Robin inhaled deeply, the spring air around him sweet and tasting like freedom. The forest was a green smudge in the background, through the foothills he was steadily climbing still sported the odd clump of evergreens.

The Keep was a looming presence ahead of him. Robin was using it together with the landmarks he had scried out from the tower to navigate to the last place he had found the Sisters Sharp making camp. If he was lucky, they’d still be there; if not, he could hopefully follow their tracks to wherever they were now.

Robin bounded forward, making good time, the rocky hills beneath him no problem for his current form. His latest level up had brought with it the chance to finally get his hands on [Mask of Myriad Faces]. He was currently bounding up the hills on the legs of a satyr. The hooves were great on the terrain and worlds better than the makeshift sandals he had been wearing.

Even better, he looked exactly as he wished to, thanks to his [Mask of Disguise]. Should anyone out here spot him, they wouldn’t see the goat legs he was using. He looked as he normally did (though he’d kept the red hair) and he’d given himself the illusion of some nice clothes. He was sporting a dashing pair of knee-high pirate boots and black trousers, covered with the latest version of the three-quarter, fantastical trenchcoat he’d been working on ever since he found the mask in the tunnels. It was currently black with brilliant blue accents.

As soon as he was free of the forest, he’d received a quest notification.

Quest Complete! [Freedom, Freedom, Freedom!]

You have won your freedom thrice over, from cage, from the snares set for your heart and mind, and from the enchanted forest itself. You’ve defeated a triple-threat and that deserves a tripled prize!

Reward: Lumberjack, Clothier, and Spellbreaker professions unlocked. All experience rewards relating to this quest will now be tripled, retroactively. Hold on to your butts, this is going to be a ride!

The sensation of all that energy flowing into his body set him all a-fizz and a-flutter. He’d felt amazing! Like he could run a marathon while reading a book and belting a ballad all at once. And just as he had hoped, the experience was enough to tip him over the edge!

Congratulations! Threshold Achieved! Level-Bonuses Awarded!

Choose one Property to increase by one (1) rank!

Proficiency rank-cap raised by one (1)!

You have gained one (1) new Peculiarity slot!

Heritage advanced to Shadeling, Paragon! Professions Unlocked!

Robin increased his Cunning again. It had stood him in good stead and it was the most efficient use of points. The peculiarity was easy. Robin filled it with [Mask of Myriad Faces] immediately. And he was about to have even more options to play with! Robin flicked through to the relevant notification.

Congratulations! Tier 1 (Conditional) achieved! Please choose a Profession!

Professions were essentially classes. Robin opened that portion of the interface and spent a lot of time going through his options. Apparently, unlocking a profession just made it available from his pool of potential ‘classes’ to take levels of. He’d met the prerequisites, so to speak. There were several available, including ones that he had not gotten notifications for. He assumed those were basic options he qualified for simply due to his past experience. Scholar and Farmer were among these.

Of the others, the only ones directly dealing with magic in some form or other were Ritualist (probably from his dabbling in ceremonial magick on Earth), Spellbreaker, and Bard.

Magic in this world generally relied upon a personal store of arcane energy. All creatures had a basic capacity for it, but with the right classes (professions!), that reservoir could increase and be manipulated to produce spells and other effects.

His interface insisted on measuring this energy in thaumaturgical units, or ‘thaums’ but Robin just thought of it as spell points. The energy regenerated slowly thought the day, his pool refilling every 24 hours. The speed increased if he could rest in an area of compatible thaumaturgical energy, or if he selected peculiarities that aided in regenerating energy or making it more efficient to use what he had.

The advantage of the Ritualist was that he would be able to pull off major magical effects without having to rely on his personal store of arcane energies. The trade-off there was that spells took a lot longer and often required strange components to be present.

The Spellbreaker profession was unlocked by his quest, and it was pretty clear which relevant act he performed to get access to it. The class focused on disruption of, resistance to, and unravelling existing magical effects. Situationally very powerful. And attractive to someone who’d recently had to fight off a supernatural parasite.

And then there was Bard. Music, magic, performance, and living by your wits. Robin was a bit more limited in terms of the spells the interface showed him as accessible to bards, but the class made up for that to a small degree by allowing one to occasionally learn spells from any class. Bards were expected to possess a great deal of ancient and powerful lore, after all.

Robin pondered his options for awhile, but it wasn’t long until he just went with it and selected Bard. Hadn’t the universe been pointing him in this direction since he arrived in this world? It also fit the best with his illusion skill set and his general inclinations. Plus, it would give him plenty of reasons to travel, an increased knowledge pool to draw from, and the ability to steal choice bits of magic from other classes without having to deal with multi-classing or complex builds.

Oh, this was going to be fun!

Profession selected! Congratulations! You have been designated a Bard (Apprentice)! Complete your introductory quest to gain access to your full profession abilities.

Robin repressed a groan. He had to complete a quest first? It was always something.

New Quest! [Seize the Spotlight!]

Congratulations on taking the first step on your journey to becoming a bard! This is an Advanced Profession Option, and requires you to complete this quest to unlock its full potential. Until this quest is complete, you will have access to between 1/3 and 2/3 of your full Bardic abilities. Your mission, should you choose to accept it (and who in their right mind wouldn’t?) is to complete a performance in front of an audience of at least 99 people and gain the resounding approval of a majority. Hey, if you do well enough, maybe you’ll even get your first fan! Better start thinking of your stage name!

