[Player: Archy has picked up Red Allium x20]

[Player: Archy has picked up Purple Allium x20]

[Player: Archy has picked up Black-Eyed Susan x20]

[Player: Archy has picked up Bugloss x20]

[Player: Archy has picked up Calendula x20]

“Hehehe.” Archy practically drooled as he brought the plants over to them and distributed them, “Check these out guys.”

[Red Allium: An edible plant that tastes like blood. Consuming this plant will grant you +1 def for 15 minutes. Ability is stackable (Max of 20). Alchemy ingredient.]

[Purple Allium: An edible plant that tastes like the number 3. Consuming this plant will confuse the eater for 15 minutes. Ability if amplifiable (Max of 20). Alchemy ingredient.]

[Black Eyed Susan: A plant brimming with magic. You can smell a lovely scent coming from it. If you crush this flower it will attract monsters for 15 minutes. Monsters will have a more likely chance to ignore everything around them in order to attack you for the flower. Alchemy ingredient.]

[Bugloss: A delicate plant that can be found thriving in areas with high concentrations of magic. If you crush this flower it will extend the abilities of any other activated plant by 5 minutes. This will not increase the duration of abilities that are not currently activated by the user. Alchemy ingredient.]

[Calendula: A spicy treat for any adventurer. Add this plant to a hot meal for a nice surprise. Alchemy ingredient.]

Seven received five of each from Archy and tried to eat the red allium because she was curious about the defense boost it gave.

[You cannot consume this plant as you have not unlocked the defense stat.]

“Damn.” She muttered, “We can’t eat the red allium.”

TidalWave laughed at her action and Third let out a chuckle, “I should hope not. We would be much better using it to create a potion.”

“Yeah what’s with this.” Archy eyed his plants like he wanted to make them turn into gold, “We have all these ingredients from the forest but not a single alchemist.”

“Hmmm.” Third inspected the blue light on the ground that contained the items from killing the creature, “We definitely need to go to the nearby city at some point. Let me just check the map… it’s called Lum.”

“It’ll probably have the alchemist we need.” TidalWave agreed.

“Lum?” Seven hadn’t heard of it, “Is that what the capital’s called?”

“The capital is Lux, it’s still a bit further away. We’ve been going pretty much around it since we entered the forest. I don’t think Lum would be much smaller. The map has it listed as a city as opposed to town or village.” Third studied it studiously, “We need to stock up on potions and get new gear as well.”

“So it’s agreed. Let’s go to Lum,” Archy hurriedly rushed them as he heard no opposition, “Now let’s check what dropped.”

It turns out not much.

[You have obtained high-quality healing potion x10, high-quality mana potion x10, you have obtained red mushroom x20, you have obtained blue mushroom x10. Gold x5]

The healing potions were evenly distributed so that each player had 2, and the other two were left with TidalWave and Seven so that they had 3 each. As frontline fighters, they had risked a lot more damage being dealt to them and Seven had used up potions during the fight. She also received one of the leftover mana potions alongside Third.

They split the money evenly, receiving one gold and twenty-five silver each. After all this adventuring Seven had around three gold, nearing on four.

“Damn plant barely dropped anything good.” Archy complained.

Third disagreed, “High-quality potions are hard to come by at this stage in the game.”

[High-quality health potion: Heals consumer for 150 HP]

[High-quality mana potion: Heals consumer for 150 MP]

“We definitely can’t use these yet. It’ll be a waste.” Seven’s health and mana combined wouldn’t be equal to one of these potions.

“Let’s see if some rich person wants to buy them in Lum.” Archy had stopped pacing around thinking about the items and decided to lazily fire arrows into the air, “Surely they’re worth more for their rarity at the moment than they will be later. We might even be able to buy completely new gear with the cash.”

“That is something we’ll have to discuss once we see what services are available at Lum,” Third waved his staff and caused Archy’s arrows to change directions and fall around him, “For now we should rest, and then go and completely ransack this forest for every ingredient we can find on the way to the city.”

“Before we do the quest?” Archy began to fire purposefully at Third’s rifts and soon developed a fun game where a rift would form and he would try to fire at it before it disappeared, “What if someone else gets to the treasure first?”

