“Nyahhhh, nice to see you, birdy. I wondered how long it would take you to come after me.”

Maya began to think this was a serious mistake.

Kittykitty stood grinning, her health bar even thicker than Venix’s despite being two levels lower.

Maya knew level wasn’t everything, but though everyone had said Kittykitty was tearing her way through the arena fighters, she’d somehow assumed that their respective level growth would be equivalent. That because Maya beat her once, she could do it again.

Kittykitty’s feral grin said otherwise. “Don’t worry, I won’t be wearing myself out this time. I’ve learned from my mistakes.

Well, maybe this would finally get the animosity out of the unreasonable creature’s system, and let them move on with their respective lives. Maya didn’t want to lose, certainly not, but she wasn’t going to go out of her way to do anything about it.

“Maya Starborn, level 5, versus Kittykitty, level 9! Champions ready? BEGIN!”

Kittykitty casually strolled forward, moving faster than Maya could run. Not that she was considering running.

Maya charged a Wind Whisper and waited until Kittykitty was close, then blasted her back just before her attack could come down.

Then she retreated, grinning as Kittykitty’s attack hit only the ground, sending up a puff of dust.

If Maya was destined to lose, she was at least going to have fun with this.

“Stupid bird!” Kittykitty snarled, charging again, mace and shield vanishing as she extended her claws in her familiar lunge attack.

Maya charged in return, then jumped aside at the last second. The ability system could perform minor adjustments to ensure attacks hit, but as long as Maya actively tried dodging them and wasn’t distracted by attacking, she could somewhat mitigate Kittykitty’s advantage.

At least, she hoped so. She couldn’t possibly bring down Kittykitty’s health far enough with her spells or throwing knives, so she’d have to rely on freeform attacks and evasion.

Mostly evasion.

Kittykitty’s equipment reappeared in her hands as she yowled in rage and sprang at Maya. Maya wasn’t fast enough to dodge this time. -12 health.

Not nearly as bad as Venix. For all her health and fury, Kittykitty still didn’t have the sheer power of a higher level player. This could drag out in Maya’s favor, if she stayed unpredictable.

This time, she closed in and began stabbing madly with throwing knives in both hands. She’d been doing a lot of that lately, between her first fight with Kittykitty and her stress-relief attacks on the training dummy, and the flurry rhythm came easily to her. She briefly wondered if she should create an ability with it, but couldn’t spare the attention to do so now.

Kittykitty’s health bar began to slowly shrink. Maya’s didn’t shrink as slowly, Kittykitty retaliating with her own freeform flurry. But at close quarters, Maya's knives were a more maneuverable weapon than Kittykitty's mace. And unfortunately, her opponent wasn't so incensed to continue futilely flailing with it. Kittykitty dropped her mace into her inventory, smashed Maya in the shoulder with her shield, and bared her claws.

The eventual outcome was something of a foregone conclusion. Kittykitty had indeed learned from her defeat. Though, with her health bar as thick as it was, Maya knew that even if she'd stood still for the entire fight Maya couldn't have done enough damage to finish her before exhausting her energy and stamina both. It seemed Shadow wasn't the only one equipping his fighters with insane equipment. She shouldn't have underestimated the felinis just because she'd beat her once.

You have lost a duel to Kittykitty.

She'd hoped that the fight would gain her another levelup, but it didn't. Ugh. What a waste of time.

As soon as she reappeared in the lobby, she hurried back to Shadow's private training area before Kittykitty could come taunt her. She needed to deal more damage more quickly, she needed more energy, and most of all she needed better spells. Wind Whisper was not going to cut it in the competetive arena. But apart from the mages at the academy, she'd never even seen magic in-game. Where could she possibly get enough?

No, right now she needed to focus on what she could improve. Which was her knife-throwing ability. If she could move faster, throw harder, she might be able to do as Shadow suggested and combine her individually mediocre abilities into something worthwhile.

So she focused, allowing the frustration of the day's repeated failures to fuel her attacks, and continued practicing.

Throw, miss, throw, miss, throw faster and faster, miss more and more. Increase the speed. Make the movement perfect. Just once. She’d only need to get it right once. By luck, or skill, or blind repetition. Once converted to an ability, it would be set and immutable. Impossible to improve further, but also impossible to get wrong.

She hit some, not every throw missed. She found her skill coming back, the hours of practice compounding with her time training in the tutorial. If skills were something that could be leveled instead of just done, she was sure she’d have leveled up knife throwing by then, but it seemed to be something innate rather than numerical. Instead of a new rank, she missed slightly less frequently.

But none of the hits were solid enough, none fast enough. Any time she hit well, she activated the ability creation interface, but the stats were always right around the same as her already-existing skill. She managed to shave off a tenth of a second, which was helpful but not close to sufficient.

