Maya followed Sevard away from his house and out to the leypillar. It was a bit more spectacular to see during the night. While in the daytime it appeared to be a rather mundane black pillar reaching up to the sky, with the occasional flicker of electricity running up or down its surface, at night the entire thing glowed with a constant overlay of shifting and sparking lightning. It made her hesitant touch it, though she knew it was safe.

Sevard sent her an invite to pillar jump with him, and they were off. They did not arrive at the same place as before, but a new zone she wasn't familiar with. It was densely forested, so much so that she would have considered it a jungle, though she wasn't sure exactly what the differentiation would be. The leypillar stood in the center of a crumbling ruin, occupied by only a handful of NPC shopkeepers and quest givers.

Maya saw a blacksmith and automatically begin walking towards him.

"Where're you going?"

Maya laughed and stopped. "Ah, right. I have plenty of knives now. Thanks."

"You're welcome. I’ve been meaning to ask, what do you need with so many throwing knives? I know what I need them for, but a mage?”

“My most powerful ability is a wind-enforced knife attack,” Maya said. “It bypasses wind resistances to deal physical damage instead.”

“I haven’t heard of a spell or attack like that before. Did you invent it yourself?”

“Kind of. I mean, Shadow helped me think of it, but yeah. It took hours of practice to get right.”

“Shadow?”

“An NPC at the arena who sponsors players,” Maya explained.

“Ahh, I haven’t done much with the arena. I prefer something that matters, you know? A handful of silver from putting on a show for NPCs really isn’t my speed.”

“What is?”

Sevard shrugged. “It depends. Generally, whatever makes me the most profit.”

“Dungeons?”

He shook his head, laughing. “Nooo, they’re way too uncertain. I prefer something solid.”

“So you do a lot of solo questing?”

Sevard shrugged again. “Sometimes. If there are good missions open. Other times I hire on with groups of players for one reason or another. Never worked for the mage academy yet, though.”

“Have you worked for Domitius?”

“Once or twice, before he was outed. Now, he’s got more lackeys than he knows what to do with. Doesn’t need me when they’ll work for free.”

“So who does hire you?”

He waved a hand vaguely. “People. Reasons. Sometimes I end up in raids, though I prefer not to. I’m one of the highest-level rogues in the game, so I’m mostly called on to clear traps and scout areas without being caught. Some high level dungeons have variable enemy layouts, and having someone who can slip ahead and find out what exactly you’re up against before starting is invaluable.” He grinned. “Which makes it worth my time.”

“So why are you helping me?”

“I’m between jobs, just restocking everything for tomorrow. It’s the middle of the night for most people, and you just looked so. . .”

“Pathetic?” Maya finished.

“I didn’t want to put it like that,” Sevard said, laughing. “But, yeah. You looked like a lost noob who really needed someone to show her the ropes. So, why not me? It’s not like I had anything more pressing going on. Do you have any other weapon skills, or just the knife throwing?"

"Just the knives. I skipped out on the melee portion of the tutorial because the teacher was a scary vampire. Yes, probably a bad idea, but. . .” Maya shrugged.

"Hey. What do you have against vampires?" Sevard asked.

Maya shrugged. "Nothing. I just was scared by one once. Domitius is a vampire. It's not like I would write him off or automatically hate someone just because he's a vampire. I'm not prejudiced, it's just there was a scary tutorial dude and I didn't want to get beat up."

It sounded even stupider when she said it like that. This was a game. The tutorial teacher would not have done anything to hurt her. But, that was the past, and she couldn't change it now. Well, she could, if she didn’t mind resetting to level 1 and losing all her progress. Definitely wouldn’t be worth it.

"So you don't have any melee skills?" Sevard asked.

"I didn't really think I needed them. I am playing as a mage after all. What need do I have for swords or whatever?"

Sevard shook his head. “As long as you have some good spells, I guess that’s true. So what are your spells like?”