“It’s probably the best course of action.” TidalWave agreed with Third, “We need to resupply since this treasure is clearly in the higher level zones. I also want to check a couple of things when we get into the city so I’m happy to spend some time there.”

He looked at Seven and she remembered how he’d mentioned he wanted a tank on the team. After the last fight she could definitely see his point. From here on the monsters would only become higher level and as fighters that dealt damage they weren’t designed to take too many hits before dying.

“We definitely need to get as much as we can.” She walked to the edge of the area and banged on a tree, “but first I’m going to practice trying to hit some leaves.”

They spent the next few minutes relaxing and organising their thoughts and plans. The general consensus was simply, Archy and TidalWave would go and forage in the surrounding area while Seven and Third would map out the ingredient areas that were on the way to the city.

They left quickly and soon she and Third were deep inside the forest. Luckily the party finder feature had their general directions relative to each other, but both groups had agreed to meet up back at the open area where they’d fought the giant flower.

[Corrupted Magica: Looks like a flower. Had white petals and a purple bulb. Was slightly smaller than me. Strong as hell.]

Seven updated her journal as she walked and smashed her fist against trees to make them drop their leaves.

So far she had a very good score of exactly zero leaves hit on purpose.

They also fought dryads and treants along the way. Many dryads and treants.

‘There’s no end to them.’ Seven complained as she levelled up again.

They were good experience but it was annoying to fight them with just two people.

Third went bending down on one knee trying to dig under the dirt to find any hidden plants, “Seven the truth is that as well as getting away from that unstoppable walking megaphone -a serious concern of mine, I might add-, I also wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Oh,” She wondered what he could have to say to her, they had barely known each other for a few hours, no matter how fun those hours were, “Shoot.”

“Do you know what ‘control’ is when it concerns magic?”

“I have absolutely no idea.” She shook her head.

He held out his hand and offered a trade, “Could I borrow your wand for a second?”

She shrugged and handed him the wand. It wasn’t as though they were going to be attacked whilst standing there.

“Observe.” He lifted the wand carefully towards a nearby tree.

He fired a magic blast and Seven followed it with her eyes. It zoomed towards the tree and she squinted her eyes trying not to miss a single thing. To her it looked like it was a perfectly normal magic blast. The small ball of light with sparkled trailing behind it was going to smash directly into the middle of the tree. It was a nice shot but nothing out of the ordinary.

Then it missed.

“What the hell was that!” She exclaimed.

Correction. Then the magic blast, which was completely on the right path until that moment, did a complete ninety-degree turn and sped off into the woods. Without prompting or interference, as though it had a life of its own. The magic blast had changed its travel path.

“That,” Third passed her back the wand, “Is what I mean when I say ‘control’.”

“You can change the direction of your basic attacks? It… it’s so simple. I can’t believe I didn’t think to do that.” She eyed his staff, “Is this what you do when you summon your rifts?”

“Something similar.” He chuckled, “I believe the skill itself is not considered by the system to be that common. The class I obtained was most likely given to me as an option because of my control over my magic attacks. I also received the class, Void Magi, for simply obtaining the void book I currently wield.”

“That’s so cool.” Seven could tell her eyes were probably twinkling at the moment as she thought of the possibilities, “So if I learn this, I could arc every shot to hit weak spots like the flower’s bulb from earlier?”

“Exactly.” Third nodded enthusiastically, “And of course I would teach you how to do precisely this. If you want me to.”

“Hell yes I do.” She grabbed her wand and fire a magic blast into the treeline, but even when she tried to make it turn she found that she couldn’t even start.

But she suddenly felt that maybe in this new power lay the key to defeating that attack that Attracting kept using. The mysterious light that he had fired during the duels he was losing. She brought her attention back to Third as she thought of the possibilities.

‘What did he do?’

Third could read her expression as clear as day, “I didn’t focus on simply trying to move the magic blast with my mind. That would be too time-intensive and the concentration needed would probably be put to better use just firing more magic at the enemy. No, no, you have to think of a single point in the magic blast’s flight path that will cause it to shift directions when reached.”

