Back in my shed, I’m much cleaner than I’ve been in years, even with the low quality of the tepid bath. The wet towel barely did anything to dry my skin, and I wasn’t about to use it anywhere near my head, so my hair is still sopping wet. Luckily, my new clothes serve as a way to help dry my skin a bit more than the towel.

  If only I didn’t have to sleep on this filthy floor. The straw doesn’t help much, either. Etheri be willing, I hope my hair doesn’t freeze tonight.

  As I think this, I feel something crawl over my leg, causing me to flail wildly in the frigid early spring air, my wet hair doing nothing to help the chill that sinks deep into my bones.

  Aldur’s almighty anger, I fucking hate it here! It wasn’t a spider, it was not a spider! Why would it be a spider? Definitely not a spider…

  I shiver uncontrollably, not only from the cold.

  “Are you okay, Father?”

  “He’s fine, Child. Just to be clear, Human, you didn’t show the dagger anything untoward, did you?”

  With the question, Delilah reaches up to sharpen her claws on the rotting wood of the musty old shed.

  “Of course not! I remembered before I even went inside to stop sharing my senses!”

  “Good. Keep it that way in the future.”

  Delilah’s statement is punctuated by her walking over and curling up right next to me, her back barely touching my side. The gesture is not one of affection, but one of utility as her touch sends warmth through my body in waves, soothing my trembling form. That’s the only way I’ve been able to fight off the chill since being ‘recruited’ into the Society.

  “Thank you, Delilah. Yeah, I’m okay Koa. I’m okay…”

  As I lie there, my thoughts begin to drift toward Brick, only to be snapped back to the present when Delilah speaks again.

  “Don’t you have some skill credits and a Resonance to be worried about?”

  Her tone is gentle for once, as if she knew exactly where my mind was leading me, which is most likely very close to the truth.

  She probably read my anxiety through telepathy and my heartbeat. That’s okay. At least she cares enough to distract me.

  Delilah begins to purr as I pull out my Heart Scroll.

  “I only have five SC right now. My plan is to get the upgrade for size and appearance first. That’s 25 skill credits. Thank you either way, Delilah. I appreciate you looking out for me.”

  I allow a feeling of gratitude and appreciation to flow through to the cat.

  “I’ve not a clue what you mean, Human.”

  She continues to purr as I let my scroll return to my heart, summoning the box that has the Search Resonance inside it.

  “I’m not sure if I should absorb this or sell it… I’m leaning toward using it for myself, but I’d really be set up for a while with the amount of rings I could get from the latter.”

  “I think you should absorb it, Father! You might get something amazing!”

  “For once, I agree with the child. If you don’t use it, you’d be a thousand times more foolish than I thought you were, Human. You wouldn’t want me to lower my opinion of you, now would you?”

  Etheri’s blessings, it took this long just to become ‘acquainted’ with her, I can’t even imagine how long it would take after dropping back down! Who’s to say it’ll stop at ‘neutral’ this time? It could go below that!

  “You’re both right, of course. I shouldn’t have even questioned it. Selling it was never a real option. Now I just need to figure out how to absorb it…”

  “Oo! I know! I know! Pick me!”

  “Okay Koa, I pick you. Tell me how to do it.”

  My smile and mirthful chuckle are a stark contrast to the mental eyeroll that comes from Delilah.

  “You just touch it to your heart!”

  Her joy radiates through our connection, sending with it love and affection.

  “Thank you, Koa! I might have never figured it out without your assistance.”

  “I helped Father! Hm hm hm! I helped Father! Hm-hm hm-hm!”

  As Koa continues to sing, I do as she suggested and gently tap the small, light tan colored orb on my chest, directly above my heart. It turns into a liquid, quickly being absorbed into me through my shirt. The feeling is quite strange, as a chill that Delilah’s warmth can’t dissipate swirls within my chest, though it quickly disappears.

  I immediately feel the notifier that something has happened with my Heart Scroll, so I summon it for the second time in the last few minutes.

