Maya chose the red door next. Since she was going around in that direction, may as well continue. The room she entered was yet again different - a wide round arena with a packed dirt floor and weapons on display around every edge. Two men, both human, wrestled over a dagger stuck in the ground.

A cold-looking person who seemed almost human but which she guessed at once must be a vampire stood opposite her across the circle, arms crossed and watching with slitted, faintly-glowing eyes. The vampire clapped his hands once as he saw her enter, and the fighters separated at once. They bowed to each other, glaring furiously the entire time, then stalked away in opposite directions and vanished into shadowy hallways beyond.

“Ah, visitor.” His voice had an odd quality to it, throaty, but high, stretching out ‘a’ and rolling the ‘r’. “I suspect you’ve already chosen your path, but . . . It is suggested you attend all the areas, yes?”

“Yes. I doubt I’ll be a melee fighter, but you can’t go wrong with a backup.” Especially if this Shardlord jerk was monopolizing magic spells. She wouldn’t be much of a mage with only Wind Whisper.

“Where magic relies on external power, a blade requires only practice to attain skill.”

“Are attacks freeform, or do they count as abilities?” If the former, she’d absolutely carry a blade with her at all times. If the latter . . . she’d still carry a blade, but use it less frequently. It would be a long time before she leveled up enough to negate the switching penalty, and she wasn’t planning to waste her few precious ability slots on backup moves.

Then again, one magic spell did not a war-mage make.

“Yesss, both. Watch me.”

He lunged toward the center of the arena, flipping the dagger into the air with one foot and catching it in his left hand, then abruptly stopped moving.

“What would you call that? A special move? An ability - flip-weapon-from-floor-into-hand? It could be, if you cemented it as such, but it’s not necessary. Agility and control are all I need.”

Maya rushed forward, mistook how shallow the arena floor was, stubbed her foot, tripped and flailed for a second in a desperate attempt to regain her balance, then tumbled to the ground in a cloud of dust. She lay there, winded and coughing.

“I don’t recommend you turn that into an ability,” the vampire said coldly.

“Well, I’ve never claimed to be a fighter,” Maya retorted. She sat up and brushed herself off as best she could. “I’m guessing we convert movements into skills much like converting spells?”

“Not exactly. Magic already knows what it’s meant to do. Your body, on the other hand, needs training. Once you perform a move perfectly, or imperfectly if you’re not picky,” his tone disgusted at the thought, “you can convert it into a repeatable action. Like magic, attacks can be done either with the ability or without. Unlike magic, it costs almost nothing to punch someone freeform as you call it, while it requires significantly more stamina to perform the same attack as an ability. However, abilities do offer increased accuracy and power. As with anything, there are positives and negatives to any approach.”

“Can you teach me any attack or protection abilities?”

“Yes.” He sneered as he said it, looking down at her with obvious distaste. “However, they all require you to be standing, not sitting in the dirt.”

“Do they also require you to have a bad attitude?” she retorted, growing tired of it. “So I’m not a great warrior. That’s no reason to treat me—”

“Like a foolish child who clearly cares more about flash than substance?" he interrupted, not waiting for her to finish. "I train the strong to become stronger. You cannot even handle two steps down.”

“I thought there were three,” she said defencively. “Besides, not everyone starts out strong.”

She glanced over at her stats. Sturdiness and Control were her weakest stats, each at only the base of 8. At least she didn’t have any penalties. And thanks to her racial bonus as a harpy, she had a decent stamina pool. 72, almost as big as her energy pool of 74. Wait, why was she still at 70 energy? Shouldn’t it be full by now? She stared at the number, but it didn’t change.

“Paying attention to reality is clearly not your strongest ability.”

“Never has been." Maya shrugged. "Who needs reality?”

“People who wish to stay alive.”

“Worst case scenario, I’ve got to redo these tutorials. I already saved my character at the start.”

“Did you indeed? Well, then, I won’t need to hold back.”

Maya scrambled hastily out of the circle and jumped to her feet. “On second thought, I think I’d rather learn to throw knives from a distance. Thanks.”

She shamelessly fled.

The vampire’s mocking laughter followed her, but thankfully he himself did not.

She didn’t stop running until she was back outside the red curtain of light, out of breath even from that short distance. But the moment she stopped, her stamina dipped and her breathing regulated itself, making her feel as though she could start running again immediately. As she watched, the stamina refilled point by point. She glared at the energy bar, which refused to do likewise. Still 70 of 74.

If the pattern of the doors held, the next one she entered would be about something passive related to physical combat or whatever the griffin represented. She entered confidently, relaxed now despite her abrupt departure from the melee combat area.

This room had an arched ceiling painted like the night sky, the walls lined with black curtains and the floor tiled in obsidian. The only illumination came from small blue lamps spread far enough apart to leave deep shadows.

Another vampire sat facing the entry, but instead of standing aggressively this one was seated on the floor in the center of the darkest area, head back to stare at the painted ceiling, hands held upraised to either side. Behind her lay a pool of dark water which rippled in time with the vampire’s breath.

Maya cautiously approached. “Hello?” Her voice came out in a whisper, though she couldn’t have said why.

