"So you have mana now?" Cici asked excitedly. He was rummaging through some large sacks, producing different pieces of clothing until he found some that fit Kopius.

"That's what the bars mean, right? Don't yours look the same?" Kopius asked while trying on different types of what looked to be basic clothes.

"Of course, when I was a lad. But now I have it higher up, so the bars go this way," Cici finished, making a side-to-side gesture, indicating they were horizontal.

"Wait, you can customize your profile?"

"Oh yes! It is quite useful and easy to use."

"Sounds… awesome," Kopius said with no humor.

"But you have mana now!" Cici repeated cheerily, not giving Kopius a chance to brood.

"Yeah, but I don't know how to use it…and I don't have any spells."

"You will learn! How do those new clothes fit? They were the biggest I could find."

"A bit on the smaller side, but far better than the rags I was wearing before. Do I want to know why you have all these different sizes of clothing handy?"

"Have you ever left a place in a hurry?" Cici said with a slight grin. "Sometimes you have to put on the first thing you can grab."

Kopius looked at the several full bags of clothing they had been rooting through.

"Looks like leaving in a hurry is standard procedure," Kopius said with a snort.

"Sometimes it feels that way," Cici replied with a laugh.

Kopius was dressed, though he felt like he was wearing clothes from the junior section. The shirt's long sleeves only came to his elbows and the pants were high-water length at best. The crotch was a bit tight, but all-in-all, his new outfit was a step up from the potato sack he had first received in the cave.

"This will have to work. Thanks, man," Kopius said.

"Don't mention it," Cici replied, waving his hands. "I need to get rid of this stuff anyways."

The big man went about putting all the clothing back in their respective bags. Cici had a rather organized system. One bag for tops, another one for bottoms, and then a third, much larger bag that housed miscellaneous items–things like bedsheets, towels, and underwear. There were also two tablecloths, three flags, and a horse blanket.

Another item, a banner, had captured Kopius's attention. Its color was a deep blackish-purple, with illusions of dark green and blue streaks; depending how you looked at it. The material was thick and malleable but still soft to the touch. He had mistaken it for a cloak and was disappointed that it wasn't a wearable object.

"So," Cici said, breaking the brief silence, "back there in the water, is your mind better?"

Kopius was silent at first, content to nod his head slowly. He took a deep breath and let it out.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

"There is a very real possibility that you are… well, in fact…real," Kopius finally said.

"I am relieved to hear," Cici replied playfully.

"At least one of us is."

"It's not everyday someone validates my existence," Cici joked.

"In a realm of possibilities, that one is starting to take the cake."

"Cake?"

"Hey, that shit I just took blew my mind. Just give me a second to get my metaphors straight."

"Well now, a metaphor would be more like, you have shit for brains."

"That's an analogy."

"No, no," Cici insisted, "an analogy is more elaborate. Something like, you are so full of shit I can smell it on your breath."

"I am just saying that I am still processing it. It was… deep. It was deep shit."

"Sounded more like a tough shit the way you were wailing."

"I just need to get my shit together," Kopius lamented.

After some awkward stretching to loosen up his new garments, Kopius went on to explain to Cici most, if not all, of what Oh-jin had explained to him. He covered the books, the boots, the quests and Quinn. Kopius explained his numbers, his need to level up, and his storage ring.

By the time he was finished, the two men had completed eating lunch. Cici laid in his cot, processing the new information. Kopius stood at the cave entrance while he stared off into the wilderness. Though he didn't knowingly have any expectations around the big man, he was flooded with a sense of relief when Cici finally said he would be able to help.

"Leveling you up will be the easy part, " Cici said. "Provided you don't die on me, eh," he finished with a laugh.

"Oh!," Cici exclaimed, "It's perfect. I know a weaver in Cawbachu. It's about a fourteen-day journey on foot, but we can take Escher Pass. We can make the trek in four, maybe five, days; level you all the while. Sure, there are skinwalkers and some moonshots but two big lads like us, it will be harmless. And while we are there, we can gather some rare ingredients I have been in need of!"

"What's a moonshot's?" Kopius tried to interject.

"Besides," Cici continued, oblivious to his question, "it will give me the chance to turn in these bags of clothes for coins. Now that I have got someone to carry it!" He let out a good hearty laugh–Kopius wasn't sure if he should be amused or concerned.

"Skinwalker?" Kopius eventually asked.

"If those boots do as you say they do, skinwalkers are no problem."

"And the moonshot's?" Kopius asked. Cici smirked.

"They require, how should I say it, more: creativity. But that is with only one person attacking. With two, well, we will get the better of them."

There was a smile and confidence in all of his words, yet Kopius still felt a constant nagging that Cici was overselling the safety and ease of their journey.

"Will there be any loot?" Kopius asked.

"Loot?"

"Yeah, loot. Buried treasure, secret rooms, zombie hoards protecting valuable artifacts. Stuff like that."

"First of all, a zombie horde should be dealt with on sight. Secondly, yes, there are riches to be found all over, but they don't always reside in a locked box or on an altar."

"Fair enough," Kopius said dismissively. "When do we leave?"

"We head out after you can set things on fire with your boots."

"Fine, don't get comfortable. This shit can't be that hard."

Kopius summoned the four books from his inventory, then laid them on the cot he was using to sleep. Finding the book titled Manabolism he flipped through the many, many pages before the feeling of exhaustion started to creep in even before the reading had begun.

"Fuck, man," Kopius complained. "I wish I could just, I don't know, montage through this shit."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.