When he eventually woke up the next morning he groggily went over to the mess hall to grab some breakfast and began to plan out the day. As he sat down to a bowl of warm porridge with honey and cinnamon, he wondered where to begin. If he was going to try and pick up some skills he’d need to do a bit of research first, and twice that if he was going to work towards some stats. Still he had time to figure things out for once he could just relax for a moment and-

“Excuse me, are you Jicker?”

Speak of the devil... turning around to get a look at the speaker, Jicker was greeted by a man wearing a thick black hooded cloak. While it might have made him an imposing figure in a dark alley or a night time rooftop, on a brightly lit morning while people ate breakfast it lost some of its image. Several people looked towards the figure and made comments to their friends, which the man seemed to be aware of as he shifted nervously, constantly looking around.

“You are Jicker right?” They asked again.

“I am, though I’d like to know who wants to know.” Jicker said, wondering why someone had come looking for him.

“Finally! Got sent to look for you with nothing but a name and race to go on. Ended up searching around all morning, and would have taken longer if there were many other gremlins about.”

“Well good job, you found me. Now, why were you looking for me?” he asked, still confused.

“Hmmm? Oh yes, well, I’ve been told to get some seeds from you.”

Right, Jicker thought, August said that he’d have someone come and pick them up. He hadn’t expected them so soon, but August wasn’t the sort to leave things too long if they could be dealt with earlier.

“Yeah, ok, I’ll go and grab them. I’ll be back in a sec.”

Returning to his room, Jicker pulled out a bag containing all of the seeds he’d collected after using the Incendiberries, leaving him with just the few berries he had left. If he needed to he was confident he could reproduce the plant, but he decided it would just be easier to keep a few seeds for himself. Coming back to the mess hall, he saw the man had moved to the doorway and looked like he wanted to run, and Jicker couldn’t really blame him. If he could run from August’s grasp he’d do it himself.

“Here.” He said, tossing the bag to the figure. “That’s the seeds.”

“This is it?” They said, eyeing the bag suspiciously.

Jicker shrugged. “Sure, what were you expecting?”

“Nothing... just don’t want to disappoint the boss you know?” The man said, chuckling weakly.

“Yeah I can understand that.” Said Jicker, nodding.

