Maya hadn’t planned to actually play as Mayon, but he was so cool now. She really wanted to give at least some of his abilities a try out in the real world before returning to Hara. So, after saving the game again, she elected to continue into the main world with Mayon Windsworn.

After all, he was the same level as her Seer save at the moment, so it wasn’t even much of a step down. Apart from equipment. At least he started with a sword, Maya hadn’t even gotten that much. Though she had been able to keep a little magic, which was probably more valuable.

The options for choosing a class were much different this time, since Mayon didn’t have access to Path of Life and had spent a lot of time in the fighting areas.

Basic classes:

Ranger

Warrior

Mage

Advanced classes:

Berserker

Juggernaut

Dancer

Battlemage

Acrobat

Rogue

Hunter

Maya hadn’t been given nearly as many options, but she also hadn’t spent nearly as long here. How long had it been, anyway? A couple months at least. It felt something like one long business trip which had dragged on for far too long, but also came to an end before she was really prepared.

From what she remembered, there were plenty of ways to change class later if necessary. Special quests, items, or NPCs. So it wouldn’t be too much of a problem if Mayon ended up with the wrong one at the start.

For now, she chose Acrobat. Since he’d spent more time dodging and escaping than anything else, it seemed apt.

Please verify your decision to set primary class: Acrobat

“Yep. Let’s do this.”

Class set to Acrobat. Soulbound item added: Acrobat’s Grapple. Maximum stamina has increased by 20.

New mission: Tier Trial 1: Defeat an Overdrile without assistance.

The tutorial area faded even as the text appeared, replaced with the familiar sight of the beginner plaza in Kalyx City.

Probably a dozen players loitered about the area, immediately recognizable by the familiar beginner’s outfit. A few had dyed either the top or bottom, and most carried at least some form of weapon by now, but many were completely unchanged from the base default.

Mayon’s sword actually seemed to be one of the higher quality weapons among the newbies. At least from what he could see.

A couple players with obviously higher levels wandered about, chatting with the newcomers or offering them directions.

Maya was surprised by how much nostalgia and fondness she had for this place. Mayon started for Elaph and Shary’s produce stall without meaning too, smiling as the eager assistant nodded and smiled to passersby.

But, no, this wasn’t time for socializing. She was on a deadline. Just try Mayon out a little, then switch and get back to Hara.

Mayon started for the Travelers’ Hall first to get his welcome pack. Before he’d taken more than a few steps, a smiling elf in mismatched leather armor approached him.

“Welcome, new traveler! I am Divalri, but you can call me DV if you like. Is there anything you need help with? I know the tutorial can be useless in some respects, so several of us older players volunteered to show the newcomers around.”

Mayon shook the elf’s proffered hand. “I’m Mayon. Nice to meet you, DV. But I’m not exactly new. This is an alt, I’ve played on this world before.”

“Ah, of course. Still, if you have any questions, feel free to tag me.”

“Thanks.”

DV went off to greet another new player, and Mayon continued to the Travelers’ Hall. Just inside, he was greeted by the same lizardine NPC who’d startled Maya her first time here. As Mayon was shorter still, the NPC loomed over him in quite an intimidating way if one wasn’t prepared for it.

“Welcome to the Travelers’ Hall! Here is a gift for you to aid you on your journeys, and if you would like to seek wisdom in pursuing your path forward, there are many teachers here who can aid you.”

Mayon nodded and opened the welcome pack.

Items gained:

Local Map

World Map

Ring of Strength (lv7, +4 str)

Dust of Recall x1

Universal Dye x1

50 copper

The ring was a pleasant surprise. Maya’s version of the Ring of Strength had been only a level 4 +1 item. Spending insane amounts of time in the tutorial seemed to have paid off in more ways than simply increased combat ability.

Mayon equipped it, then headed further into the building. Her first trip here she hadn’t spent much time talking to the teachers, but she’d already had her specialization and no intention of changing it. Mayon, though, was an empty slate. He could become anything.

She quickly remembered just why she hadn’t spent long here. Most of the teachers offered advice such as ‘Once you’re tier 2, come back and we can talk about it!’ which did not help as much as they thought it would.

While she did want to advance, she couldn’t afford to spend hours on a tier trial. Hara might not notice if she spent a few minutes playing around as Mayon, but anything more than that would probably be a problem.

Well, she should probably just find someplace to save and switch back anyway.

Mayon left the building and almost immediately ran into another elf player, this one a woman in chain mail.

“Greetings! I am Volo Warrior, but everyone just calls me Volo. Welcome to World 9352. Is there anything you need help with? I know it’s a confusing world without much in the way of a tutorial or decent interface.”

“Hi, Volo. I was already greeted by Detviri over there, and—” Mayon stopped. “You know, you might be able to help. I’m supposed to find an Overdrile, but I’ve never seen one. Where do they reside?”

“Ah, you must have spent a while in the tutorial, if you’re ready to advance already! Good for you. The Overdrile generally lurks just by the edges of the mountains to the north, and is one of five possible tier 1 advancement challenges.”