“A single point.” She hummed as she fired more magic blasts.

Each one went completely straight.

“Perhaps it would be easier” Third tried to counsel her as they looked for more ingredients, “If you imagine one of my rifts appearing. The basic concept is the same for both attacks. I was given the ability to summon rifts because they are what I was imagining when controlling my attacks, each one forms at the exact spot I place my concentration on. An attack designed to be perfect in terms of positioning.”

“An attack designed to be perfect in terms of positioning.” She repeated as though it would help her unlock the secret of controlling magic.

“Do not try to imagine the focus point after you have fired the magic blast. Try instead to imagine the point at which your attack will change directions, as well as which direction the shot will take, and then fire at that spot.”

She tried to imagine a single point where she could cause the magic to shift directions.

A perfectly round circle, possible of sending an attack in any direction. She could see it in her mind. Directly in front of the tree it hovered silently, just waiting for an attack to enter its range. She fired a magic blast directly at it...

And watched as it flew straight and hit the tree harmlessly.

“Dang it.” She clutched her wand harder and whined.

Third laughed at her attitude, “We have a lot more time to practice. The next class advancement should be around level forty or fifty so until then we’ll try to perfect this shot of yours. For now, we have the ingredients to find.”

Blue and red mushrooms were the most common find. By the time they had walked their first fifteen minutes they knew they would probably have to start ditching the small fungi if they found too many. At least that would be Archy’s problem.

“Dang!”

Seven didn’t stop practicing for a single second unless her mana ran out.

“Argh.”

Every single one of her shots flew in a magnificent straight line.

“Umm.”

They actually managed to pass the next hour picking ingredients and trying to work out how to form a single rift in her mind and inside the game. She had actually managed to form the image instantly within her mind but according to Third once she had actually managed to accomplish the task there would be a literal focus point in her vision, visible only to her.

“Can these… focus points, be used to redirect enemy attacks?” Seven was curious.

“Perhaps.” Third’s expression showed he had spent a great deal of time wandering about this, “I would very much like to see if my rifts will one day be able to gain that power. They can already redirect objects such as leaves or even slightly shift an ally's arrows but are not powerful enough to warp enemy player movements or arrows. I suspect that is done on purpose so that the rifts will not be overwhelmingly powerful.”

Third spent the hour forming rifts near Seven so that she could see what a focus point looked like from his point of view. Apparently before he had gained his current class he had still imagined the rifts as they were, but instead had to direct magic blasts into them. He theorised that the system had decided that this was his actual true attack and so had provided him the means to use only focus points to attack, providing him the means to form them wherever he could see.

Once they had begun to head back Seven tried to clear her mind completely.

‘There is nothing but the rift. The rift is good. The rift is real. I am a rift master.’

She didn’t have the courage to mutter these thoughts out loud.

She looked forward and imagined a single transparent ball completely still and unmoving in the middle of the woods. She poured her entire mind and body into the task of concentrating, standing still and causing Third to halt as he watched her actions with interest. She closed her eyes at first, but then opened them and forced herself to believe that the ball was there. She couldn’t tell whether the ball she was imagining was real or not, but she tried to believe with all her heart that it existed.

Then she lifted her wand and fired.

[You have unlocked the control stat. Current control: 0]

The shot went straight into the focus point and then flew to the left as it passed through the transparent ball. It hadn’t shifted where she had wanted it to, or even by a huge margin, but it had moved. A nearby treant was attracted as the shot missed the tree and smacked against its hide instead.

“Woo!” She celebrated with a fist bump to the air, “I did it.”

Third’s expression was unreadable but then he broke out into a grin, “Congratulations. I thought it would take a few days.”

He struck down the treant and sighed as more came into view.

“I had a very good teacher.” She said honestly, by this time the monsters were just delicious experience walking towards her, “Does this mean I have to shoot at the imaginary rifts every single time I want to change the direction of my shots?” That seemed like it would be practical against players, but probably not against mobs that would blindly go after her without hesitating about missed attacks.

