Maya was surprised at how quickly she’d gotten used to living permanently in a world requiring neither food nor rest. A few days ago, she’d have assumed that being past midnight meant she ought to go to sleep. Now, though, hours of inaction when she could be out gaining experience or attempting quests seemed like such a waste.

Most of the Fire team had logged out for the night. She assumed it would be similar for the arena fighters, but last time there had been several there even at midnight.

She didn’t much feel like going to the arena. While it had been a great way to earn experience, she still vividly remembered being killed by Venix again and again and again in the process. With her current luck, she suspected she’d be doing a lot more dying and a lot less gaining experience.

Probably the best way to proceed would be finding more random small quests around the city. Though bad luck or fellow tricksters may mess with her in the process, they should still be doable. Just more difficult.

Before leaving, she sat for a long time filling out a longer and more comprehensive checklist of her aims and immediate goals.

-Complete trickster quests and gain favor with the Trickster

-Complete normal quests and increase level

-Learn all the magic there is to know and create new spells

-Find out if Domitius is really a good guy or bad guy

-Become powerful and troll other tricksters

-Get to know the Fire team better. They seem pretty cool

-Where’s Trixy? She’s the first person I met but I haven’t seen her in days

-Join Desi’s omni-research team. Stay in Fire too if possible

-Figure out how to get a message to Drew.

Maya stopped after writing that last item and stared at it. With all the recent excitement, she’d hardly spared a thought for Drew in what felt like days.

As much as she wanted to be cold and mercenary about it, she couldn’t bring herself to. He was her brother, her best friend. She still felt lonely every time she thought about how far away he was, how inaccessible.

And she felt even lonelier when she remembered that he wouldn’t be missing her. He’d moved on and left her behind, and she couldn’t pretend away her jealousy. She wanted him back. Wanted to be a part of his life, wanted him as a part of hers.

It wasn’t fair. But then, what was? Apparently life was still life, even in a game world. People were still people. She couldn’t just code away her emotions, even if she wished she could.

She hated knowing that he was out there having fun without her, and hated herself for her own grasping selfishness. She had no right to control her brother’s life, no right to demand that he. . . what? Un-move on? She’d been dead.

It was easier not to think about it. She pushed it aside, telling herself that she had more important things to deal with. Maybe if she grew strong enough, she could attract the attention of someone on world 01 and get a message to him, but in the meantime she had time-sensitive quests to be working on.

No time for moping.

She deleted the line, replaced it with Do something to catch the attention of the wider gaming populace, and flipped to a new page.

Standalone quest.

Step 1: Power

Step 2: Shield and spells

Step 3: Strategize

Step 4: Kill the magic creatures.

Hmm. As she looked at the list, Maya had a thought. There was one thing she could do which wouldn’t require high luck. If she just camped outside Standalone’s front gates and watched all day, she might be able to collect details on some more of his guard creatures.

As far as ways to use unlucky days, it seemed strategically sound. While she could do quests, she couldn’t do them well. She could fight, but not well. She could sit and watch, without anything going terribly wrong.

Did she want to waste an entire day - potentially three days - of her one week in just watching?

No. -11 luck wasn’t crippling. She could still make progress in other areas. She had to finish her trickster quest today too. Go to a high level area and defeat a stronger enemy. Alone? Probably not. So put that off until morning, when more players would be logged in.

For now, she had the night to herself. She could do low level quests without worrying about other players butting in.

Decided, she set out. She stopped by Opal Hall to apologize to Raidah for snapping and rushing out without an explanation, but the room was empty and dark. Raidah must have logged out already.

She resisted the temptation to go in and look over what she’d written, no longer trusting her impulses. Whatever negative luck was doing, it messed with her in more ways than one.

Maya jogged to the north gate and checked on the quest list. As always, the same number of quests were available, only the names had changed since her last visit.

While there, she couldn’t help glancing at the leaderboard, just in case she’d surpassed Kittykitty and finally moved up to not-quite the lowest level player in the game. But, no. Kittykitty was level 14 now, eight spaces above Maya and just two below Venix. Apparently her one-time foe had been leveling pretty steadily as well. Good for her. Maybe she could also grow up enough to drop that unreasonable grudge against Maya for defending herself.

The next-lowest player above Maya was a level 10 vampire named Flagger-T. Maya decided that she would use him as her next target to surpass. One player at a time, she’d work her way up. Maybe not to the very top, she didn’t want to get mixed up with the likes of Shardlord, Domitius, and Standalone any more than necessary, but maybe to the mid-high range. High 30s, maybe 40.