Saying a quick goodbye they hurried off, presumably to go take the seeds to wherever August was setting up his new farm for them. He wondered if he should have asked whether he was supposed to report anything but decided that the money hungry bastard was probably following it closely enough anyway. Having dealt with one issue, Jicker returned to his breakfast and planning for the day.

~~~~~~

“Sorry runt, can’t let you in the tunnels.” The guard said, refusing to move out of the way.

Since Sarah hadn’t turned up any new information on where he could find a trainer for his class, and that he didn’t really know what skills could come in handy, he decided to get to work on the mine. In the centre of the city, the giant stone cloud left the whole area in shadow, which made the shanty town that had sprung up around it look even less inviting.

Still, having avoided the various cutthroats and pickpockets that lurked around the place he’d finally made his way to the base the cloud and began climbing the wooden stair that had been hastily constructed against it. Soon he was stuck in a mob of positional miners making the same trip, some hopeful, some experienced and some resigned to another day of drudgery. As the stair became thinner and more rickety as it rose, the crowd became denser, forcing Jicker to travel with the flow whether he wanted to or not.

Eventually he reached what seemed to be the start of the actual mines, a large alcove that had been dug into the side of the cloud, giving a solid place for people to rest in between trips inside. With the stalk of the cloud being over two miles high before it reached the core of the cloud, which the bulged out to be well over ten in diameter, people could spend weeks mining into the cloud while making seemingly no progress.

Helpful signage had been placed, directing him to where he could get a license to head in and try to find some treasures, as well as look for the node that was somewhere inside. Going to the counter he was asked to use a magic tablet which checked for level, criminal record and guild affiliations, which gave Jicker a better understanding of why the Rising Moon had sent him to have a look, rather than an actual guild member. Normally it was just for ensuring no guild tried to force a monopoly on a communal resource or area, but he was pretty sure a group that was planning to take over the city wouldn’t be looked at favourably either. But once he’d signed the waver, paid his hundred gold fee and received his license, he’d been stopped at the entrance by an ogre acting as both guide and bouncer.

“But I have the license.” Jicker said, showing him the small brass plate he’d been issued.

“True, but part of my job is stopping anyone that just going to get themselves and others killed from getting inside in the first place. Too many people were complaining about unexpected hazards and trying to sue or start fights. So yeah, I can’t let you in. Sorry, but it would be bad for business.”

Jicker was at a loss. “I can understand what you’re saying, and even get behind your reasoning I suppose. But if you weren’t going to let me in, then why the hell did you take my money and sell me the damn license!” He said, raising his voice.

“Calm down. It’s perfectly fine for us to sell the licence; we even mention this rule in the waver you signed. You did read the agreement, right?” The ogre asked, raising an eyebrow.

Jicker hesitated. It had been a dozen pages of fine print and clauses. “Does anyone?” he asked eventually.

The ogre sighed. “Generally only the type of person who is trying to find a way to sue us anyway, so that part kind of deals with itself. But look, it’s not like the license has an expiry date, so go and kill a few monsters, run some quests and you can come back and go in. We have flexible standards but we try and keep a minimum level requirement to go in. So are you joining up with a group or going solo?

“I’ll be working on my own at the moment.”

“In that case I’ll need you to reach level 20 before I can safely let you in. Spend a few weeks training and farming monsters and you’ll be fine. No need to hurry though, not like we’re going to run out of rock to mine.”

Feeling cheated but unable to find anything else to complain about, Jicker headed out. Trying to go back down the stairs, he was forced back by the flow of people coming, several of whom threatened to throw him over the side for getting in the way. Coming back to the alcove he was about to go and ask someone where the exit was when he saw someone exiting the mines. Pausing to watch them, he saw them go to a desk to turn in their finds, wave to a few people they saw on their way out and then throw themselves off the edge of the platform.

Rushing to where they’d gone over the edge, Jicker looked down to see a long slope that had been made from all of the excavated debris. It seemed to have reinforced with magic and now the person who had gone over the edge was now safely, albeit rapidly, sliding back down to the ground. As he wondered how safe it was for people to be hurtling along a steep slope for miles, someone bumped into him from behind, sending him stumbling off. Landing heavily on the slide, he barely had time to roll onto his back before he started hurtling forwards. While it had taken half an hour to climb the stair to reach the mines, he’d been falling for less than a minute and the ground was approaching fast. Wondering how he was going to stop without being forced to respawn; his thoughts were interrupted as he felt like he’d been dropped into a pool of treacle. As the air seemed to thicken around him he began to slow down, letting him catch a glimpse of symbols carved into the base of the slide. By the time he reached the bottom he was moving at a slow walking pace, letting him stand up and walk off smoothly between one step and the next.

Heading back out the main part of the city Jicker grabbed a bite to eat while wondering what he should do instead. If he was patient enough the Silhouwolves should earn him enough experience, but with how people were adjusting to them it could take several weeks. Rather than just do nothing while he was waiting, he went to one of the crafting halls stationed around the city.

No one was sure who had built the first one, but before long there were several in every major city. To learn any of the crafting skills took a great deal of time and effort, but unlike combat or magic it also needed a substantial investment of resources and equipment. So rather than wait for a person to scrape together the funds to buy everything they needed, the halls were created, containing equipment for almost every trade that could be used at a small fee, as well as large amounts of common resources that were bought at a great discount. Most groups helped pay for the halls since they generally ran at a loss, but the end result was a large number of skilled workers producing much higher quality equipment.