“No,” Third was making sure to double-check all of the ingredient locations as they passed by them, “By the time I was level 10 I could form the rifts after I had shot my magic blasts. But I have had similar experiences in other games so my head start was a lot more than yours. You don’t have to rush to reach that level, I sincerely believe that if you want to improve greatly then you should practice your accuracy first, and then your control. If you were to perfect both then it would be a deadly combination.”

Seven felt like she was on cloud nine but was confused by his reply, “What do you mean? Isn’t changing directions more important than accuracy? Or maybe just the same?”

Third slowed down to explain his thoughts, “Seven, I have seen you fighting and if I’m being honest I think I have a decent grasp of your class’s abilities and skills. Do you know what your class is designed to do?”

“Close combat.” She said without hesitation.

She had thought long and hard about this when choosing the class and when fighting against various creatures such as the cave dragon and the monsters inside the wood. Her class, especially her wind blast ability, was best suited for close combat because she could deal damage whilst also ducking and weaving between attacks.

Third looked at her closely.

“What?” She said defensively, “Isn’t it close combat?”

“I suppose that’s one way of looking at it,” Third agreed hesitantly with her, “And another way of thinking of it is that it is definitely not close combat.”

“Whatttt?” She was genuinely surprised at his words, but she was also willing to hear him out.

He had a much better grasp of the game than she did at the moment.

“Tell me about your fighting style Seven,” Third moved alongside her and they began to make the last leg of the trip back to the meeting point, “Why do you think that your class is designed for close combat?”

Seven thought about her main abilities, “Well, my highest damage ability is wind blast, but it has a short-range so can only really be used in close combat. My other ability is stone shift and that lets me move to the side a little bit faster and further than normal dodging would, which means that I can avoid taking damage in close combat. My final ability is ice bolt which deals damage and slows the enemy, allowing me to stay out of their range or run if I need to.”

“Is wind blast your highest damage ability? I would say your magic blast does more damage because you can shoot it a lot more times and at a rapid rate.”

“That’s true.”

“I would also say that whilst windblast is a good ability, it is more useful for its knockback than its damage potential. Your stone shift is a good utility ability but is not designed to be used constantly or else you will quickly run out of mana. Your ice bolt is also better used further away from the target because if you are attacked and the ability is cancelled you won’t be able to fight back. You would lose almost instantly in that situation.”

Seven could see where he was coming from. In fact, she could see that he was making a lot of sense. A hell of a lot of sense.

“I would not say that your class is designed to fight in close range. Indeed, I’d say your class is designed to stay out of close combat and punish those that try to bring you into it. You see, if someone attempts to stop you from attacking at mid-range or long-range then you could damage them when they try to get near and finally wind blast them for a lot of damage and a push back. You could also use stone shift to run back and gain space between you and your enemy rather than using it to dodge attacks from close range.”

Third gave her a sympathetic look since he knew he was technically criticising her style of play, “of course, knowing how to dodge is extremely important and will be invaluable during the game. No enemy will allow you to shower them with attacks without trying to get near you. You are lucky because your class is very versatile. Although I would say it is strongest in mid-range battles, it can also be very strong no matter how far away or close the enemy is.”

“I see, I see.” Seven was imagining the possibilities, “but there’s one thing I’m confused about. Right now I can always hit my enemies because I dodge them when they’re near me and they can’t avoid the attack. If I’m further away and I don’t fight at close range and I’m fighting a player, what’s going to stop them from dodging my oncoming attack? Or what if I just keep missing. It’s really hard to hit a moving target that isn’t right next to you or is actively trying to avoid being hit. Won’t I just end up at close range again.”

“What if,” Third summoned more rifts, “they found that you were so accurate in your attacks that you could hit them no matter how far away they were, so they were forced to dodge every time. But then even if they changed their speeds to confuse you, or if they tried to change directions they find that you are still able to match them and continue to fire shots directly at them.

“Oh!”

It sounded exactly like what the leaf training had been teaching her to do.

If she could hit something as small as a leaf then she could definitely hit a person even if she was far away from them. The fact that the rifts had changed their directions was simply helping with dealing with this kind of situation.

