Luke rushed over to Jinx’s side and knelt down. She was laying down near a dead Hive Wolf, her chest rising and falling but was otherwise unmoving. One of her back legs had been broken off, tiny pistons leaking fluid onto the ground.

  “Jinx, are you alright?” Luke said. He opened his mech and climbed out. He didn’t want to pick up an injured cat with his bulky metal hands.

  Once out, Luke gently lifted her up and turned her over. Her physical body was scratched but mostly unharmed. With the health points from her class, she should be healed soon. She glanced up at him and meowed once. He got the impression that meow meant that she was fine, just tired.

  That interpretation might have been wishful thinking, but Luke still felt relief. He pulled her to his chest. Jinx would be fine. The prosthetic legs would need to be replaced, but that was going to happen anyway when his cat continued to grow.

  He glanced back at the storage compartment on his mech. Jinx would need new prosthetics often, unless...

  Unless he gave his greater healing potion to her. The gift from Lord Edobar would be more than enough to give Jinx her legs back. It would mean spending a potion worth 4 million dollars on a pet, but that didn’t give him a moment of hesitation. What made him pause was what it would mean for himself.

  He would just have to give up on getting his own leg back. This world regularly made greater healing potions, but he couldn’t hope to afford one. If he gave this potion to Jinx, it would mean he was throwing in his lot with Lord Edobar, keeping his prosthetic so he could bond with it and play whatever political games the royal elf had planned.

  Actually. Now that he thought about it, the monster hunting business was profitable. He might be able to afford his own greater healing potion in two or three years.

  Lord Edobar had presented the choice as an either/or. But he could have both. He could play the elf’s game for now, while saving up his money to buy a potion to restore his leg. He had lost the leg five years ago, what was another few years?

  Luke smiled, his mind made up. Both of them were going to get their legs back, starting with Jinx.

  He opened his storage compartment on the mech’s hip and pulled out the first aid kit. He set Jinx down and took off her prosthetic legs. Pulled out and opened up the potion worth 4 million dollars. He had a slight moment of hesitation, but then poured it into the lid of the bandages container.

  He held it in front of Jinx and said, “Drink up, little lady. It’ll make you feel better, I promise.”

  Jinx sniffed it but didn’t drink.

  “Jinx. If you can understand me at all, I need you to drink this potion. Please,” Luke said earnestly.

  She turned away again. Luke shook his head and sat back. Of course. Now that he had decided to give her the potion, she wasn’t going to drink it. He closed his eyes and tried to find his center. As much as he wanted to scream out in frustration, it wouldn’t help things.

  Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.

  His attempt at meditation was interrupted by the sound of lapping. He cracked an eye to see Jinx was lapping up the greater healing potion. A grin slowly spread over his face. Of course. She was a cat. She would never do what he asked her to do. It had to be her idea.

  The scratches on her side and the knick on her ear healed as he watched.

  “Did you seriously give a healing potion to your cat? Those things cost thousands of dollars,” Shepard said.

  Luke looked up to see Shepard out of his mech, holding a bandaged arm. Luke hadn’t even noticed that he had been injured. Vanessa was putting away her first aid kit, clearly the one who had bandaged him up. Shepard must be pissed that he got bandages while the cat got a healing potion. Luke wondered how Shepard would feel if he knew it was a greater healing potion. Vanessa walked up to him and gave him a light slap.

  “Don’t talk like that. Jinx is part of the family,” she said.

  “Oh come on, it’s an animal, not a person.” Shepard huffed. “You can get a new one at a shelter for sixty bucks.”

  Luke stood up and looked up at Shepard. “First off, don’t disrespect pets, Shepard. That’s a shitty attitude to have when you know people genuinely love their pets. Second of all, Jinx has a class. With every level up she gets bigger and smarter. She’s going to be hunting with us for years. Don't make yourself an enemy. Please apologize to Jinx the Spectral Stalker.”

