Maya sat and watched her energy and stamina come zipping back up to full, waited as her health and will slowly did likewise. After several minutes, she crossed to the Phoenix’s body, searching it for whatever materials they’d come all this way to collect.

Return to the dungeon’s entrance for your rewards.

Maya stared up at the steps, wondering if she wanted to try going up them or wait a bit longer, and decided she really didn’t want to move. She sat down against the Phoenix’s body instead, finding it surprisingly soft and warm.

She stared into the dark stairway and wondered what had possessed this awesome group of fire mages to put so much effort and dedication into helping her. Was it just her luck manipulating everything in her favor? Or were they genuinely good people, who would’ve helped anyone even if she didn’t have insanely high luck today?

Would she ever know? Could she be certain?

She felt guilty, even though she knew it was silly. She wasn’t sure which would be worse. Forcing them to help her unknowingly without their consent, or having them help her from genuinely good intentions and her never being sure of it. Both seemed to be a disservice to them.

Eleona charged into the room, then stopped short. “We did it?!”

“We did it.” Maya patted the fallen Phoenix. “I don’t want to go up those stairs just yet. There isn’t an after-boss ambush or anything waiting up there, right?”

“You never know,” Eleona said. “I haven’t actually done this dungeon before today. It’s intended for level 20-25.”

“What level are you?” Maya had seen it before, but hadn’t memorized it, and now that the boss battle was over all the health bars had disappeared again.

“Fifteen.” Eleona grinned. “Probably sixteen after this! Can you believe it? We had half our players under the minimum suggested level, but we won!” She spun in place, grinning madly.

Maya smiled. “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to teach me that shield spell of yours?”

Eleona paused in her celebratory spinning, narrowing her eyes at Maya.

“I can pay,” Maya said. “Maybe not yet, but name your price. I’ll go on however many quests or dungeons I need to in order to earn it.”

“I spent eleven months working out that spell,” Eleona said at last. “Until now, I’ve never taught it to anyone. I need you to promise you’ll be equally discrete. Don’t give it away to anyone. Period. If they want it, they have to come to me.”

“Oh, absolutely. I promise.” Maya sat up straighter.

“It’ll take seventy drams of magic to cast, and probably at least three or four tries to get right,” she warned.

“I don’t care. I’ll find the power somehow.”

“And I’d like 100 drams for myself, as partial repayment for my investment.”

“Sounds very fair.” Maya was grinning now.

“And if you invent a proprietary spell of your own, I get first chance at it,” Eleona finished.

“No problem. But I can’t promise mine will be exclusive or anything. I plan to share whatever I learn with everyone.”

“That’s fine, as long as you give it to me first.”

“Maybe not first-first, if I work with others, but definitely first outside of its creators,” Maya hedged. She didn’t much care for math, and since magic here seemed to involve rather a lot of math, she had no doubt that she’d be forced to team up with others if she wanted to truly invent new spells. She didn’t mind. She rather liked the idea of collaboration.

“Before the general public, then,” Eleona said, grinning.

Maya laughed. “Deal.” She stood and offered her hand.

Eleona shook it firmly, slapping Maya’s wrist with her other hand. Maya wasn’t sure if this was part of 2300s culture, or just a thing Eleona did.

They’d won, and as soon as she gathered more magic - a lot more magic - she’d be learning another new spell. And not just any spell, a very powerful shield which no one else in the world had access to except the two of them. She’d call that a good trade any day.

Nalana sprinted into the room, hands glowing, then came up short. She laughed and jumped in the air. “WOO! We won? Hah!”

She high-fived Eleona, then Maya. “Good job new girl! You only died once?”

Maya shook her head. “Four times, though the last one was on purpose.”

“On purpose?” Nalana asked, but she was still laughing. “Why?”

Maya shrugged. “My energy regen was pathetic, and a five-minute time-out seemed a reasonable exchange for full recovery. And it worked! It was so close, I wish you could’ve seen! Tahpa gave me his amulet, which increased my energy enough to cast Wind Whisper nine times. He and Vey distracted the Phoenix while I cast, and it was just enough. Like, my very last, four-damage Wind Whisper before running out of energy, that was what did it!”

She realized that may sound arrogant, and hastily added, “No way I could’ve done it without you. Those frost spears you were throwing? They did so much damage.”