“What are the others? Just out of curiosity.”

“Overdrile and Goblin Champion are the most common, both up north around Panaroth Village and its general surrounds. Then less common, you have the Goblin High Shaman or the Darkwolf, harder encounters that require a group, who live in the woods east of here past Windy Creek. The fifth, well, there are lots of rumors, but it’s the most uncommon. Most claim it’s here in Kalyx itself, but I can’t imagine where. There are no hostile creatures here, unless you count the occasional thief.”

“Or the lizardine cult in the sewers.”

Volo paused, then gave Mayon another once-over that this time settled on the sword he carried. “And you are?”

“Mayon. This isn’t my first time playing on this world. But it’s been a while.” At least, by some definitions of time.

“You say there is a cult in the sewers? I didn’t even know Kalyx had or needed sewers. There’s nothing like that in the game.”

“Well, there’s a labyrinth of some sort under the city, maybe it’s a dungeon, maybe it’s catacombs, I don’t know. But it’s very dark and there are merla and lizardine down there who are definitely decidedly hostile. I would not be surprised to find that one of them was a tier trial boss.”

It felt really good knowing more about the city than these veteran players, going around greeting people as if they had all the answers. For so long, Maya had been the absolute newcomer, knowing less about everything and being the weakest. She may not have advanced very far yet, but at least she was out of complete noob territory now.

“Are you planning to play solo, or are you interested in joining a guild or forming a party?" asked Volo. "My team is mostly tier 2, but if you stick around for a week or two we should be able to get you up to our level.”

Someone smashed into Volo without warning, knocking her to the ground. Mayon reacted instinctively, grabbing the assailant and grappling him to the ground without thinking.

Volo stood up, laughing. “Woah, calm down Mayon. That’s just Everett. I think.”

“I am Nahat Evell, and I will be your doom!”

“Right. Mayon, let him up, he’s just an obsessed roleplayer.”

“I have come to reclaim my rightful place, and you shall not stand in my way, knave!”

Mayon hesitantly released the flailing player, who he belatedly noticed was wearing the same newcomer outfit as himself. “Sorry about that. I just spent several months with the combat instructor, so I’m a bit jumpy.”

Volo shivered. “Ugh, that dude is so uptight, I’m surprised you lasted more than an hour.”

“Hah! I will return and wreak vengeance upon you another day, when you are not so aptly protected.” The roleplayer pointed menacingly at Volo, then spun in a way that was probably meant to appear dramatic and ran off.

“You know him, I take it?” Mayon asked.

“Yeah. He lost his slot a few months back, and has been messaging me ever since to complain. I gave him the word that we were close to unlocking more space, and that cheered him up. But then he got it in his head that he would make a good ‘villain’, whatever that means in a world like this, and has been working on his backstory or something. Honestly, I don’t pay much attention.”

“You were one of the people to unlock the new zone?”

“My guild, yeah. I wasn’t here personally, I had classes in the morning and couldn’t justify staying up all night.”

Mayon blinked. How did it always come as a surprise that most players still had a life outside of the game? It may be the only world for Maya, but she had to remember that most people didn’t stay in one place and many had real lives.

It evoked a series of emotions that were hard to understand, something between envy and relief. Her recollections of ‘real life’ had such a vague, dreamlike quality to it, impressions rather than true memories, she wasn’t sure if she should miss it or be glad to be free of it. Mostly, she just didn’t think about it any longer. It was done and over with. Nothing she could do about it now.

“If you’re interested in helping," Volo was saying, "we have a long way to go if we want to unlock the next area. By our estimations, we’ve currently gained access to less than half the continent. We know there’s at least one zone to the east, and three or four to the north. The southern region seems mostly complete, but the trade ships have to come from somewhere so we believe there’s probably a second continent further south. Lots to explore.”

Her voice sounded wistful.

“Have you seen much of the world?” Mayon asked.

“No. Well, yes. Technically I’ve seen most of the unlocked zones. But I’m far too low level to wander around them and properly explore. It can be fun to sneak around in places a little too strong for me to handle, like the jungle, but until I figure out my stupid tier mission I’ll never be able to wander around safely.”

“Is tier 2 that much harder than tier 1?”

“Yes. The first tier trial is just a combat. A tricky one that took a few dozen attempts, sure, but once we figured out the boss’s patterns and how to synergize our own abilities it was doable. The second is a series of challenges, and we can’t advance without solving all of them.”

“We?”

“My party.” She waved a hand. “DV, Zoba and I. UP isn’t as high level, so I think he’ll have to do his solo.”

“Aren’t tier trials all solo?”

“No, not at all. There may not be any official party system, but if you stay around the same people regularly the game will understand that you’re a group and start sharing quests and gearing challenges toward your team as a whole. Which does make it awkward to get through our tier trial, if we aren’t all online at the same time. Zoba isn’t here now, for instance, or we’d probably be trying it right now.”

