“Hey, Cormac. You doing ok over there?” Luke asked as he looked over to where the orc lay.

  They were all sitting or laying down among the monster bodies, but Cormac hadn’t moved in a while.

  Cormac sighed. “No. The spectral spider damaged my mana core. It is leaking and I will probably lose my class. I might die if the damage is too severe. I am waiting to see what happens.”

  “You mean you might die? Is there anything I can do to help? Should I run you back to town? They have healing potions, right?”

  “A healing potion will not fix this. It is my soul that is damaged, not my body.”

  “Isn’t there anything we can do?”

  “You can distract me. I no longer wish to dwell on my fate.”

  “Uh, ok. I think I can distract you, but not sure if it will make you feel better. My assessment period ended and I have a few choices. I could use some advice.”

  Bumblebee sat up. “Dude. You got magic?”

  Luke nodded. “About to get some, yeah. The system said I have to quickly choose between three classes. I just don’t know which one would be best for me.”

  “Truly? The System of the World is smiling on you. Most do not get a choice. What classes did it offer?” Cormac asked without sitting up.

  “I can choose between Mechanical Runewright, Acid Mage, and War Machine. I can read you the descriptions if you would like.”

  “No need. Pick the War Machine class.”

  “What? Why?”

  “You do not need the runewright class. Practice and the proper tools will allow you to replicate most of what Kruro can do. She tells me humans are particularly well suited to the craft. It would be a waste to choose that class. The Acid Mage class is the opposite. The class is very powerful, but humans are too weak to take advantage of it. All the good elemental mages bathe in their element to become stronger. A cupful of magic acid would kill you. That leaves the War Machine class. I do not know much about it, but even if the only thing it does is help you make spell rifles, it would be better than your other two choices.”

  “Oh.”

  “And choose quickly. The system does not like to be kept waiting.”

  Luke grit his teeth and read through the choices one more time. He hated being rushed, particularly in such an important decision.

  Before Cormac said anything, Luke had been leaning towards the runewright class. But if the class skills were on par with his own skills, it would be a waste. The list of potential skills that came with Mechanical Runewight were Rune Analysis, Imbue Intent, Steady Hand, and Align Materials. The first three were already skills he had, only the fourth one was something he couldn't do on his own. He had to admit that Cormac was probably right, the class wouldn't do much for him. Plus, there was the fact that the War Machine class was a platinum class, it probably came with benefits that the other classes didn't.

  With a small amount of trepidation, he pushed his intent towards the War Machine class. The other two boxes faded away and the War Machine message grew larger. The blue box was sucked into his chest. Something happened to him. He felt stronger, faster, and the world grew sharper. A strange pressure built in his chest, just below his ribs. It felt like a balloon was blowing up inside him, but he didn’t feel pain. He felt something flowing into him, prickling his pores and flowing into his center. He put his hand to his chest, only belatedly realizing he was still wearing the power armor.

  He chuckled to himself and said, “Alright. I did it. I chose War Machine. What’s next? So I assign points to my stat sheet or?”

  As soon as he said it, a blue screen popped up on the left side of his vision. Unlike the other messages this one was partially transparent and he could see the world around him as he read through it.

  The screen was full of things that made sense and others that were confusing. It made sense that his health wasn’t full, he felt like shit after being knocked across the room. His stats didn’t make sense though, he didn’t have a clue about why there were numbers in parentheses on there.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Cormac groaned and sat up. “I am feeling well enough to move. We will leave and you can fiddle with your system on your own. We should not stay in a spider’s lair any longer than necessary.”

  Luke reluctantly closed out his stat screen and said, “You doing better then? Your mana core healed or whatever?”

  “No, but I will not die today.” He stood up. “I must ask you all to do your jobs one last time. Please bring the bodies of the fallen to the beach for a proper cremation. Someone needs to harvest the queen’s core as well. Don’t bother with the spiderlings.”

  Luke walked over to the giant corpse, curious about how mana cores worked. They were the power source for many runed machines he had worked on, but he had never seen one harvested.

  With his sword, Bumblebee pried open a wound in its thorax. Once it was wide enough, he stuck his hand in and rooted around the viscera. Luke winced. He knew the gauntlets were waterproof, but still.

  Bumblebee pulled out a large stone, about the size of his fist. His armored fist. It was the largest mana core Luke had ever seen, even bigger than the ones he had taken out of the hover trucks. It had to be worth a fortune. The young black guy shook off some of the gore and held it out to Cormac.

  The orc stepped back. “Keep it. Better yet, give it to Luke of Machines. He killed the beast, he can keep its core.”

  Bumblebee hesitated. “Are you sure? This is a tier seven or eight core. It’s worth a lot. Lord Falodun probably wants it, yeah?”

  “I doubt he will notice. And if he does, it will not matter to me.”

  “That, uh, seems kind of out of character for you, Seneschal Cormac,” Bumblebee said and shifted awkwardly.

  Cormac turned away. “Yes. It is. But today is the last day I will hold that title anyway.”

  “You gonna quit? Don’t do that. None of this is your fault. Really.”

  Cormac sliced his hands down. “No, I will not quit, but as soon as our Lord discovers my core is cracked, he will dissolve my employment. It does not matter that I may heal one day. He needs a seneschal that can perform all of his duties, and that is no longer me.”

  Bumblebee handed over the core and Luke awkwardly tucked it away in the compartment at his waist. Cormac hadn’t lost his life, but apparently he had lost his career. That’s got to hurt so much. Everything he had worked for his whole life, gone in an instant.

