Ranger Flo gave Danielle an offended look. “You gave me permission to check on you,” she said. “You’re dealing with a mana-effecting disease, a System check is a standard part of the diagnostics.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend, that’s just the impression Mana Sense gives me for that Skill – it feels/sounds like someone flipping through files, and when it’s my System, I can feel the movement inside me. Seriously, though, you’re already looking, do you not actually see my mana numbers?”
“Believe it or not, current pool numbers are actually on a very low layer of the System, from the standpoint of See System Info,” Ranger Flo said. “And by low, I mean, imagine the information the Skill provides as having layers, where the easiest to see is on top, the next easiest is under that, and the next easiest is under that and so on – the hardest information to get is considered ‘deep’ inside.”
“Huh. So org affiliations are on a high layer – close to the surface? But the exact amount of mana available to me at any given time is very deep?” Danielle asked, to confirm she understood.
Ranger Flo nodded. “So what’s the verdict? Can you make us 80-ish tokens in time for us to pretend we grabbed them while we were back at base for supper?”
“Not unless it’s safe for me to eat more – no, wait. I only need 40 mana for that, now. Yes. I’ll have to switch pools halfway through, but I can do it. Uh, did you notice my new Trait, by the way?” Danielle asked.
“Improved Mana Generation? Michael told me about it last night,” Ranger Flo said. “As if you of all people actually needed it! I also notice you picked up a new Career – did you do that on purpose?”
“Career?” Ranger Michael asked.
“That’s a funny story, actually,” Danielle said. “I was praying on Saturday night – “
“Oh no,” Ranger Flo said.
Ranger Michael rolled his eyes at her. “Let her tell us the story, Flo, you did ask,” he said. “Go on, Danielle, you were praying?”
“Yeah, I was feeling all overwhelmed, and I said “God, what do you want me to do now?” and he said, “Start a Career search.” So, um, I started a Career search from my Interface last Saturday night, when we still thought I was just a little dehydrated and maybe suffering a smidge of mana overload.”
“Hm. And then you made all those tokens for us, because of the epidemic,” Ranger Flo said. “And talked up how you wanted to give people better tools for handling the epidemic, and used your new copy of Skill: Now Hear This to help people take their medicine correctly – even when you were so delirious you needed help to take your own medicine correctly – ”
“Wait, did she get a medical Career?” Ranger Michael asked, a sort of hopeful glee dawning on his face.
“Medical Assistant,” Danielle told him. “Do you think it has a chance of dropping Healer Skills for me?”
“Maybe if you unlock them, but I think that one’s more likely to drop practical nursing Skills,” Ranger Flo said. “Patient handling, cleaning, medical waste removal, that kind of thing.”
“Oh – yeah, I sterilized a lot of water bottles the day it finalized,” Danielle said. “I bet that had something to do with it.”
“Well, I can’t object to you having another mana channel,” Ranger Flo said, though a hint of exasperation still colored her observation. “It should work pretty well with Field Medic, too. Dare I ask how you leveled your first Class, though? I thought you were staying away from excess mana.”
“Yeah, well, it got close to the limit and I switched my absorption to a different Class, but then I did enough sneaking around on Saturday to push it over the edge anyway,” Danielle said. “It was annoying. I’m a little worried about Field Medic going the same way, but that would honestly be less annoying – I’d like that to be my highest Class, really.”
Ranger Michael was laughing. “Michael, stop laughing at her,” Ranger Flo complained.
“Hahaha, week three progress report: Careers just keep rolling in, and she can’t stop leveling up her Classes!” Ranger Michael exclaimed. “I know it’s serious, but that doesn’t stop it from also being hilarious!”
Danielle chuckled weakly. “When you put it that way, I guess it’s kind of funny. I’ll be more amused when I have my preferred Classes built up above my sometimes useful but kind of embarrassing Dome Class.”
“You’ve had a very unusual first month, but don’t worry,” Ranger Michael said with a last chuckle. “You’ll switch back to base level absorption in another two weeks, just in time for all this startup chaos to be well and truly behind you, and then you’ll find that with mana pox and panic fights and what not behind you, you’ll take another month to actually get to the actual level-up even if you start trying!”
Danielle laughed properly. “Ranger Michael, I hope you’re right!” she said. “But for now, do you have pre-pay mana for me to make tokens with again?”
“I do,” he said, and pulled a token strong box out of his boti bag. “We have 45 more requests for Sterilize Object, but of course we still had two, so we’ll need you to make 44 and we’ll have one remaining in stock.” He offered her a stack of four 100-mana tokens.