Maya grinned and started searching out the people she knew on the leaderboard, just out of curiosity. Eleona and Veyanto weren’t too much farther up the chart, Eleona ranked 229, while Vey sat at 213 - just below Jaydu.

It felt very strange, comparing the ‘way too high level’ enemies she’d faced in the arena to her new allies in Fire. She had to go a long way up, all the way to 137 before finding Ranon. Nalana was at 124, making her just barely in the top half of all players on world 9352. Desi, Fridget, and Tahpa were all in the top hundred, at 66, 86, and 84, respectively.

Rominian was higher still, at 55th place on the board, level 37.

But she couldn’t find Trixyceratops anywhere.

She found a Trizzi Mizzi, level 22 Merla, but that couldn’t be her. Trixy was a white-furred felinis, definitely not a merla.

Nothing.

She scrolled down into the thousands and thousands of historical rankings, but it would be impossible to search them all. She didn’t remember if Trixy had ever mentioned her level, so she didn’t even know where to start.

She spent a few minutes scanning them anyway, but luck was not with her and she finally gave up. It made her sad, making that decision. Trixy was so nice. She had a feeling they could have become friends, if they’d had the chance. She wondered why she hadn’t logged back in, and whether there was any way to help her. But now she was gone, and Maya just had to move on.

Right. Quests.

She turned from the leaderboard to the mission board beside it. All the way to the bottom. Maya didn’t need any high-level raids today, no thank you.

Collect eight patches of moonbark for the traveling alchemist.

Talk to the Whispering Pond.

Discover the secret of Smallhollow.

Capture a goblin scout for the mayor of Windy Creek.

Bring 2 drams of magic to Wizard Harold.

Craft an [Uncommon] weapon for the Guard.

Assist with the demolition of the Ruined Hut.

Poor Harold. Always looking for magic. Maya was tempted to bring him some - it would be by far the easiest quest to complete, but still. 2 drams didn’t sound like much, until it was too late. Better not to risk it, especially not with her luck.

She glanced around, almost expecting Rominian to come rushing past, but then she remembered this was the north gate and he tended to stick with the east gate. She could stop in to chat with the grumpy guard captain. He’d been helpful when her luck was high, but she was reluctant to risk that relationship today either.

So, random guardsman it was.

Maya asked for directions to Smallhollow, and was told to follow the road northward, take the first westward branching, then continue north at the earliest opportunity. The guardsman didn’t know about any whispering pond or traveling alchemist, but suggested that she might inquire at Smallhollow or the local alchemy shop, respectively.

She thanked the guard, who shrugged and waved for her to move on, which she did. A local shop sounded like an easier place to start, and then she could head to Smallhollow if it didn't pan out.

She spent about a half hour wandering around the city’s merchant section, realizing for the first time just how large the place really was. It was easy to assume it was a simple game city - wide roads to obvious landmarks, lots of generic houses to fill up space - until she stepped off the main streets and into the maze of roads that filled the haphazardly-arranged merchant section.

She hadn’t seen another guard - or anyone, for that matter - since leaving the main roads. Most shops were closed for the night, or at least dark and presumably closed. Not every building was a shop. At least half were houses, varying in size and style, some well-kept, others looking a bit ramshackle.

She kept walking, hoping she was going roughly southeast and not around in a circle, and finally gave up. She found the nearest shop - a baker, from the loaf of bread sign, and knocked firmly on the door.

After nothing happened, she repeated the attempt, more firmly.

“Oy, quiet down there!” someone grumbled out an open window. She glanced up, and saw an angry old woman shaking her fist.

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to wake you.” Maya tried to whisper and shout at the same time, ending up with an awkward cracking voice instead. “I’m lost. Can you direct me to the alchemist?”

“No!” The woman slammed the shutters closed with an echoing bang, leaving Maya alone in the dim street.

She sighed, then continued down the winding street. She was too far away to see the mage academy or arena, the nearby houses too tall and close for her to make out even the tips of the towers.

Well, she had no better plan, so she continued to wander. It was a singularly unsatisfactory use of her time, and she decided that next time she’d go straight to the arena and didn’t care if she got killed a hundred times over. At least she could gain experience there. If she was going to be miserable, it may as well be worth something.

Finally, she reached a road so dark and narrow that she couldn’t believe it was in the same city as the glistening mage academy. In fact, as she squinted down the road - unlit by even the dim lanterns hung at intervals along the ordinary streets - she thought she saw it sloping down into the ground.

