Pellex glanced out the window, sighing at the unrewarding sight of the Scourge. A featureless plain a little under ten miles in diameter, it was a great site for building projects and hunting excursions, but it offered absolutely no insight into how long it would be until the airship arrived back home.

He shrugged, knowing that wondering about that would just leave him bored and with nothing to show for it, so he turned back to his project. The many small pieces on the tray would have certainly made this task impossible on a bumpier mode of transport, one of the reasons he wasn’t on the cheaper cograil. He was determined to hit level 5 before the end of the year, but leveling up through means other than monster hunting was very slow without class bonuses, so he had to take every opportunity to train.

Searching for a part, Pellex used [Locate]. The skill found and moved his hand to grab the part he needed almost without his input, and he quickly slotted it into place. Rubbing his hands eagerly, he went to activate the device, using [Foresight] halfway through the motion. He caught a glimpse of the machine violently exploding, taking him with it, and pulled his hand back just in time. That shouldn’t have happened. He’d checked the cog chain eight times at this point, so it would have to be… Pellex removed the component, and sure enough, the battery’s bronze lattice hadn’t been imbued properly. [Detect Thi] was a must for level 6, given how shoddy the Imbuer’s Guild had become after their latest recruitment drive. Fortunately, though Pellex was no great hand at it, he was good enough to patch this up, and, placing his fingertips on the bronze, willed his thi into the metal. A quick use of [Material Evaluation] told him the problem – the bronze was slightly impure, and the apprentice [Imbuer] hadn’t known. It was hard without the appropriate skill, but Pellex had practice, and it was enough to let him carefully redirect the ethereal pattern of the [Imbuer]’s thi around the impurity. The thi relaxed deeper into the bronze, past Pellex’s ability to feel it, and the lattice seemed just a little bit more secure. Pellex slotted the battery in and eagerly went to activate the device, but [Foresight] quickly showed the machine’s core components melting to slag. With a sigh, Pellex tried another tactic.

Half an hour later, Pellex glanced up to see that they had passed the Scourge. Only about an hour back to home, then. He reluctantly set his project aside. [Foresight] used quite a bit of thi at Bronze Grade, and it really wasn’t practical before First Echelon, but the risks it had let him safely take gave him a meteoric rise in experience, letting his parents save their entire monster hunting fund for him. They’d been able to send him to a good college, with lots left over for their retirement. And it let him win at cards a lot. The only downside was the amount of time Pellex had spent waiting for regen. Normally he’d head to an automat and spend a few pems or exchange some of his sci, but that wasn’t really an option here.

Pellex stood up, stretched, and looked around the cabin. There weren’t many passengers, mostly businessmen on their way home from corporate brunches, and… Pellex tried to observe those seats more unobtrusively. There were five members of the Zolnre city guard, surrounding a member of Zolnre’s Circle and a… High Auditor. Whatever they were doing must have been important. Auditors were all some secret variation of [Archivist] or [Sonomancer], magically sworn to perfect fulfillment of their task; that being objective witness of events. They were rare, especially out on the Rim… Zolnre only had two Low Auditors on staff, and Pellex wasn’t sure why a High Auditor would be necessary, unless it was something about the status of the agreement… He’d ask Ploris when he got home. Avoiding eye contact with that group, Pellex passed into the lounge and ordered a haman from the bartender. The bread was a bit thicker than he was used to, but it was wrapped very well despite that. The bartender had somehow avoided the standard cylinder shape and made the wrap triangular. Probably a skill of some kind, though Pellex couldn’t see the benefit. Making his way back to his seat, Pellex glanced out the window just in time to miss the other side of the airship exploding.

Thrown against the wall, Pellex groaned in pain. The impact had single-handedly cut through his entire phi reserves, and his entire chest would most likely be a new and interesting color in a few hours. Turning around, he saw a group of arders jump into the cabin, thi-soarer-riding pirates of the sky. Dressed in serviceable leathers, and strapped with a ludicrous number of weapons, the bandits were rough, but well-groomed. Each of them wore a bronze insignia that represented their gang loyalty, except for one of them, who wore a silver version; their leader. After taking a glance around the room, the pirate lieutenant stepped forward and spoke.