“Umm. . .” Maya shrugged, embarrassed. “Wind Whisper lets me deal a small amount of damage, and Spark lets me deal an even smaller amount. I haven’t gotten anything really great yet.”

“Perhaps we should go to a lower level zone, then?”

“No, no. If you think we can survive here, I’m fine with it.”

“I know I can survive here. I’m beginning to doubt your chances.”

“My chances aren’t good either way. We’re already here. Just lead on, and let’s find something I can kill.”

Sevard nodded and crossed to the least crumbled wall, where there hung a leaderboard and quest list much like those at each city gate. Unlike the main city list, most of these quests were silver, while white was the lowest and there was no gray.

"Any preference?" Sevard asked.

Maya shrugged. "I don't know anything about any of these. Just pick one that's not too hard."

Sevard gave the list a quick glance, then pointed to one of the quests. "Looks like you were good luck for me after all, because my very favourite mission in this whole zone is open right now. Jessa the Bandit Queen! Pretty good loot for a mid-level quest.”

Maya glanced at her luck, still -90. “If there’s any good luck happening, it’s not because of me,” she said confidently.

“If you say so,” Sevard replied flippantly. “So, want to take out some tomb robbers?"

"Sure. Sounds like fun."

"Good. I'm working on upsetting her.” He grinned and started down the wide crumbling steps toward the forest path, brilliantly illuminated by moonlight. “I've heard rumors that she's a triggerable hidden questline. Unconfirmed, of course, but aren't those the best kind of rumors?"

Maya followed him into a narrow trail, ducking carefully under branches as she went. With her luck, she expected that any she ran into would deal damage. The thick underbrush was impossible to avoid. She hoped she didn’t run into poison ivy or something.

"Does that mean we’ll be competing? Are there other players after her too?"

"The quests flipped over hours ago. Anyone who was going to do midnight questing's already done it."

"Except us. Do we not count?"

"You live here permanently, so you're not indicative of anything. And I'm off work tomorrow, so I can stay up as late as I want."

"And we're the only two exceptions in the world?"

Sevard gave an exaggerated sigh. "Obviously I can't guarantee that, but there's a reason I tend to play in the middle of the night. There's much less competition."

"What's it like?"

"Pretty peaceful, at least in this zone. Of course, I only come here when I'm looking for easy quests."

"No, sorry. That's not what I meant. I mean what's it like playing the game normally, from outside. Not living inside it, just logging in and logging out? I'm from the 2000's, so I never had a chance to – –"

"What?! You're a founder?" Sevard almost shouted, startling Maya so badly she jumped, lost her balance, fell over, and smacked her head hard on an inconveniently placed boulder. -2 health.

"Ouch! No, I'm not a founder. I'm just Maya. Though Andrew is my brother."

"Huh. So they really did it. I hadn’t heard anything after the announcement, so I was starting to think it might've been a scam."

"Who did what? You lost me."

"Oh. Nothing to concern yourself with.” Sevard waved a hand dismissively. “There were rumors going around the internet that the sudden uploading of centuries worth of archived people was a lie, a move to free up resources that were being 'wasted' on preserving the long dead. After all, it's easy to say, 'oh yeah we uploaded them, they're playing happily on their private worlds,' but is there any proof?”

Sevard chuckled, nodding at Maya. "Well, looks like I have proof now. The company wasn't lying, they actually did upload everyone, and I can tell all the conspiracy theorists that there is nothing to worry about after all. Otherworlds is totally aboveboard and honest in all their dealings, etcetera."

"Oh. I didn't realize it was such a big deal."

"And you said you've been archived since the 2000's? So you must have been early. Andrew… Wait. The Andrew? Andrew Stader? You're his sister?"

Maya sighed. "Yes, yes. I know. Unbelievable, why aren't I on world 01, blah blah."

"No. I get it. Sometimes you get away from all the madness. Especially since you've only been in for a few days. I certainly would want some time to process it all."