It was mysterious and sinister, so probably something bad - given her luck - but at this point she’d take an ambush down a sinister back alley over wandering alone and lost.

She felt thoroughly inadequate with her near-complete absense of gear. She had some awesome items now, just, they wouldn’t be useful until level 29.

She crept forward, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. They didn’t. The dark remained as heavy and impenetrable as ever. She stepped down the slope, into what she could feel was a tunnel. It wasn’t wide. She could reach both sides with her arms stretched out, as long as she stayed near the center of it.

It suddenly occurred to her that, really, she should have loaded into her Path of Life save for an excursion like this, not set out questing with this flimsy Seer build. 80 health wouldn’t last long.

But even as she turned to leave, a spark leapt to life behind her, dazzling her.

“Well, well. Look here. It’s a fluffy birdy out past its bedtime.” The voice was deep, almost watery in inflection.

Maya squinted against the light, scanning the source of the voice with her Truth Sight.

Brawler

Health: 95

Will: 24

Stamina: 101

Energy: 72

95 health, hmm? She could deal with that. Barely, but she could do it.

She started charging Windborne Blade, readying her weapon to throw. Two blades at 33 damage each, with five casts of Wind Whisper, and a standard knife or two in between. As long as he didn’t have any equally deadly power attacks, Maya might survive this after all.

“Looks like the birdy doesn’t know when to fly away,” the voice continued. “Come on out, let’s see what we’ve caught.

We? Maya’s thoughts hitched, even as her body continued through the motions, flawlessly flinging the knife into the rushing wind that pushed it into the speaker with excessive force.

“Ndaahgh! for that I may change my mind about letting you live, birdy.”

Maya stopped listening. She charged her Wind Whisper and pushed it out at him, following it with a thrown blade.

The dim spark he’d been holding up flickered out, leaving the tunnel in darkness.

Maya’s heart raced as she tried to think of a way out. She was already working on a second Windborne Blade, but though her overwhelming assault was perfect for a one on one fight, it used nearly all of her energy and from the sounds of it there was definitely more than one opponent.

She could hear movement all around her, but before she could decide on a course of action the choice was taken away.

“Not too hasty, boys,” said a silky voice. “Nets out. Let’s bag ourselves a bird.”

Character Maya Starborn Average Androgynous Harpy Level: 8 Affinities: Magical Physical Tier: 1 Class: Trickster Specialization: Seer Attributes Base Equipment Modifiers Total Strength: 8 0 0 8 Momentum: 11 2 3 16 Agility: 8 2 1 11 Control: 8 19 0 27 Attunement: 17 0 1 18 Focus: 8 0 1 9 Intelligence: 15 0 2 17 Flexibility: 8 0 1 9 Luck: 49 - -60 -11 Unassigned: 2 Derivatives Health: 80 of 80 Will: 18 of 18 Stamina: 133 of 143 Energy: 66 of 116 Speed: 1.31 Switch penalty: -33%, 8.3 secs Stealth: 0.71 Chain bonus: +5% Awareness: 0.9 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. Perks: Quick Strike Decrease one ability’s activation time by 30%.

Lasts 3.5 minutes.

1-hour cooldown. Oracle’s Blessing Discern the truthfulness of any speech or writing you encounter.

Lasts 10 minutes.

Once a day, 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 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 Rare Diviner's Orb 2/3 uses remaining 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 Uncommon Juggernaut’s Collar Level 29, +12 mom, +11 str Uncommon Boots of Fluidity Level 29, +6 mom, +6 con, +6 flx, +5 foc Uncommon Deceitful Sickle Level 29, +8 str +8 agi +4 con +3 foc Rare Crimson Flame Token Level 30, +12 agi, +12 foc, +6 mom Rare Crimson Flame Charm Level 30, +12 att, +12 foc, +6 int Legendary Ring of Concentration Level 29, +24 Int, +12 Con Legendary Necklace of Acuity Level 29, +18 Flx, +18 Foc Legendary Circlet of Acuity Level 29, +18 Flx, +18 Foc Missions Mission Description

Time Reward Trickster Day 5 Visit a higher-level zone and defeat an enemy more powerful than yourself. 22h 37m Trickster's Reward

??? Making Reparations Find someone who has been wronged by a trickster and offer to make things right. Oracle's Reward

??? Diviner's Destiny Find a worthy candidate and pass the Diviner's Orb on to them. Oracle's Reward

???

+1000 reputation with The Oracle 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. 5d 23h 57m 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