Max hopped out of bed. Today was the day. He couldn’t wait to try on his new armor. He went to the bowl in his room and splashed water on his face. Plumbing was the only thing he really missed from home. His canvas room in the inn was bigger than his apartment back on Earth, he had magical powers, and he was comparatively rich. The only downside was the lack of running water on the first layer. At least they had a magical solution for the toilets.

  As he walked down the jean stairs, he heard crying coming from near the front desk. The innkeeper’s daughter was standing at the checkout counter, talking to two men in farmer’s clothes.

  “How could they do that to us? Don’t they know we needed her?” she said through tears.

  The skinny guy awkwardly patted her shoulder. “I know, Sarah, I know. We’re all gonna have to move. But not today. I bet most places will last a month or two at least.”

  Max walked up to them and said, “What’s going on?”

  “They killed Edith. Buncha assassins snuck in last night and offed her.” the farmer said.

  “That’s... too bad,” Max said slowly.

  The innkeeper’s daughter huffed. “Edith Head was New Pant’s governor. She kept us all safe, and more importantly, her card is what made the town. Literally. Her card created and strengthened fabric.”

  Max looked to the building around him. Everything was made out of cloth. Even the support beams were canvas. “Does that mean the buildings are going to fall down or something?”

  She sniffed and said, “Yeah. We don’t know how long it’ll take, at least a month, but the spell will wear off. This town will be dead within three months for sure.”

  “Damn. I’m sorry. Where is everyone going to go?”

  “We don’t know. We just found out today,” the farmer said.

  Max dug into his belt and pulled out all the coins in his pocket. He placed it on the counter and said, “You guys can split that up to help with moving expenses.”

  They thanked him as he headed out. He felt bad that he didn’t have to worry about money like they did. He hoped the residents of New Pants would find a new home soon. He made a mental note to ask Bisrat for advice on where they should move their home base to.

  After breakfast, he headed over to Steel Appeal. The Igra had already heard about the assassination and mentioned they planned on staying in town to the very end. Their stone building wasn’t in danger of collapsing, and they held out hope that someone would find a solution to the weakening town.

  Clarser said, “But enough about that. It’s time for you to try on your armor. We gotcha three layers here. The bodysuit is for your comfort. The black woven metal leggings and tunic goes on top of that. It uses doped steel and will protect you from blunt force trauma. This stack of titanium plates attach onto the clips on the woven spots. It’ll protect you from stabbing and slashing. Finally, there is your helmet. I know it looks thin, but it’s the best possible without magic.”

  Max thanked her and took the stack of armor into the changing room. It was about forty pounds all together, lighter than he had expected. He stripped completely and donned the silky soft bodysuit. Next was the quasi-chainmail. The woven metal tightened itself on him as he slipped it on. Next, he started clipping on the plates one by one. It took him some time to figure out where each titanium plate went, but eventually he was fully suited up.

  He looked himself over in the mirror. The silvered mirror was slightly warped, but he could still tell that he looked fantastic. It was slim and sleek, silver with a black undercoat. Despite the near full coverage, the armor was light and flexible.

  He moved around and the armor didn’t bind up at all. He could take full advantage of his Flow enhanced flexibility. Since his mouth wasn’t completely covered, he saw himself grinning like an idiot. He looked like a cross between a roman legionnaire and a sci-fi soldier. He felt badass as he walked out of the changing room.

  “Thank you all. This is fantastic. It’s better than I could have imagined,” Max said as he handed over a solid gold hammer.

  On Earth the gold would have been priceless, but here it was only useful for making anti magic shields. Max reminded himself to come back and get one in a few days.

  That night he met up with Bisrat and they headed over to LFG. They were both wearing the armor at her suggestion, it would show people they were established fighters.

  On the way over, Max decided to pull the trigger on the stat points he had earned. After leveling up to fourteen, he had four free points.

  At first he had considered further leveling up Levitate, but Bisrat had advised against it. Most of their fighting would be in a dungeon. His current abilities with Levitate were plenty when fighting somewhere with a ceiling. She advised him to put all his points into Presence so he would be a better leader.

  Max couldn’t bring himself to do that. Presence smacked of mind control and he didn't feel comfortable investing in it. Instead, Max put two points into Flow to control his magic better and make himself more dexterous. He threw one point into Insight so he could see magic better. Finally, he added a single point to Broaden, raising his mana pool to 54. That way he wouldn’t get wiped out every time he used Augment.

  When he was done, he read over his stats. It looked good. The one final question still niggled at the back of his mind, but he ignored it for now.

