Maya stood in the arena preparation area, staring at her character sheet.

Shadow’s equipment was awesome! She couldn’t wait to get a set of similar equipment for her full-time use outside the arena.

Her energy had increased nicely, going from 65 to 108, and she now had 135 health. She moved noticeably faster, finally distinct from NPCs.

Maya grinned. She really hoped she’d have more high luck days. So far, this was going great! True, she was about to face a higher-level opponent in the arena, which she didn’t anticipate enjoying much. But she’d get paid whether she won or lost, either finish her quest or earn a bonus for winning, and possibly a cut of the betting if her skills matched Shadow’s guess when placing his wagers.

“Venix Heartstealer, level 11, versus Maya Starborn, level 4! Champions ready? BEGIN!”

The gate opened and Maya strode out into the arena proper, grinning. She waved cheerily to the crowd, then turned to face her opponent.

Venix was a large merla woman, decked out in heavy plate armor and carrying a two-handed hammer that flickered with dark red fire. She grinned at Maya, her sharp pointy teeth bared.

Maya’s confidence vanished like mist. Venix didn’t hesitate, charging even as Maya froze, whirling her flaming hammer above her head.

The sight was enough to snap Maya into action. She hastily overcharged Wind Whisper once, firing it at the charging merla. For a sea creature, Venix sure moved fast on land.

The Wind Whisper hit while Venix still spun her hammer above her head, and the merla's health bar barely moved. It looked about twice as thick as Maya's, so her opponent probably had between 300 and 350 health. The 7 from a basic spell didn't feel like much.

But she still had time. While Wind Whisper cooled down, she had just enough time to throw a knife before Venix slammed the hammer down on Maya’s head.

For a second, Maya thought for sure she was dead as she failed to dodge the descending hammerblow. But this wasn't earth, this was a game, and however fatal being smashed with a flaming warhammer bigger than her head would ordinarily be, here it only dealt 24 damage. Followed immediately by a burst of flame that rippled out from the contact point in a circle dealing another 5. Which still left Maya with close to 75% of her health.

She fled, trying to gain distance while both their skills cooled down. As she ran, she quickl checked Venix’s health bar - still nearly full. She only made it a few steps before Venix closed the distance.

The merla spun as she reached Maya, kicking out with one spiked boot. It only dealt two damage, but had enough force to send her sprawling.

Maya didn’t try to get up, instead immediately started charging Wind Whisper. This was no time to play conservative with her energy. She could survive only a handful of hits from that hammer, and her own attacks had hardly touched Venix’s health bar. There was no time to waste.

Venix was already swinging her hammer again, and Maya knew she didn’t have time. She didn't have time for any overcharge, but simply pushed the spell out at her opponent just as the hammer came smashing down. Maya really wished she hadn’t elected to remain prone. Another 24 damage before she could even think of dodging. At least this time it wasn't immediately followed by a wave of fire.

For her part, Maya's attack chipped another sliver off Venix's health bar, the change barely discernable. Venix clearly had at least 95% of her health left.

“What’s a level 4 doing in the arena anyway? You really think you can take me on and survive?” Venix stood over Maya, swinging her hammer casually in one hand but not attacking. Her abilities must be on cooldown. Maya started charging and overcharging Wind Whisper as soon as its cooldown ended.

Venix started whirling her hammer overhead after her taunt, flame gathering around it, but not before Maya had poured all the energy she had remaining into the supercharged attack.

Maya pushed the massive blast of wind toward her enemy. It sent Venix flying, slamming her into the arena's wall. And, finally, the health bar dropped significantly. Another five attacks like that, and Maya might have been able to win.

“HAH!” Maya scrambled to her feet and started throwing her knives as fast as the cooldown would allow. She managed two before an enraged Venix slammed into her with the flaming hammer and once again Maya found herself prone as Venix loomed over her.

She knew she wouldn't win. But at least she'd done some damage before the end. She punched the merla's armored leg, as Venix laughed and brought her hammer down again.

Maya still had just over 50 health, and she refused to go down without a fight. Stabbing wildly had proved not entirely ineffective last time. She knew it wouldn't be enough, but it felt like the thing to do.

She drew her blades and started slashing and stabbing. Venix retaliated by kicking her away with her spiked boot, then pinning her down while she wound up her hammer again. Maya squirmed, trying to throw off the larger player, but in this case the size difference was firmly in Venix's advantage.

Well, the leg at least provided a nice convenient target to stab.

-24 health

-5 health

Maya wondered if this looked as pathetic as it felt, but she continued her obligatory attacks against the merla's finned leg until the hammer came down one final time.

-22 health

The arena faded to black. A moment later, she stood back in the waiting area.

You have lost a duel to Venix Heartstealer.