  Name: Luck Vidadura

  Age: 18

  Race: Aldkin

  Skill: Box - Summon a box to store things in.

  Affinity: Spacial, ???

  Skill Aether: 45%

  Skill Credits: 5

  Credit Level: Level 3 (38 SC allocated)

  [Skill Tree]

  [???]!

  [Permissions]

  [Inventory]

  [Quests]!

  [Bonded Creatures]

  [Bonded Items]

  [Map]!

  Notice! Resonance absorbed!

  [???] upgraded from your [???]!

  “I got… a map? How does that have anything to do with upgrading one of my existing abilities or unlocking a hidden one?”

  Not to mention all those question marks.

  “It is most likely both, Human. It may be a direct upgrade to the hidden trait that allows you to sense where to go to complete a quest. I’d suggest checking it out on your next excursion.”

  “Well, we're going out tomorrow to try to hunt a hoglin, so I’ll see what it’s all about when we start that. But why does my quests page have a notifier as well?”

  Another roll of her eyes preempts Delilah’s response, scorn and disappoinment lacing the words.

  “Because you haven’t checked your quest rewards yet, Human. That should be obvious.”

  My palm flies up, smacking my forehead unbidden as I realize that, indeed, that should have been clear.

  “Yeah… I’m dumb…”

  3x Quests Completed!

  Claim rewards?

  I send a mental assent, relieved to see that the second quest was successful.

  20 Skill Credits granted!

  6 bronze rings have been added to Inventory A

  “I forgot about the hidden hoglin quest! Now I have exactly enough SC to get the upgrade I want!”

  I quickly switch the scroll page back to the main view before belatedly remembering that I could have gone straight to the Skill Tree page. I purchase the ‘Size and Appearance Modulation’ ability, immediately innately knowing that I have a few options available to me.

  A vibration begins in the scroll I’m holding, so I once again go to the front page. I notice that a new page has appeared. At this point, I’m mostly deadened to the fact that these unknown selections keep popping up, so I just skip the rest of the information, going to the most recent addition.

  [Appearances]

  Cardboard box

  Shoddy ring string

  Shoddy wooden bucket

  Shoddy cloth sack

  Ornate box

  Shoddy wooden crate

  Shoddy wooden barrel

  Ornate ring cord

  Insulated ornate box

  At a glance, it appears that everything I touch with the ability to store something gets added to this list in the order that I touched them. Cardboard…? That must be the stiff paper-wood that the titular ‘Box’ is made of. Hmm… never heard of it…

  “Ladies and… ladies… actually, forget I said that. Ladies! Listen to this. It works exactly as I was hoping it would. I can take space from the separate boxes and add it to the others, I think. That’s what my gut is telling me. The part that I’m absolutely sure about is that any storage item I touch unlocks a new look for my inventories!”

  To demonstrate this, I summon Inventory A. Now, however, it’s the ornate ring cord. The very same one that Aeldwen gave to me before, except the length. It’s now exactly long enough to hold the six bronze rings that I have stored there. It’s also unnaturally straight, with the rings lined up perfectly, not even touching the cord in question.

  “Behold! As I hold aloft my magic string, by the power of my Heart Scroll, I have the power to change things to fit my whims and needs!”

  “Go to sleep, Human.”

  The cat’s tone is glazed with exhaustion, with her yawning as she stretches her front legs a bit in front of her.

  “Alright, you win. Tomorrow is a big day, after all! Good night my lovelies!”

  “Good night, Father!”

  Koa’s joyous response reminds me to stop sharing my senses with her.

  I’d probably forget before doing my morning duties, so I should just do it now, while I’m thinking about it.

  “If you call me your ‘lovely’ again, I will remove your eyes while you sleep, Human.”

  I chuckle, knowing that Delilah is bluffing. I can feel the contentment coming through our connection. Rather than call her out on it, though, I just smile.