  Walking into the LFG bar was like walking through a portal. Outside people hurried from house to house, never staying out after dark. The symbol of the Builders, a hexagon, had been co-opted by a doomsday cult. There were rumors that the cult were sacrificing people to the Builders to convince them to spare them when the world ended. The rumors scared people, but what terrified them more was that the cult might be right about the end of the world.

  Everything changed when he walked inside. The atmosphere was jubilant, almost celebratory. Drinks were flowing freely and people were more friendly than ever.

  Max suspected mind control before he realized the real reason for the attitude change. It was a lack of empathy. The people in this bar all had magic cards and the ability to fight. They had no need to fear the loss of the New Pants governor. They could easily move to a new city. Without oversight might made right, and these people had might.

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  There were two classes of people on Spinworld, those with cards and those without. The ruling class was cheery while the rest were cowering. Max almost left right then and there.

  Instead, he decided to give people a chance and not judge them by the others in the room. He got himself a drink while he chatted with Bisrat about their priorities. Bisrat filled the rogue role, Max was a mid range fighter, and Gus was a part time tank. They needed to add a full time tank, and someone with ranged damage. Preferably someone with strong damage.

  If they decided to take on a sixth member, someone with crowd control magic would be useful, but not needed. It would be nice to have a healer, since that was one of the five archetypes. Max had only heard of Cups cards creating healing potions, but he would be ecstatic to find out about a Clover card that healed or something like that.

  Last time they were in here, they wandered from table to table to talk to people. This time, people came to them.

  “Nice armor you guys got there. Where can I get some?” a tall thin guy said.

  “We got it from the Igra shop in town, Steel Appeal,” Max said. Bisrat suggested he do the talking since the crowd was mostly human.

  “No shit? I heard that place was a scam.”

  “Probably because you have to win a game against them to earn your armor. People don’t like the pay to play model. But if you join our party, we can arrange a suit of armor for you.”

  The tall guy smiled. “You’re in luck. I’m Spinworld’s best dodge tank. Go on, ask me what that is.”

  Max shook his head. “I read the book. A dodge tank keeps the monster’s attention on them and dodges instead of taking hits. What cards do you have?”

  “I got me a Vampire Shrimp Pawn card,” he said and demonstrated. A small crustacean appeared on the table. It reminded Max of the mantis shrimp with its weird eyes. The guy continued, “This guy can take down a boss if we give him five minutes. In the meantime, I dance around the boss and keep its attention so my little guy can suck it dry. I got my Flow at six, ain’t nothing touching me.”

  Max felt his attention waning. “How are you against hordes of monsters?”

  “Ain’t nobody able to do everything. That’s why you got a party, right?”

  “True, true. Hey, listen. We gotta talk to a lot of people today. Where can I reach you when we decide on our final roster?”

  The smile slowly dipped from his face. “I’m usually here. If not, just ask the bartender to leave a message for Horus.

  “Great! We’ll be in touch, Horus.” Max said. He kept the smile on his face until Horus walked away.

  Bisrat leaned close. “I couldn’t tell if you liked him or hated him.”

  “Hated. He is a tank that can’t handle large groups of monsters. That’s ninety percent of the job. And his Pawn card works slow. The only time he would be useful is against bosses, and I think I could do a better job.”

  Horus must have spilled the beans about the armor offer, because everyone they talked to after that already knew about it.

  “You two looking for a Bard?” a man in a large red hat said.

  Max had to tear his eyes away from the monstrosity atop his head to answer. “We could be. Have a seat, tell us about yourself.”

  “Name’s Songsmith Hal. I’ve been on Spinworld for a year now. Been on a few teams, and worked all the way up to level ten,” he said and leaned forward with an affable smile.

  “Glad to meet you, Hal. I’m Max, level fourteen, and this is Bisrat, level twelve. What kind of cards do you have that make you a bard?”

  Hal winked. “That’s need to know stuff, but I can give you a hint. I have two Wand cards. I’m the best crowd control guy you’ll ever see. After you give me some armor, I’ll show you exactly what I can do for you.”

  Max nodded. “There’s something I like about you, Hal. I can’t wait to see you in action. But we’re heading out soon, before the next suit of Igra armor is made. You’ll have to do the first run in your regular armor.”

  “We can’t do that, my good armor got stolen. We’ll have to wait until I’m fully protected. Can’t risk your most valuable team member, right? It won’t take long to make the armor, right?”

  Max suddenly felt awkward. He really didn’t want to say no to the guy, but he didn’t want to give away armor to people he just met.

  Bisrat leaned over and whispered, “His Presence is very high. Examine your feelings.”