“Can do,” Danielle said, and started making the tokens. She switched mana pools after the tenth set, leaving her Oceanic pool with only a single point in it.
Ranger Michael laid out pairs of 100-point mana tokens on her bed every time she returned a stack of four Skill tokens. When she’d done the eleven sets of Sterilize Object tokens, he asked for twenty six Local Antihistamine tokens, “and yes, we realized that means 28 and two remaining in stock.” That took seven more uses of the Skill, and then he requested two sets of Numeric MedVet Thermometer. “We’ll be holding on to the last one of those,” he said. “It really is a nicer version of the Skill, strictly from the medical use perspective. I’ve heard the other one can unlock thermal sight, but obviously you found some other way to accomplish that – care to share?”
Danielle shrugged. “Mostly, looking at things that would be clearer or look more awesome with Infrasight, and commenting to the System about how I sure wished I could see them the way they’d look if I had that Skill. Fires, dark rooms, angry wildcats that are trying to eat Heather’s patients, stuff like that.”
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Ranger Flo sighed. “I hope you don’t end up seeing the other one of those, too.”
Danielle’s heart skipped a beat. “So there is another one?” she asked.
“There are two,” Ranger Michael said. “A second borderline tier-limit cougar, which we’re trying to get permission to hunt right now; and a tier 2 bobcat, which is smaller and less dangerous, but people who don’t know better keep mistaking it for the cougar and radioing our base in a panic about it. If you see that one, just get one of your friends who needs to level and catch up with you a little, and have them take it out of the picture.”
“How will I know – ” Danielle began.
Ranger Flo snorted. “You’ll know it’s not a cougar because you’ve actually seen a real cougar, so you won’t mistake something half the mass for the same species.”
“Oh. OK, duly noted then,” Danielle said. “Is it actually dangerous, or do you just want it gone to stop the false alarms?”
“It’s less dangerous than a cougar, but it’s still potentially dangerous to lower-levelled individuals, and it’s still stealing meat out of people’s snares. The false alarms are merely annoying, but the people who are losing food to it want it dead for cause,” Ranger Flo said.
“Ah, because of the lost food and because they’re afraid it’ll hurt them if they cross paths with it,” Danielle said. “Because they’re probably level 1, and not everyone hunts with a party yet.”
“Correct. Bobcats can and do eat smaller things than most humans are interested in trying to make into food – mice and rats, for starters. We can all agree that if one gets in the habit of stealing from trap lines, though, it’s not doing its job of controlling vermin and it is taking food away from the human population. It’s fair game for hunters. It has a useful pelt, too.” Ranger Michael talked while he finished putting away the tokens she’d just made.
“So, your shopping list is meant to cover the tab you let Flo open last Saturday,” he continued. “That’s good; the Rangers appreciate your business. We also have some enhanceable crystals to sell you on behalf of the Sending Authority, and a few tokens for you to start your mana-disease mitigation collection with, if you’re willing to spend back some of this mana today,” he said, gesturing to the pile of 100-mana tokens on her bed.
Danielle nodded. “If I take these to the Access Point, can I get it to just make change for me? Or do I have to do something that uses mana to get it to do that?”
“If by “make change” you mean converting several mana tokens to one of a larger denomination, yes, you can do that. If you want smaller denominations, though, you have to spend down the part you don’t want,” Ranger Michael said. “I advise you to keep some smaller tokens around, for doing business with your fellow Sent.”
“Sure, I just have all these 100-mana tokens now,” Danielle said. “How many are you hoping to get back in exchange for crystals?”
“Well, you can order tier 2 clears from the catalog, and they’re small and discrete, so Agent Apira didn’t send you any of those this evening,” Ranger Michael said. “Instead, I have standard 500 carat boxes of tier 3 clears, which are 80 mana each, and 16-color sets (which have clears as one of the sixteen, for the record) for 256 mana each. They chose ten carat crystals for all of those – 50 of them in the boxes of clear crystals, 10 of each color in the sets for a total of 160. Oh, and we also have tier-2 color sets on offer for 100 mana; they come with 32 five-carat crystals of each color instead of ten at ten.”
“It sounds like just one of those would get me a long way,” Danielle observed.
“Indeed. You’ll also be wanting appropriately sized and shaped gem settings to hold them; we have boxes of 100 settings. Your choices are tack connections (as in, nails) or wired connections (for wrapping or tying), sized for either 5 or 10 carat gems. The stones are all going to be squares, for the record. Settings are 2 mana a box for the tier-1 and -2 size, or 3 mana for the tier-3 size – those are also in the catalog, but if we’re selling you the stones now, we may as well sell the settings that go with them.” Ranger Michael shrugged. “Assuming you still do want them, of course.”