  Shepard bristled and said, “Don’t be all holier than thou, dickwad. I was just talking.” He bent down and sarcastically said, “Sorry Jinx. You are totally a real person and it’s not a waste of money to give you a healing potion that could have gone to a human.”

  Luke rolled his eyes. Even if Jinx didn’t understand words yet, she sure as hell understood the tone. He didn’t bother to correct him though. That was a mistake Shepard was going to have to live with.

  “Whatever. Take Barrow, Green, Bumblebee, and Davis down to the target site and start collecting orbs. Vanessa and Sandwich will collect orbs up here. I’ll keep watch for any monsters drawn in by the fighting. Come back here when you are done,” Luke said.

  “Giving yourself the easy job while the rest of us do the hard work?” Shepard scoffed.

  “What is with you today, Shepard? You know I’m not lazy. I literally spent all day yesterday building the weapons for this. I am the only one with an eye in the sky. Of course the guy with the magic drone is going to keep watch.”

  Shepard just grumbled and walked back to his power armor.

  Vanessa stood with Luke while they watched him collect the others and walked the long way down from the bluff.

  “Thanks for taking on the first aid. It’s great having a medic with us, even if something is up Shepard’s butt.”

  She said, “I think it’s ants.”

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  “Huh?”

  “Ants in his pants. That’s what got into him today.”

  Luke and Vanessa laughed.

  Jinx was done with the potion by then, and Luke picked her back up. She couldn’t walk on her own yet since the greater healing would take time to restore her legs and her prosthetics were broken.

  He didn’t want to get into his mech yet because that was all hard metal and edges. But as much as he wanted to baby Jinx right now, he knew that it would be safer for everyone if he climbed back in. Reluctantly, he climbed back into his power armor and picked Jinx back up. She complained a bit about being manhandled, but Luke opened up a can of catfood on his palm.

  While she scarfed the food, Luke kept watch on the surroundings with his own eyes, and the camera from his magic drone. If he could send it higher, he could keep a better watch, but he didn’t want to anger dragons any more than Lord Edobar did.

  Harvesting the cores from that many monsters took time. Not every Hive Wolf even had a core, which made the process longer. Luke almost hoped for a distraction in the form of a monster attack, but that never happened.

  Sandwich raised a few Hive Wolves with Echoes of the Dead. The pink summons helped him extract mana cores with their long claws. Their half spectral nature meant that sometimes they could pop the core out in one go, and sometimes they had to absolutely savage the body before they found a core. It was mildly entertaining to watch, but got old quickly.

  To fill the time, Luke started focusing on his leg. He had decided to go with Lord Edobar’s plan for now, and the first step of that process would be to figure out how to bond with this prosthetic. Clearly the competition the lord wanted him to compete in wouldn’t allow him to enter with his mech. If he could keep his War Machine buffs even when he wasn’t in the mech, he would be a formidable fighter.

  He removed the Machine Bond from his power armor and tried once more to force the skill to accept his prosthetic leg instead. He pushed his awareness into the mix of metal, plastic, and magic. He felt the familiar hum of the mana-infused components, a subtle thrumming against his residual limb that always felt like a second heartbeat.

  He grabbed the tendrils of mana that made up the skill and pushed them towards his leg, over and over. He tried a variety of different methods, forcing it, pulling it, trying to convince the skill with words.

  If he didn’t already know it was possible, Luke would have given up at this point. Lord Edobar had been very sure, so Luke kept trying. Finally, he felt some incremental progress.

  Machine Bond couldn’t quite grasp the leg, not yet. The more he meditated and focused, the more he felt like he was metaphorically bringing the two of them together.

  He gave himself a break and checked his mana. It had gone up while he kept watch, but his experimentations were using mana. He had twenty out of twenty-four mana, enough to use the first half of Repair Craft and to continue his experimentations with Machine Bond.

  Before he dove back into his mana core, Luke checked in with his magic drone. He saw out of its camera, and sadly saw nothing approaching the group. The Hive Wolves must have cleared out the area of monsters in their bid to multiply enough to spread across the land.

