1,423?

  “… likely. What about…”

  It had to have been a high number by now, but was it really that high already? Maybe this included his before time? Maybe it didn’t…

  “… can see … not high … 370.”

  Max tried to recall the last time he had the number told to him accurately. It had been during the life when he developed the runes. That world’s Cy told him the number of lives he spent. What was that number again?

  “… are much higher … highest was over …”

  It hadn’t been a thousand yet. Max would’ve remembered if it had been a thousand. Exactly how many? He stopped counting on purpose. It was demoralising.

  “… over 4,000? … not gone on … did it start?”

  Around 800? Somewhere around there felt right.

  “… people like me. … start remembering … don’t know …”

  That would mean Max had spent over 600 lives between then and now. 600 lives completely focused on trying to beat a five-stars. When he first developed the runes, he had already spent 300 lives trying to reach his goal.

  “… about after?”

  About 50 lives to get to grips with the system and complete his first one-star.

  “… we’re working together. … are important.”

  Another 350 focused on completing a three-stars…

  “… I can … help …”

  When he told people like them, they all called him stubborn for being so focused on the leap of difficulty.

  “… need to complete. … we should …”

  Then he spent another… 900 lives…

  “Maybe Max …”

  Only to result in… nothing…

  “… … …”

  It had been a waste of time. He was too stubborn to realise that for the whole time, he was going in the wrong direction.

  “… … …?”

  Seven short months of resisting resulted in more progress than 900 lives-

  Max’s thoughts were interrupted by Cy slamming his hands down on his shoulders, making him fall backwards and sharply hitting his head on the ground. Dazed, he looked up at him. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to hit you that hard,” Cy appeared baffled by his own strength, as he helped Max back up into a sitting position. A quick glance at BB showed she was now holding the scissors. There was concern on her face. “Ta da,” Cy pulled up a mirror for Max to look in. Staring back was a monster covered in cream and chunks of hair stuck to it. “What do you think?”

  “… I think I should wash off this… Is it moisturiser?”

  “Good idea,” BB leapt up to grab him a bucket of water. She grabbed the bucket before running out of the room.

  Alone, Cy broke the silence. “Must’ve been a bit of a shock, huh?”

  It took Max a second to place Cy’s tone. For the first time in days, he suddenly sounded more like normal. “I lost count a long time ago.” Max was about to take a sip out of his Bloody Mary when Cy snatched it out of his hand. It spilled a little on the floor.

  “In case you forgot, this body is allergic to celery,” he tutted. Without hesitation, he poured the improvised concoction into a plant pot.

  “I thought that was why we were having Bloody Marys.” Max was genuinely surprised by his actions.

  “Maybe… Originally…” Cy took a sip of his own drink before swiftly dumping it as well. The flavour left a bad taste in his mouth “Having you distracted by an allergic reaction isn’t going to help. The taste isn’t even worth a reaction.” Not getting a chance to drink it, Max could only shrug in agreement. “… Since you change bodies so much, do you sometimes forget about allergies?”

  “Sometimes,” Max openly admitted, as he stared in the direction where BB had left. She was taking her time. “There have been a few times when I got killed from not knowing about or forgetting allergies.”

  “Really? What kind?”

  “Bees,” Max said, without thinking. “There’ve been some others like eggs, peanuts… shellfish. But bees have caught me by surprise the most.”

  “Bees?” Cy pondered aloud. “Then why don’t you test it when you first come into a world and create some kind of anti-allergy-rune thingy?”

  “Because sometimes runes don’t work and, even if they do, it’s hard to write runes accurately while going into anaphylactic shock,” Max scoffed at the idea. “Just count yourself lucky that you’re not allergic.”

  Straight-faced, Cy quickly retorted. “No, I just got a small penalty from the system that occasionally causes heart attacks.”

  On edge, Max didn’t know how to reply until Cy cracked a smile causing him to mirror. “To be fair to you, we classed it as a medium level penalty.”

  “Wow, a medium? I must be strong… Who’s ‘we?’”

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

  “Edric and company.” Max started to rummage for things he could use from Bessie’s bag. “We should get that fixed now that the system isn’t in the way anymore… What do you prefer? Tattoos or scarring?”

  Cy pulled a face. “What the fuck are you-”

  “I brought more drinks!” BB exclaimed in delight as she got some of her crew mates to bring them a keg with a few buckets of water and glasses. When the crew saw Max, they all scrunched up their faces in confusion and horror until BB began poking their ribs as a reminder to behave. “Not a word. It’s a work in progress,” she hissed at them.

  For the first time, Cy reevaluated his work. “I didn’t think it was that bad…”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Max began to wash away the mixture of hair and cream all over his face. Handful after handful, with every splash of water to hit his face, the materials of the beauty treatments washed away to reveal… that he looked exactly the same but with shorter hair. The crew mates were trying to decide if they liked it before getting chased away by BB.

  “The left side is a little uneven,” she finally decided. “Sit back down, I’ll even it out.”

  “Wait a second, my hair can wait,” Max kept rummaging before realising he was a fool. BB had chased away several, heavily tattooed pirates. “Go get them back. I want to know what they use for their tattoos.”

  BB looked between them. “Tattoos?”

  Cy filled her in. “I need to get tattooed runes for my heart… issue.” Despite seemingly making up his mind between his two options, there was still hesitation in his voice.

  It didn’t take BB long to take a leap at the strangeness in his voice. “Really? I’m not too keen on them either,” Cy’s face soured further. “But I’m set to die soon! How about we all get some matching tattoos while we’re at it?” Cy still looked unsure, but Max was open to the idea. “Come on, if I get conked out by the system in a couple of days, this can be a way to preserve my memory. You two wait, I’ll go get the stuff.” Her eagerness was starting to get worrying before she disappeared as quickly as she had arrived.