“That’s not how it is,” Maya said. “I haven’t been in contact with anyone else since I started. I’m not sure Drew even knows I’m here yet. I haven’t heard from him.” She tried not to sound bitter, tried not to sound lost and hopeless, but wasn’t sure if she succeeded.

“You sure picked the worst world to maroon yourself on if you were hoping to get messages from out-of-world,” Sevard said. “9352 was unpopular for a reason. At least until the recent drama with those two. It’s one of those worlds whose creator thought ‘You know, convenient communication between players damages immersion, let’s remove it’.”

“Oh. I did notice no one uses private messages.”

“Because they don’t exist here. And this place hasn’t been patched or had any active admins since the first month, so good luck getting that changed.”

“What about the internet? Is there any way to access it from in-game?”

“Of course. But not on this world. It’s an extra expense, so most worlds do without. Let me think. . . anywhere open with internet. . . try 77930 or 77931. They’re twin worlds, high-tech and high-magic respectively. Lot of fun to visit, not so much to stay on for long periods of time. High turnover rates. Should be an opening if you look.”

“Thanks.”

They walked in silence for several minutes, then Sevard shook his head. "I'm sorry. I never answered your question. What's it like playing in a pod? Pretty unexceptional. The link interfaces my mind, sending and receiving information. As far as I can feel, I'm really living here. When I log out, there'll be some disorientation for a few moments as my mind gets used to being back in my original body. If I stay in for longer than 24 hours, it'll automatically eject me. In that case, the disorientation is significantly less pleasant, but they post warnings for the last half-hour leading up to it, so if I ignored all of them it would be my own fault." He shrugged. "Not much else to say. Otherworlds isn't really the best anymore, but it has so much content. You know? 300 years of development. Everyone has an Otherworlds account, even if they don't use it."

"Why do you use it?” Maya asked. “I mean, I'm stuck here, but what about ordinary players? I know Rominian is here to follow Domitius, but you said you're mercenary. What made you choose this game? This world? Especially if there are better options out there."

"World 9352 is a legacy world. There are hundreds of thousands of worlds now. Anything in the top 10,000 – heck, any in the top 30,000 – is subject to immense scrutiny. And it's one of the few that hasn't been cracked yet. Sure, Rominian does his build videos about cracking the system, but those are small-scale. The mechanics here are distinctly different from the default, there are a lot of layers to the place that nobody knew about until Domitius and Shardlord’s rivalry blew up. I guess, like a lot of people, I want to be the one to crack it. Shardlord is trying with magic. Domitius is trying with unlocking zone after zone. I can't say for sure if either of them is correct, but I feel like the key to understanding this world isn't going to be anything so basic as mastering one of the systems.”

Sevard looked back over his shoulder at her, pausing beside a particularly large tree with vines draping down from its branches. “What about you? What’s it like being permanent?”

“So far, pretty confusing. I’ve been trying not to think about anything too much, just go with the flow, enjoy the journey or whatever. I honestly don’t know what I’m doing half the time.”

“You said you skipped parts of the tutorial?”

“Yes. It was dumb, but. . .” Maya shrugged. “Nothing I can do about it now.”

“You probably didn’t save there, did you?”

“Actually, I did.”

Sevard started walking again, cutting away from the path and into the shadow of thicker trees. At least here the undergrowth was sparser.

“Surprisingly forward thinking of you. You could always load that save, run through the other tutorial areas, then reload this one.”

“Really?”

“Loading only reverts your character state, as well as any impact you’ve had on the NPCs which don’t affect other players. Say you decided you hated the blacksmith, and you kill him. That’s a personal choice, and the blacksmith will be dead until everyone respawns at midnight. But then you need a sword, and he’s gone, so you load a game before killing him. Decision reversed, he’s back and you can buy a better sword to kill him with next time.”