As he walked through the doors he was almost defend by the sounds hammers striking metal, of saws and chisels hitting stone and the dozens of people trying to talk over the noise and each other.

Looking around to see if they had a better pill press he could use, the closet he could find was a free potion brewing station with some fairly clean equipment. When he asked the halls manager they just shrugged.

“What you see is what we’ve got.” They said lazily.

Despite being somewhat poorly maintained, the station was of high quality and would give a small bonus to the efficiency of anything crafted with it, so he spent a few minutes cleaning it up before going and collecting some ingredients, making a note of what he took and dropping some golds in the box in front of the supply barrels. As his station had a tap already there, and water was free, all he needed was a large amount of ash and some blood that people had collected from suitable animals.

He spent the rest of day in the hall, making doses of anaesthetic and adrenaline as often as he could before converting it into pills to be used more easily. The mass production wasn’t as good as making something new for levelling his skills but he still managed to gain a level in apothecary. Getting bored of making the same things over and over again, he turned his attention to trying to come up with something new. However unlike his luck with his Dead man’s sight potion, all he had succeeded in creating was a grey slop that smelled faintly of pineapples.

His attempts weren’t completely without results however. As the day dragged on and Jicker mind began to wander, he put a batch of anaesthetic into the tank he was using to hold the adrenaline by mistake. Previous combinations of potions had resulted in the waste of both ingredients, however this time it instead changed to a red hue, though it didn’t seem to have actually turned into a new potion. Running the mix through his press to see the result, he was rewarded with a message from the game.

Mother of invention!

By combining two potions at the correct ratio and binding them with inert powder, you have created a new item

Recipe: 3 doses of adrenaline, 1 dose of anaesthetic, 4 units of inert powder

Item type: Pill (12)

Grade: Uncommon, created by Unknown

Effect: +8hp, 10% physical damage resisted, 20% movement and attack speed increase, 15% mana and stamina regeneration increase - duration 2 minutes

Do you wish to name this item?

“Stimulant...fighter.. Oh, I know. They will be named battle drops.” He said looking at the small red tablets in his hand.

Name accepted. Creator will remain unknown.

Apothecary level has increased by 1! Current level: 3

“Well those look interesting.” Said someone from behind him. Wondering how people kept sneaking up on him he turned around quickly, to find Oda looking over his shoulder at the pills he was making.

“Oda! What are you doing?” Jicker asked in surprise.

“Watching you work. I don’t normally care much for crafting myself, but its interesting seeing new stuff being made. What did you make anyway?” The man asked casually.

Jicker, still unsure of why he was there, handed him one of the pills. After looking at it for a moment Oda popped it into his mouth, swallowing it. He went still for a moment and raised an eyebrow.

“Those are some nice effects. Got anymore?”

“You just saw me make the first batch...apparently. Why are you here Oda?” Jicker asked. Did he always act like this?

Oda snorted. “Did you really think we’d let someone who’s seen our secret base just leave without a tail?”

“...there’s no way I can answer that without you losing respect for me, is there?” Jicker answered after a moment.

“Not likely.” The man said with a grin on his face.

Jicker groaned. “I thought as much. So you’ve come to check up on me?”

“Please, I’m good at what I do. I've been following you all day, usually within a dozen feet or so. Hell, I asked you to pass the salt at lunch.”

Jicker tried to think back. There had been someone, now that he mentioned it, but his memories of them were fuzzy.

“That’s...really impressive actually. So is this what you normally do? Follow people around I mean?”

“Kind of, I mean normally I stab them more than I talk to them, but the skill sets the same. And since my work loads pretty light until we start up the plan, I figured I’d take the job of watching the most interesting target we’ve got. So anyway, can you make some more of those pills?”

“You were serious about that? Don’t you have people who can make way better stuff than this back at the guild?” Jicker asked, wondering if they should be talking about this stuff in public. Looking around, it didn’t seem like anyone was listening in, but you never knew. Oda saw what he was doing.

“Relax, even if someone could eavesdrop on us over all the noise in here, my skills will ensure the conversation remains private, though I doubt anyone else has even noticed I'm here. But yes I was serious on the pills. They’re pretty weak but a general purpose buff like that is still worth more than you might think, and being easier and quicker to grab than a potion bottle is a huge plus in a fight.”

“If it’s that big a deal, why don’t I see more people making pills then?”

“Have you met people? They’re lazy, so why would they go out of their way to make a change that would take a lot more time and effort while giving them little improvement. And people who work in groups that could bring in someone else to do it, well... not everyone likes sharing. So yeah I’d like to buy some from you. How many do you have?” Oda said with a shrug.

“Currently eleven, since you ate one. But if I work for a few more hours,” Jicker said, looking at what he had left and doing some mental maths. “I should be able to put together another hundred or so.”

“Works for me, I’ll give you two hundred gold for the lot.”

“...what?”

“Not enough? Look I'm not exactly made of money here but I suppose I can go to two fifty.”

“No, I mean, you’d pay that much for these?”Jicker asked incredulously.

“What can I say? My life is important to me, and these could do quite a bit to help me keep it. So yes I'm willing to trade gold for survival. So let’s say two fifty for at least a hundred, plus however many more you can make, and I’ll pick them up tomorrow?”

“Yeah that works I suppose.” An idea struck him. “Actually, what are you doing tomorrow?”

Oda sighed. “Well for the next three days I’m your tail, so you’d have a better idea than I would.”

“In that case how would you feel about helping me with something instead of paying for these?”

