The creation of Dey is unlike most countries, as Dey is the direct result of a Hero turned evil. In the year 1427, a Hero was summoned to defeat the newly risen Demon Lord. In only two years, the Hero fought back the forces of darkness on the continent of Oshal. With his party slaughtered during the battle, the Hero returned a different man.

There exists no concrete records; however, oral history from notable historian, Jaxes of Minocyia, purports the Hero cast spells never seen before. Oceans fell and rose the world over. Millions died as storms threw lightning in uncountable numbers. Fires raged and mountains grew. Mass teleportation, the likes of which had never been seen, split families asunder. When the magical cacophony stopped, all the lands of the world were combined into one landmass, which we now call Asmea, or mercy.

The people of the world stood together as one, with no fighting between the elves or humans and no tension between dwarf and orc. For across the new mountain range was a land of monstrous horrors. The hero had taken every untamed island and unknown land’s monsters and placed them on the other side of the divide.

And thus, four stepped forward to cast the spells of what would become the first wall of Dey. Those walls did not stand for long, but others filled the breaches. The elves retreated to the forests. The orcs and dwarves battled for a time before founding their own homes. Humans drifted away to start tribes that would become the great countries of Odrana and Veskar. However, Dey was the first.

Daniel put down the book and looked at the cover.

“I guess you can remake the world at a high enough level,” Orrin broke the silence.

Daniel threw the book on the table as he stood up, “You think I want to remake the world. O. Millions died the last time a Hero killed a Demon Lord!”

“That might not be true,” Orrin threw back. “Madi said a thousand years ago, a Hero killed a Demon Lord and created a Lake of Fire. That couldn’t be this guy, I read more than you and that took place two thousand years ago at least. Plus no mention of a Lake of Fire. And not every Hero fights Demon Lords. Maybe you can just ignore that quest.”

“...it was a Sea of Fire,” Daniel calmed a bit and sat back down on the bed.

“Huh?”

“Madi’s story. The Hero a thousand years ago created a Sea of Fire. Why do these Hero’s create and destroy after completing the Demon Lord quest?”

Orrin could see his friend was scared. “Maybe he was trying to make fireworks to celebrate and set a sea on fire instead?”

Daniel chuckled.

Orrin put his hand on his friend’s shoulder, “You are not going to destroy the world. I won’t allow it. Remember when you wanted to egg Kevin’s car and I hardboiled the eggs so you couldn’t?”

Daniel lifted his head from his hands and looked at Orrin. “You ass. I knew it was you who did that. Kevin nearly broke Justin’s arm when he pushed him down the bleachers. He deserved that egging.”

“You’re right.” Orrin smiled. “But if I let you wreak havoc over every stupid person who hurt a friend, you’d have been kicked off all your teams and clubs and who would have had to listen to your parents yelling at you? Me! Because we both know you just tune them out. But I can’t do that D. So believe me when I say, I will not let you end the world.”

He punched his friend in the shoulder. “It’s almost lunch and we’ve been in this dreary room too much. Let’s go find something to eat and then try leveling our skills like that book said.”

Daniel cracked his neck as he stood. “What could you possible level? You have nothing offensive.”

Orrin held up the [Side Steps] book. “Want to try and hit me?”

After they got lunch (from the street, not the overpriced Guild dining hall), Orrin and Daniel stood in one of the small side rooms for Guild members to use.

Orrin looked around the room. It was only about fifty feet by fifty feet, but the size of the ‘small’ training room didn’t add up to the exterior size of the Guild.

“More magic fuckery,” Orrin muttered.

“What?” Daniel was strapping his armor on.

“I think the Guild is bigger on the inside?”

“Like the Tardis?” Daniel started stretching.

“You never watched Dr. Who,” Orrin frowned.

Daniel did some jumping jacks as he said, “But I heard you mention it enough to know the reference.”

Orrin shook his head and looked at the [Side Steps] book. The bookstore clerk had told him to only open it when he was ready to read it. The book would turn to ash after the skill was learned.

Orrin untied the small ribbon around the book and opened it slowly. The book was tiny, about the size of a pocket notebook and so thin he’d originally balked at spending $50,000 or 100 gold on it.