  All goodwill he had towards Hal washed away. Max put on a fake smile and said, “Sounds good. I’ll get you that armor right away. But first, I gotta see you in action. The training area is right over there. How about this, I run towards you with my war hammer, and you use your bard crowd control to stop me. You can do that, right?”

  Hal leaned forward and smiled. “Actually, my powers only work on monsters. That’s the great thing, I can go all out and there is never a risk to my party. I’m happy to show you the magic in action, but we need the armor first of course.”

  “I think you better keep walking. Hal. Something about your presence is setting me off.” Max folded his arms.

  Hal’s smile grew brittle. “I’ll be around when you change your mind. Maybe when you aren’t with that alien gold digger.”

  Max just shook his head and Hal walked away. Max looked down at the armor he had been so proud of before he came in here. It was good armor. Too good.

  Max turned to Bisrat and said, “I think you undersold how in demand Igra armor is. We are getting all of the scammers and idiots trying to join our party now that they heard we were handing them out.”

  She sighed and nodded. “It’s the blunt damage protection. Nothing else made on the first layer can protect you from blunt force trauma. Sorry. I should have realized this would happen.”

  “It’s fine. It just means we’ll have to be extra careful in our screening process.”

  The rest of the evening was filled with talking. Max felt like more than half of the bar came up to them and asked to join their team.

  ...

  “Gus, let me introduce you to the people interviewing for a spot on our party. This is Asta, she’s been on Spinworld for five years. She will be tanking along with you. Her card is Force Reflection. Anything that hits her shield bounces off.” Max said and gestured towards the Nordic woman standing to his right.

  Asta was a tall, blond haired woman with a severe expression. She held a metal tower shield and wore a thick breastplate. Max had already made a set of gauntlets for her with his Gloves card.

  Standing next to her was a short and thick guy with buzzed brown hair. He wasn’t fat so much as wide. He wore a water sprayer on his back. It was clearly made here on Spinworld, but it resembled a sprayer that pest control guys used back on Earth.

  “Our other candidate is Giovanni. He arrived on the same day we did, but he’s already level eight. He has an Ice Manipulation card and will be our control mage.”

  Gus gave them both a respectful nod and said, “Gio, Asta.”

  “It’s Giovanni, not Gio,” the short man said and folded his arms with a frown.

  Gus shrugged, “Sure, whatever.” He turned to Max. “What are you wearing? It looks like a ninja fell into a cooking store. It reminds me of a shittier version of Bistrat’s armor. Are you trying to get into her pants? Cus I assure you, she doesn’t have any.”

  Max shook his head. “Shut up, Gus. And let me say this upfront. Don’t mess with the new people. Giovanni will stab you and Asta will knock you into next week.”

  “I’d like to see her try,” Gus said and put his hands on his hips.

  Asta raised a single eyebrow but didn’t move. Max was already regretting keeping Gus in his party. He was competent in a fight, but couldn’t stop pissing people off.

  Max turned towards Asta and Giovanni, “And of course this is Gus. He’s got a few different cards but the two you will be seeing today are Troll Form and Warped Mirror.”

  Gus shook his head, “Actually, I sold my Warped Mirror card. Did it the second day here. Sold most of my other cards too.”

  “What? Why?” Max asked, baffled.

  “Cus I’m going all in on my Troll Form card. I bought an alchemy kit to make the potion last longer.” He raised his eyebrows suggestively. When no one took the bait he continued, “When I add magic plants to my blood potion, I can stay a troll for an hour. The better the plants, the longer I can last. I also bought a card to make it easier to use Troll Form.”

  Max facepalmed and said, “What’s the newest card?”

  “Message.”

  Four of them startled as a voice sounded in their heads. Gus laughed.

  “It’s a Bell card called Message. Don’t worry though, I can’t hear your thoughts, I can only send a message. It works with anyone within sight range. I can even talk in my troll body. I checked.”

  Max slowly blinked. Gus had thrown away Warped Mirror, Sonic Step, Startle, and Light Beam so he could buy an alchemy kit and a Bell card that let him talk in his troll body. The urge to strangle him was almost overwhelming. There was no way he got a good deal on that exchange.

  On the other hand, maybe it was for the best. Gus routinely forgot he had the other cards, even after Max reminded him to use them more often. The fighting style that came with a troll body was more Gus’s speed. He stood in the way and hit things hard.

  “You probably got scammed with that trade, but whatever. You are a damn good troll, so let’s put you to use. I did some research and there is a dungeon nearby that will be a good test of our teamwork. Follow me to the dungeon tower they are calling the Clockwork Catacombs.”