“A seeker comes,” the vampire replied, her own voice low and reverent. “Join me, seeker, and ask your questions.”

“Erm, okay.” Maya sat opposite her, holding her hands out to either side in imitation of the vampire's pose. Then she felt silly, and folded them on her lap instead. “What is this place, who are you, and what am I supposed to be learning here?”

“I am the night priestess of the cosmos, companion to the day priestess of the oceans. It is our task to share knowledge of the higher powers with those who seek them. At least, what little knowledge any mortals can claim to possess.”

“Ah, alright. How many higher powers are there?”

“Countless. We have charted at least eighteen minor pantheons within these halls, and not all deities deign to show themselves to those of us who seek them. But tell me, seeker. What manner of power would you follow?”

Maya shifted uncomfortably. “I kinda already believe in the true God, so I can’t really . . . convert.”

“The Gods of your world mean nothing here, any more than ours would mean in your world. It is no betrayal to follow another here, any more than it would be to marry.”

“See, that also makes me uncomfortable.”

The vampire’s glowing eyes dimmed, her lips tightening. “Then allow me to be blunt. This is a game.” She shivered, sounding pained as she said the word, but pressed on. “Everything here is made up, or adapted from your myths in a new way. Most gods back on Earth don’t approve of magic, either, but you seem eager enough to jump into that.”

“That’s different,” Maya protested, though now she thought about it she couldn’t really explain how. Fictional witchcraft, fictional deity, what did it matter? Then she remembered that she was almost certainly dead, and this was definitely not any afterlife she’d heard of. Unless it was a weird purgatory, she could probably get away with taking it at face value as a game.

The vampire watched, not making a move, waiting for her to come to her own conclusion.

Maya sighed heavily. “Fine, maybe it isn’t. Since you brought up magic, are there any deities who align with that?”

“Many. There are entire pantheons centered around magic. There are obscure powers whose only goal is to create magic, or to see it destroyed.”

“Let’s not go with anything too destructive, please.”

The vampire slowly leaned back, until she was lying on the floor staring up at the ceiling. “Mmmmm . . . Liyaan.”

“Liyaan?”

“Liyaan is the goddess of creativity and fluidity, often associated with magic due to its fluid and innately creative nature. She is known to provide guidance to the lost and protection to explorers, though most frequently she is found seducing artists.”

So close. Up until that last point she’d sounded ideal.

“Doesn’t really sound like my type of person. Anyone less . . . immoral?”

The priestess laughed. “You can’t apply your morality to deities. They make the rules.”

“Yes, but surely there are some universal—”

“No. Anything one believes or enforces, another opposes. They are balanced across every possible axis.”

“So if they’re balanced every way possible, there should be at least one with proper morality.”

“Only if each represents only a single ideal. People are more complicated than that. You expect deities to be simpler even than us? They are as far above us as we are above beasts. You can’t expect them to adhere to our rules.”

“Not making me any more comfortable. You know what, I don’t think I need a new god. Thanks anyway.”

The vampire sat up quickly. “You don’t wish to know anything more at all?”

“Nope, I’m good. Got to learn to throw pointy things at enemies, then get past this tutorial and into the real game. If there are faction wars going on out there, there have to be some pretty great potential rewards to earn.”

Maya turned and departed. She decided she didn't particularly like vampires.

Blue gate next, between the archer and the griffin. If this wasn’t ranger training, Maya didn’t know what it possibly could be. Sure enough, she stepped through the curtain of near-invisible blue light and into a narrow strip of grassy courtyard with various archery targets set up at the far end. The near end contained a pair of felinii, one black-furred with gleaming golden eyes, the other white-furred with a strip of cloth covering his eyes.

“I need to be able to defend myself and prevent any enemies from getting close to me,” Maya announced without preamble.

“You’ve come to the right place,” purred the white felinis. “What weapon suits you?” He flipped a knife off the rack behind him with his tail, tapping it lightly in midair with one hand, then flipping onto his hands so that his foot impacted the spinning blade by its hilt and sent it flying straight and true into the heart of the most distant target.

Maya stared in awe. The blindfolded cat-man grinned as though he could sense her admiration, flipping back to his feet and bowing in her general direction.

“Or perhaps you want something faster and more reliable than flipping around showing off,” growled the dark-furred kitty man. In a blur, he whipped arrow after arrow from the quiver at his side, firing at the targets in rapid succession. Thunk-thunk-thunk-thunk-thunk! One after another, the arrows hit center, the last making a loud *ping!* as it knocked the thrown knife from its place.

“You’re not the only one who can move fast.” With another sweep of his tail, the blindfolded ranger gathered up a half-dozen more throwing knives, whipping them up high into the air. He caught each as it fell, tossing it back higher still as though juggling the flashing, deadly blades. Then, his hands moving so fast she could scarcely follow, he switched from throwing them upward to outward.

Hisss snick. Each blade connected with an arrow, some knocking them aside, some gouging wood out in a strip, and one splitting it in half so it dangled half-disconnected.

The white felinis smiled. “You see. Speed is not the sole domain of arrows, my friend.”

