“How much are they paying you for these mana cores anyway? It’s got to be a lot, right?” Allen asked.

  He was holding a backpack full of cores Luke and Bumblebee had collected yesterday. Luke was driving them to the KaliBay exchange site so they could sell them. The afternoon had been a real whirlwind of activity.

  First, Luke had found a place to house his mechs with no ties to the billionaire Atticus. It was a small company with a warehouse on the western edge of the Norfolk Complex. They had bet on Kalibutan fashion taking off and had lost. Few were interested in the alien styles and those that were interested usually bought them from Earth manufacturers. Luke made a deal to house his power armor near their racks of men’s dresses.

  After the deal was struck, he told Allen to quit that day and they piloted the mechs over to the new building. Afterwards, they swung by his apartment and picked up the cores and Jinx. She sat between them in the middle console of Luke’s Nissan clunker. He definitely planned on buying a company car with the proceeds.

  “More than they should, really. Most of those are tier one cores, market price is about 4k each. But they bought them for 5,200 each. Then there are four at 25k and then two more at 40k.”

  “Damnnn,” Allen said, stretching the word out. He quickly counted the little marbles of mana. “So the smaller ones are 5,200, obviously. That means that this bag has $299,600 in it. That seems like too much. Are you sure they are going to pay it?”

  “That’s the point of the security,” Luke said and pointed towards the building in front of them. It was a former post office, with stone columns and barred windows. “So they can’t scam us. KaliBay holds the payment in escrow during the exchange and the customer gets to inspect the cores. Once everyone is happy, then the transaction completes. KaliBay takes 4.2%, by the way.”

  Allen tsked. “That’s like twelve grand in fees.”

  “Did you figure that off the top of your head? It’s a good thing you are our accountant and not me.”

  Allen shrugged as they got out and headed into the building. There was a short line to get in the building. People in business suits holding armored briefcases were standing next to disheveled people with backpacks. Luke thought he recognized some of the latter as power loader pilots he had done repairs for. He straightened out his hair so he would only slightly resemble the pilots.

  Everyone had to send their bags through security and walk through a metal detector. Then they had to stand still while an older woman with a wide visor gave them a thorough once over. The visor was a bit of heavy glass with runes carved into it. Luke recognized most of the runes as the same ones he had put on his helmet.

  Predictably, Luke and his cat were very interesting to the woman with the visor. She gave him a disgusted look and said, “What did you do to that poor animal?”

  “A car took her legs, all I did was to give them back. And before you ask about my own leg, an orc took that,” Luke said and grit his teeth.

  He could feel the gaze of everyone in line behind him. This was one of his pet peeves about having a visible disability. Everyone felt the need to comment on it and draw attention. He couldn’t just exist in public like he used to. Now he was either an object of pity or misplaced anger.

  The woman in front of him clearly had the latter. She took extra long examining him, probably trying to find a weapon on him. He didn’t have any, although the argument could be made that his metal leg was better at violence than natural appendages. Eventually she let him through and they checked in at the front desk.

  “You have a room reserved, please follow me,” the young man at the desk said.

  Luke almost asked if he had made a mistake, but in retrospect it made sense. They were dealing with a lot of money. It still didn’t feel real. It probably wouldn’t until he saw the money in his bank account.

  Allen handed over the bag and followed Luke into the small meeting room. The attendant left them then, but there was another person wearing the KaliBay uniform already in the room. He held a tablet and stood near the door. Their probable client sat at the only table in the middle of the windowless room. He wore a suit nice enough that he could be on the eponymous show. He had slicked back hair and a calm expression. A bulky silver case sat on one end of the table.

  “Luke7737 I presume?” the man in the suit said.

  “That’s me. And you are Mr. Perez, right? I suppose I should pick a more professional KaliBay username next time.”

  “Already thinking ahead? That’s good to hear. You might want to get a better bag for next time too,” the man said and pointed to Luke’s backpack. “Too much exposure to mana can fry electronics.”

  Luke shrugged. “Do they even make bags that can stop mana? I thought it could go through any material made on Earth.”

  The man quirked an eyebrow up and said, “Trade secret. Can I see the merchandise?”

  Luke opened up his backpack while the man opened up his case and unrolled a padded mat on the table. Together they lined up the cores in rows and Mr. Perez examined them one at a time with a runed monocle. Allen and Luke twiddled their thumbs and did their best to keep Jinx out of the man’s way. It was harder than expected because the cat seemed to really like the cores. Either that or she was just being her normal asshole self.

  Mr. Perez counted the cores three times and then turned to the KaliBay attendant standing at the door. “I am satisfied with my purchase, you may release the funds.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  The attendant started tapping away on his tablet while Mr. Perez started packing the cores away in his case. Luke pulled out his phone and signed into his banking app. KaliBay said the funds would appear before they left the room.

  “I’m always trying to build up a network of jockeys and marines that I can tap for future purchases. I make a weekly trip to this portal and the one in Brazil. Once you build up a batch of cores, I would appreciate it if you contacted me.”

  Luke was trying his best to listen, but the number on his phone was distracting. A deposit of $287,016.80. It was real. He had risked his life, and now he had real actual money in his bank account.

  He forcibly refocused back on Mr. Perez. “You also said something about a bonus in your IM? Not that I’m complaining, but why would you pay more to buy in bulk? Usually it’s the other way around.”