“While Grasp of the Sea is active, a target is slowed and takes double damage from ice,” Nalana said. “Thankfully, Ranon knew the Frost Blade enchantment. Without that, I doubt we’d have made it.” Then she laughed. “If we were down to your last cast of vanilla Wind Whisper, then I’m sure we wouldn’t have made it.”

“Everyone put their all into this,” Eleona said. “Oh, speaking of, do you still have Tahpa’s button?”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry about that, I forgot all about it.” Nalana unequipped the gleaming button and passed the item to Eleona. “He was so proud of that, I was surprised to see it being passed around like that.”

“You can give him this back too,” Maya said, handing over the Amulet of Power.

“How many unique items does he have?” Nalana asked. “I’ve never gotten any.”

“Just the two,” Maya said. “Just enough.”

“Makes you wonder if we should invest in buying some more.”

“From where, though?” Eleona asked. “You know Domitius will outbid us at every turn.”

“We’ll find them ourselves. They drop from dungeons sometimes.”

“Not from dungeons like this,” said a male voice, causing Maya to jump. She spun, and saw Ranon standing behind them. The tall pale-blue elf had his hands folded over the top of his staff, smiling at them. “Well done, everyone. I’ve run this dungeon twice before, but this was definitely the most interesting runthrough yet.”

“Even if you spent half of it dead?” Nalana asked.

“It’s only to be expected when we have only two players of the correct level.”

“Two? I think you mean three,” Nalana said, sounding affronted. “I’m level 25.”

“This was not a level 25 dungeon. If it were, we would have finished in half the time.”

“I’m pretty sure, it’s a dungeon for levels 20-25,” Nalana said.

“It is, normally. But this instance was not. You remember how it began? Fridget and Tahpa both ran out of energy without finishing off the priest. And that was with me holding him with Voice of Thunder for minutes. You really think we could burn through thousands of energy and still not take out the weaker of the duo if two of those attacking were fully equipped players five to ten levels above recommended?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t been in a group with either of them recently. But you and I were dealing some serious damage too.”

“But not a seventh of the total, not without dying in between.”

“Tahpa had two Uniques too,” Eleona added.

Ranon nodded. “And he still died twice.”

“But this dungeon doesn’t scale,” Nalana said. “If it did, it would be far more popular with higher level players.”

“And yet, it seems it did.”

“Are you sure it isn’t because I’m absolutely useless?” Maya asked. “If it’s meant for seven players, Eleona was acting as defence, and I could only do 40-50 damage, that sounds like plenty of reason—” Maya said, but Ranon shook his head.

“I’m level 22, well within the proper range for this dungeon. And I’m a battlemage, with appropriate gear and high-level spells. Nalana and I working together could bring it down more than enough to compensate.”

“There’s one way to find out,” Vey said, appearing beside Eleona with a grin. “Check the level of the rewards. If the dungeon scales, the rewards scale. If the loot is level 25, then we just fail at dungeon raids. But if it’s at 30, we’re onto something.”

“Let’s go check, then,” Maya said, taking a step toward the stairs. Everyone shook their heads at once, and she stopped.

“Got to wait for Fridget and Tahpa. It would be incredibly rude to leave the dungeon without them.”

“Stupid outdated game mechanics,” Vey said. “In the meantime, care to join me on this wonderful Phoenix-down mattress?” He threw himself backwards onto the dead Phoenix like it were a bed, sprawling out in a manner that Maya found a little disrespectful to their extremely powerful adversary. He caught Maya looking, and grinned up at her. “It’s dead. It’s warm and soft. Come on, join me.” He patted the Phoenix’s crumpled wing beside him.

“You do realize the first thing you just said is ‘it’s dead’ right? That doesn’t sound appealing to me.” Though she already knew how comfortable the Phoenix was. If not for the fact it was already fading around the edges, she’d have asked if there were any way to craft its hide into a blanket or sofa or something. Perpetually warmed seating would be handy.

Vey shook his head at her reprovingly. “You can’t go bringing in your real-world biases here. Death doesn’t mean the same thing in a game. There are no germs or rot or anything like that to worry about.” He nodded at the Phoenix. “Come on, just try.”

