“Petal?” Kay said with a wry smile. “How’s she doing? We haven’t hung out in a while, we’re overdue.”
“When did you start hanging out with Petal?” Morgan said.
“We kind of bonded after that festival with the elves and have been hunting together a few times,” Kay said. “She’s pretty awesome, really.”
“Well, Petal thinks highly of you too,” I said. “So highly, in fact, that she wants you to have these.”
A pair of elven knives appeared. They looked just like the ones strapped to my thighs.
Kay’s eyes went wide. “Are those...?”
I nodded. “Uh huh.”
“But I thought the elves never gave those to outsiders,” Sigrid said.
“They don’t,” I said. “Or didn’t anyway. They made an exception for me, and now they’ve made another for Kay.”
“Wow,” Kay said, taking the knives and feeling their weight and balance. “Thank you!”
“There is a condition attached though,” I said. “You need to learn how to use them properly.”
“That’s not a condition, that’s a benefit!” Kay looked up at me. “Does that mean you’ll teach me?”
“I would, but actually Petal wants to be the one to train you in the Elven Dual Knife Fighting skill.”
“That’s totally okay too,” Kay said. Still holding the knives reverently she started melting back into the group. “I’ll need to go thank her in person.”
“Hold on,” I said, grabbing her sleeve. She stopped and turned back. “Don’t run away yet. I made you something too.”
“You made something for me?” Kay said.
A quiver appeared, loaded with arrows that had several different colors of fletching.
“I couldn’t resist. If I was an archer, I’d want this.”
Sir Kay’s Everfull Quiver
Running out of arrows is for suckers. This quiver automatically replenishes with fresh arrows from an extra-dimensional storage space.
Powers:
Keep ‘Em Coming - Bring arrows from storage
Pack ‘Em In - Send arrows into storage
“So cool! You’re right, I’ve always wanted something like this,” Kay said. “Thank you.”
“What’s with the different colors of feathers on the arrows?” Morgan said.
“I’m glad you asked,” I said. Kay didn’t have her Trojan Bow with her, so I gave her a generic one from my inventory. “Each color represents a different effect. Try them.”
One by one, Kay pulled an arrow of each color out and shot them at a target, a bullseye every time; at this range, it’d be surprising if any of them wasn’t. Black ones were normal arrows. Blue ones added a freezing effect, red ones fire, yellow ones trailed a thin but very strong cord behind them, and the orange ones exploded upon impact.
“Kay likey,” she said.
“Right now there’s only a few of each stored away, but there’s really no limit to how much you can keep there so you’ll need to pack some more in,” I said. “If you think of another effect you’d like to have, let me know and I’ll make it happen.”
“Thank you, Daniel. I mean it. That’s so thoughtful.”
“If you want a poison arrow, I can help with that,” Manuel, the newly minted Maple Leafer with all the toxin powers said.
“We’ll hook up later to discuss that,” Byron said.
“You sound like a drug dealers getting her hooked on your stash,” Lianna said.
“I’d watch out, Kay. Daniel seems to like pretty girls,” Morgan said. “Maybe he planned it all so that you’ll need to keep coming back to him to get more special arrows as a way to keep you close.”
“True,” Lianna said. “He might be hitting on you. You can never tell with him.”
“No,” Jane said, “I’d be able to tell.”
“Hey!” I said. “I’ve never once hit on any of you so you don’t know how bad I am at it.”
“A flirty Daniel, huh?” Nina said. “What would that even look like?”
“It’s fun to imagine,” Morgan said.
“I think it’d be hilarious,” Chika said, still hovering next to me after getting her collar. You’d think I’d attached a leash to it or something.
“Gee thanks, Death Girl.”
Chika looked up at me with a mischievous grin, her one little fang protruding over her lower lip.
“He’s actually not too bad at it,” Sigrid said, then after a lot of eyes snapped her way she flinched. “What?”
“What do you mean what?” Jane said.
“As in, why are you looking at me like that?” Sigrid said.
“Are you being serious right now? You know damned well why.”
“Jessica Rabbit here’s right for once. You can’t just say something like that and drop it,” Sam said.
“Jessica Rabbit? I can’t decide if I should be flattered or offended by that,” Jane said.
“I’m with them on this,” Morgan said. “I too wouldn’t mind knowing how you know he’s a good flirt.”
I had no idea how Sigrid planned to respond to that and I did not want to find out. Time to change the subject, pronto.
“Look, I think we’ve explored this more than enough,” I said, which met with a smattering of dissent but I soldiered on. “On the plus side, your notion that I made the arrows as part of a master plan to spend more time with Kay does make for a nice segue into the next present.” The grumbling ceased. I knew that’d quiet them down. “Byron, you’re up.”
At hearing his own name, Byron’s head snapped up and he stepped forward. “Whatcha got for me, Santa?”
A nondescript metal cube about the size of a Rubik's Cube appeared. I gave it to him.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect,” he said, “but I certainly didn’t expect this. Let’s see what it does.”