“Exactly,” Third spoke as though he could read her thoughts, “I also plan to ask yourself and Archy to slowly practice hitting leaves from further away. Once you’ve gotten the hand of hitting leaves from a faraway position, then you will also be able to hit either mobs or players from a far off distance as well. You two would be nearly unstoppable, nearly, but not completely.”

Third continued as she began to piece his strategy together, “So we come to the next part of your attacking strategy. What if your attacks could change directions? When you missed it wouldn’t be an issue, just an opportunity, because the moment the other player ignored the attack they think won’t hit them, it can come back to damage them when they least expect it. You would not only have the advantage of absolute accuracy by firing at them from your position. But eventually, it could be conceived that you will be able to attack and hit them from every angle you can think of. All from the safety of your long or mid-range position, unassailable because of your heavy damage skills that allow you to keep your distance from the enemy.”

He hummed, “In other words Seven. As an opponent, you would be absolutely terrifying.”

At that moment Seven could see what he saw in her. A split-second image of a person firing magic blast after magic blast. If there was something blocking the injured enemy, she could fire into the air above and make the magic blast come back down onto the target. If she missed she would simply change the direction to hit the enemy. And she would never miss because she had the accuracy to hit something as small as a leaf from far away.

She could see her potential.

“B-but that’s impossible.” She stammered, “How would I practice to get those techniques? I get that I can hit the leaves accurately. I will give you that. Because if Archy can do it then it isn’t impossible. But how would I be able to make myself aim accurately even when I’m changing the direction of my attacks? That would be insane! It’s completely beyond me.”

“Nothing is completely impossible. You simply need to practice, and you need time.” Third looked at her expressionlessly, he hadn’t liked the way she had simply denied her own skill.

He had seen how quickly she was improving.

“Do you like practicing Seven? You sure do a lot of it.”

In fact, she hadn’t stopped since they’d met. She had been dodging with TidalWave instructing as they fought mobs, and she had banged almost every tree on the way to fire at the leaves. Even the past hour she’d been focusing almost purely on learning how to learn to control her magic.

She had even succeeded.

“Yep.” She nodded at him, wondering where he was going with this.

“Then with your permission we will add a couple of new types of training to your schedule.” Third pointed to a newly formed rift, “First of all, we need to practice your control and accuracy, however, there is no reason we cannot do both from the beginning. Whenever we hit leaves we will do a simple exercise. You will form a focus point before the tree is hit, I will continue to form rifts that cause the leaves to change direction and you will continue to try and hit the leaves as per the usual routine. But,” He turned to face her and she could see he was deadly serious, “You will aim at first to hit the leaves from a close range. Then you will try to hit them at the same range by changing the direction of your magic blasts to hit them through your focus points. We will do this until you can hit all of them, perhaps it will take time but I believe you can do it.”

“And then?” She barely flinched as she heard the harsh conditions of his training.

She couldn’t hit a single leaf yet, let alone try to hit it using a focus point while it was being blown around by one of Third’s rifts. She could hit the treants easily enough as they popped up to kill her, and she took satisfaction in that.

“And then we will work slowly. We will move further away from the leaves until you can hit them from long range. We will practice until you can hit all of them with your magic blasts, then we will train until you can hit all of them with your magic blasts changing direction. We will make sure that even if you miss you will have the ability to control your shots so that you can instantly direct them to hit the target you missed. You will fail, over and over again you will fail. There is no doubt about that. But eventually, you will find that you have passed all the others around you. That is the beauty of having the class that you do.”

“But… that is a lot of work. Talent would be meaningless, only hard work can get you to that state. It would be much easier to simply play as you have been. You are already incredibly strong, the system would not have gifted you a rare class if you were not.”

“No.” Seven said and she could see Third visibly deflating, “I mean, yes. I do want to train.” She could see him perk up, “I don’t want to continue to play the way I am, not if I’ve got a way to become better right here. Hard work? Ha.” She laughed dryly, “Everything you’ve said makes perfect sense to me Third. And I thank you for it.”