At some point, Shadow stopped watching her and left. Various other fighters in the room came and went. Maya kept trying.

Throw the knife, another, another. Go through all fourteen, collect them, repeat. Throw, hit, throw, miss, throw throw throw.

She needed more speed. More accuracy. It had to be perfect.

Throw. Hit. Check the ability interface. Too slow. More. Again.

She lost track of time, utterly consumed by her task. As far as she could tell, it could have been hours, or days, if not for the impending duel.

How many hours did she have? Was she running out of time? She gathered her knives and reset. No point in worrying. Throw, throw, throw.

She only needed to get lucky once.

And, finally, she did.

0.8 seconds. Maya hardly dared believe it, even as she cemented the ability and jumped in the air in celebration. it was. She could throw a knife 3/10ths of a second faster than before. That was more than 25% of the ability time taken off!

Step one, done. Finally.

“Maya?”

She turned at the unfamiliar voice. “Yes?”

A small pale man stood grinning, holding out a very shiny head of lettuce. She recognized his armor; he’d been in and out of the training area a few times, but she didn’t know his name or class.

“I’m not hungry,” Maya said, confused.

“No! Definitely do not eat it. This is just for storage. Take it.”

Maya hesitantly accepted the dubious gift, then her breath caught as she realized why the lettuce was so shiny.

Each leaf was coated with a thin layer of magic. She ran a hand gently over the outer leaves, watching how the magic gathered and beaded on her fingers. Maybe it was relief, or gratitude, or just the relief of tension from her hours and hours of practice, but she found herself crying.

“Thank you. Thank you.” She wiped surreptitiously at her tears, hoping her voice didn’t sound too choked.

He grinned and bowed. “Happy to help our newest teammate. Jaydu was due for a defeat anyway.”

“You got this back from Jaydu?”

“I did.”

“You should keep some.” She offered the lettuce.

“No, I don’t use magic. You’ll need it if you’re planning to move up. I was hoping to get more, but he realized what I was up to and refused my next challenge.”

“You did more than I could have asked. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He turned to leave, then paused and looked back. “And good luck against Venix. We’re all rooting for you. Shadow wouldn’t recruit you if you don't have potential.”

Maya laughed through her tears. “Thank you.” She couldn’t think of anything else to say, but he didn’t seem to mind her repetitiveness. “Wait, before you go, what’s your name?”

“Lutica the Silent. But around here everyone calls me Lou.”

Maya took a minute to recover her equilibrium, then began unpeeling the leaves of lettuce and gently gathering up the magic on each. It amounted to enough to lightly cover both hands, maybe 80 or 100 drams, thought she wasn’t entirely sure of the measurements. It looked like about a tenth of what she’d lost, but still more than she’d ever expected to see again. She coaxed it up onto her forearms so she had free use of her hands without worrying, then got to work.

In the tutorial, she’d been so overawed with the opportunity to do magic at all that she’d cemented her ability without even thinking about her speed.

She practiced the motion without casting several times, trying to count the partial-seconds in her head, trying to make it as quick and snappy as possible. Blow into hands, throw the spell at the target.

Maya couldn't spend as long practicing this. She had to be ready soon. Not sure how soon, she’d lost track of time hours ago, but she had a feeling she didn’t have much longer to prepare.

Once she was sure she’d increased her speed appropriately, she tried to move some magic off into the air, which wasn’t as easy as she’d expected. It was worse than trying to flick hair off a staticky wool jacket. Finally, she gave up and just gathered it on her fingertip. Four drams, more or less. About the size of a large grape. She positioned herself, breath speeding up in anticipation. This might be stupid. She might be about to waste the most valuable resource she had. But if throwing her knives faster was important to victory, even more so was casting quickly.

She put the magic in her mouth to repeat her new casting motion for real. But her intention triggered her ability. Instead of using the physical magic, she cast the spell out with energy at her exact same standard ability speed.

Maya closed her eyes a second, breathing through her nose so as not to disperse the magic any more than it may already have been, trying to think of it as just more practice.

Just try to do it fast. Don’t worry about activating. The magic and the system know what they’re doing. Blow the magic out, quickly shove it at the target.

2.1 seconds. Better, but not by enough. Her uncertainty had translated to speed lost. She locked in the new ability anyway, any improvement was better than none, then gathered up more magic to try again.

It took eight tries, but Maya finally brought the speed down to 1.9 seconds and decided that was good enough. It would have to do. She didn’t want to use all her magic. She still hoped to use it to buy new spells, assuming she could ever earn enough silver.

Now the final step. Combine them. Wind Whisper, overcharge eight times. Set it into that looping trajectory, buying time to throw the knife. Wind rushes in and adds all its force to the blade’s attack. In theory.

