, but utterly unadorned.

  The other girls gathered around the counter to watch her open it so she made a bit of a show of carefully setting the plastic aside, inspecting the outside of the box, and finally opening it like a book, facing up so they could all see the inside easily.

  To her surprise, it unfolded unevenly. In her left hand, she found she had the shallower side, but it was still deep enough to reveal the promised “1 gross” of rings, arranged in a 12 x 12 grid. The bands were wide, perhaps 3/8 inch, and had square stones set into them in a style that didn’t stand up very much from the finger. The silvery metal (certainly not real silver, given the cheap jewelry usually found in necessities stores) was shallowly etched with various geometric designs.

  “That’s the men’s rings for sure,” Heather said.

  “Definitely,” Cassy agreed. “There’s already a gross of them, though – is it a gross each?”

  “Um, maybe I’m the stupid one here, but what’s gross about it?” Heather asked awkwardly.

  “It’s a technical term for 144 of something,” Akari told her. “Twelve dozen. See how there’s a dozen rings in each row?”

  “And twelve rows, one of each color,” Cassy confirmed. “It makes a pretty set.”

  Danielle, meanwhile, was containing a growing excitement, because the other side of the box appeared blank – exactly like the back. Given the promise of a “womens” option, she was pretty sure that explained the unevenness of the sides – because the blank side was part of the back, and that meant the box was a triple display.

  “Speaking of sets,” she said, “anyone want to make a bet on what the ‘sets’ part of this will be?”

  “What? Isn’t it his-and-hers rings?” Sadie asked.

  “Well, we can see the ‘his’ side, but unless the middle is empty – and it doesn’t feel thin enough for that, to me – I think the ‘sets’ are their own category,” Danielle said with a grin. “I’m betting it’s these separate guys’ rings on this panel, separate girls’ rings on the far panel, and pairs of rings in the middle! Maybe with smaller stones, but matching ones?”

  “Ooh. I bet they’re earring sets,” Sadie said. “Probably studs that match the finger rings.”

  “Oh, that would make sense,” Cassy said. “If we all want to bet differently – are we actually betting anything on this bet?”

  “Nah, just for fun,” Danielle said.

  “Then I’ll bet that the sets are those best-friend circle pins, where one side says BE- FRI- and the other says -ST -ENDS, and they have a zig-zag edge that fits together. I hope I’m wrong though, those don’t usually have stones on them.”

  “I’m betting they’re heart charms for charm bracelets,” Akari said. “I’ve seen those sold in pairs for romantic gifts before, and they usually have the matching gems thing going on.”

  “I’m going to bet on necklaces, and they make ‘sets’ when you put them together with the rings,” Heather said. “I’m pretty sure I’ve seen ‘mix and match sets’ like that before, and I think this is kind of how they displayed them, too. Although if it was exactly the same, it would be rings, necklaces, and earrings, instead of two kinds of rings, so who knows?”

  Danielle grinned. “Well let’s find out! Three, two,” Sadie rolled her eyes at Danielle’s theatrics and Heather chuckled, “one, ta-da!”

  Danielle opened the other side of the box, and they all stared at what was revealed.

  Danielle was right about the left panel having women’s style rings, with the same square stones but narrower bands. She was also right about the middle panel having paired jewelry with matching stones. Akari was right to the extent that the “sets” were heart themed, and Heather was right about it being necklaces. Even Cassy was partly right, insomuch as each pair had a zig-zag edge that fit together, so the two pendants could be held together to make a whole. The details were unexpected, though; instead of solid pendants with no stones, each was the outline of half a heart, with a round stone held in a teardrop-shaped setting “dripping” into each of the open centers from the lobes of the heart.

  “What were they going for here?” Heather asked, wrinkling her nose. “Broken hearts, crying crystal tears? Are they supposed to be break-up gifts or something?”

  Cassy burst out laughing. “Oh, that’s hilarious. I bet they were going for something like the best friend pins, and just really didn’t think it all the way out! Can I have one of those instead of a ring? Not to get two stones, I actually mean just one side of a pair, since the System ‘broke my heart’ by giving me the enhancement I don’t like. It’s hilariously perfect!”

  “I’ll take the other side of the pair, then,” Sadie said. “I kind of want to try my craftsmanship on it and see if I can make the border a different shape than a broken heart.”

  “The women’s rings are going to be easiest for you to work with, right Danielle?” Sadie asked. “Because the band is smaller and easier for you to cut?”

  “Probably, at least at first,” Danielle said. “I might be able to use the pendants too, especially if you turn out to be able to reshape them.”

  “Any idea how good they are? For enhancements, I mean?” Heather asked.

  “Better than they are for romance,” Akari interjected, laughing. “I thought the store must be missing these a lot, but now I wonder if the greedy-guts who filched them all didn’t do the store a favor!”

  “Heh, the rings might have sold OK. As far as enhancing though? They’re good clear stones, definitely lab made, so that helps,” Danielle said. “Mana likes solid crystal with no breaks. They’re all colored, though, so they’ll be more likely to attract certain kinds of enhancements – it’s not guaranteed, and some of the associations have overlaps that don’t make a ton of sense, but it’s a thing to know about. Do you know what you want to get, Cassy?”

  four days without checking properly...

  https://discord.gg/u5dtzpShv2