The following day did not start out well.

First, she fell out of bed into an undignified heap, her blankets somehow having completely tangled around her body though she was certain she didn’t move in her sleep. Then she realized it was her -100 luck, and promptly rolled a -82.

Even the remnants of her bonus from the day before couldn’t salvage a roll like that. Needless to say, Maya did not want to spend a day with over 70 negative luck, so she rerolled.

And got -87.

Hara had warned her against rerolling more than twice in a day. She well remembered the days upon days of -100 she’d endured after digging herself in too deep with the stacking duration penalties.

But -87? Surely that merited an exception.

She hesitated, then rolled. This made 4 negative numbers in a row; surely the next would be better.

-79.

She knew she should stop. Every time she gave in to the temptation of rerolling, it would only make it easier to make the same bad decisions in future. But she had plans! She needed a good day.

Her feathers prickled with concerned anticipation. She was already up to 1 day 6 hours of penalty. If she rolled one more time, that would bring it up to 1 day 18 hours. She could endure eighteen hours of bad luck, if it meant she could make some up-front progress now. Right?

She crossed her fingers, and rolled the die again.

+30. Yes! It wouldn’t be anything grand, but at least she wouldn’t have to spend the day in solitary confinement to prevent triggering an apocalypse or something equally stupid.

She changed back into her proper gear, swapping out the low quality stuff she’d been forced to use for the quest. That reminded her, though; new day, new trickster quest. She should probably look at that sooner rather than later. She’d gotten out of the habit, playing on Mayon for so long, but it was important. One of those things she had to keep in mind.

Trickster Day 17: Assassinate a quest-giving NPC.

Maya stared at it for a long time. NPCs were a fuzzy grey area she hadn’t quite figured out yet. On the one hand, they acted as human as anyone. On the other, they only respawned a limited, unknown, number of times before being gone for good. What if the quest-giver she assassinated was on their last life?

But she couldn’t afford to ignore it. With eighteen hours of -20 already queued up for tomorrow, adding -50 more on top of that would be stupid in the extreme.

Problem was … she liked all the NPC quest-givers. She hadn’t met a single one who she’d want to kill. Even at their grumpiest, there was something pure about them. It was one thing to kill violent players or hostile monsters, but assassinating NPCs right in town was a line she hadn’t realized existed and she found herself reluctant to cross.

It was just a game. She knew that. But sometimes doing a thing wasn’t about the actual impact of the thing. It was about the kind of person it made you by doing it.

And she wasn’t entirely comfortable becoming the sort of person who killed off quest NPCs for her own gain. How far would it be from there to murdering whole friendly towns simply because they had something she wanted? Not that she currently had the power to do so, but it was the principle of the thing.

But a whole day with a -70 luck penalty, that wouldn’t be any good at all.

She tried to convince herself that it didn’t matter, that killing an NPC wouldn’t be murder, but she couldn’t. The thought of it repulsed her. Yet it wouldn’t do to fail her quest entirely, so she lighted on the idea that must be her compromise.

She must give every appearance of undertaking the quest, while failing to follow through. So long as she gave a good attempt at it, even if she ultimately failed, the Trickster would not penalize her even if he also gave no reward.

Which left only the matter of which NPC she could attempt to assassinate. It would have to be someone strong enough to defend against her attacks, but also someone with whom she did not mind losing reputation. She doubted that being caught in attempted murder would have been overlooked as a reputation penalty.

So, she couldn’t attack the grouchy guard captain, as she’d be relying upon his good will to continue to allow her the mission to conquer Standalone’s house. She didn’t dare attack any of the other guard captains either, in case the city guard shared a reputation pool. In fact, she would probably be best served by moving away from Kalyx entirely, just to be safe.

Perhaps one of the outposts at the other leypillars in non-town zones? Yes. That would do very well.

She set out for the leypillar, intending to at once put her plan into action, then reconsidered. If she started now, it would be hard to make it seem that she’d given it a reasonable try. So she had to make it appear the whole thing was another last-minute ‘oh no I forgot to do my quest, better do it right now with whoever’s nearby’ kind of thing.