Maya glanced back to the others, who were now discussing their strategy and what had gone well or poorly. Since Maya couldn’t really have done anything but what she did, and didn’t feel qualified to judge anyone else’s effectiveness, she shrugged and crossed to the Phoenix.

“Not down there, up here.”

She shook her head at Vey’s insistence, but crawled up the massive boss’s body to lay across its feathered back.

It was weird, and she sat up and poked the fallen creature. It didn't feel solid, it was light and almost liquid, but she didn’t fall through.

Vey laughed. “See? It’s like nothing else.”

“It’s like a perpetually-warmed water bed that doesn’t move,” Maya said, trying to figure out if that description was actually accurate.

“I think the words you’re looking for are, 'Thanks Vey, this is great!'”

Maya shook her head. “How did you know? Have you been in this dungeon before?”

“First time. What do you think I was doing after respawning? Got to check all the bodies. But, it seems dungeons work differently than the rest of the world, so I ended up admiring the Phoenix instead.”

“And your conclusion was, ‘this would make a great mattress’?”

“Basically.”

Maya laughed. “You’re weird.”

“Takes one to know one.”

“I wouldn’t say that. You don’t know anything about me.”

Vey propped himself up on his elbows. “I know your current best spell is Wind Whisper, so you want to learn fire magic. I know you were rather spectacularly kidnapped by Rominian in the middle of dinner, then showed up a day later as though nothing had happened. I know you’re the reason our little research group is out running chaotic dungeon raids instead of sitting safe back at the academy working on equations. And I know that things have been getting weirder and weirder since you came along.”

“None of that is about me, that’s just events taking place around me.”

“Then how about this. I know you’re brave, clever, beautiful, and don’t believe any of it.”

Maya snorted. “You’re right I don’t believe it. I’m a little clever, and my avatar is pretty good, but I’m definitely not brave.”

“What do you call standing up in a group of strangers you just met, admitting you need help and don’t know where else to turn?”

“Desperate,” Maya answered at once.

But Vey shook his head. “Desperate? Over a quest? No. You’re taking the game seriously, but I don’t think that was desperation.”

“Why are we talking about me?” Maya asked. Her cheeks were overwarm, and she was again glad that her feathers would conceal that fact, but she didn’t want to get any more flustered. “I don’t know anything about you.”

“What’s to know? I’m just here to have fun.”

“And taking on dungeons twice your level is your idea of fun?”

“More fun than sitting in a classroom being lectured for weeks before they’ll even let me try to cast a spell. And more rewarding too. I can’t wait to see how much silver we’ll earn from this.”

“No silver,” Fridget said from behind Maya. “This dungeon drops armor pieces and Phoenix feathers.”

“But what about the cultists we took out?” Vey asked. “Surely they’re worth something.”

“Yeah, the armor. What, did you think the Phoenix wore equipment?”

“Thankfully not,” Maya said. “I know how much of an impact armor can have. We barely took that thing out as it is.”

“I hear you’re the one to actually bring it down?” Fridget asked. “Congratulations on your first boss kill. I bet you earn a perk for that.”

“Perk?” Maya asked.

Vey laughed, and Maya glowered at him.

“Wait, you’re serious? What, did you sign up for the game without reading anything about it? Skip the tutorial? Ignore the introduction areas?”

“Just look up the Perk System,” Fridget said, giving Vey a stern glance of her own.

Maya focused her thoughts on ‘perk system’ and one of the ever-present windows in the corner of her vision zoomed into focus in front of her.

The perk system allows any character to play as any archetype, regardless of their class and specialization. Perks earned through tasks and accomplishments are bound to your character, while those discovered in the world can be traded or sold between players and NPCs.

She skimmed the rest of the info window. Perks functioned much like a cross between abilities and specializations. They impacted player stats and interaction without the huge, build-defining qualities of specializations, but they could amplify or mitigate a specialization by providing similar, if weaker, effects.

Maya wondered if there were a perk to swap some stamina into energy, since she relied far more heavily on magic than physical abilities. And if so, how to get it.

“Do you have any perks?” Maya asked.

“Not yet. Maybe today, eh?” He bounced a little, grinning with excitement.

“Maybe,” Maya said, revising her mental estimate of his age downward.

“I have three,” Fridget said. “All bound. Tradeable perks are insanely expensive.”

“What do they do?” Maya asked.