Artifice Forge Upgrade: Replicate
Add the Replicate ability to an Artifice forge
Powers:
Replicate - Reproduce items placed in the forge
“That seems useful,” Byron said. “How do I use it?”
“Just touch this to your forge and it will automatically integrate into it. Basically, it lets you mass produce anything you put into the forge.”
“Anything?” Nina said.
“Within reason,” I said. “Anything too complicated or with too many powers on it will likely fail.”
“Holy crap, it can even replicate magic items?” Byron said.
“As long as they’re not too complicated. The trade off is that it uses a good chunk of mana, but it’s still way easier than making things from scratch and doesn’t require all the material components.”
Kay grinned. “In other words, it will work for things like, say, special arrows?”
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I smiled back at Kay. “Not just a pretty face, then,” I said, and she blushed.
“Okay,” Sam said, “I see it now.”
“Right? He’s not as bad at it as you’d think,” Sigrid said. “As long as he’s not actually trying.”
“This is incredible, Daniel,” Byron said.
“I figured you’d see the potential,” I said, trying to block out Sigrid and the others as they mocked my romantic ineptitude. I wasn’t flirting with Kay, I was just being nice. Surely they knew that.
Morgan held up the shotgun. “What about this? Can we mass produce WMDs?”
“What a good idea,” I said.
Byron’s eyes went wide. “I could replicate the guns too?”
“Okay, you are all starting crossbow training immediately,” Morgan said.
“And grinding monsters for mana crystals to help Byron make us an arsenal and to use as ammo,” Lancelot said. “As much as I dig the sword and sorcery thing, I am so looking forward to bringing our Counterstrike expertise into this game.”
“Damn straight,” Galahad said, giving his friend a fistbump. “We’re gonna need a lot of ammo.”
“Hey Byron, do you think you can use it to churn out more of your grenades too?” Arthur said.
“Grenades?” I said, perking up. “You made grenades?”
“Yeah,” Byron said. “They’re not much, but they meet minimum operational requirements and explode after a few seconds.”
“Then you could probably also use smoke grenades and flashbangs for tactical flexibility,” I said.
“Hell yeah,” Lance said.
“I’ve been working on a smoke grenade, but I can’t get it to create a large enough smoke screen fast enough to be useful,” Byron said.
I raised a finger. “Gimme a few seconds,” I said, then the portal into my inventory appeared and I stepped through it. As promised, a few seconds later I stepped out holding two small grenade-like objects and presented them to Byron. “One smoke. One flashbang.”
After Byron accepted them with a befuddled look on his face Sigrid smacked me. It was hard enough that it triggered my shield ring, which scared me.
“I told you to stop doing that,” she said.
“I was hardly in there,” I said, then started babbling. “It was like an hour, tops. Maybe two. Three at the most. Making the basic grenade object wasn’t difficult, see, although getting the delay timer right took a few tries. And I already had a power that creates a smoke screen so enchanting that one onto a grenade was fast and easy too. I had to play with Synthesize a bit to create two separate powers for a blinding flash and a deafening noise then merge them into a newly synthesized flashbang power, but that wasn’t too hard either, and voila.”
Arthur was the first to start laughing, but soon most had joined in.
“What?” I said, and they started laughing harder.
It took a while for the guffaws to die down, but once everyone had wiped their eyes and caught their breaths, Kay said, “What about replicating the shield ring? I wouldn’t mind one of those.”
“Yeah, me too,” Bruce said. “I’m sure we all want one.”
“The ones I gave out fall under the too complicated umbrella,” I said.
“Shame,” Kay said.
“But that’s because they have a lot of extra powers on them besides the basic shield function.” I produced a new ring. “This one doesn’t have any bells and whistles, just the shield power, and with the restriction it should be quite replicable.”
I shared its Status.
Holtzmann Shield Ring
All the armor you’ll ever need
Powers:
Holtzman Effect - Create a protective energy field around the wearer’s body; Duration: 5 minutes; Cooldown: 10 minutes
“Instead of requiring a specific affinity like the other shield rings, this one has a time limit for use and recharge. For each second it’s used it requires a cooldown of two seconds to recharge. It’s best to use it in short bursts so it has time to recharge a bit in between, because if you keep it on continuously for the full five minutes it’ll shut down and won’t work for another ten minutes until it’s fully recharged.”
“I can live with that,” Kay said. “Most battles don’t last that long anyway.”
“That’s what I thought too,” I said, then turned to look Byron straight in the face as I handed it to him. “Be diligent with this: with no affinity restriction that means anybody can use it.”
“Got it,” Byron said. “I shall keep it and all copies very, very safe.”
“Right,” Nina said, plucking the ring from Byron’s palm and putting it directly into her own inventory. “I’ll hold onto this. We wouldn’t want these falling into the wrong hands.”
“You don’t trust me?” Byron pouted.
“Of course I do. I just also know you too well,” she said.
“That’s fair,” he said, and gave her a peck on the cheek.