“So you can kill friendly NPCs? Wouldn’t that lead to players trolling by just slaughtering whole towns?”

“That’s what the Guard is for. Their level is equal to that of the highest level player in the area, and there are a lot of them. Once you tank your reputation with an area enough, you won’t be able to get near it without being swarmed.” He grinned back at her, fading a bit more thoroughly into the shadow. “Unless you’re very sneaky about it, of course.”

“But what would be the point of redoing the tutorial? I’d lose any skill gains I made there.”

“Knowledge isn’t lost between loads. That’s all in your own mind. If I were a mage, say, and I taught you a spell to cut down a tree, you could load before you met me and still have the memory.”

“There’s no such thing as a tree-cutting spell,” Maya said.

“That’s not the point. The point is, if you want to learn melee weapons from the tutorial, you can.”

“Eh. Not sure it’s worth the time.”

Every time she loaded, the timer on her debuffs would be reset to whatever it had been when she saved. She just wanted to get through this curse and have it behind her before messing with saving and loading any more. Once it was cleared and she was safe from terrible luck, then she could consider filling in the gaps in her education.

Sevard shrugged. “Your character.” He brushed past a particularly low branch, and it snapped back with surprising force to smack Maya in the face as she approached. It knocked her flat.

“Ow.”

As if on cue, a furry orange creature dropped out of the tree and landed, screeching, on Maya’s shoulder.

“Stupid monkeys,” Sevard grumbled offhandedly, arm whipping out in a blur and hurling something at the monkey with a single practiced movement.

Maya sat up just as a blade whizzed past her cheek. She turned to see the monkey impaled to a tree trunk by three clustered knives in a perfect triangle. It fell limp, dead instantly.

“How did you do that?” She turned back to Sevard in awe. She hadn’t even seen the knives in his hand. The whole attack had taken less than a second.

“Practice. Watch out for those, they’ll steal your headgear.”

Maya shrugged. “I don’t have any headgear for them to steal.”

“Not right now. But in general, be aware.”

A screech from above warned her as a second and third monkey dropped down from the tree. She dodged one, which landed on the ground beside her, but in so doing found herself right in the path of the other. It grabbed onto her head feathers and clawed at her face.

-3 health.

Sevard moved in a blur, knives flicking out in two quick bursts, too fast for Maya to follow. The monkey on the ground slumped over, while the one on Maya’s face toppled backwards and thudded to the forest floor.

Maya stared for a second at the perfect triangles of blades. Sevard’s aim was impossibly precise.

“What ability is that?”

“My own.” He held up three throwing knives between the fingers of one hand in demonstration. “It’s called Triple-Throw.”

“I see now why you needed so many knives.”

Sevard shrugged. “Cost of doing business.”

He turned to continue onward, but Maya stared down at the monkey bodies, unable to leave yet.

“Aren’t you going to loot them?”

“Nah. I don’t need monkey pelt for anything.”

“May I?”

Sevard snorted. “Help yourself.”

Each monkey dropped one monkey pelt and nothing else. Maya shrugged and stuffed all three in her inventory. They may be useless, but she bet she could sell them for at least one or two copper back in town.

They were ambushed twice more by the little creatures, but each time Sevard finished them off before Maya had time to react. She was beginning to feel downright awestruck. She determined that, as soon as her curse of misfortune wore off and she’d finished with the Standalone quest, she would put some serious effort into improving her knife throwing.

Magic was all well and good, but energy wasn’t something you could just buy at the store - at least not that she’d seen - while knives were plentiful and inexpensive. And, as Sevard continued to demonstrate, effective.

“Is there any such thing as a health or energy potion?” Maya asked. “I haven’t seen or heard about any, but they’re a pretty common game item so it’s surprising not to.”

“No, nothing like that.” Sevard waited patiently while Maya collected the latest set of monkey pelts, bringing her total up to eight. “Health is supposed to be hard to recover, so people will be more careful. Energy and stamina are for special moves, and come back quickly outside of combat. I don’t think abilities were originally intended to be quite as heavily used as they are, more a shortcut for spectacular finishing moves than an everyday part of fighting.”