“Mystery Jumper allows me to transit from a leypillar to a locked area once a day, I Know You provides temporary increases to my reputation with NPCs when active, and Chain Fire increases my chaining bonus by 50%.”

Vey sat up straight. “Can you bring people with you on your mystery jump?”

“Probably. Never used it. I have the safe areas unlocked, so it’s almost guaranteed to drop me somewhere unpleasant.”

“Can we try it out after this?”

“Why?”

“We need to get Maya levels, right? What better way than to transit into an unknown area and do some wilderness missions?”

“I’m level six!” Maya exclaimed. “If the mystery areas are too high level for Fridget then I’d be doomed! And so would you, for that matter.”

“Not necessarily. We both survived this fight, didn’t we?”

“No, actually we both died repeatedly.”

“And still won in the end. I’m just saying, you can’t expect to level up anywhere close to what you’ll need to face that dragon if you don’t take some risks.”

“Dragon. Right.” That killed Maya’s mood. She’d gotten so caught up in the dungeon, the boss fight, and their victory, she’d lost sight of the longer term goal. While finishing off a Phoenix dungeon boss was a start, it was only a level 25 creature. Standalone was in the 50s, and she had to assume his dragon would be similarly high-level.

It had taken their entire team, multiple deaths, and increasingly desperate evasion tactics just to finish this fight. How were they supposed to deal with something even worse?

With magic. She knew that was the answer. It was the only possible leveler. Commonplace equipment required certain levels to equip. Even if she could afford the best possible armor, she knew from the arena that it wouldn’t really close the gap. The only thing that could do it in the end was magic.

Leveling would help. Equipment would help. But in the end, she had to hope the shield spell came through. Without it, they were doomed.

Character Maya Starborn Average Androgynous Harpy Level: 6 Affinities: Magical Physical Tier: 1 Class: Trickster Specialization: Path of Life Attributes Base Equipment Modifiers Total Strength: 8 0 0 8 Momentum: 11 2 3 16 Agility: 8 2 1 11 Control: 8 39 0 47 Attunement: 15 20 1 36 Focus: 8 0 1 9 Intelligence: 13 0 2 15 Flexibility: 8 0 1 9 Luck: 89 - -10 79 Unassigned: 0 Derivatives Health: 57 of 162 Will: 13 of 18 Stamina: 153 of 153 Energy: 125 of 125 Speed: 1.31 Switch penalty: -13%, 6.3 secs Stealth: 0.71 Chain bonus: +5% Awareness: 1.44 Cooldown: 95.5% Max abilities: 4 Abilities Abilities: [5 of 4] 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} Spark

[5 energy] Draw magic into palm and snap fingers to ignite into a spark of fire.

Can be used as a light or thrown at a target. 1.1 sec

3 dmg

(fire) Sense Balance Discern if an area is lacking in or has an excess of any materials, creatures, etc. Inventory Item Name Slot Str Mom Agi Con Att Foc Int Flx Minor Chestpiece of the Dancer Body 1 1 Ordinary Gloves of Control Hands 13 Minor Waistwrap of the Dancer Legs 1 1 Footwraps of the Acrobat Feet 2 Lesser Bracelet of Control Arm 1 4 Amulet of Power Necklace 20 20 Trickster's Mask (Mage) Special Money: 70 Gold, 6 Silver, 12 Copper Quality Item name Details Flimsy Newcomer Tunic Flimsy Newcomer Leggings Soulbound Trickster's Dice Soulbound Trickster's Orb 2/5 uses remaining Flimsy Orchard Map Normal Apple x2 Unknown Unidentified Orb Normal Throwing Knife x9 3 damage (physical) Special Key - Arrival Plaza Apartment Expires in 27 days Special Key - Room 6, Sapphire Hall Special Arena Equipment Token Registered to Maya Starborn Missions Mission Description

Time Reward A Private Grudge Claim Standalone's house in Conquest and hold it for at least 10 hours. Personal House Trickster Day 4 Claim in Conquest the home of the next player you see.

Once claimed, hold it for 24 hours. 6d 8h 38m Trickster's 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 by Windy Creek

Help clear the wreckage of the old Windy Creek Dam

Help construct a new bridge over Windy Creek 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 Help Shary the Produce Merchant Find the missing apple 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