+10 would enough to make the day a bit easier, but not so resoundingly good that she could attempt anything dramatic. She’d still have +30 for a few hours until the bonus from yesterday expired, though, so anything she genuinely wanted to succeed at should be attempted up front.

She didn’t feel like undertaking anything social yet. Her conversation with Shardlord had been stressful, the fact that Darrow existed was stressful, and she needed some time away from it before she could properly deal with either. But the entirety of her first section of goals were related to the academy, and being away for a month had probably dropped in standing with most of her casual acquaintances.

But mingling with the mages at large meant dealing with fans, and those who wanted something from her. Angry people, bitter people, expectant people. Just thinking about it set her feathers on edge.

+30 luck was actually a large bonus though. She should definitely get some leveling in before it expired, and she could deal with that relationship stuff another time.

No time to waste!

Properly equipped again after her ill-fated conquest, she set out for the leypillar. As a tier two player, she technically could still level in the Kalyx zone, but it was slow and would only get slower. Best to fight monsters closer to her own level. And for that, she headed to zone two. The Western Wilds, a zone about half again as large as the Kalyx City starting zone, stretched from the border of Kalyx all the way to the western edge of the continent. It was situated north of both Nirsym City to the east and the new Crystal Desert region that filled the south-eastern corner of the continent, and south of the icy zone six.

She transited into the trading post near the center of the zone, a collection of temporary and semi-permanent structures that had sprung up around the leypillar to provide services to travelers. There was a quest list - currently empty - and a copy of the leaderboard, both placed prominently within easy view, and a collection of level-appropriate merchants and traders.

The last time Maya had been here, it had been mostly deserted. Now, it bustled with players coming and going, another result of the recent increase in server slots available.

"Wanna join a quick group?" someone shouted, a blue-skinned sprite with a staff. "Looking for DPS and tank!"

"Selling equipment 5% below store prices!" called out a felinis player.

Maya smiled at the liveliness of it. She paused by the sprite, and he turned toward her eagerly.

"Hey, an assassin! Wanna join our group?"

"I’m actually a mage." Maya glanced at her agility-spec’d armor and twin daggers, and wasn’t surprised he’d gotten the wrong idea about her class. "But I’m interested. Where you grinding at and for how long?"

"About three hours. We’ll be following the northern ridge through vasp territory, aiming to reach the Gorgon’s Gorge by noon."

Maya hadn’t been to either of those areas. "Sounds perfect. When do we leave?"

"As soon as we get a tank."

Maya checked through her equipment, but even if she focused on sturdiness exclusively she’d barely qualify as an off-tank at best. She didn’t have any damage mitigation, and in a higher level zone enemies could burn through health fast. But she did have some serious advantages, between her high tier and 0

"How long do you think that’ll take?" Maya asked.

The sprite shrugged.

"I’m going to head to Nirsym to do some crafting. I think I can outfit myself sufficiently to act as a tank in a pinch. I have Path of Life, so that’ll help. If you find someone, come get me. If not, I’ll be back with some tank gear."

She transited back to Kalyx first, to collect all the crafting materials she’d accumulated over the past month. Most creatures dropped fur or hide or claws or other materials that could be used, along with vendor-provided ingredients, to create better equipment than what could be bought. And with a +30 to luck, she was willing to bet most of her crafting today would come out to better than normal quality.

But even so, Maya was extremely impressed when her hasty smithing (though it cost her around 50 silver in vendor materials) provided her with a rare, an uncommon, an exceptional, and two legendary quality items.

She really had to spend more time crafting. Luck was so broken; she loved it. If she could get a handle on the player economy, she could probably make a fortune.

Before she could begin on a sixth piece, the lizardine woman who’d been standing behind the sprite walked in. "We got another DPS. You good to go?"

Maya grinned and equipped her new gear. She’d not bothered with chest armor, since she wasn’t planning to trade her agility armor for anything without very good reason, but her iron plate leggings and helm had both come out exceptionally well.

All told, the equipment adjustments brought her energy to just under 200, but pushed her health over 500 - nearly double what she’d had before. If that wasn’t enough to tank with, she wasn’t sure what would be.