She became quiet as they finally reached the meeting point and sat down to wait for TidalWave and Archy. They had slain so many dryads along the way that between them and Third’s ideas she had hardly noticed the journey.

“Will you put up with me for that long?” She asked simply, “It could be a long time before I even show the slightest result.”

“I have no idea.” He stated bluntly, “But I do find it interesting. Besides,” a slight smile tugged at the edges of his lip, “You have a master of close combat, an archer that has amazing accuracy and a person that has already learned the basics of controlling magic in your team.” his eyes sparkled, “I would like to see what we all become, once we have learned from each other.”

“Sounds exciting.” TidalWave’s voice floated through the treeline and soon the other duo of the team appeared.

Archy plodded along with a hand full of mushrooms, “Can’t even carry all the damn things. Did you guys find anything good?”

Third nodded and listed off the ingredients they’d found. They could live with less blue and red mushrooms but the beans and flowers were invaluable.

“Speaking of learning from each other.” TidalWave sat down by a tree and began to sort through the items he’d placed in his inventory to pass them equally onto Seven and Third, “We need to add a couple of members to our team if we want to go deeper into this forest. I’m thinking about a tank and a priest.”

Seven remembered the Magica they’d fought, “Yeah that flower thing from before could have wiped the floor with me in a couple of shots.”

“We’re really squishy.” Archy agreed to with her, to her surprise, “I couldn’t take too many shots from that thing either. We need someone that’ll attract the attacks and be able to survive them. I don’t think zippy over here,” he poked TidalWave who swatted his hand away, “Well, I don’t think he’ll be able to dodge every attack forever and if he can focus on just attacking instead of dodging and attacking he can probably do insane amounts of damage.”

“And even if we do get hit we still need to heal. We can probably survive on potions and mushrooms for a while but once the monsters grow too high level that’ll become impractical.”

Third could see TidalWave thinking intently on the problem, “While we’re partaking of this subject, I have a couple of ideas on how we can procure a priest easily.”

“Oh really?” Seven was delighted as he delivered the news, “What have you got in mind?”

“I’ll simply place a post on the online forums for both players. We are on the vast continent of Zhalnor where priests of Verm can prosper and grow with ease. It would not be a stretch to state that out of all the classes present around us they hold the greatest growth potential. Finding a high-level priest in one of the continent’s major cities will not be difficult. However, finding a tank is a different matter entirely. We will require the aid of a tank and a priest-”

“Or even a priest tank” Archy interjected cheekily.

“Yet there are no tank classes within the five primary classes. If we were to find an ordinary priest easily then contrary to that it can be said that there are no ordinary tanks in the game at the moment. There are only those that received it as a rare class.”

“Oh right.” Seven tilted her head, “Why is that?”

She recalled that one of the beginner items she had been offered by Barnacle when first arriving in Torkay had been a shield.

She hadn’t questioned it before but considering there was a warrior class surely there should also be a tank class.

“It is most likely a class which will only become common in the second class advancement.” Third explained to her, “Right now the system is still attempting to generate classes based on player’s playstyles. If someone truly dedicated themselves to playing as a tank and only played as one somehow before receiving their first class, then they would receive a rare class with tanking abilities. However, that is not too likely because tanks do not often have the best reputation, or the most fun, or the easiest time of things. Their lack of damage usually also results in them being left out for loot drops in games that rely on teamwork. Once we find a tank it is likely they may make extreme conditions for us to fulfill to keep them on the team.”

“Basically even if we find someone they’ll still be extremely skilled and likely to be cocky.” Archy surmised the situation with a whistle, “So I get that we can post on the forums and honestly there should be some sort of recruitment service or message board in the city but… what do we do to convince someone to join us? I mean, we’re not exactly loaded, and I’m sure other people are asking for them too so we post a request and…. Then what?

“And then we start dueling in the middle of the city until they arrive.”

“W-what?” Third spluttered as TidalWave brought up the suggestion.

“We fight each other until the potential tank arrives and then we continue to fight for a bit.”

“Have you two traded places? Third had to check that Archy wasn’t hiding behind his teammate and pretending to put words in his mouth. He hadn’t expected such an outrageous proposal to come from TidalWave, “This is the sort of attention-seeking behaviour I expected from that primed firework by the tree.”