Reward: The Title of Full Bard, the remainder of your introductory profession options available to you, and an increase in notoriety. Fame is linked to your performance persona, and you only benefit from it when you are recognisable.

Well, at least that didn’t sound too bad. Good thing he was headed for the Keep. He should be able to find an audience there. Noviel was also an option, but Robin didn’t want to wait that long to gain access to his full bardic abilities. Who knows? He might also be stuck and unable to level until he completed this quest.

At least he got some of his abilities. Robin went for the spells first. He already had a solid idea of what he wanted. It looked like he should learn three cantrips with his bardic initiation, but with the quest limitation, he only had access to one. He selected [Legerdemain] because it was an all purpose cantrip that provided many small magical effects, but most importantly, could be used to clean himself. It wasn’t as fast as the others he had seen, but it would get the job done and the extra versatility it provided was nothing to sneeze at.

He also had the option to choose two (of what should have been three) Tier 1 level spells. Quickly scanning through the descriptions, he narrowed it down to a short list of choices.

[Healing Note] was a no-brainier. It was a short-range, single-target heal. He’d been looking for an option like this. He got hurt far too often for his taste.

The other decision was trickier. [Minor Enchanted Slumber] provided some crowd control, though it did not last long. [Whispers from Beyond] gave him an increased single-target damage option with a possible control effect. [Dissonant Wail] was a small amount of multi-target damage. And then there was the incredibly attractive utility of [Invisible Servant].

Reluctantly, he dismissed the idea of [Invisible Servant]. He had a lot of utility already. He needed to expand his self-defence options. Besides, he didn’t have any place to order his servant to clean and no current shenanigans to enlist it in. He could always pick it up later if nothing better was available.

Robin shelved the debate for a moment and examined his other bardic abilities. [Bardic Lore] represented the mass of legend and story, gossip and general knowledge floating around in his subconscious. The way the interface interpreted it, he had about a 70% chance of knowing useful information about any topic that fell under the description ‘common knowledge’. This went up through various stages of obscurity at steadily smaller percentages all the way to having a 3% chance of knowing useful information about an ‘extremely obscure’ topic, the sort of thing ‘known only to rare experts’. That was with the synergy provided by [Shard of the Shattered Manymind]. The percentage chances would increase as he levelled and as he raised his Intelligence score.

[Bardsong], on the other hand, was the knowledge and ability to imbue magical effects into his performances. His interface estimated he could use it 5 times a day, though at present, he was only able to manifest a single effect: [Command Attention]. He would be able to use [Bardsong] more times each day as he levelled and as he raised his Charisma score. At least that would be useful for his quest!

Robin paused at the top of the hill he was on. He was getting nearer the Keep, nearer the area he had last seen the Sisters Sharp. He recognised the broken rock formation at the top of the next hill. Down and up, up and down. It was a lot of hiking. Too bad he wasn’t going to be able to get his hands on a magical mount until at least Tier 3. Well, Tier 2 if he could steal an appropriate spell from the Paladin Profession.

Until then, however, he had to make do with his own two feet. Or hooves, as the case was at the moment. Robin conjured a single playing card out of thin air with [Legerdemain] and practiced sailing it at a nearby rock, refining his Ranged Combat. Then he set off down the hill, then up the hill, conjuring cards and sailing them at targets.

An idea for his performance persona began to take place in his mind as he went. He had the beginnings of a theme and a few options for names. It would have to be a single-word sobriquet, of course. Iconic.

Robin pondered as he hiked and sailed cards at stationary targets. Songs queued up in his mind, dredged out of hours of listening to the radio, to streaming music, to the albums of his friends at uni, like a mental nickelodeon jukebox. He hummed to himself as he went.

🎶I had an Ace of Hearts🎶the dream of every man🎶and I could see my destiny.🎶

Here Endeth the tale of the Secrets of Wyndham Wood

ROBIN PARKER Heritage: Shadeling, Paragon Profession: Bard (Apprentice) Tier: 1, Conditional (Effective Level: 3) Spell Points: 3 Bardsong: 5 uses Experience: 300 Properties

Free Ranks Available: 1 Physical Mental Social Strength: 11 Intelligence: 17 Charisma: 15 Dexterity: 14 Cunning: 20 Manipulation: 13 Fortitude: 11 Resilience: 14 Poise: 16 Proficiencies

Free Ranks Available: 1 Physical (9/9) Mental (9/9) Social (9/9) Athletics: 1 Arcane Lore: 4 Animism: 1 Brawl: 1 Bureaucracy: 1 Deception: 6 Dodge: 4 Concentration: 5 Empathy: 2 Melee Combat: 2 Crafting: 5 Expression: 5 Pilot: 4 Healing: 3 Gossip: 2 Ranged Combat: 5 Insight: 5 Intimidation: 3 Sleight of Hand: 1 Learning: 4 Persuasion: 3 Stealth: 5 Natural Wisdom: 3 Socialise: 2 Survival: 3 Perception: 5 Streetwise: 2 Peculiarities Blessing of Rhyth Tongue of the Fallen Tower Mark of the Trickster Chronicle of Infinite Visions Mask of Myriad Faces Perks

Wayfaring Stranger Shard of the Shattered Manymind Spells

Cantrips* (*no SP cost)

Tier 1 (1SP each)

Tier 2 (3SP each) Lesser Phantasm* Visual Phantasm* Assume Quality (Special) Cutting Words* Healing Note Legerdemain* Whispers from Beyond