21
1497 Words
He shrugged her concern off. “I’m paying. And it’s only one dinner. We made more in the last few months here than you can imagine.”
When Sam looked to protest, Liz said, “We sold more than one growth item while we were at Tier 5. Let us treat you to a nice dinner. Shame my Aunt isn’t here. Now that would be a good dinner.”
Tara seemingly teleported next to Liz and nearly shouted, “I’m gonna marry her!”
While he and Liz looked at her in confusion, the rest of their group groaned. Melinda grabbed the archer’s arm and started to drag her along.
“Ignore her. She’s delusional.”
Tara protested as she was dragged to the door. “I’m not! Really, I’m not. She’s amazing and I’ll marry her one day!”
Matt thought the idea was ludicrous, but Liz looked amused. “You’re going to have your work cut out for you. Aunt Helen’s list of suitors probably spans the known…well, everywhere. She’s broken a lot of hearts over the ages with unreciprocated feelings, and I’m pretty sure she’s accidentally started a war at least once.”
Hearing Liz’s comment, Tara looked even more determined, and seemed like she wanted to argue her case. Liz continued, “But go ahead and try. Maybe you’ll be the one. How did you guys meet her, though?”
That caused their procession to stop again halfway through the door, but Kyle, who was in the front, grabbed Melinda and dragged her forward, bringing in half of their group. When they were seated, Melinda thanked them.
“As I was trying to say, thank you for the shard. It got everyone else on the right track to discovering their Concepts. I don’t know how to repay you.”
When he and Liz went to protest, she held up a hand and stopped them. “This is massive for us. It’s not a small trinket, but my family’s ticket to immortality. Not everyone can take that first step, and they eventually die. I just fell into mine without knowing what I was doing, and how much it would separate myself from them. Just…thanks.”
Vinnie smiled and said, “I was the first to get my phrase. These dummies took a lot longer.”
“It was a day before the rest of us, which was over a year behind Melinda you rube.” Sam’s comment cut Vinnie down, and in the group’s usual theatrics, he fell over and started to smother her.
Their waiter came over, and when they didn’t order enough, Matt just ordered the larger party platters in addition to their meals. When they protested, he repeated his earlier statement.
Liz activated her earring, which gave them privacy and made it so the entire table was covered.
Once they weren’t in danger of being overheard, Matt reached into his bag and withdrew the two growth items he had saved for Melinda’s team.
“I’m glad I didn’t send these to you the slow way. Otherwise, they might have missed you.”
Tara looked at the quiver and asked, “I can always use a new quiver, but this feels weird. What does it do? Also, thank you.”
Trying to not let the smugness and pride creep into his voice, he said, “I’m proud to give you both growth items that are perfectly suited to each of you.”
Vinnie nearly dropped his bracelet as Matt said that.
“Man, this is too much. I can’t afford this.”
“It’s no big deal. I wasn’t joking when I said we pulled more than one growth item.”
He and Tara pushed the items across the table in unison. Tara said, “It’s too much, really. You should sell them and propel your team to greater power. Buy some more skills or something.”
Matt rolled his eyes, trying to downplay the gifts. “Guys, at least hear what they do first.”
Tara looked longingly at the quiver and said, “No, don’t do that! It will hurt even more knowing.”
“Okay. Think about it for a minute. You guys know what my Tier 1 Talent does. Have you ever checked my Tier 3 Talent?”
The murmur of yes was universal, but no one seemed to understand, and he could see everyone checking their AIs. Mathew whistled, saying, “Same as last time. It’s impressive as all hell, but I don’t get it.”
“How are rifts made and powered?”
It took a moment, and he felt a mix of pride and satisfaction at the looks of incredulity on the group’s faces as they pieced together what he meant.
“So, you can just…” Sam waved a hand around, pointing at the pair of growth items.
“Yup!”
“And it’s just that easy?” Kyle didn’t seem like he believed Matt for a minute.
“Yup!”
“That’s amazing…” Melinda trailed off, but it was broken as Tara and Vinnie lunged for their items in unison.
“Okay, what do they do? I need to knooow!”
Matt laughed. Giving presents like this was addicting. Seeing how happy they were made him tingle in a way he had never felt before.
He pointed at Vinnie “That bracelet increases the range of all earth skills cast while wearing it.”
Vinnie nearly fumbled it as he slipped the metal and rope band around his hand. It cinched down as it was bound to him with a perfect fit.
Tara hugged her quiver and gave him puppy dog eyes.
“That”—he pointed to her and as she nodded rapidly. He drew out his silence, and as she looked to be ready to vibrate out of her seat, he finally continued—“is a quiver that acts like a spatial item, and it can also create arrows over time. It also enchants them if the arrows remain in the quiver while it gets fed mana. I thought it was perfect for your style.”
Tara started bouncing around and lunged over the table, knocking over two thankfully empty cups in the process.
“Oh, thank you! Thank you! It is perfect! I love it.”
The others looked happy for their friends and didn’t have the least bit of displeasure on their faces, which only reaffirmed to Matt that they were good people.
To finish it off, he brought out their bucket of skills.
“We also got a ton of skills if you want something. It’s mostly the ordinary ones, but a few might help. Take and trade anything if you want. We already kept what we wanted.”
Mathew smiled and clapped Matt on his shoulder. “You sure know how to give wedding presents!”
“Wait, you guys got married?”
6
Matt was surprised that his friends had gotten married, but their clear happiness was enough for him. He was slightly jealous and had to make a conscious effort not to look at Liz. Marriage was a nice thought, if a little scary.
Melinda stuttered, “Matt, this is too much. It’s…it’s…”
Her voice trailed off as he shrugged his indifference. It really was nothing to him.
“Guys, take what you want. We already sold a bunch to the auction house. We don’t really need them. These are just the more basic ones that we kept around to perform more rift experiments on when we got the chance.”
Seeing their confusion, he explained, “Rift making isn’t just throwing mana into an area. Well, it is, but we learned that you can put stuff inside and use aspected mana to influence the rift and its rewards.”
Looking for an example, he pointed at Tara’s quiver. “We made that by using wind mana and putting a bow and arrow set into the area where we created the rift.”
Liz poked him and said, “You’re getting a bit loud, Matt.”
Matt grinned in slight embarrassment and, after checking his volume, said, “But, yeah, we learned a lot while we were able to experiment. Got a lot of items and money from it. Even skills.”
Liz added with a wry smile as she leaned into him, “And investigated for cheating.”
He enjoyed the little spike of fear that crossed his friends’ faces. It was what he felt in the moment, but now, after everything was fine, it was more funny than scary.
Kyle blurted out, “Wait, what?”
Matt waved it off. “Oh, it was scary as hell at the time, but we got access to the Empire Market. It’s like the contribution point market for the war, but with a seemingly more universal currency. You can buy some amazing things. The investigator was reasonable and heard us out.”
- Writer