Mission complete: Trickster Day Three! Reward: +5 favour with the Trickster, Ordinary Gloves of Control.

Maya frowned, wondering if all these Control stat items were the Trickster making a point. But she dropped the new item into her inventory to examine later.

For now, Shadow stood by the entry, head inclined in her direction. “Well fought. I’m surprised by your insistence on using wind magic against a warrior in plate mail, however.”

“It’s the only spell I know.”

“Hmm. Then correcting that should be our top priority. There aren’t enough opponents without armor for your wind spell to be sufficient.”

Maya straightened with sudden hope as a thought struck her. “Do you know Jaydu?”

“I do. I believe I mentioned him earlier.”

“But do you know him, like personally? Or just as a person out there?”

“He’s been a primary rival of several of my protegees.”

Maya sighed. “He took all my magic when I died, so I was hoping there’s some way to get it back.”

“How much?”

“A lot. Hundreds of drams. Enough to buy a bunch more spells. But I forgot I had it on me and fought him anyway.”

Shadow stilled, his expression hidden as ever. Then he spoke. “I will seek to find some magic to replace it, but I cannot promise it will be in such quantities.”

“That’s fine. I just need enough to get a more useful spell. Did you say Wind Whisper isn’t good against platemail?”

“Any metal armor grants a 50% resistance to wind magic.”

Maya considered this. “That would explain how I did so little damage. Just overcoming the resistance wouldn't be enough to win, though; she still had over 3/4ths of her health at the end.”

“That was not the point of this exercise. No one expected you to win. Did you gain a level?”

Maya checked her notifications. "Yes, actually. Any suggestions before I drop it into attunement?"

“No, your levels are your business."

Maya nodded and assigned the points to attunement, bringing her energy pool up to 115. Two extra overcharge levels could definitely come in handy.

"I’ve already scheduled a rematch," Shadow continued. "You can face her again in an hour. For the moment, I must go attend to a few things. Have I shown you the practice area yet?”

"No. Why would you schedule a rematch? If her armor is a hard counter to my wind spell, what am I going to—”

Shadow held up a hand to stop her. “You said you learned to throw knives, yes? Have you practiced using Wind Whisper in any mode except slash?”

“No. I guess I used gust once or twice.”

“Wind Whisper is primarily a utility spell, never intended to be a mage’s primary damage dealer. If you concentrate on what you want it to do, you can do a lot more specific things with it other than throw it straight at an opponent.”

Then Maya got it. “You think I could use it to amplify my thrown knives? Cast it, throw a knife, push the blade faster and strike harder?”

“Precisely. There are two duels scheduled before your rematch. Do you want to watch, or go out back and practice?”

“Practice. Definitely practice.”

Shadow led her through the far door of the waiting area, currently empty of anyone but the two of them, and into a series of halls with doors on either side at infrequent intervals. She still hadn’t gotten used to the odd juxtaposition of modern, archaic, and fantasy structures. It seemed whoever designed World 9352 hadn’t put a lot of thought into the anthropology.

The doors were each painted a different colour. Shadow’s, perhaps unsurprisingly, was solid black.

Beyond, Maya was surprised to see a handful of other players spread throughout a replica arena. Though a bit smaller than the official one, most of that difference was due to the lack of any observation area. Testing dummies spread throughout the room served as targets.

Shadow pointed her to an unoccupied area of the training area. “Start simple. Cast the spell, keeping the wind under control and near your hand, then push it forward when you throw the knife.”

Maya nodded. She crossed to the nearest unclaimed target and started casting.

She had a hard time keeping control of the wind after pushing it out. She’d gotten into such a habit of pushing it forcefully and then immediately doing something else - like dodging, running, or trying not to be smashed to the ground - that she didn’t really have an idea of what it would be to keep a hold on it.

Wind Whisper’s description made it clear that it could be used for utility besides just attacks. But Maya doubted one hour would be enough to master the trick of it.

Still, she had nothing better to do. Even if her mind kept returning again and again to how powerful and unstoppable her adversary was.

She'd spent nearly twenty minutes practicing, wearing her energy down to nothing time and again, before Shadow returned. She took the excuse to go talk to him while waiting for her energy to recover.

"Making progress?" Shadow asked as Maya approached.

"Not much. This will work? You don’t think my knives will just bounce off the armor?”

“Do you know how weapon-based abilities work?”

“Throw Knife makes my aim better, since I made the ability from my best throw.”

“Weapon abilities augment the weapons with which they are used. Your throw will be equally accurate if you use a practice knife or a regulation steel blade, but the latter will deal significantly more damage.”

“And this is related to damage resistance how?”

“What we want to create with Wind Whisper is a Wind-augmented thrown knife ability. That will change the damage type from Wind to Physical. Once you manage it once perfectly, turn it into an ability and you won’t have to worry about the specifics.”

