Maya stood up, and so did Hunter. He padded over to her side, looking up at her expectantly.

"Time to start another day," Maya said brightly. She glanced at her luck, and saw she had about an hour left before she could safely re-roll. For now, her luck would remain at minimum, but that was fine. She didn’t need luck for this part. "Alright, time to see what you can do."

She started for the eastern gate, intending to check the board for quests before they headed out. Her primary goal was to measure Hunter’s effectiveness in combat, and test out some strategies. With her high energy pool, she had a lot more flexibility now than she had before as far as spellcasting went, but that wouldn't be enough to win every fight. She would be better off once she could analyze and assess her new companion's abilities. There was nothing to be gained by delaying. Besides, if she could figure out some strategies for dealing with low luck days that could still be valid, that would be a huge help. Being basically useless without her luck being at least average or high was one drawback to her class. Days of forced inactivity were frustrating, even if it was a chance to catch up with Bloodline.

And wasn't that weird? She frowned as she walked out of the merchant district and toward the town gate as she remembered her conversation.

Bloodline was such a strange entity, she couldn't help wondering how it had ended up in the game. It didn't seem like the sort of usual monster that would be coded in. Maybe she was reading too much into it, but she'd gotten a strong creature-remix vibe from the worldbuilding so far on 9352. The vast majority of creatures were either fictionalized versions of existing animals, versions of them with additional limbs or new strange abilities, or something equivalently basic like the driles. They were weird, yes, but only to the extent that a relatively uncreative guy playing with a random creature generator would come up with. 'Rats! But with wings! And some of them have a scorpion tail! Yeah, that's a good creature.'

Nothing so far had been truly creative, which gave her a general vibe for 9352's creator's focus. She got a distinct impression that whoever it was had been more interested in the stat system and the classes and abilities than the actual world. The fact that the biggest questline in the game was locked behind zone unlocks meant that he clearly hadn't intended for it to be accessed easily. Why build so much space and then close it off from players until they worked together for years?

Maybe its creator had imagined the world would be far more popular, gaining the kind of draw from the start that it had only gained after Domitius and Shardlord's feud went into effect? Maybe he just hadn't thought about it, adding systems at random.

But whatever he'd done, Bloodline felt altogether different. There was a visceral impact to its existence, a sort of weight that didn't match with the rest of 9352. It felt out of place, like a foreigner.

She couldn't help wonder if the NPCs in the northern zones had, for lack of a better term, gone wild. Like the Path of Life faction, which she highly doubted had originally been intended as the 'don't let the devs notice us' faction, things had changed in the centuries since the world's creation. And if there were whole areas that a player had never even visited since their creation? She could well imagine Bloodline's homeland being even stranger than the entity itself.

Then she arrived at the gate and her musing was interrupted by reality. She glanced around, half expecting Romanian to come charging past her to turn in a quest, but she didn't see him. Hadn't seen him in weeks actually, either on Maya or Mayon. She wondered if that was a good thing, or if Domitius had him working on something nefarious.

Maybe the former. Probably the latter. When was Domitius ever not working on something nefarious?

She wondered what it was this time, if he could be trying to rebuild his mage prison, or if he'd be doing something more innocuous like just unlocking more zones as fast as possible.

There were some other players milling about, coming in or out, staring at the leaderboard or quest list, but the area had largely returned ti its abandoned state. Most players were either walking through or already out in the hunting areas trying to finish their tier trials.

Maya checked the board for any easy quests to gather goblin spears or drile wings or anything, but there was only a single quest left.

Carry a message for Lady Meshis to her special friend.

Well, that would be taken care of before she got to it, surely. No point in trying to race for it. And it wasn’t even a combat quest. She'd rather set out at once, kill a bunch of low level spawns to see how Hunter operated.

"You going to be good just hunting things?" she asked aloud, as they walked out of the city. "I don't know what your preferences are yet."

She'd asked at the pet shop if they could allow him to talk, but they said that was beyond their capability. For now, she'd be stuck with only the usual human-dog interface of panting, barking, and tail wagging, in which she was not particularly fluent. She didn't recall having any pets in her youth, wasn't sure if that would be a good or bad experience to have had in relation to having pets here. How detailed was the AI on the non-sentient creatures?

"Can you understand everything I say?" she asked.

Hunter wagged his tail.

"Bark if you can understand me."

Hunter looked up at her, padding along at her side.

"So, that's a no. But you know basic commands. Do you know things like... go find a drile, kill it, and bring it back?"

Hunter didn't leave or react aside from his continued wagging.

"So you like the attention, but you're not really sure what I'm talking about?" she asked, her voice slipping into a softer lightness. "Well, you're a good dog anyway."

That he approved of, licking at her hand.

Maya laughed. "Ew!"

Hunter panted happily beside her.

She continued laughing as she wiped off the drool. "Yep, you sure are a dog, alright."

She switched to viewing his stat screen and checked the targeting controls. She could designate a target for him, as well as do anything from scripting a custom combat attack rotation for him to just pointing and saying 'kill that'. She decided to stick with the basics for now, she could always switch to micromanaging if he did badly at first. It would take time, but she'd figure out the best strategy for using him in combat.