“Ha.” TidalWave let out an amused laugh before covering it up with a cough, “I believe that individually as players we are a pretty skilled team. Does anyone object to that?”

They shook their heads. Seven and Third were well aware of how skilled the other teammates were, Archy was confident in himself and had been beaten by TidalWave, so none of them had any qualms with his assessment.

“Well, I’m thinking that if we go to the local arena, or even if we’re allowed to fight on the street then we can ask our prospects to meet us there. When they arrive we will be dueling. There will generally be only four types, those that don’t want to join us after seeing how skilled we play, those that want to join us but only because they feel that we can carry them, and those that are skilled and interested in playing with us for fun.”

“Ohh.” Seven nodded.

“What’s the fourth category?” Archy raised an eyebrow at TidalWave.

“I’m sure we’re not the greatest players out there. The fourth category is the people so skilled that they think we’re below them. They may still try to party with us but might offer extreme conditions if they do. Oh, and if we can bring the potential teammates to watch us duel, I’d also like you to invite Attracting if you can.” He said to Seven.

“Attracting?” Seven frowned, she didn’t know if he would even be able to get to Lum, “Why?”

“I think that guy is hiding some sort of ability.” TidalWave was deadly serious as he explained, “I don’t know what it could be but think he must have some sort of way to tell the skill or ability of a person. Not in-game skills, I mean how good of a player the system has judged a person to be.”

Seven’s eyes began to twinkle as she caught onto this plan, “Because he fought against you three despite never having seen you before. He definitely has a way of picking out talented people. You think that if he reacts to the potential tank or priest…”

“That we will be able to make use of his ability to check if the player is skilled.” TidalWave smiled as the entire team caught onto his train of thinking.

“I can definitely help with that. I can probably call him over saying that you guys are fighting and I want my friends to check you guys out.”

She’s been meaning to get IEatTortillas opinion on TidalWave’s skills for a while now. She was intensely curious about which one would win in a fight. She knew her friend had also been dying to see who she was partying with.

‘Another skilled player or two in our team? Yes please.’ Seven was excited at the prospect.

Archy looked convinced. He didn’t need much prompting to show off.

Then Third sent them all a message that made their eyes widen, it contained all the information they’d given him about their stats and abilities.

“I’ve compiled a list of our information to put on the forums. Anyone that provides proof of their stats and class as either a tank or priest can have access to them. Let me know if there’s anything you want to keep hidden from everyone except teammates.”

Third: level 20

Health: 44

Mana: 58

Vitality: 22 (+8)

Strength: 10

Intelligence: 33 (+10)

Wisdom: 23 (+7)

Control: 13

Glut Racial Trait: It is easier to make friends with different species.

Class Passive:

Wizard of the Void Passive: Detached from the element the Wizard of the Void suffers 15% less damage from the elements.

Wizard of the Void Passive 2: gain 2 control and 1 intelligence per 5 levels

Wizard of the Void Passive 3: Hidden.

Equipment:

Wizard’s staff: +3 INT

Wizard’s hat: +2 WIS

Wizard’s robe: +2 INT, +2 WIS

Void Book V: +8 VIT, +5 INT, +3 WIS

Skills:

Call of the void: Summon the void in the location of your choosing. The void will warp its surroundings and deal 5+(one-quarter of Intelligence [6]) damage to any living creature it is summoned onto. If an enemy attack passes through the call of the void, it redirects 50% of the attack's damage back to the enemy. 1-second cooldown. Costs 1 mana.

Invisibility: Become invisible to the naked eye for 3 seconds. You can still be hit by physical and magical attacks. Cannot attack while invisible or invisibility will break. 1-minute cooldown. Costs 20 mana.

Void spear: Summons a spear from within the void itself to fire at an enemy dealing 15+(intelligence) damage to the enemy it pierces. 15-second cooldown. Costs 20 mana.

Archy: level 20

Health: 43 (+7)

Mana: 20

Vitality: 18

Strength: 22 (+5)

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 10

Dexterity: 14 (+3)

Wood Elf Racial Trait: Accuracy is increased by 10%.