  Luke busied himself by picking up Cuddle’s body and walking it out of the cave. It was macabre no matter how respectful he tried to be. He started having flashbacks to the aftermath of the failed invasion of Earth. It was years ago, but the smells, the memories, everything came back fresh. He shut down his feelings and focused on his task.

  Once all three bodies were outside, Bumblebee started building a pyre out of driftwood.

  “Um, are we sure their families don’t want a proper burial?” Luke asked.

  Sandwich shook his head. “We don’t have a choice. It has to be a cremation, and their remains have to stay here. It’s part of the treaty between Kalibutan and Earth. It sucks, but the elves feel very strongly about it.”

  Luke turned to Cormac, hoping for an explanation. The orc didn’t look up, lost in his thoughts. When Bumblebee was done, he and Luke carefully placed the bodies atop the pyre. They left the power armor on, but removed the mana core powering it. Bumblebee kept all of the swords, placing them on the magnetic strip along his back.

  They lit the pyre with the fire sword and stood back while it was quickly engulfed in flames. Sandwich stepped forward and said a few words honoring Marcus, Samuel, and Ellen, the real names of Cuddles, Rooster, and Degenerate.

  Luke tried to pay attention, but his mind kept slipping back to the invasion day. The horror of that day, the helplessness, combined to make his grief almost unbearable. Today felt just as terrible, with one exception. He no longer felt helpless. He felt stronger, better than he was before. There were three people alive now that would have died without him.

  They stood there for about an hour as the fire burned. The chitin plates that made up most of the armor burned very well once they were heated up enough. The bonfire was down to coals when they turned and started walking away.

  The walk back to the estate village of Bona Urbo was much slower than the race here. Cormac led the way, but he was probably the slowest of all of them. Although his injuries were mostly metaphysical, they clearly had taken a lot out of him.

  The sun was bright in the sky, birdsong filled the air, but all Luke could think about was the copper smell of blood still staining his mech.

  “This was my fault,” Sandwich said solemnly. “We should have run when we saw the spectral spiders. I was overconfident because I sacrificed my fear this morning. If I hadn’t done that, Rooster, Cuddles, and Degenerate would still be alive.”

  “Fault and blame matter little. The only thing that truly matters in the face of problems is solutions.” Cormac said. He laughed bitterly at that. “I used to say that to my grandson. When problems arise, only solutions matter. He and my children will probably lose their positions as well. The new seneschal will want the administration loyal to him. My priority is not to blame you, Sandwich, but to find a new place for my family to live and work. I still have many connections in the capitol, but I am not sure if the threads will still hold when I have no class.”

  “Are you sure there is no way to heal?” Luke said from the rear of the procession. “You are talking about focusing on solutions, but you have already given up on yourself.”

  Cormac glanced backwards and gave him a negligent wave. “That is because my position was precarious before any of this happened. Even if I could somehow afford to buy a cure for a cracked core, it would take a month to get it delivered from the capitol. Then it would take months for the cracks to heal. I would have to pretend to have my class the whole time so I don’t get dismissed. And during that time, the monster population would grow unchecked.

  “The warriors from the Shrine of Might are being called up to fight in the Malamon and they won’t be able to cull monsters any more. I should have been paying the Captain of the Guard to handle it, but I diverted those funds to village maintenance instead. The man hates me and won’t do anything to help.

  “I know your first thought is to say humans can cull monsters for me, but I think today’s events show that is not the case. Plus, there is no way Kruro could build enough suits of armor to pick up the slack. I know you mean well, Luke of Machines, but the problems are legion. Sometimes clinging to a hopeless cause will cause worse fallout than being realistic.”

  Luke immediately had a plan that countered his argument. He thought about it for a bit before he said anything. Did he really want to go out on a limb to help Cormac, or was it better to cut and run like the orc was suggesting? Both plans had merit, but would result in dramatically different outcomes for Luke’s future, not just Cormac’s.

  He gave himself a few minutes to mull it over before he said anything.

  When he made up his mind he said, “We can help you with all of those problems, if you will let us. The mana core you gave me is worth a lot, probably enough for that treatment I bet. I don’t know why you gave it to me in the first place. We can use the leftover money to hire more human fighters. Give me the resources and I’ll make power armor suits. Or did you forget I made this badass suit in only two days?”

  Luke didn’t give him a chance to respond before he continued, “And my class is War Machine now. I bet that will make me a better and better monster killer as I level up. I killed a queen Spectral Spider when I didn’t have a class. Can you imagine how powerful I will be when I level up and get skills?”

  Cormac stopped walking and turned around. “That might work. It would be incredibly risky, but it is possible. What would you ask for in return?”

  “Training, support, and for you to eventually pay me back. I want you to teach me everything I need to know about my class and leveling up. See if you can lighten Kruro’s load so she has time to teach me all the runes she knows. Provide all the materials I need to make an epic magic mech. Promise to get me a similar mana core when you are healed and back on top.”

  Cormac nodded slowly. “I can agree to those terms, but know that this is a risk. There are multiple ways your plan could fail and then you would be out everything you have invested.”

  Luke shrugged. “No risk, no reward. Is it a deal?”

  Cormac solemnly gave him jazz hands and extended a hand to shake. Luke smiled and shook his hand, the metal hand slightly larger than the green one. Cormac looked confused. Luke belatedly realized Cormac wasn’t holding out his hand for a shake, he wanted the mana core. Luke pulled out the huge thing and handed it over.

  “You can start paying me back right now. Tell me all about my stat screen. How do I pick skills? Also, what’s up with the parentheses in my stats? I think I understand health and mana, but what the hell is a Machine Soul resource?”