In all, their group ended up being five people. The sprite with the staff went by Justa, the lizardine was called Bo. They also were joined by an elf called Dark who made an obvious effort to seem edgy (which Maya found largely laughable), and Bethel, a human warrior who’d apparently just passed her tier trial and was anxious to begin leveling up again.

After cursory introductions and a quick rundown of their major skills and specialties - aside from acting as tank, Maya was the closest thing to crowd control they had, between Magestrike’s area damage and the ability to invoke paralysis with Storm Grasp. She didn’t even mention her custom made spells, and she was far and away the best of the three mages. No one else had more than one or two spells aside from Spark.

She’d been comparing herself to the leaders and other tricksters for so long, she hadn’t realized just how far ahead of the average player at her level she was.

Justa had chosen Frost Bolt for a primary spell, but carried a bow as a backup. With physical magic as such a rare resource, spellcasters were left largely helpless once their energy was expended. Maya wasn’t the only one to pick up a secondary weapon as a backup plan.

Bo was a dedicated ranger with a knee-high velociraptor as her companion. Maya couldn’t resist the adorable dino, and spent several minutes thoroughly distracted by little Stria. The raptor leaned into her hand with chirping trills of happiness.

Maya wanted one. She wanted a whole pack of them.

But raptors weren’t as easy to obtain as most of the other available pets; they were one of several species reserved for hidden quest rewards. Bo admitted she didn’t actually know what she’d done to trigger the hidden questline, but she’d jumped at the chance when Stria’s egg had been offered as the reward.

Dark refused to share his class details, but insisted he was a competent close-combat fighter. The rest of the group seemed to be as unamused by his antics as Maya herself, but he didn’t mind maintaining a glowering silence to everyone and everything around him.

Bethel was shy, and had to be coaxed into even admitting she was a warrior, despite the equipment making it blatantly obvious. She was probably a crafter as well, Maya thought, because her armor matched too well to be random drops.

There was a casual meaninglessness to their interactions that made Maya feel less uncomfortable, knowing she didn’t have to worry about finding the exact right thing to say, didn’t have to think about the possible repercussions of doing something stupid or saying something wrong.

It was just a pickup group for some quick leveling. No deeper obligations.

So liberating. Almost as good as still being on vacation, but more profitable.

The formalities dealt with, the group set off northward, Maya jogging at the front. She hadn’t tried tanking recently. This would be interesting.

Character Maya Starborn Average Androgynous Harpy Mask: Mage Stader Affinities: Magical Physical Level: 12 Classes: Trickster None Tier: 5 Specialization: Path of Life Augmentation: None Resistance: None Total Base Items Modifiers Sturdiness: 90 8 74 8 Momentum: 39 15 1 23 Agility: 100 8 79 13 Control: 29 8 13 8 Attunement: 63 18 40 5 Focus: 35 8 22 5 Intelligence: 41 27 4 10 Flexibility: 15 8 2 5 Luck: 30 30 - 0 Unassigned: 0 Health: 511 of 511 Will: 48 of 48 Stamina: 262 of 262 Energy: 189 of 189 Speed: 318% Switch penalty: -31%, 8.1 secs Stealth: 381% Chain bonus: +13% Awareness: 225% Cooldown: 92.5% Max abilities: 12 Equipment Item Name Slot Stu Mom Agi Con Att Foc Int Flx Midnight Armor of Agility Body 66 Iron Plate Leggings Legs 18 Dagger of the Devout Held 1 25 Dagger of the Devout Held 2 25 Iron Plate Helm Head 18 Drile Fur Cape Shoulders 3 2 6 Drile Fur Gauntlets Hands 4 2 1 Rogue's Belt Belt 2 2 1 Drile Fur Boots Feet 4 5 Lesser Bracelet of Control Arm 1 4 Survivor's Bracelet Arm 2 1 1 1 Goblin Necklace Necklace 2 1 Acrobat's Ring Ring 1 2 1 1 Dancer's Ring Ring 2 1 1 Cheap Ring of Sturdiness Ring 3 1 Greater Ring of Focus Ring 4 16 Minor Mage's Token Misc 1 2 1 Athlete's Talisman Misc 2 7 7 Minor Token of Focus Misc 3 1 Trickster's Mask Special