  Checking in with his drone knocked something loose in his mind. He was controlling the flying platform with a charge of his Machine Soul. Maybe that resource would be useful in his experiments.

  He already knew he couldn’t use Machine Soul to animate his power armor or prosthetic leg. The resource required a machine capable of acting on its own. But Luke could still study that link between himself and the magic drone. It was like a thin string, one that didn’t stretch in any particular direction, but still threaded directly towards the drone’s location in the sky.

  Maybe he needed to help his skill along, point towards his leg in that same metaphysical way.

  Machine Bond fought him at first, but then it seemed to slip through his mental fingers and click into place. He felt the skill take root in his leg and all of a sudden he could feel his right foot again. It wasn’t a sense of touch, but it was there.

  He felt connected and whole for the first time in five years. A tear dripped down his face. He may be made of flesh and metal, but it was all him now. He was whole.

  “Finally!” Vanessa said and stood up.

  Luke took a second to collect himself. He cleared his throat and asked, “Done harvesting already?”

  “Nope. My assessment period ended. It says I have a choice between three gold classes.”

  Luke walked over, loving every step. He wanted to tell Vanessa all about it, but this was her moment. Besides, he was supposed to keep the bond with his leg a secret. “Excellent. I knew you were special. What choices did you get?”

  “The first one is Passionate Brawler. It’s kind of like a berserker class, where you get stronger when you fight angry. But it works with any other strong emotion. Joy, fear, lust.” she paused to wiggle her eyebrows at him.

  Luke chuckled, remembering when he wiggled his eyebrows at her last.

  She continued, “The second one is a wildcard. Elemental Pitcher. I can grab elemental spells and throw them at stuff. I would be happier with this one if it said I could create and throw spells, but it only says throw. I can’t tell from the skills list if I’ll be able to create my own elemental spells.”

  Luke shook his head. “I’m not sure if you would want that class even if you could create spells. Your mech already has fire bolts built in, they are faster and more accurate than anything you could throw.”

  “Maybe. On the other hand, I’ve wanted elemental magic since I was five.”

  Luke nodded and rolled his hand.

  “The third one is Iron Sawbones. It’s a combat medic class, stabilizing people after large injuries and quickly healing minor ones. Broken bones are easy to repair, which is nice for a healing class. It also says it can do minor equipment repair, which sounds like it would work on our power armor.”

  “That one sounds perfect. Every adventuring party needs a healer.”

  “They all seem good. The list of skills all sound fun. But I think I’m going to eliminate Iron Sawbones. I actually don’t want to be a healer.”

  “Are you sure? It was your job for years. You are good at it and you have a caring personality.”

  Vanessa looked away. “Sorry Luke. I know that’s the class you want me to choose, but I really don’t want to spend my second career doing a magical version of my first one. I want something different.”

  Luke opened his mouth to protest, then closed it again. He did want her to choose the healing class, he had been expecting it since he heard she was in her system assessment period. He really didn’t want her to waste a class choice, but it was her choice. He forced himself to be chipper and said, “So the choice is between Passionate Brawler and Elemental Pitcher. Which one are you leaning towards?”

  Vanessa turned back with a smile. “If the elemental class has the ability to create magic as well as throw it, I think I’ll choose that one. Do you think Kruro will know?”

  “I don’t know how knowledgeable she is about classes. Cormac might know, but it doesn’t matter. The System of the World wants you to choose quickly. Cormac told me that if you don’t choose quickly, it will choose for you.”

  Vanessa’s shoulders slumped and she swore, stretching out the word. “So I have to take a risk on a class that could be a dud, or go with rainbow berserker?”

  “I guess, yeah.”

  She swore again.

  Today’s chapter title comes from Pulp Fiction (1994)

  Which class would you want for yourself? Passionate Brawler, Elemental Pitcher, or Iron Sawbones?