Class Passive:

Fire Archer passive: Basic attacks gain a 5% chance to activate a burn status dealing 5 damage every second, burn lasts 6 seconds.

Fire Archer passive 2: Gain 2 dexterity per 5 levels.

Dexterity: Aids in hand to eye coordination, agility, reflexes, and balance.

Equipment:

Fire Archer Bow (Sealed): +3 Dexterity, +5 strength

Basic greaves: +2 HP

Basic Chestplate Armour: +3 HP

Basic Boots: Movement speed +2.5%.

Basic Helmet: +2 HP.

Skills:

Basic arrow attack: deals 10+(half Strength) damage.

Flame Arrow: Adds +10 fire damage to the next basic attack. The attack has a 10% chance to apply 5 burn damage on the enemy for 6 seconds.

Flame Body: Cover your body with the flames of your life force, enhancing your body movements and momentum by 20% for 5 seconds. If enemies are within touching distance of player upon activation they take 5 fixed damage. Costs 15 mana. 30 Second Cooldown.

TidalWave: level 20

Health: 53 (+5)

Mana: 20

Vitality: 24

Strength: 31

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 10

Merther racial trait: Use your inner magic to hone in on an enemy and throw your weapon at them to deal x2 piercing damage. Weapon thrown will not be usable until picked up again.

Class Passive:

Reaper passive: For each successive uninterrupted attack deal x1.1 the damage of the previous (cap at x5 damage).

Reaper Passive 2: Gain 3 strength and 1 vitality per 5 levels.

Equipment:

Basic Chestplate Armour: +3 HP.

Basic Boots: Movement speed +2.5%.

Basic Helmet: +2 HP.

Skills:

Don’t fear the reaper: When suffering fatal damage survive the killing blow with 1 health point. 30-minute cooldown.

Reaper’s fury: Deal 7 and double your (Strength) as damage in a cone 5 feet in diameter. There is a chance the skill may pass through enemies to also hit those behind them. 20-second cooldown.

Shadow Dance: Passively doubles base movement speed. When activated the skill is activated the bonus doubles for 5 seconds and the target becomes untouchable by physical damage for one second. May still be targeted and damaged by magic. 1-minute cooldown.

Seven: level 20

Health: 33 (+3)

Mana: 56

Vitality: 15

Strength: 10

Intelligence: 28 (+4)

Wisdom: 19

Dodge: 8

Control: 0

Elf racial trait: Gain 1 intelligence per 5 levels.

Class passive:

Nimble Mage passive: Gain 1 intelligence and 2 dodge per 5 levels.

Dodge: Makes movement during battle easier. It provides a small possibility that enemy attacks will miss.

Equipment:

Basic Chestplate Armour: +3 HP.

Crystal Dagger (Green): Intelligence: +4, Increases casting speed by 5%

Skills:

Magic Blast: Deals ½ Intelligence in damage.

Wind Blast: Deal 5+(Intelligence) as damage and push away a targeted enemy 1 foot (Enemy must be within 5 feet of you). Cost: 7 mana. 5-second cooldown.

Stone shift: The ground below will move you according to the predetermined path you think of up to a radius of 2 feet. Cost: 5 mana. 2-second cooldown.

Ice Bolt: Deal 3+(Intelligence) as damage and slow the movement of enemies hit by 15% for 5 seconds. Cost: 10 mana. Cooldown: 13 seconds.

It was interesting to see all of their classes and stats finally laid out.

“Man our equipment sucks balls.” Archy was looking intently at their items, “We should go buy some better stuff.”

“Ha..” Third let out a dry laugh, “I think we’ll be able to do that tomorrow once we enter the city. We can definitely get in some good practice while waiting for players to respond. Let’s buy some gear first and then arrange the meetup. Or arrange it with enough time for us to buy what we’ll need for our trip. I also wish to peruse the city for alchemists and see if we can have our ingredients used to make potions.”

They each decided to log off and meet up the next day.

Seven wondered what kind of team members they would attract.