~~~~~~

“Keep clear of its tail! This one isn’t aiming for you but that doesn’t mean it can’t hit you!” Oda shouted.

Diving out of the way, Jicker wondered yet again whether he’d made a mistake. Once he’d explained the situation with mine, it had been easy enough to get Oda to agree to help him get the levels he needed to get in. The next day after forming a party, he’d led Jicker to a dungeon that would have been way out of his reach to do alone, but would be a cake walk for the assassin to manage.

It was a common method of training up someone quickly. The stronger players would take the weak into a high level area and do all of the work and then the game would then divide the experience proportionally amongst the party, based on their contributions. To ensure he got a decent share of the experience, Jicker just had get at least one shot off onto an enemy before it died.

But the giant lizards they’d been hunting didn’t take kindly to being shot by someone they could eat in one bite, and spent almost half their time enraged and trying to chase him down. Apparently the difference in their levels was offset by Oda’s higher enigma stat, leaving him to be seen as the greater threat.

This left him, for what seemed like the hundredth time, trying his best to keep out of the reach of the beast, since a single solid attack could take him out. Luckily Oda took his job seriously, and quickly dispatched them once Jicker had officially participated in the fight, usually with a single strike from an angle that Jicker would have called impossible if he hadn’t seen it himself.

But after jumping around, hiding under rocks and generally running for his life all day they’d gotten him up to level nineteen, so as the sun started going down, they decided to call it quits for the day.

“So am I going to need to take you out again tomorrow?” Oda asked as they walked back towards Ardenvale.

Jicker shook his head. “Thanks, but the Silhouwolves should be able to get me the rest of the way.”

“What do you mean?” Oda asked curiously.

“You said you could see my stats didn’t you?”

“Just because I can see something, doesn’t mean I'm going to look.” Oda said, sounding hurt. He turned to look at Jicker properly, and his eyes took on a golden sheen. “Let me see then... Ok yeah, evolution. Man that’s a pretty fancy stat to have. So when you say the Silhouwolves will get you there...”

“It’s literally a waiting game, so I should be fine.”

“Speaking of which, can you make me something?”

“What?” Jicker asked.

“You know, with your ability.” Oda said, as if it were obvious.

“I mean, I suppose I could try but...why?”

Oda shrugged. “I joined the Rising Moon because I agreed with their beliefs. I became one of the council members because I shared Mary’s dedication and ruthlessness when needed. However I also found I shared Gabe’s attention span. I play Genesis because I enjoy it and because it offers a wealth of new experiences. Or to put it another way, I get bored, amuse me.”

“I've heard worse reasons I suppose. Any idea of what you want? It’ll have to be a plant since I don’t have an animal to work with.”

Oda scratched his head. “I don’t mind really, just something interesting.”

“That works I guess. Now, this probably won’t stick, but let’s see what we get.”

Taking a seat on an old rotting log, he pulled up a lump of moss, holding it out in front of him as he activated his ability. Looking at the various options, he wondered what he should do. He didn’t want to do anything major, just in case it did become permanent, but there were still plenty of things he could do. In the end he settled for changing up some pigments, its rate of growth, and how it spread its spores. Finalising the changes, he felt the moss vibrate in his hands slightly as it changed to an almost pure white colour, and was relieved to see that the game hadn’t given him a message.

“So that’s it?” Oda asked, breaking the silence.

“Yep all done. How long did that take anyway? I’ve never really timed myself.”

“About ten minutes, give or take. So what is it?”

“Well like I thought it’s not a permanent change like the other one was, so it doesn’t get a real name, but I was thinking of it as canvas moss.”