Her timing was off. She’d spent so long practicing with her old slower skills, and now her throwing was always a split-second behind the wind.

At an 8x overcharge, she could only cast three times before waiting for her energy to recover. She had to get this. It was her only chance.

She saw Shadow enter the room, but he didn’t come to urge her to hurry. She hurried anyway, worry beginning to nag at her. What if she didn’t get this ready on time? She’d let everyone down. And she hadn't actually calculated it out. Maybe even all this wouldn't be enough. Probably, even.

Her nerves ruined her next set as well, and she paced anxiously as her energy trickled back up to full.

“I see you made good use of the magic,” Shadow said, coming up beside her.

“Yes. Now go away. I have to finish this. Don’t distract me.”

“Twenty minutes,” Shadow said, then did as she suggested and went to bother someone else.

Wind Whisper, looped up and around, Throw Knife just as it reached her. Getting closer.

Too fast. Too slow. Out of sync.

Finally, just right. Create ability.

Windborne Blade, 45 energy, 5 stamina; 4.3 seconds; +30 physical damage.

Her basic blades did 3 damage on their own, for 33 total. And all physical, not wind.

Maya laughed aloud, giddy with success, finally able to relax her intense focus.

Unfortunately, she felt more like she needed to go for a quick jog and take a long nap, rather than immediately test her new creation in a fight to the death.

Maya lay down on the dusty ground, spreading her arms and just relaxing. So much of her day had been spent in frustration, tense repetition, or sudden life-or-death battles. It felt incredibly nice to just stop moving.

Unfortunately, her mind couldn't let it be. She'd only be able to cast her new attack twice before running out of energy. That meant she could deal a maximum of 66 damage. If her guesses were correct, Venix had three or four times that. Maya glanced up at her level notifications just in case, and laughed aloud.

You have gained a level. You have 3 ability points to allocate.

Sometime during her interminable practice, she'd leveled again. She immediately put the points into attunement, bringing her energy pool up to 126. Each Windborne Blade cost 45, so she could now use it three times now. 99 damage sounded like a lot more than 66. But against Venix it still wouldn't be enough. There was just too big a gap.

All too soon, Shadow came and offered a hand to help her to her feet. “Time for your comeback, eh?”

“Don’t bet too much on me,” Maya said. “I've run the numbers. I can't possibly do enough damage to win.”

Shadow chuckled, leading the way out toward the fighter preparation area. “Don't worry about winning. Your job is to put on a good show, and make people question their preconceptions.”

Maya took a deep breath, nodded, and headed in.

She spent a tense minute pacing behind the gate while the last few seconds passed, then stepped out into the arena as the announcer called their names. She watched Venix emerge opposite her, instinctive fear sending her heart racing at the sight of her merla nemesis.

She had to convince herself not to run. Just because she’d been pummeled into the ground within seconds every other time she’d faced her didn’t mean she’d die this time. She had 162 health now - wait, 162?! How?

Then she realized. Her equipment! How had Shadow managed to upgrade it all already? No, that didn't matter right now.

162 health, 157 energy. She was glad of the increase, but doubted it would be enough. Still, any advantage is good.

“BEGIN!”

Venix ran forward, hammer raised. Maya began casting Windborn Blade, giddy excitement mixing with her instinctive fear.

Venix's attack hit first. 29 damage, over a sixth of Maya's total.

She fired her Windborne Blade just as Venix reached her. There was no pushback, but the impact dropped Venix’s health by about a tenth. Maya grinned at the ripple of reaction from the audience. But that left her with a dilemma. Windborne Blade had a 4-second cooldown. She could throw standard knives, but that would decrease her dwindling supply significantly. And even if she did, would it be enough to bring down the rest of Venix's health?

No. She'd focus on Windborne Blade exclusively. But she did have another option, as she'd discovered in her fight with Kittykitty.

Abilities were harder to dodge than freeform attacks, but not impossible. And Venix's attacks were big and slow. If Maya could evade even one or two, she might buy herself enough time.

Bringing Venix below half would be a sufficient victory for her. But either way, she'd be calling it a day after this. She was too worn out to carry on. The arena was not a low-stress occupation.

She watched carefully as Venix raised her hammer, then Windborne Blade's cooldown ended and she lost track of her attempt to dodge as she began charging her own attack.

-39 health. She was down to 3/4ths of her total already. But then Maya watched as her Windborne Blade slammed into Venix's armored chest, dropping her health by another tenth, and felt a surge of satisfaction. No matter how badly she was losing, she'd done something powerful today. Every time she hit, every time she watched the substantial drop in her opponent's health, it vindicated her efforts. In one day she'd gone from hardly able to scratch her to this.

