Nathan rose and yawned silently. He could barely remember his dream, but what he did remember left him feeling uneasy. He looked up curiously at the two standing people.

Nori suddenly realized she was still aiming at the large man and lowered her arm. The dart reabsorbed into her bracer. “Sorry, about that.”

“Na, my bad. Shoulda known better than to poke a sleeping puma.” He grinned, showing his large white teeth. “Anyway, I thought you’d be interested in something.” He proudly held up what looked like a standard cartridge with a blue light at the tip of the bullet.

“Ooo, let me see,” Lana said and took the offered round.

.22 Cal Tec-Infused cartridge [prerequisite met: level 0]

Nori walked over and inspected the item. “Good job, Bulco, but do you think it’ll be enough to take down the higher level Warped?”

He grinned at her. “Those cartridges would match a wide variety of assault rifles. With enough of them, shot on a semi-automatic spread, they should do a lot of damage. And if that won’t work, then this one will.” He took out a much larger cartridge from his pocket and handed it to her.

.50 Cal Tec-Infused Warped Buster [prerequisite met: level 4]

“Warped Buster?” She frowned.

Bulco chuckled. “Yeah, since I invented it, I get to pick a name for it. I only made six for my revolver and about a hundred of the twenty-twos. Should be enough to test them out. I had to melt down a bunch of the ship’s broken components to make them. For some reason, using Earth’s metal didn’t work. But it was all worth it in the end. I even ended up with a bonus - my Path’s score increased by one.”

Lana’s eyes widened. “We can increase our Path scores by ourselves?”

Bulco shrugged. “Looks like it. Anyway, I’ve prepared three semi-automatic rifles with a full magazine each and put them on the shuttle already. We’re ready to head out as soon as you kids finish up your morning cereal.”

“We’re not kids!” Lana pouted. Her stomach suddenly growled, attracting everyone’s attention. She blushed. “What? It’s been a full day since I’ve eaten anything and that was only a small bowl of … ahem …” her blush deepened as she finished, “cereal.”

Bulco laughed openly, then he pointed at a few boxes in the corner. “I brought some rations from my base. Should last us for several weeks. Even if we can go on days now without eating, doesn’t mean we should. Eat up; it’s going to be a long day.”

Nori opened a case and took out a pack of jerky. She took one for herself and passed the rest to Nathan. The young man smiled gratefully at her and started chewing happily. Lana took the pack from him and stared at it gloomily.

“What’s wrong?” Nori looked at her as she chewed.