“Surrender your valuables and prepare to disembark. We’ll be taking this boat.”

Some of the businessmen made for their bags, but the city guard responded by firing their cogrifles into the rogues. Two dropped, but the other three were better prepared. One of them, a small, thin man with a handlebar mustache, sidestepped the bullet completely. The other two, a burly man with an axe and the leader, simply let them bounce off of their skin. First Echelon phi-foundation classes, then. Pellex glanced over at the guard, and, sure enough, they were using basic cogrifles, no phi-rail or runework. Maybe they had skills they hadn’t used because of their underestimation of the arders, but still. Pellex didn’t pay taxes for shoddy work like that. He was snapped out of his reverie when the shock of those bullets wore off, and the cabin thrummed with power. One of the businessmen, with a thi-filled shout, let loose what must have been Tier 2 eli-shaping, forcing the ambient heat into a pencil-thin line that bored a hole through an arder’s brain. A phi-foundation arder charged at the city guard, and the squad’s mage muttered something and gestured to the floor, tearing a hole in the airship and sending the bandit plummeting to the ground. After those two losses, the lead arder sighed and spoke again.

“[Silence].”

Instantly, everything went silent, and the phi classes moved into battle, with the mages on both sides unable to use the [Words of Power] skill that was the foundation for most First Echelon thi-casting. Pellex, not being a mage, was less worried about that, and more worried about that skill. Being able to use it meant that the leader was a sci-foundation class, and coupled with the phi reserves he had displayed, that indicated either a very unconventional build or an uncommon class. Either would be dangerous. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to be able to exempt himself from [Silence], and sci skills almost always required verbal activation. As the phi-based bandits began to edge forward, the guard started shooting again, this time concentrating their fire to break down defenses. Only one was killed by the salvo, but the arders got the message and slid behind chairs, drawing their own weapons. As the shootout began, Pellex slowly made his way through the small gap between the seats and the window, putting himself behind the city guard. The Circleman and the Auditor were nowhere to be seen. They probably had broken their recall stones. Most of those wealthy enough to afford them owned a few. As Pellex huddled behind a chair and waited for it to be over, the city guard fired their next salvo, and their leader’s gun jammed. As the lieutenant frantically tried to fix it, five of the arders took the opportunity to fire their shots into the guardsman’s chest, throwing him backwards several feet and killing him instantly. The remaining guard could only spare a quick, despairing glance before returning to their desparate fight.

Pellex stared at the cogrifle, which had been flung just outside of his cover. After a few moments of indecision, he snatched the weapon as fast as he could, an arder’s bullet pinging off of the floor fractions of a second too late. Safely behind cover, Pellex cleared the jam as quickly as he could. With only one chance to get it right, he pulled out his runeneedle and hastily inscribed a very unstable rune onto the bullet. He stood up and used [Locate], searching for a very specific silver object. Guided by the skill, he aimed and fired almost without thinking. The runed bullet zipped towards its destination and smashed through the bandit leader’s gang insignia. The leader had ignored it, obviously having plenty of phi to spare, but when that phi attempted to stop the bullet and interacted with the unstable rune, the rune began to glow brighter and brighter as it tore into the arder's phi reserves for power. Before the leader could stop it, the rune overloaded, reality falling into itself as the phi the rune had absorbed flashed out all at once, tearing a chunk out of the bandit's heart.

As the arder died, Pellex saw a glowing, multicolored light tear itself out of the bandit’s chest, splitting into three streams. The thickest shot straight upwards, the second flew into the guardsman who had shot the leader first, and the final ribbon streamed right into Pellex’s soul, throwing him backwards. Instantly, the airship was replaced, with an inky void he had been anticipating since he reached Level 1. Staring into the empty darkness, he blinked three times, and a green box flashed into being.

Level up! You are now level 5!

9 ability points available! 1 skill point available! Please assign them to continue with Class selection!