This time, she slowly backed up in a circle as Venix closed in, then sprinted forward as soon as Venix raised her hammer for the strike. She slipped behind Venix and pushed her off balance, then ran in the opposite direction.

She felt the wave of heat from Venix's flaming smash, but 7 damage was minimal compared to if the attack had hit properly. Maya turned and started charging Windborne Blade again.

"Not bad," Venix said, spinning her hammer casually. "You've learned some tricks today, haven't you?"

Maya nodded, wishing Wind Whisper didn't preclude her from talking while casting.

"You're still going down. No level 6 is going to beat me, however persistent."

Maya shrugged and fired the attack. She'd half expected Venix to mimic her and dodge it, but she'd already started charging her own flame hammer attack and didn't seem to care. Which Maya couldn't really blame her for. Even losing nearly a third of her health, Venix probably had more left than Maya had to start with.

Because of the way their attacks were out of sync with each other, Maya once again had the freedom to try and dodge Venix's attack while waiting on her own cooldown. She was sure she couldn't repeat what she'd done before, Venix had a wide swing and did a lot of damage with her attacks.

Maya backed up in the other direction this time, around to the left, then jumped back in the same moment Venix swung down at her. Venix jumped forward in the same instant, and the hit connected. -39 health again, bringing Maya down to 48. Two more hits and it would be over.

Maya only had 22 energy left. No more Windborne Blade for her. In-combat energy regen was prohibitively sluggish. She could use a triple-overcharged Wind Whisper, and that would be it. But, somehow, despite the fact that she was about to lose again, she didn't feel that this was as much of a loss as the other times. She'd have her new attack forever, and without the pressure of facing Venix she probably would never have been able to create it so quickly.

Not that she planned to go down easily. She started charging and overcharging Wind Whisper.

Venix laughed. "You know, this is rather fun, actually." Then she began her attack chargeup again. How was it fair that her attack was faster and more powerful?

Their attacks hit in the same moment. Then Maya ran, because she had only 9 health remaining and no energy for more spellcasting. If she didn't fully concentrate on evasion she was dead.

Unfortunately, Venix was faster. A lot faster. In a straight chase, Maya didn't stand a chance. Venix's flaming hammer smashed down one last time.

You've lost a duel to Venix Heartstealer.

"Yes I have," she said aloud. "And I am done. Hear that, Shadow? No more rematches today. I want to go out on a high note. Such as it is."

"Well done," Shadow said from behind her, silhouetted in the doorway. "You've certainly captured some attention. Keep innovating, keep improving, and we'll make a champion of you yet."

"Yeah, next week maybe. Right now, I need to sit down and not fight for several hours."

"Then here is your final payment for the day. Do you wish to rest here, or elsewhere?"

"I think I'l head back to the mage academy, thanks."

"Then farewell, Maya. I look forward to seeing you fight for me again soon."

Maya Starborn Average Androgynous Harpy Level: 6 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: 66 15 50 1 Focus: 22 8 13 1 Intelligence: 44 12 30 2 Flexibility: 21 8 12 1 Luck: 40 35 - 5 Unassigned: 0 Health: 162 of 162 Will: 31 of 31 Stamina: 75 of 75 Energy: 157 of 157 Speed: 117% Switch penalty: -47%, 9.7 secs Stealth: 153% Chain bonus: +6% Awareness: 234% Cooldown: 89.5% Max abilities: 3 Abilities: [4 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] 1.9 sec

5 dmg

(wind) Throw Knife

[5 stamina] Throw a knife at a target with high accuracy. Requires a knife. 0.8 sec

3 dmg

(physical) Windborne Blade

[45 energy, 5 stamina] Cast Wind Whisper in a loop up and behind, aligning with throwing arm.

Throw knife straight at target with wind as augment. 4.3 sec

33 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 3 1 3 1 Mage's Hooded Cloak Shoulders 2 1 2 1 Mage's Gloves Hands 1 1 1 1 Mage Robes Body 2 1 2 1 Leggings of the Mage Legs 1 Mage's Sash Belt 1 1 1 1 Shoes of Attunement Feet 15 Armband of Intelligence Arm 1 4 Armband of the Mage Arm 2 1 1 1 Mage's Pendant Necklace 1 1 1 1 Ring of the Mage Ring 1 1 1 1 1 Ring of Intelligence Ring 2 4 Ring of Attunement Ring 3 6 Ring of Intelligence Ring 4 4 Attunement Trinket Misc 1 3 Attunement Trinket Misc 2 3 Attunement Trinket Misc 3 3 Attunement Trinket Misc 4 3 Trickster's Mask (Mage) Special Money: 3 Silver 262 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 x11 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. Ongoing 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