After a few hours of bouncing in the wagon, we took a break to stretch our legs and have a bite to eat. I wasn’t that hungry, but Kitz and Delen were acting as if they were on the verge of starvation.

  “I have read that humans can live weeks or even months without food,” Ersabet said. “Yet you moan and whine about hunger despite having eaten only a few hours ago.”

  “I haven’t eaten since breakfast,” Delen said. “I don’t know much about your metabolism, but I need to eat at least two meals a day, ideally three, for my mind to operate to its highest capability.”

  Ersabet snorted. “Highest capability. Even with stims and neural boosters, your mind wouldn’t be able to keep up with the brilliance of a Dalari.”

  Delen stepped back and clutched at his chest in mock offense. “You doubt my abilities, Dalari? If so, why don’t we put our minds to the test?”

  Ersabet laughed, but her mirth slowly gave way to reticence. “You wish to challenge me? In what? Trivia?”

  “Mathematics,” Delen said. “You do know how to do math, don’t you?”

  “I was calculating orbital trajectories as a child. Yes. I know math.”

  “Do you accept my challenge, then?”

  “Do you really wish to be embarrassed?”

  A wicked smile led Delen’s reply. “John? Why don’t you give us some basic math questions and see if she can keep up? First one to answer wins.”

  “In base-ten, I presume?” Ersabet asked.

  Delen nodded.

  “Very well.”

  They both turned to look at me, and I just shrugged. I sucked at math.

  “Okay, uh,” I said. “What’s six times six?”

  “Thirty-six,” they replied in unison.

  “That was an easy one,” I said. “What’s forty-two times eighty-six?”

  “Three thousand six hundred and twelve,” they both said, but this time, it seemed like Delen was a few microseconds ahead of Ersabet. The glance she gave him confirmed my suspicion.

  This whole thing was stupid, so I gave them a stupid question next. “What’s nine thousand nine hundred and eleven multiplied by two hundred and thirteen divided by forty-four minus sixty-nine?”

  “Forty-seven thousand nine hundred and nine and one quarter,” Delen said less than a second after I finished speaking.

  Ersabet turned to him, mouth agape. “How did you do that? You aren’t a special NPC.”

  Delen beamed at her; his mismatched eyes made him look as crazy as he was. “I’ll accept your apology in the form of one foot rub.”

  Ersabet’s blue face wrinkled in disgust. “You cannot rub upon my feet. They are forbidden from the likes of you.”

  “Not your feet, woman,” Delen said. “Mine. Been using my feet a lot the last few weeks, and I could use a bit of relief. Kit’s hands are too small for the job, and God knows what sort of nastiness John’s been touching. Therefore, you are the only candidate.”

  “What about the new girl?” Ersabet said with a scowl.

  “The new girl is right here,” Tabby said. She had a big grin on her face.

  Delen gestured at her. “I barely know her. I can’t ask a stranger to rub my feet.”

  “I am confident that your feet are disgustingly filthy and unworthy of my touch,” Ersabet said.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Delen wiggled his brows. “I can clean them.”

  Ersabet pretended to think about it for a moment, then said, “Pass.”

  The word made Delen grit his teeth. He wasn’t going to let her out of this.

  “You insulted my intelligence, and I proved you wrong,” he said. “Now you owe me. You can either look me in the eye and say, ‘Delen, I apologize for questioning your intellectual abilities. Furthermore, I sincerely apologize for believing I was superior to you in intelligence. My thoughts were tainted with prejudice. I now recognize that you, Delen, are the smartest person in the group. In fact, you may just be the smartest man in the world.’”

  Ersabet crossed her arms. “I am not saying that.”

  “Then feet it is,” Delen said with joy. “I’ll go find somewhere to wash them off.”

  I chuckled to myself as Delen limbered away toward a nearby valley. He was wasting his time. Ersabet was more likely to chop his toes off than touch them.