“You can combine already-existing abilities to create new ones?”

“Naturally. The system is quite open-ended. I suggest you hurry, though. Your next match is soon and I need a reason to project confidence.”

“You aren’t betting on me, are you?”

“Naturally not. Nor against you. I’m still assessing your abilities. It’s everyone else that we need to impress.” She could hear the smile in his voice even if she couldn’t see his face.

“I won’t be able to learn new skills before every match,” Maya protested. “You won’t be able to keep impressing them for long.”

“No, but soon you’ll be able to do that yourself.”

Maya shrugged, then stood. “My energy’s full again. I’m getting back to work.”

Shadow nodded, and she was sure he was smiling.

Maya Starborn Average Androgynous Harpy Level: 5 Affinities: Magical Physical Tier: 1 Class: Trickster Specialization: Path of Life Total Base Items Modifiers Sturdiness: 13 8 5 0 Momentum: 20 12 5 3 Agility: 14 8 5 1 Control: 13 8 5 0 Attunement: 31 12 18 1 Focus: 21 8 12 1 Intelligence: 39 12 25 2 Flexibility: 17 8 8 1 Luck: 40 35 - 5 Unassigned: 0 Health: 144 of 144 Will: 30 of 30 Stamina: 75 of 75 Energy: 119 of 119 Speed: 117% Switch penalty: -47%, 9.7 secs Stealth: 133% Chain bonus: +6% Awareness: 129% Cooldown: 91.5% Max abilities: 3 Abilities Abilities: [3 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

3 dmg

(physical) Sense Balance Discern if an area is lacking in or has an excess of any materials, creatures, etc. Equipment & Inventory Item Name Slot Stu Mom Agi Con Att Foc Int Flx OceanBlade Held 1 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 OceanBlade Held 2 Mage's Circlet Head 1 1 1 1 Mage's Hooded Cloak Shoulders 1 1 Handwraps of Focus Hands 2 Mage Robes Body 2 1 2 1 Leggings of the Mage Legs 1 Mage's Sash Belt 1 1 1 1 Mage's Sandals Feet 1 1 Armband of Intelligence Arm 1 4 Armband of the Mage Arm 2 1 1 1 Mage's Pendant Necklace 1 Mage's Ring Ring 1 1 1 1 Ring of Intelligence Ring 2 1 Ring of Intelligence Ring 3 1 Ring of Intelligence Ring 4 1 Attunement Trinket Misc 1 2 Attunement Trinket Misc 2 2 Intelligence Trinket Misc 3 2 Intelligence Trinket Misc 4 2 Trickster's Mask (Mage) Special Money: 3 Silver 102 Copper Quality Item name Details Soulbound Trickster's Dice Soulbound Trickster's Orb 3/5 uses remaining Flimsy Shary's Orchard Brochure Normal Apple x2 Consumable Special White and Blue Orb 3/3 uses remaining Special Key - Arrival Plaza Apartment Expires in 29 days Normal Basic Throwing Knife x21 3 damage (physical) Special Key - Room 6, Sapphire Hall Flimsy Newcomer's Tunic Flimsy Newcomer's Leggings Normal Acrobat's Footwraps Level 5, +2 agi Special Arena Equipment Token Registered to Maya Starborn Exceptional Lesser Bracelet of Control Level 2, +4 con Uncommon Minor Chestpiece of the Dancer Level 4, +1 mom, +1 con Uncommon Minor Waistwrap of the Dancer Level 4, +1 mom, +1 con Legendary Ordinary Gloves of Control Level 4, +13 con Missions Mission Description

Time Reward Arena (Shadow) Spend at least one day every week fighting in the Arena. Variable Trickster Day 3 Lose a fight to another player in the arena. DONE Ordinary Gloves of Control

+5 reputation with The Trickster Gazebo Construction Construct a new gazebo for Maylon the Poet.

[Optional] Also varnish the entire structure once built. DONE 3 silver 50 copper

+5 reputation with Maylon the Poet Trickster Day 2 Lose a fight to another player in PVP. DONE Lesser Bracelet of Control

+5 reputation with The Trickster Windy Creek Reconstruction Locate the missing workers' tools.

Construct a new dam to redirect Windy Creek to the mill run.

Clear the wreckage of the old Windy Creek Dam.

Complete construction of the new Windy Creek bridge. DONE 5 silver, 80 copper

25 reputation with Windy Creek village Trickster Day 1 Side with a person who is losing an argument or disagreement. FAILED -5 reputation with The Trickster Missing Delivery Find the overdue delivery boy. Ensure his safety and the successful delivery of apples to Shary's Produce Stand. DONE 5 copper

3 apples

+10 reputation with Shary and Elaph