“So it’s like, tough or water resistant or something?” Oda asked, unimpressed.

“Or something.” Jicker said with a grin before hurling the lump of moss at a nearby tree. As soon as it struck, little bubbles inside burst, sending sprays of bright blue spores out in every direction. A few seconds after the spores made contact with the ground, they began to grow in moss, becoming a fully grown replica of the original in moments, except they retained their bright blue colour.

“Tada, canvas moss, like paintings, not the fabric. Whenever it suffers a big enough impact it will release its spores, but the colour will be completely random. Other than that though it’s pretty much useless though since it’s nontoxic, non edible and should break down completely once my ability wears off.”

Oda bent down to carefully scoop up a chunk of the newly formed moss. “Ok, yeah this is definitely cool. So it’s safe to touch... what else will it grow on?”

“Hmmm? Well its moss, so pretty much anything that has a surface. Why do you ask?” Jicker said while picking up some himself. His question was answered when a piece of moss was thrown into his back, sending a spray of red spores over him. In moments he had a thin layer of bright red moss covering his back, his arms, and over legs.

Turning around slowly, most of the moss falling away as he moved, he saw Oda not even bothering to look innocent while picking up another piece.

“Of course you know,” Jicker said, adjusting his grip on the piece in his hands. “That this means war.”

Jicker liked to consider himself a sensible sort of person, and was normally able to avoid getting carried away. But by the time he and Oda had gotten tired of hurling moss at each other, every tree, rock and every speck of ground for fifty feet was covered in a thick layer of rainbow coloured moss, to the point every step started triggering small bursts of colour to flare up.

“Well,” Said Oda as he scraped a pink layer of moss off the side of his face. “That was fun. Are you sure it’s going to disappear on its own?”

“It should do, but I'm not sure whether it will turn back to normal moss or disappear completely. I guess I’ll come back tomorrow and have a look. For now though, I want to go home and take a shower.”

“Maybe clean up a bit before you go back, right now you look like... the worst clown.”

They spent a few minutes getting rid of the worst of it before heading back, leaving blobs of brightly coloured moss as they went.

Oda spoke up for the first time in a while, having been deep in thought. “You know, I know you made that stuff as a bit of a joke, but even that could have some useful applications. Things like markers or alarms, to find invisible targets, all sorts of stuff. You should make it permanent.”

Jicker thought about it for a moment before shaking his head. “It would get out of control way to easily, and I could guarantee people would start throwing it around in towns. Besides, I have to be careful about what and how much new stuff I create.”

“Really? Why?”

He hesitated. “Too much new stuff coming in at once and people will start looking for the source. While you don’t seem to care, there are a lot of people who would be way too happy to find me.”

Oda looked at him for a moment. “That’s bullshit, but I’m pretty sure you’ve got a reason so I guess I can let it go at that. Don’t be surprised if Mary asks you to make some stuff for the guild though?”

“Yeah I expected as much, but ill cross that bridge when I get to it.”

They parted ways at the entrance to the academy, or at least Jicker assumed they did. As soon as they said goodbye Oda vanished, and he quickly gave up trying to see if the assassin was still following him. Heading up to his room he walked as normally as he could, hoping his enigma stat would make people ignore the fact he looked like he got beat up by a paint brush.

When he opened the door however, he was greeted by a man in a suit, flanked by a pair of large, heavily armed orcs.

“Ah, there you are Jicker. I have been asked by our mutual employer to pick up some seeds from you. I trust you have them around.”

Jicker stood still in the doorway, trying to work out what was going on. “No, I don’t.” He answered after a few minutes.

“You don’t have them here? Are they in storage somewhere else or-”

“No, I mean you already collected them from me.”

“Sir, I don’t know what you’re on about I've never even seen you before you stepped through the door.” The man said, sounding annoyed.

“Well, not you specifically, but someone else came by to collect them.”

The man opened his mouth to say something, but paused, going slightly pale as he rubbed his eyes.

“Are you saying,” They said slowly, “That someone else has come here, claimed to be from our employer, and you gave them the seeds?”

“Uh...yes?”

The man swore. “Well then Jicker, I suggest you log off and stay near your phone for a while. I’m going to need to call this in.”