Mayon nodded. “Thanks for the info. I should probably get going, I have someone waiting for me.”

“Of course. Good luck! And if you ever decide you’d like to join a fun, supportive team, you’re always welcome to contact us.”

Mayon paused. “How would I go about doing that? There are no messaging features here.”

“Just add me to your friends list, and sync your link with your Otherworlds account. Oh, yeah, I think you might need to activate Slipthrough. There’s a patch for 9352 specifically, but it’s easy to find. Mayon, you said? How do you spell that? I’m not finding you.”

“Oh, um, Mayon Windheart is my full character name. M-A-Y-O-N, and Windheart is all one word.”

“Got you! And mine is V-O-L-O Warrior.”

Maya didn’t see a reason to shun her, so went ahead and type Volo Warrior into the friend list.

>Add as character Mayon Windheart

>Add as player 9352-113-7

“It’s asking if I want to add as Mayon or as a bunch of numbers. What’s the difference?”

“If you add me as the character, I’ll only get notifications of when this character is online or if you’re using the same name on other worlds. If you add as player, it will show me any time one of your characters is online and what world you’re on.”

Maya selected the first option. Perhaps it was overly paranoid, but she didn’t like the idea of handing a stranger the ability to track her across characters and worlds.

Volo Warrior (27893-598) appeared in her list, just under Andevar the Second (11849-822-3).

“Hey, have you seen anyone named Andevar? It’s in my friend list but I’m not sure who it is.”

Volo shook her head. “I can ask around, if you like.”

Maya considered it a moment. “Nah, don’t bother. I won’t be online for much longer, so it would be a waste of your time. I’ll figure it out another time.”

In fact, speaking of wasting time, she really should get back to Hara. As much as she wanted to try out Mayon’s combat abilities, she’d already spent too long talking to people instead of fighting.

A quick trip to the apartment building, and she automatically started for Maya’s room before remembering that of course she wouldn’t have access to it as Mayon. But she'd alredy come this far, so Mayon tried the door anyway.

Permissions not set. Choose alt permissions now?

“Why not.”

A menu appeared, allowing her to choose either character-specific or account-wide permissions on her apartment, for a small fee. Conveniently, account-wide access was only 30 copper, so that left Mayon with 20. Which felt completely minuscule in comparison to Maya’s funds, but then she was a trickster with all the benefits that entailed, while Mayon was just an acrobat who hadn’t even tried to grapple anything yet.

Well. That had to be corrected.

“Save game, Mayon 1.”

Save Mayon 1 created.

Then he crossed to the window, opened it, and threw his grapple at the building across the street. It connected with admirable solidity, but then Mayon made the mistake of looking down.

Yep. This was stupid.

Very, very stupid.

Taking a class that specialized in climbing and swinging on things? What had she been thinking? Mayon backed away from the window, dizzy at the mere thought of actually jumping out and swinging up to the other rooftop.

But. . . wasn't that fear just as irrational as the fear of drowning? It was a game, right? She should be able to overcome things like not wanting to fall?

Mayon’s frantic heartbeat didn’t seem convinced. But he took hold of the rope trailing across the floor.

Just once. One try. If he could survive weeks of the combat instructor of doom, surely he could handle one little swinging on a rope onto a roof.

“It’s all in my head. Leftover phobias from a life that doesn’t matter anymore. I can overcome it.”

Every step forward felt harder than the last. She realized Mayon was muttering, “nope, nope, nope, nope, nope,” in increasingly frantic tempo, hesitating longer and longer between steps. Breathing too fast, probably would be on the verge of passing out if that were possible here.

Hesitation was fine. Backing down would be cowardice.

This was just another challenge to be beaten. She wanted to fly someday. And that started with learning not to be afraid to fall.

Mayon climbed up onto the window, swayed dizzily, then lost his balance and toppled out.

Mayon Windheart Average Male Sprite Level: 9 Affinities: Absorptive Mental Tier: 1 Class: Acrobat Total Base Equipment Modifiers Strength: 11 8 4 -1 Momentum: 40 42 0 -2 Agility: 8 8 0 0 Control: 11 8 0 3 Attunement: 11 8 0 3 Focus: 10 8 0 2 Intelligence: 8 8 0 0 Flexibility: 12 8 0 4 Unassigned: 0 Health: 100 of 100 Will: 20 of 20 Stamina: 160 of 160 Energy: 81 of 81 Speed: 240% Switch penalty: -49%, 9.9 secs Stealth: 90% Chain bonus: +13% Awareness: 69% Cooldown: 94% Max abilities: 2 Item Name Slot Str Mom Agi Con Att Foc Int Flx Newcomer Tunic Body Newcomer Leggings Legs Basic Shortsword (2 dmg) Held 1 Ring of Strength Ring 1 4 Acrobat's Grapple Special Money: 0 Gold, 0 Silver, 50 Copper Quality Item name Details Normal Dust of Recall x1 Normal Universal Dye x1