  “I love you too, Delilah.”

  “I do not love you, Human. I merely tolerate your presence.”

  “Okay, sure. Good night.”

  I scratch behind her ear for a bit before sleeping, eliciting a satisfied rumble from the feline.

  …

  Waking with the rising sun, I go about my morning routine before once more sharing my senses with my… daughter?

  I’ll stick with ‘my dagger’ or ‘Koa’ for now… Now that I’ve tested how that feels a couple of times, I can say for sure that I’m not ready yet.

  “Everybody ready for the day ahead?”

  My question is posed to both of the diminutive members of my tiny family, as Delilah has already joined us from her meeting with the etheri where she discusses who knows what about me. She responds with annoyance to my question.

  “Why do you ask pointless questions, Human?”

  “I’m ready, Father!”

  At least Koa knows how to be excited…

  “Good! Let’s go, then!”

  We walk through twisting alleys and busy streets as we make our way to the shop district to sell off the remaining bits of hoglin that the shady guards didn’t take from me. I follow Delilah’s sense of smell once we arrive at the storefronts, stopping at a building with a wooden sign depicting a cleaver stuck in a tabletop.

  As I enter, the scent of blood permeates the air around me. I approach the counter at the back of the shop that prevents unwarranted entry to the back room which is presumably where the butchery takes place.

  “I… um… have some hoglin parts to sell…”

  The burly bolgen boy behind the table takes one look at me and scoffs.

  “Do ya now? I do no see any cuts of meat on ye.”

  While everything about him is different from Brick, I can’t help the pang of sadness that washes through me as I summon my inventory, causing the boy’s brow to lift a bit.

  “Tha’s a crate I never seen ‘fore now. Wha’s-it made of?”

  “Cardboard…”

  My response comes out nearly unnoticed by me as I begin to pull out the individual parts that I have in my box. The bolg’s face twitches a bit as he sees what I have.

  “We’d be buyin’ all but the teeth. No use fer ‘em. Can ne’ eat ‘em, see?”

  The boy’s eyes seem to gleam as he offers a price that seems a lot lower than what I expected to hear.

  “Five tin.”

  “What?! This should be worth at least an iron!”

  My incredulity only grows with his next offer.

  “Six, an’ tha’s a good price.”

  “Nine. Nine tin rings.”

  “Seven an’ a half. Tha’d be m’ final offer.”

  Not wanting to miss out on being able to sell my load, I begrudgingly accept.

  “Fine, but I’ll be expecting a better deal next time!”

  Now, let me be clear. Don’t get it twisted. This is more currency than I’ve ever held before. Ever. But that doesn’t mean I can’t tell when I’m being ripped off. Especially when I see the look on his face as he hands me the cord of seven tin and five bronze rings.

  For not having to do much work though, aside from almost dying, I’m actually more than satisfied with this result!

  I release Inventory C as I bring out the storage for my rings, affixing the new cord to it, causing it to automatically expand the ornate string as the new rings are added to it. It’s quite long now, but luckily I don’t have to keep it hidden like a normal one.

  When I exit the shop, Delilah saunters up to me from wherever she had been, and I tell both of my bonded companions about our sudden windfall.

  “Seven and a half tin rings! I never thought I’d ever see this much money in my life!”

  “Hooray! Rings! Father, what’s a ring?”

  I attempt to answer, realizing that I’d completely forgotten that Koa probably doesn’t know what currency is. Delilah, however, beats me to it.

  “Rings, child, are how the Humans acquire more things.”

  “Oh! Yay! More things!”

  “Delilah, where should I take the teeth I got from the hoglin? They didn’t want them at the butcher.”

  Realizing that I’m not an expert on such things, I ask the cat, hoping she knows. My chances aren’t very high, but she surprises me with her response.

  “I believe that you can either bring them to a blacksmith or an alchemist, Human. I’d expect you to already know this if you weren’t so woefully ignorant.”

  “An alchemist… I know just the place!”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.