Chapter 28

  For a good hour, best guess of course, I answered Guy’s questions about my home world. Which, was a weird way to think of Earth. Most of what he asked was obviously related to things he and the other Traveling Guys would be able to capitalize on. What foods were popular, what flavor profiles, creature comforts, and so forth. All of it with the sole purpose of maximizing profits, but also, maybe more.

  The more he asked, the finer details he picked at, made me wonder if he was also planning to pass along the information to more easily be able to befriend other Travelers, as he called people like me. A part of me wondered if this information would help Traveling Guys better… ingratiate themselves to us, and considering someone out there, in theory, would save this world, set themselves up on the right side against the Disciples of Grand Nox.

  Granted, he’d already made it clear back when Ember and Aaron had ambushed me that he wasn’t fond of the Disciples. Cults were generally bad for business, after all. Something about the whole ‘everything belongs to us’ mindset really rarely ever flew with capitalism. Still, giving him inside info to help better prepare to have Travelers as customers only felt slightly like a betrayal to the others. Mostly because I gave zero fucks about others who may have been teleported to this world. All the politics, the fate bullshit, none of that was on my radar. I just needed to know what I needed to know, to keep on taming Muns and fulfilling my passion of training and evolving monsters.

  Once I’d finished explaining to Guy what pizza was for what felt like the tenth time, he finally went quiet, giving me the chance to ask the questions I wanted to.

  “Starting with the simple bits first I suppose,” I began, looking at his gauntlet. The five stones in his knuckles, the augmenting stones, all looked like small, dime sized, extremely roughly cut crystals. Three of them shone green, like emeralds, while one looked like a ruby perhaps, and the other, a sapphire. “What exactly are Augmenting Stones?”

  “Augmenting Stones are, well, in short, just that.” He pulled out another crystal as he spoke, and offered it to me. I took it, the magic of my gauntlet pulling up the information on it. He’d just given me a beverage called a ‘Pep Step.’” He had one in his hand, the flash of the crystal transforming into a bottle, the size of a regular soda bottle back home. The similarity stopped there though, because the bottle looked to be made of clear crystal still, and was filled with a glowing pink liquid. He took a sip, and smiled, motioning for me to do the same.

  Hesitantly, I used the power of the gauntlet to call for the drink contained within, and then held it up to my lips. Drinking something from a strange man was, obviously, generally not high on my to do list. But, given how my day had been going, and the fact I trusted the system to alert me if anything was ever poisonous or drugged or dangerous, I took a tentative sip. It was carbonated, reminding me even more of soda, and overly sweet, like one of those high sugar energy drinks. Immediately, warmth flowed through my body though, and, interestingly, a lightness filled me. True to its name, the two of us began walking… well… quicker. Like there was a bit of extra pep to our step…

  Happily, Guy continued. “Other than the restrictions regarding rarity and the number you may have equipped, which I’ve already stated, Augmenting Stones do just that. They augment your Muns. Different stones have different capabilities, and you can usually get a basic idea of what they are augmenting based off the color of the gem.” He pointed to one of the green ones, “green colored gems augment the physical stats of your Muns. For instance,” he pointed to the green one on his pinky, “this one gives my Muns five percent more HP. And this one,” another of the three green gems, “two percent extra to their defense.”

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  “So, the color doesn’t tell exactly what stat, but at least gives an idea.” I said, mulling that fact aloud. Interesting. “Are they all percent based?”

  “Perceptive, aren’t we,” he smiled at me, and took another sip. “No. Some give flat increases, others percent. Depending on the Muns on your team, and their stats, obviously, percent increases may not always been the best to use.” He pointed at the red stone, “red augmenting stones can apply special effects to Muns, and blue, special protections.”

  “Such as?” I pressed.

  “Well, my red augmenting stone gives my Muns a five-percent chance to heal for a small bit of health every time they attack. And the blue one gives them an increased chance to avoid being stunned.”

  “Okay, that’s easy enough.” I said, making mental notes of everything he was telling me. I had no doubt the sheer range of such things would quickly get overwhelming, and appreciated getting the information now. Min maxing your augmenting stones based off your Mun would no doubt play a huge part in battles against other Tamers. Especially when the system itself put level caps in place for Tamer Battles.

  “Are there other colors than just the three you have?” I asked, my mind trying to imagine what all perks there could be to add to my gauntlet.

  “There are. Clear stones are general perks, with a wide range of options. Black gems are their counterpart and offer general protection perks. While Orange gems are Mun specific perks.”

  “Mun specific? Like, Mun types?”

  “Correct,” he nodded appraisingly at me as I took another sip of my Pep Step. “If your entire team was gear based Mun, for instance, an orange augmenting stone that gave special perks to those types of Mun would be something you may be interested in.” He stroked his moustache, “some Tamers will split them, depending on the makeup of their team, or the sheer potency of the augmenting stone. Some perks, after all, are hard to resist. Especially as you get access to higher rarity stones.”

  “Okay, that’s… going to probably a be a lot of information I don’t need to delve into just yet,” I said, remembering that I could also create and fuse Augmentation stones at the Mun Center. Something I would no doubt be experimenting with once we reached Silver Springs.

  “And I can see how Augmentation Stones can effect the outcomes of battles. But, even still,” I looked at his gauntlet, and the black stone on the back of it, “why are Amplifiers the reason you said getting stronger slows down so much?”

  He tapped his amplifier, and the black stone shimmered with an inner light, like a flame encapsulated within crystal, flickering to life from a slumber.

  “Because Amplifiers,” he said as the light went back to sleep, “do just that. They amplify… everything. And unlike augmenting stones, which have set increases… Amplifiers, and what they can do, are unique to each and every Tamer out there.”

  I raised an eyebrow at that. “Wait, what?” I looked at him, “didn’t you say there are different rarities to them as well?”

  “I did,” he said with a smirk, “and I’ll elaborate in a second. Amplifiers, you see, take a little more time to accurately explain. Because, at the heart of it, Amplifiers are what will make or break a Tamer’s quest to power. No matter what Muns they capture, no matter how skilled they are in battling strategy. An Amplifier, will always play the largest role in deciding the outcome between two equally skilled Tamers.”

  Now that was interesting.

  “I’m all ears.”