Maya couldn’t help herself. She applauded. Both rangers stopped glaring at each other to bow in her direction.

“Which weapon would you desire?” asked the archer.

“Sorry, but I like the idea of not having to take care of a bow and worry about strings snapping and all that.” She crossed to the blindfolded knife-thrower. “So, where do I start?”

They spent the next several hours going over the basics. How to quickly check the balance of a blade, to assess how it would spin so you could throw it at the right speed to land point-first. A lot of practice throws to get the feel for distance. No flipping, spinning, or blindfolds for her though. Just getting the blade to stick in the target would be a major victory.

Though they’d acted like rivals at first, the archer helped with her lessons as well, adjusting her posture and collecting the thrown weapons that littered the ground, growling pointers whenever he felt his co-teacher had missed a point.

Unfortunately, they were also somewhat distracting. She was a bird-person now, and had the feeling she probably shouldn’t be falling for cat-men, but she’d always admired panthers and tigers and these guys were just very capable and very athletic and very shirtless.

And, she convinced herself, since this was just the tutorial and she’d probably never see them again, it was safe to assume she wouldn’t need to worry about meeting them again. It wouldn’t hurt anything.

She stayed longer than was strictly necessary, practicing her throwing until she completed each of the five targets flawlessly. She wasn’t sure if it took hours or weeks - she never really tired beyond needing to wait a minute for her stamina to recharge, and she hadn’t experienced any hunger or thirst. She wasn’t sure they even existed in this world.

When she finally cemented a single near-perfect throw into a new ability, she noticed that she'd also received another notification at some point.

Level increased. You have 3 stat points to allocate.

Ability created: Throw Knife [5 stamina]. Requires knife.

“Woo! Levelup!”

Maya focused on her stat sheet, gaze sliding down the different special traits of each attribute. Sturdiness focused on health, Momentum helped with speed and added a chaining bonus multiplier, Agility increased speed and stealth, Control reduced the penalty for switching abilities. All four physical attributes increased stamina, though not by the same amount. For mental attributes, Attunement increased awareness, Focus increased will, Intelligence increased the number of ability slots available, and Flexibility reduced cooldowns and increased stealth.

Of those, they all sounded kinda important. But with only three stat points to spend each level she knew she had to make some serious decisions about where to specialize.

She desperately wanted to go for speed. Momentum would be the best for that, but she had to take her desire for spellcasting into consideration as well.

Assuming she was able to find some decent spells later, she should probably lean heavily on attunement to increase her energy. Converting a limited pool of spells to abilities and then casting them rapidly and repeatedly sounded like the best she could hope for as a mage in the current economic climate. She wasn't sure how much energy higher level spells would cost, but she definitely wanted to be able to cast them more than a handful of times.

Intelligence wasn’t the best for energy, but it would allow her to have more abilities slotted at once. If she wasn’t going to invest in Control to decrease the switching penalties, she’d need more ability slots. Three wouldn't be enough for very long.

So that was decided, Momentum, attunement, and intelligence would be her focus stats.

But just to be sure, Maya went over the list carefully one last time before making her final selections. Was there anything she'd forgotten? Health maybe. But it looked like leveling had automatically increased it by 5, from 45 to 50. At that rate, dropping points into sturdiness sounded like a waste of potential.

She put two of her points into mom and int, gaining an additional 2 energy, 5% more speed, and another percent of chain bonus. It was only level two, so she couldn’t expect too much from it.

Maya hesitated before spending her last point. Should she add focus for the will bonus? She didn't like having will at only 18. But she didn't know what specifically it would be used for, so for the moment she went with her initial plan and dropped it into attumenent.

Bidding farewell to the ranger teachers, she exited their training area and stepped through the last curtain.

Maya Starborn Average Androgynous Harpy Level: 2 Affinities: Magical Physical Tier: 1 Class: None Total Base Items Modifiers Sturdiness: 8 8 0 0 Momentum: 12 9 0 3 Agility: 9 8 0 1 Control: 8 8 0 0 Attunement: 10 9 0 1 Focus: 9 8 0 1 Intelligence: 11 9 0 2 Flexibility: 9 8 0 1 Luck: 5 5 - 0 Unassigned: 0 Health: 50 of 50 Will: 18 of 18 Stamina: 74 of 74 Energy: 75 of 79 Speed: 82% Switch penalty: -52%, 10.2 secs Stealth: 78% Chain bonus: +4% Awareness: 66% Cooldown: 95.5% Max abilities: 3 Abilities: [2 of 3] Wind Whisper

[5 energy] Blow into cupped hands, then push the air toward the target.

Creates a light breeze, a quick gust, or a damaging slash.

[Overcharge: +5 energy, +0.2 sec cast time, +50% force/duration/dmg] 2.2 sec

5 dmg

(wind) Throw Knife

[5 stamina] Throw a knife at a target with high accuracy. Requires a knife. 1.1 sec

n/a dmg

(physical) [Empty] Equipment Item Name Slot Stu Mom Agi Con Att Foc Int Flx Newcomer's Tunic Body Newcomer's Leggings Legs