  “That’s an easy one. I make the trip to the portals whether I buy one core or twenty-nine. Transportation and security costs remain the same, you are actually saving me money, even with the bonus.” Mr. Perez pulled out a thick envelope and paused before he handed it over. “Actually, would you rather have this five thousand dollars or would you rather I tell you my secret to how I keep mana away from my electronics?”

  Luke almost instinctively asked for the secret. He would easily save more than that if he could keep his cell phone from busting every week. Then he thought better of the impulse and said, “I’ll take the money. Your case isn’t unique. I’m sure there are others nearby that will tell me the secret for less than five grand.”

  Mr. Perez laughed and handed over the envelope of cash. Luke opened it but didn’t count it. He wished he had worn a jacket so he could act like a badass secret agent. Instead he stuffed it into his backpack.

  “Sir? Are you also satisfied with the transaction?” the attendant asked Luke.

  “Yes.”

  “Then this transaction is complete and I will unbar the door. As a reminder, all sales are final and KaliBay makes no guarantees about the merchandise sold here. We appreciate your patronage and ask that you both leave by separate exits.” The attendant stood to the side and Mr. Perez walked out first.

  “Thanks, Mr. Perez. If you want, I can send you a message when I am ready to sell the next batch in a week.”

  “That would be most appreciated, Mr. Luke. Even if it’s several months from now, I hope to buy a batch of cores from you again.”

  Allen and Luke sat in the meeting room, still reeling at how easy that had been. Luke was only spurred into action when Jinx wandered out into the hall. He scooped her up and reattached her leash. When they made it out to the parking lot, Allen turned to Luke.

  “Did that just happen?”

  “Hell yeah it did. And it’s going to happen again. Maybe not that much in one go, but I bet we can average ten cores a week.”

  “Ten a week? That’s insane. Of course, some of that profit will go to repairs and salary, but still. That is so much money.”

  “People on Earth want magic, and mana cores are the battery that powers them all. I have a feeling we are going to expand rapidly.”

  As they walked back to their car, Luke saw someone walking in with one of those special cases. He turned to talk to him, to see if he could tell him the secret to keeping electronics safe from mana. The man immediately stopped and put his other hand behind his back. He might have a gun.

  Luke realized that of course they were going to be suspicious of anyone walking up to people in the parking lot. He backed away without even bothering to explain himself. He would look online again to see if anyone had ideas. He had an idea himself, actually. After discovering that the heavy machine guns in the portal room used magnets, he wanted to test them as a possible solution.

  The two friends spent the drive home making excited plans for the future of Monster Jaegers Inc. Allen predicted that they could hire twelve hunters to work alternating shifts killing monsters, and still pay them more than any mercenary on Earth. Luke explained his earlier plans for recruiting friends and former guard buddies, and Allen promised to give them a fair interview.

  By the time dinner rolled around, they were still talking. They ordered pizza while Allen got them officially registered as a business in Colorado and made an appointment to get the business approved by the Norfolk Complex. His employees would still have to pass a government background check of course, but this way he could issue passes of his own and not rely on the ones provided by ManaTek or Elwood services.

  Allen went home at eight, but Luke was too excited to watch TV or relax. He wanted to do something. He decided to work on the Adept Ice rune again. He tried a few more permutations but failed once more.

  He got up and looked out to the parking lot while he thought about it. He was missing something, some key to making the elemental magic work. Maybe it was time to start from scratch. If he was inscribing the Novice Ice rune, it would have a single intent, probably a general ice concept. The second tier, Apprentice Ice, would have two intents, maybe ice and ... frost? No, that was ice in another form. Maybe the second intent could be the concept of spreading cold, something that dug deep and froze to the core. The last concept needed for the Adept Ice rune would be something epic, like making all atoms freeze in place.

  No, that was too epic, that would be an intent for the Master Ice rune. This one would need ... a bitter, biting cold. Something that swiftly sapped the warmth from everything around it. Swift ice. That felt right. It was like the rune was talking to him, and he knew it would work now.

  With his new plan in place, Luke turned to one of his two sledgehammers. He had already carved the mana transfer runes into the metal hilt. Now he added the Ice rune to the head of the hammer and focused on all three aspects of ice. His enhanced Memory stat made the exercise trivial.

  When he lifted his inscriber away from the metal, he wasn’t surprised to see the rune flash with mana. It worked. He picked up the hammer and used his new mana core to push mana into the magic weapon. The head lit up and wisps of frozen air wafted up from the hammer. He tapped it to a nearby pizza box and cut the mana.

  The cardboard immediately froze over, the pizza inside freezing and shattering in moments. The arctic cold swiftly spread to the table the pizza was on. Luke jumped up and took a step back. The table turned sparkling white as it was covered in tiny shards of ice. A moment later, the center cracked and the table fell to the ground and shattered.

  Luke took another step back, but thankfully the magic had run its course. Once he realized he was safe, he laughed loud and long. He had a magic weapon now. An elemental ice hammer and a method that should work to make a flame and lightning hammer too. He didn’t plan on making an acid hammer though. He didn’t want to catch any accidental drips. He needed a ranged weapon before he tackled that element.

  The ding of his cell phone startled him, but he smiled when he read the text. It was Vanessa. She apologized for freaking out (she hadn’t really) and admitted that she really liked their date and wanted another.

  He texted back that he would love to meet up with her tonight. It was way too soon, he knew he should play it cool. But life was good right now, he might as well enjoy it now instead of waiting for a tomorrow that might not come.

  Today’s chapter title comes from Jerry Maguire (1996)

  Thanks to VoidSpecter for the review, they are awesome and helping us get another bonus chapter!