  “… What kind of design do you think she was thinking about?” Cy’s nervousness was still clear in his voice.

  “No clue,” Max began drawing his intended intricate pattern of runes on a slip of paper. “You can always say no. I’m not going to let her tattoo you if you don’t want it.”

  “You’re not?” Cy expressed scepticism.

  “Of course not.” Max looked down at the piece of paper, two complex patterns would have a better chance of healing better than one. He began to redraw the patterns. “First of all, are you sure you want to go with the tattoo option? It might not heal properly, and you’ll probably have to get it redone if the tattoo starts to smudge with time.”

  “Then wouldn’t scarring be better?”

  “Scarring is more permanent and painful. It’s also harder to hide it from people who know about runes and how it works. With tattoos, it’s easier to add to it and disguise the shapes.” After taking his time to make sure it was done properly, Max showed Cy the two patterns he intended to tattoo.

  “There aren’t like any of the runes you taught me…”

  Max almost laughed at the comment. “Really? Cause your name is in both of them.” Surprised, Cy did a double take as he looked closer at the drawing. “When you write runes clearly and cleanly, like we’ve been practicing, it becomes dangerous because of people who know how to read and manipulate them.” Max pointed out the two runes for Cy’s names in each cluster. “The lines of runes can overlap, what’s important is that everything is proportional within the rune.” Thinking back to 500042, Max’s tone of voice soured a little. “DO NOT let other people know how to write your name in runes.”

  “… Didn’t you offer to show me your name?”

  “That’s right.” Max quickly acknowledged, but Cy didn’t press further. Eventually, Max allowed the opportunity to pass and began explaining. “The top one is like a pacemaker and a defibrillator in one.” Cy tilted his head in confusion. “It’s going to passively gather a little bit of your innate magic until it’s full, then, if your heart slows or fails, it’ll give it shocks and artificially beat your heart until you recover. This one is a healing rune specifically for your heart...” Max paused for a second. “Is there anything structurally wrong with it at the moment?”

  Cy confidentially shook his head. “Elder Charaka frequently did structural exams. He never found anything. It just… stops.”

  “Great, then it will record its current state and return it to this whenever something goes wrong… Maybe we should add a couple more runes while we’re at it…”

  Cy looked at the two drawings for a while. “…These don’t sound like a permanent cure.”

  “Depends on what you define as a ‘cure.’ Your condition isn’t going to go away. It might be uncomfortable if you have an attack again, but it won’t kill you. The attacks should also significantly decrease thanks to this rune.” Max pointed at the second one. “The only reason why I didn’t do it earlier was in case the system considered this was enough to be a cure.” Cy still seemed unsure. “I gave you two options before. I suggest you take the tattoo version.”

  “So, BB and I can get matching tattoos after?” Cy joked, while remaining completely focused.

  “You remember that guy who was fighting Lux when I first met him. The one with an ugly tattoo?”

  “Flynn?”

  “He was hiding some identification tattoos in it. Tattoos are normal in this world. If you want to hide it, then it’s probably better to go with that route and then hide it in whatever pattern you pick out with BB. By the time it starts to fade or smudge, I’ll help you get good enough at redrawing it yourself, so you don’t have to worry if I get taken out while trying to complete the six-stars.” Cy stared at the patterns before going over to the mirror. “What are you doing?”

  “Trying to make up my mind.” He was focused on his own image. Was he trying to read his own fate? Was that why he hid next to the waterfall that night? So, he could subtly look at his own reflection during sunrise to ensure the timing was right? “Both.”

  “What?” Max was completely taken back by his answer.

  “We’re going to do both.” Cy pointed to his forearm. “We’re going to put the tattoo here.” Right where the identification spot should go… Was this on purpose to show other during people? “And the scarring runes…” Cy kept looking at his reflection. “We’re going to keep them as small as possible…”

  Max watched him struggle. “If it’s a symbol you can’t decipher, try writing it down. Maybe it’s similar to a rune again.” Cy used his breath to mist up the mirror before beginning to draw shaky lines. “… Ear.” With confidence, Max drew the rune for ear below the delicate designs. Like last time, the shapes weren’t the same, but they were similar enough to make a connection. “If we’re trying to hide it then maybe behind your ear.”

  “… I think so.” Cy began to crack open the keg left behind for them. “… How much is it going to hurt?”

  “You took an axe to the stomach a few days ago, this’ll be nothing.” Max tried to reassure him before realising how it sounded. It worked though, as Cy relaxed a little, but Max was a little too flustered to notice so he decided to change the subject. “Your fate reading… is pretty good this time.”

  “It’s been declining since we left the community,” Cy admitted. “But I think it’s starting to level out… The accuracy has gone down by a chunk.”

  “I’ll still believe in your predictions.”

  “Even though I left you out in the woods to be attacked?” Cy pouted. “I didn’t mean it, by the way. I just… lost track of time somehow.”

  “It happens,” Max said with a shrug. “And it turned out not moving was the correct course of action, so it had been a good prediction in the end.” Cy’s words echoed in his head a little. For some reason they felt important. It took him a few seconds to remember why. “Didn’t you say BB was skilled at time manipulation when you read her fate?”

  Cy couldn’t remember giving that prediction, but he nodded. “Water, metal, and time. Why? Do you think she manipulated time when I was in the pub?”

  “Maybe, but I think we should use that kind of magic to help complete her stor-”

  “I’ve decided!” BB exclaimed with such force it caused both of them to jump. She came through the door with a box filled with various bottles of ink and cleaning materials. “We should get tattoos of Hello Kitty!”