“So we really can all have one?” Sam said.
“That was the plan,” I said.
“And guns too?” Lancelot said.
“Also the plan.”
“Sweet.”
“I am going to go through so much mana making all those,” Byron said.
“Funny you should say that,” I said, and a new ring appeared.
Byron Masters’ Mana Battery Ring
Scotty, we need more power!
Powers:
Re-Energize - Transfer mana to wearer; Requires affinity with Void
Mana Siphon - Absorb mana from environment; Requires affinity with Void
“You think of everything, don’t you?” Morgan said to me.
“I actually made the same forge upgrade for you, Morgan, only for Alchemy, of course. And a mana battery.”
“So I can replicate healing potions?”
“You can replicate any potion, with the same caveats. Nothing too complicated. That potion you made for me with the mimic power, for example. That wouldn’t work.”
“I can live with that,” Morgan said. She accepted her metal cube and ring, then stuck her tongue out at Jane. “I got a ring too.”
Jane’s hand dropped to her side and came back up holding her Rapier Of Doom, plasma blade extended. “I wonder if that ring will still work after it’s been melted into slag?”
Morgan hid her ring hand under her arm. “Meanie.”
“One more thing, Morgan,” I said, and brought out a slender mithril circlet dotted with emeralds. “To help you coordinate battles.”
Morgan Crenshaw’s’ Battlemaster Circlet
This crown opens a tactical mini-map of the wearer’s location and enables the split-second issuing of orders.
Powers:
If I Could Read Your Mind, Love - Telepathic communication; Requires affinity with Void
Knowing Is Half The Battle - See a bird’s eye tactical view of the area; Requires affinity with Void
“You really do like giving girls jewelry, don’t you?” Jane said.
Byron waggled around his ring. “I got some bling too, so suck it, ladies.”
“I was thinking he’s like Oprah giving everybody a car,” Bruce said. “You get a ring, and you get a ring, and you get a ring.” He raised his hands over his head. “Everybody gets a ring!”
After that, everybody else got their presents. Nina got a necklace that expanded the range of all her powers, as well as one of those mana battery rings and a second ring with the area heal power on it. It would do until I could figure out a way to give that power to her and Lianna directly.
“I got two rings and a necklace,” Nina boasted to Jane and Morgan. “As my man said, suck it, ladies.”
“And here I thought you were the mature one,” Jane laughed.
Kenji got a new shinobi shozoku to replace his old ninja outfit, one which let him turn himself into living Shadow with the added abilities to phase through solid objects and teleport short distances between shadows. It also let him see in the dark because I thought that’d be handy.
Bruce got a wand that was similar to Annabelle’s staff and boosted the potency of his powers, along with a mana battery ring.
Galahad’s presents were an enchanted coin that had a power called Opposite Day on it that could reverse the effect of any power he used, so for example his gravity increase could become gravity decrease, along with a ring that gave him telekinesis. He seemed a bit disappointed until I pointed out that using gravity decrease and telekinesis on something would not only let him move even very heavy objects around, but by using them on himself he’d also effectively have the ability to fly.
Lancelot got a magic shield that was indestructible and had a luring power that could draw aggro, forcing enemies to ignore other targets and attack him instead, plus it could raise a force field like Nina’s. Once he got a Holtzmann ring too, he’d have three layers of shields his enemies would have to get through before getting to him. Maple Leaf now had the two tankiest tanks on the planet.
Finally, there was Arthur. I’d noticed that Arthur was acting differently since the team Captain election. I would’ve thought he’d sink even further into sullenness, but he surprised me. Instead of sulking, he actually seemed a lot more mellow, and his sense of humor was back. It inspired me to set aside my grudge and start fresh with him. That would begin with some kick ass items.
With his Sword Spirit gift that gave intelligence to any weapon he wielded, the obvious choice for him would have been a magic sword, but he already had a pretty good one he’d earned on a quest that he was very attached to. I had wracked my brain for a while trying to think of what he would like, then finally decided on something that wasn’t glamorous, but was very practical — a set of four rings that each boosted a different physical stat to give him enhanced strength, agility, toughness, and stamina — along with something else I thought he’d have fun with.
He may not have been the team Captain, but to the Round Table he’d always be their King. So I decided to crown him.
King Arthur’s Crown Of Shock and Awe
Hail to the King, baby
Powers:
Bow To Your Lord - Negate hostility in targets within range; Duration: 1 minute; Cooldown: 5 minutes
Don’t Tase Us, Bro - Forked lightning attack against multiple targets; Requires affinity with Air
It wasn’t really a crown, more like a helmet that had some crown-like adornments, but close enough.
I turned to the four new Maple Leaf recruits, who’d been watching the whole thing in silence. They seemed utterly overwhelmed.
“Sorry you guys, I didn’t make anything for you yet, but now that I know who you are I’ll see what I can do.”
“Why do I feel like the whole world just changed for me?” Amy said.
“I know just how you feel, sister,” Liana said.
Up next: Orientation