A flash of light hit his eyes along with a prompt.

Would you like to learn [Side Steps]- 1% chance to evade any attack (0/100)?

Yes or No

Yes.

A warmth spread from his fingers to his shoulders. Then a rush of cold fell over his body. Orrin shivered.

[Side Steps] Obtained.

“That was too easy,” Orrin muttered. He looked up at his friend. The training room had wooden swords, little more than long sticks, placed on racks. Daniel was practicing swinging it through the air.

“So should I hit you now?” Daniel asked, too eagerly.

Orrin kicked himself for suggesting this. “Yes, but stop when I say, so I can heal. And don’t use anything overpowered ok? I don’t want to die.”

Daniel grinned and advanced on his friend.

Three hours later, Daniel and Orrin sat on the floor breathing hard and covered in sweat. Orrin had used his buff spells judiciously on himself and Daniel, testing both the effects and the speed with which he could cast.

Daniel had hit him with the stick sword, doing between 1 to 5HP in damage each hit. By cycling and healing, Orrin hadn’t needed to stop except to breathe every twenty minutes or so. Daniel had also hit him with [Power Strike], which did up to 10HP of damage. The training was for both of them after all.

[Side Steps] didn’t trigger as often as Orrin had hoped. It was not a one in a hundred hits evasion but a one percent chance to evade every hit. Which left Orrin beaten. It had taken twenty minutes before the first time it triggered.

Daniel’s ‘sword’ was coming at him from the side. It moved just as quick as every other strike Orrin had tried to manually dodge. Meaning: way, way too quick. But at the last second, Orrin felt the way he should move. A twist of his foot and turning his hips, Orrin pirouetted around Daniel.

Daniel let out a whistle, “Niceeee.”

After three hours, Orrin had only triggered the skill five more times. However, he’d cast enough spells and cycled so much he was starting to feel woozy again.

“Let’s stop here for the day,” Daniel suggested. “I just got [Power Strike] to Level 2.”

“You leveled it?”

“Yeah, I have 106 points left too.”

Orrin glanced at his progress.

Side Steps- 6/100

Heal Small Wounds Level 2 (430/5,000)

Increase Dexterity Level 2 (1,800/5,000)

Increase Strength Level 2 (1,850/5,000)

Increase Will (1,000/1,000) !

Increase Intelligence (1,000/1,000) !

He’d increased his own Will and Intelligence before starting the training session, getting his Will up to 18 and his Intelligence up to 16. Orrin was positive he’d found the formula for what Will did now.

[Heal Small Wounds] Level 1 cost 5 MP for 10 HP healing, while Level 2 cost 10 MP for 20 HP. With a base of 10 Will and 10 Intelligence, those numbers wouldn’t change.

Once Will went up, the spell would heal more than the base HP. A spell costs X and did Y.

Y was the base HP healed (in this case 10 or 20 HP) times (B/10), where B equaled Will.

For [Heal Small Wounds] Level 1, 10*(18/10) meant 18 HP per heal. Level 2 or 20*(18/10) meant 36 HP per heal.

As Daniel had slapped him around, Orrin had been focusing on using Level 2 healing for the XP. For some reason, the spell cost 9 MP.

Maybe Intelligence decreases cost?

He’d need more data points before he could figure out that math.

In any case, casting five Will and Intelligence boosts on himself and Daniel every 5 minutes for three hours had quickly maxed out his levels. Taking a hit every few seconds from Daniel had also let him heal himself for over 700 HP before MP fatigue set in. He’d drained his full MP multiple times.

“Something just isn’t right D,” Orrin said. “All the books mentioned not to use more than one mana potion a day to avoid overexertion. But for some reason, I can drain my pool multiple times before I feel anything.”

Daniel shrugged. He’d spaced out when Orrin tried to explain his math formula for Will too, simply stating, “Will makes spells hit harder? Cool.”

Orrin spent the next two days leveling his spells with Daniel. Daniel also bought more skills as they worked through the books and made a game plan for the future.

