Sweat broke out on her leonine brow, running down her face leaving streaks of darker colored fur. Her eyes were focused on the space in front of her, intent on something that was not visible. The sound of her teeth creaking as they ground against each other was grating to the ear in the worst kind of way.

“You still haven’t got it, Ladon? You have been trying to get that new spell to work for two days now. We’re burning daylight here.” The words were muffled by the long black scarf that covered the man’s face. Dark hollows perched above the fabric, places where eyes should be, that radiated coldness.

“Rawr! Shut up Konik! I told you what the trainer said. I have to imagine the vines bursting from the ground and growing rapidly. It’s not easy! What the hell do you know, anyway? You just stab people!” Her lips pulled back in a sneer, revealing the set of razor sharp feline teeth in her jaw. She had the head of a lioness on a female humanoid body, along with thin fur everywhere. Actually, the fur was thicker on the back of her hand-like paws, and on the end of her tail but she was able to deftly use those furry fingers to flip the ghoul off.

“Technically, I rip them apart. Daggers are for people who don’t have razor claws. And also, it’s not my fault you didn’t have the money for any of the backer options. This ghoul body is the best thing I have ever had in a game. I can rip people apart, and heal myself by eating them.” He held up greyish hands with black claws on the end, flexing them as if he still couldn’t believe how real it felt.

“Anyways, my Nature Affinity is still really low. I need to keep casting spells to raise it, since it determines a lot of stuff with magic casting. Essence determines how much mana you have, and how fast it regens. Intelligence determines which spells you can learn, and also your chance to crit with them. And Affinity… that determines your spell failure chance, resistance to the element, and also secondary spell effects! It’s a lot more complicated than your setup!”

The ghoul hunched his hulking shoulders as he leaned against the wall, watching the beastkin try to cast her spell again. “Hey, at least we’re a good team! I’m the sneaky one, and you are the healer and offensive spell caster. We’ll stand a better chance of making something of ourselves here together, rather than those idiots trying to go solo.”

“Umm hmm…” she listlessly responded, her tongue sticking out of her mouth awkwardly as she channeled her mana into the spellform once more. Sweat broke out on her face once again, but quickly cleared up as a thorn pushed it’s way through the dirt floor. The weed quickly expanded in size, running across the dirt like a crazed snake. It ran over to the corner and wrapped itself around the soft leather boots the ghoul wore, holding him firmly in place and starting to coil around his lower legs.

“Gah! What the actual fuck! Get this shit off me!” He reached down with his claws and started ripping at the thorn vines, hissing in pain as they cut into his flesh. “For real, cut this out!”

The cat-woman just laughed for a few seconds before letting the spell fade. She slumped to the ground against earthen wall and took a deep breath. “See? The magic is worth it. You know, they used to talk about Linear Warriors and Quadratic Wizards in gaming. Better hope you can learn some kind of martial art or something because right now I am about to start kicking your ass.”

The ghoul dusted himself off without saying much, but thoughts were clearly churning in the mind behind those empty sockets. “Hmm, let’s get out of Alvim. You know these elves don’t like me. Let’s head to Yulinh, get the vibe there. You got your spells, now I need to pick up a few tools and then maybe we can hit a dungeon or something.”

“Well, we need some money. If we go broke, I can’t even eat your dead ass. We might have to take up some bounty hunting or something.”