  There were flowers everywhere here. Short yellow ones, tall blue ones, and a scattering of purple flowers sprouting in tight groups, their flowers growing only an inch or so from the ground. It was a pretty scene, and Elena would have loved it. She had a thing for flowers. Every week, while we were living together, she would replace the flowers in the vase on our kitchen table. Sometimes, when I wanted to score some points, I’d buy the flowers and replace them first before she got home.

  I sighed and looked at the group. Kitz was eating a second helping of dinner, and Tabby was going around her wagon, inspecting it for any issues. Ersabet was standing like a stone, arms crossed and scowling at the man who was smarter than her. It was good for her to be humbled. The more Ersabet saw us as equals, the better.

  We had three more hours of sun, so we figured we’d ride for a little less than two of those hours before setting up camp somewhere off-road. But we’d still be resting for another fifteen minutes or so.

  I told Kitz I was going to explore and headed out in the opposite direction from Delen. Val followed me, of course.

  “We are making good time,” Val said. “If we can keep up this pace, we’ll reach Nessa in twelve days.”

  “I miss cars,” I said. “I’d even settle for a bicycle. Do you think Delen could build me a bicycle if I explained the concept to him?”

  Val laughed, and I smiled. I liked her laugh—her good, happy laugh, not her evil, mocking laugh.

  “With the right tools, I have no doubt Delen could build you a bike. However, the odds of finding or manufacturing the components needed to build a bike are slim. Very slim. Virtually impossible, in fact.”

  I rolled my eyes. I didn’t come out here to talk to Val. Now that I was kitted out with all these daggers that had previously been sitting in my inventory, I needed to learn how to use them. Most of them could be thrown, and killing a monster from ten feet away was far preferable to killing one up close.

  My back cracked as I stretched and then bent forward to touch my toes. I raised my elbows and twisted my torso side-to-side, and then swung both my arms like a windmill.

  After I felt limbered up, I pulled one of the daggers from my modified armor. It was five inches long, if that, and was designed to be thrown, with a handle as thin as the blade. I twirled it in my fingers and enjoyed how the cold metal felt in my hands. Knife throwing could be a great skill for me to master, and if I knew the system, there might be related skills or even a competency.

  Most likely, to unlock anything worthwhile, I’d need to throw a knife at a living being for it to count, but one could never know in this game, and I needed the practice anyway. I walked a bit and found a thick-enough oak tree to serve as my target.

  I held the dagger out before me, lined up my shot, and threw. It missed the tree entirely, so I pulled out another dagger from my vest while I did my best to ignore Val’s snickering.

  I closed my eyes and let out my breath, remembering the countless times I had thrown knives into trees in both of my past lives.

  My eyes opened back up and latched onto the center of the trunk. I threw, and the dagger ricoched off the tree. I grunted and tried again. This time, the dagger stuck into the tree with a satisfying thud.

  “What do you think about that?” I said to Val.

  “One hit, one miss, by my count,” she said.

  “I used my mulligan, so that first throw didn’t count.”

  I threw a third dagger, and it stuck the trunk about a foot higher than the dagger that was already embedded in the wood.

  This went on for some time. I had nine hits and three misses, which is pretty darn good if you asked me. I gathered my daggers and proceeded to restock my vest. I wanted to throw another round.

  My first throw hit the spot, and when it did, a notification popped.

  I grinned and opened it.

  COMPETENCY UNLOCKED: SHURIKENJUTSU

  I bet you don’t know what that word means. It’s the Japanese martial art of thrown blades, you dummy! Congratulations, you’ve unlocked a new competency! The Shurikenjutsu competency provides a minor increase to the speed at which thrown bladed weapons travel after leaving your hand when you reach Tier 1. Upon reaching Tier 2 of this competency, you will notice a minor decrease in the weight of all thrown bladed weapons.

  Well, well, well, I unlocked a competency without killing anything. I threw the rest of my daggers and only missed once. I couldn’t really tell if the blades were moving faster, to be honest. I would need to rank the competency up a few times before I noticed a difference.

  I’d decided I would throw daggers at every stop along the way and could hopefully reach tier 3 by the time we reached Nessa.

  I made my way back to the group, and we hit the road.

  Delen did not receive his foot rub.