The general consensus was a group of five doing damage was better than the ‘waste’ of a single healer. Classes that gave bonuses to others were not even mentioned in the books they had bought.

Orrin had returned to Books, Books, Books! The owner, an older man with a hunched back and one white eye, had answered questions and done his best to point Orrin to what he sought. A single gold piece and he left with Esoteric and Obscure Classes. It had been a waste of money.

“It makes no sense,” Orrin complained as Daniel tried a new skill [Double Strike].

Daniel’s sword moved once but Orrin took two hits. He topped off his health. Daniel’s damage was increasing at a ridiculous rate and he was using his extra ability points to level his skills while Orrin was stuck with no extra points to spend.

Side Steps- 48/100

Heal Small Wounds Level 2 (1350/5,000)

Increase Dexterity Level 2 (5,000/5,000) !

Increase Strength Level 2 (5,000/5,000) !

Increase Will (0/1,000) (1,000/1,000) !

Increase Intelligence (1,000/1,000) !

Daniel paused in his attacks, “It has to be an evolution thing. Why would people use classes for fighting that can’t gain experience?”

“But that makes even less sense,” Orrin continued. “[Healers] exist and are brought all the time as the non-party sixth man.”

“But they have the Hospitals behind them,” countered Daniel.

The Hospitals were located throughout the civilized lands. Almost like a cult, Healers were forcefully recruited to work a length of time for them before being let out into the world. Most stayed on in some capacity. They provided good health care. Payment was figured out after healing, with some sort of work program allowed. It wasn’t quite slavery, but some people worked a few months before being allowed to leave.

And thinking of slavery, Orrin frowned. During their lunch break the day before, they’d traveled down a side street they hadn’t explored before. Every meal, they’d ask for a recommendation for the next from the stall they choose. They’d been looking for a noodle shop when they found the slave market.

Prisoners of war, debtors, and even criminals were lined up and being auctioned off. The business was brisk and over quickly, yet Daniel and Orrin had stood in a daze after the crowd dispersed. They’d seen their first elf. He’d looked beaten with the slavery bracelet on his hand before he was sold.

A few questions to the men in charge and Daniel had dragged Orrin back to the training room. Orrin had to heal himself a lot more than usual that afternoon.

Slavery was legal in the world. Depending on the reason, they theoretically could pay off their debt price or serve their sentence, but the slaver had smirked as he insinuated ways to increase the holding time of a slave.

Most slaves were used as fodder to wear down dungeons.

“One more reason to get trained up and crush them all,” Daniel had said later. Orrin agreed.

Luckily, it seemed the slave trade in Dey was small. The man they’d talked to complained of increased taxes and strict demands on timely release.

As Daniel swung at him, Orrin triggered [Side Steps] three times in a row.

Side Steps- 51/100

“Let’s stop for the day,” Daniel suggested. “That’s the most you’ve ever evaded. Did you level?”

Orrin shook his head, “No. We should definitely hit the baths before we go to dinner.”

“You don’t think Madi’s dad would appreciate our stink?” Daniel took a sniff. “Ok, wow. Yeah, we’ve been going hard today.”

The Guild had a large steamed pool used as a bath behind another one of the magical doors. They’d discovered it on the second day after a pointed suggestion by the woman at reception.

After a lazy lounge in the warm water and a quick scrub in one of the side ‘shower’ rooms, they pulled out some clothes they’d gotten at Madi’s suggestion. A courier had arrived with a letter for them. It had pointed out that using point summoned clothing was good for a forest excursion, but not meeting the head of a House of Dey.

They’d gone shopping.

Looking back, it should have been obvious why they’d been getting so many looks. People knew what the basic summoned clothes looked like and who would spend precious Ability Points on backpacks and clothing?

Orrin felt wasteful as they spent 4 gold each on clothes, backpacks, and even newer (and supposedly higher quality) leather armor for the both of them. They’d also each spent a single gold piece on one outfit. Dress clothes. It was almost like a tuxedo but in muted colors instead of black and easier to move around in. Orrin had his made in charcoal grey, while Daniel picked a dark red.

Finally, it was time for dinner with the Catanzanos.