“Really?”

“It feels that way.” Sevard pushed through a dense thicket and onto another narrow, overgrown trail. “You can do anything freeform. Stamina drain is significantly lower doing something yourself than by ability assist. So if you took the time to train, to become actually a good fighter instead of creating an ability out of your best attack and reusing that all the time, you could theoretically be significantly more powerful than the people relying on abilities. Same with magic, I assume, though I’m not a mage so I can’t be sure.”

“Have you tested that theory? Has anyone?”

“It's rumored that Domitius is a freeformer. No one knows his build, but it’s insanely powerful. As far as I can tell, he’s never lost a fight.”

“Wow. So why isn’t it more common?”

“Because it’s riskier. Abilities don’t generally miss, except in really specific circumstances, and it’s a whole lot easier to dodge a freeform attack. In theory. Not enough people are willing to risk it. It’s so much easier to use abilities, and except for really high competitive PVP there’s no real loss.”

Maya couldn’t help remembering her freeform attacks against Kittykitty when the felinis attacked her. She’d been able to deal a lot more damage stabbing wildly than she would have by throwing her knives.

“Alright, we’re here,” Sevard whispered, crouching and seeming to fade into the shadows. Maya could hardly track him, though he was right in front of her. “How’s your stealth?”

“Pretty bad.”

“Then wait here. I’ll scout ahead and take care of any traps. Be careful. If you need help, yell.”

“Got it.”

Maya readied a knife in case she needed to fight off more monkeys, and Sevard disappeared with only the faintest rustle of the underbrush.

Character Maya Starborn Average Androgynous Harpy Level: 8 Affinities: Magical Physical Tier: 1 Class: Trickster Specialization: Path of Life Base Equipment Modifiers Total Strength: 8 2 0 10 Momentum: 11 2 3 16 Agility: 8 19 1 28 Control: 8 32 0 40 Attunement: 17 0 1 18 Focus: 8 22 1 31 Intelligence: 15 3 2 20 Flexibility: 8 1 1 10 Luck: -25 - -45 -70 Unassigned: 2 Health: 186 of 186 Will: 62 of 62 Stamina: 164 of 164 Energy: 126 of 126 Speed: 2.16 Switch penalty: -20%, 7 secs Stealth: 1.1 Chain bonus: +5% Awareness: 0.9 Cooldown: 95% 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. Inventory Item Name Slot Str Mom Agi Con Att Foc Int Flx Rogue's Jacket Body 3 2 1 Ordinary Gloves of Control Hands 14 Minor Waistwrap of the Dancer Legs 1 1 Footwraps of the Acrobat Feet 2 Lesser Bracelet of Control Arm 1 4 Survivor's Bracelet Arm 2 1 1 1 Bronze Dagger Held 1 2 1 2 Acrobat's Ring Ring 1 2 1 1 Dancer's Ring Ring 2 1 1 Greater Ring of Focus Ring 3 16 Cape of Deceit Shoulders 1 1 1 1 Athlete's Talisman Misc 1 7 7 Rogue's Belt Misc 2 2 2 1 Trickster's Mask (Mage) Special Money: 70 Gold, 2 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 1/3 uses remaining Normal Throwing Knife x509 3 damage (physical) Special Key - Arrival Plaza Apartment Expires in 26 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 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 Normal Peach Normal Pear Normal Mango x3 Rare Shirt of Meditation Level 15, +8 flx, +7 att Uncommon Minor Chestpiece of the Dancer Level 4, +1 mom, +1 con Normal Monkey Pelt x8 Missions Mission Description

Time Reward Trickster Day 5 Visit a higher-level zone and defeat an enemy more powerful than yourself. 15h 1m Trickster's 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. 5d 15h 1m 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