“Can you make change for the setting costs? If so, I’ll take one tier-2 color set and however many settings it is to use with them, uhm, I think two tier-3 color sets – because there aren’t nearly as many crystals in that one, right?” Danielle found herself wishing once again for a calculator.
“Correct – the tier 3 sets are 1600 carats total, in ten carat crystals, so 160 gems; the tier 2 sets are 2560 carats in five carat crystals, for a total of 512. These are all lab quartzes, for the record. Lab-made corundum is available at the trade fairs, but it’s a bit more expensive.” Ranger Michael brought out what looked like a plain white cardboard box from his satchel; it had a shoebox-style lid rather than folding flaps, but otherwise looked entirely unassuming, and had about the cross-section of an index card organizer. He set it down on her bed, and placed one of the 100-mana tokens on top of it. “There’s the tier-2 set,” he said.
“I’m going to need five, maybe six boxes of settings for that, though?” Danielle asked.
“Right. And two of the tier-3 sets, you said?” he confirmed, pulling out smaller cardboard boxes that rattled. They sounded rather as if they were full of paper clips.
“Yes. And one of the clear tier-3s, please,” Danielle said. “I’m going to need five boxes of that kind of setting too, aren’t I.”
“At least four,” Ranger Michael said. “You want a mix of attachment styles?”
“Two boxes of nails type and three of wire type, please,” Danielle said. “Can I open this?” she hovered a hand over the tier-2 gems.
“If you hand me the mana, sure,” Ranger Michael said with a wink.
Danielle rolled her eyes at him, but handed over the token and looked inside. The gems were cut and polished, with a square face but properly faceted corners and pyramid-shaped back, so they would look good in jewelry or as decorations on whatever objects they were also meant to enhance. Amusingly enough, they’d been provided in blister packs, the way some medications were. In a sense, the boxes really were full of 3x5 cards – just not paper ones. Inside the blisters, the 5 carat stones looked tiny compared to the crystals on the Sending Authority gear from Decision Day, or even the zirconiums in the weeping heart pendants and the cheap, theoretically matching rings.
“How many carats are the stones on the decision day bags?” Danielle asked in astonishment.
“I’m not sure – 24 carat, maybe?” Ranger Michael looked at Ranger Flo, but she just shrugged.
“They’re supposed to be tier-4 stones with space for side-by-sides,” Ranger Flo said. “I don’t know what that means for carat sizes, though. I’ve never done enhancing, or even jewelry.”
Danielle raised her eyebrows at them. “Side by side? As in, can take two enhancements?”
“Theoretically, but my understanding is they usually don’t in practice, unless the enhancements are very closely related,” Ranger Michael said. “Like bags that are enhanced with more apparent space and less apparent weight; or weapons that spread out the force but hit with more force than their weight would suggest.”
“Or a weapon that seems to move faster than it should, but hits harder? Speed and momentum,” Danielle said thoughtfully.
“Yeah, like that,” Ranger Michael said. “Almost always appearing together, or being applied together, depending on if they’re wild or Skill-based enhancements. The stone has to be a little more than twice the size you would need to put the individual effects on separate stones, but I’m told there’s a chance they synergize if you do it on one stone, and with wild enhancements a large stone gives you a better chance of getting complex enhancements, even if there’s just one.”
“They say having extra ‘space’ can balance the lack of color, too,” Ranger Flo said. “But again, keep in mind this is hearsay, mostly from Sent who are learning it the hard way like you. Except, higher leveled Sent of course.”
“Thus, experts with survival-level interest in the mechanics of attracting good wild enhancements,” Ranger Michael said sardonically.
“Well, yes, but also people who may have a lot of anecdotal experience but very little access to scientific data or observations from outside their own immediate ways of using things,” Ranger Flo said.
Danielle chuckled. “Lucky for me I’m a mana researcher with plenty of stones to experiment on, now,” Danielle said. “I really need a calculator, though. What’s my total?”
Ranger Michael pulled out a little data pad and added up her purchases. “Looks like 717 mana, of which you’ve paid 100 so far,” he said.
“Hm. So another box of tier-3 clears and another box of large settings will bring it up to 800 even?” Danielle asked.
“Ah – yes, that sounds right,” Ranger Michael said, tapping at the data pad.
“Do that, and then give me the pitch on the Skill tokens,” Danielle said.
recover some of their mana, but what happened to not selling Danielle a bunch of stuff while she's not entirely healthy?
https://www.patreon.com/c/NarrowRuled
https://discord.gg/u5dtzpShv2