Lord Catanzano entered the dining hall in front of his daughter. His back was straight and his eyes pierced Orrin and Daniel as Madi pushed his wheelchair to the head of the table and kissed his cheek.

“Welcome guests,” his voice was quiet but firm as he tossed a napkin in the air before putting it on his lap. “My daughter has told me much of your heroics. We are in your debt.”

She never mentioned the wheelchair, Orrin thought as he copied the action, putting his own napkin on his lap. Daniel did the same.

“No debt at all, Lord Catanzano,” Daniel replied. “We helped a little but I’m sure Sir Barrett and Lady Madeleine would have gotten out just fine.”

Cooks entered and put trays down around the small family table they’d been seated at. Just the four of us,Orrin looked around. It’s too cozy for just meeting guests. Something is up here.

Lord Catanzano waved his hand as Daniel spoke. “No, no, no. Here in our family home, please call me Silas. And Brandt has told me the un-adapted truth, unlike my own daughter.” He threw a look at Madi. “I know that my happiness is alive because of you.”

Daniel did not contradict him this time.

“I also know that she swindled you out of a quest,” Silas continued. “I cannot allow my family to be in debt.”

Silas poured a glass of wine for himself and offered some to Daniel, who shook his head. Orrin also declined. They both tucked into the food though.

Steamed carrots and potatoes, slabs of something like pork with tiny onions sprinkled on top, hearty gravy to drown everything in, and more of that honey bread. Orrin had almost hoped for some high class cuisine, but it seemed everybody in Dey ate pretty normal fare.

“Will you negotiate a reward for the quest?” Silas questioned.

“The quests were paid for, my lord,” Daniel said. “Sorry, Silas.”

Orrin cringed.

“...Quests?”

Madi had been nearly flawless. Her fork had paused for only a moment as it traveled to her lips. Orrin had barely caught the hesitation.

Her father turned to her, “Dearest. Would you be so kind as to humor your aging father. I distinctly remember only one quest.”

Orrin and Daniel did not move as the room grew dark with displeasure.

“I told you I paid them for their given quest, Father.”

“HA!” Silas let out a bark of a laugh, louder than any noise he’d made since entering the room. “Word games with me! I am so proud I could almost forgive the lie.”

Madi looked at her plate, hiding a smile.

“So, she paid for this Horde quest with a little gold. What was the other quest? No use lying now boys,” he turned his dark eyes back on Daniel and Orrin, cutting a piece of meat.

“A timed quest to reach the Gate of Dey,” Orrin stepped in. Maybe I can sidestep someone else finding out about [Blood Mana].

“And payment for that?”

“...She agreed to keep a secret of mine,” Orrin stated clearly. Maybe he’ll honor the agreement.

“What secret?”

Damn!

Daniel chimed in finally, “One that cost a quest, sir. What would you offer to know it?”

This is why I love you, you dumb jock. Daniel and Orrin had always been an odd friendship. What nobody could understand was they filled in each other’s blind spots. While Orrin couldn’t play a sport like Daniel, he could help him understand nuances in strategy. While Daniel couldn’t write a paper as convincing as Orrin, he could spot holes in his logic or convince someone through conversation loops that Orrin would never see.

“Hmmm. I could just demand my daughter tell me,” Silas smirked. “But I won’t. I see this means a lot to you. I will let the matter rest.”

Madi, Orrin, and Daniel sighed with relief.

“However, now that we have established your quest has the worth of a secret not to be afforded a Lord of Dey,” Orrin felt the walls closing in as Silas’ smirk turned predatory. “We can discuss the discrepancy in price of only 1,000 gold for the other.”

Madi gulped.

“I value two things in my life. My family and the knowledge I obtain and use to defend my family and people. Two quests given to my daughter, with one’s price being knowledge I cannot obtain...” he trailed off.

“Yes, I think I know the price Madeleine should have offered for your quest, Daniel.”

Daniel and Orrin did not know the man and had not followed his rambling thoughts. But Madi had. Orrin saw her eyes widen.

“No. Father, you can’t-“

“Daniel, you shall marry my daughter.”