His low health pool was a concern. 85 felt low even for a level 4 - or maybe she’d just gotten so used to having Path of Life that her entire perspective was skewed. Either way, she suspected he'd end up dying a lot at first until they figured out how to keep him hit-and-run, or otherwise moderate the chance of taking damage.

"I wonder if I could craft you custom armor," Maya mused. "I'm not a very good crafter, but when I do craft it usually turns out well."

She'd done only slightly above average with her temple ingredient construction, and that made her more convinced that luck was a direct modifier to the percentile that governed outcome chances. She could create much better stuff on a high luck day. Yesterday she'd not managed a single item above Uncommon quality.

But she'd have to look into pet armor another time. She opened her journal, made a quick note to research it in future, then returned to the current problem. When to start, where to start. Hmm.

They passed Windy Creek and reached the eastern woods which were infested with the usual collection of goblins and driles and who knew what all else. She wanted to put Hunter through his paces, and this would be the best place to start.

He was able to take on driles pretty easily, his attacks doing a little more damage than theirs, but having nearly twice their health. More than two at once, and Maya had to step in to prevent them swarming him, but he still held his own and survived long enough for her to do so, even with larger swarms.

To her surprise, a single cast of Magestrike could finish off the driles if they’d been injured, while two would annihilate a swarm regardless of its size. No wonder she’d done so well in zone two - her tier 5 spell modifier was really overpowering for low level creatures.

Hunter moved clumsily at first, uncertain of his purpose. She tried several different arrangements, whether sending him to attack head on or to run around sniping at the edges of the pack, and ultimately decided that he was technically capable of either but probably not a great tank due to his minimal health.

When they moved on to the goblins, he struggled much more, but she was able to pick up the slack and hold them off long enough to prevent them from landing more than the occasional hit on Hunter. They continued for some time in this manner, until she settled on a hit-and-run stategy for him to pursue, his awkwardness started to fade as he got the hang of what she expected from him.

Once she'd finished her tests and gained a solid conception of Hunter’s capabilities - and he’d leveled twice in the process - Maya finally rolled her die for the day, praying it would be something good. To her immense relief, it came out as +31.

Trickster Day 18: Learn a new cooking recipe

She wouldn't be escaping her rolling penalty tonight, since there were fewer than six hours left to the day, but at least she hadn't been penalized for her failure the day before, leaving her at +26.

For a moment she imagined the Trickster laughing as he watched her try to commit a murder, then break down completely as a result, but she quickly snapped herself out of the mindset and focused on the present. That was in the past, no benefit in dragging it back up.

Hunter barked, notifying her of a small pack of driles nearby. He looked at her, waiting for direction to attack, but Maya shook her head. "I'll bring you out hunting another time, perhaps. We're done for today. I have cooking to do."

Hunter stayed at her side obediently as Maya considered her options. A cooking recipe, hmmm? She’d done various construction and crafting quests and activities, mostly smithing, but never any cooking. She hadn't actually realized it was a skill, but now she thought about it of course it must be. The mage academy even had extravagant dinners every evening, which come to think of it she should attend one of these days now that she was back. But, yes, cooking. "I don't suppose you know where a cooking trainer is, do you?" Hunter did not. "Ah, well. Guess we'll find out the hard way."

Maya turned toward the shopping quadrant of Kalyx and kept an eye out for anything that looked or smelled like a food related shop. There should be at least one around.

Even with her luck back up to a decent level, it took her nearly half an hour to locate the sole cooking shop in Kalyx, though she found several food stands or eateries. None of them offered recipes, only the finished products or, in the case of Shary's Produce Stand or other similar locations, the raw ingredients with no assistance given for how to prepare and combine them.

The Copper Kettle was tucked between a few less reputable looking shops selling battered secondhand armor on the one side and discount herbs on the other. She would definitely never have shopped in this particular alley in the real world, but the game was a lot safer than any real world alley.

Maya knocked, then entered to a growled 'Come in,' from the big grumpy sprite behind the counter. His wings were tiny, clearly too small to lift his less than fit body, and he sat perched on a stool with his eyes scowling and his mouth a fixed pretense of a smile.

"You've found the Copper Kettle. What do you need?"

"I'm looking for a cooking recipe," Maya answered.

"What kind?"

"A novice one that can be used without much training, preferably."

The sprite grunted. "Take your pick." He gestured to a shelf of thin volumes, each marked with the name of a recipe. The spines had dots of different colours to depict the scaling difficulty of the recipes.

"Oh, perfect. Thank you."

Maya spent a few minutes looking over those with a single blue dot, indicating the easiest recipes to craft, and settled on Basic Burger. She had plenty of meat from various beasts which could be used for the purpose.

"Ten silver."

Maya blinked at the price. She could easily afford it, but it seemed a bit steep for Kalyx. "Really, ten?"

He grumbled and grunted, but conceded that she could have it for 7, and Maya paid the reduced price with a smile and took her new recipe leaflet.

She opened it and read the instructions, which were indeed very basic. She needed access to a fire of some sort, a cooking pan, and at least two of five basic seasoning options to complete the recipe properly. The Copper Kettle provided less-than-shiny cookery dishes and utensils, a further expense of 14 silver for the complete set, while the questionable discount herb shop next door provided the rest.

Then she was left with the problem of how to actually grind the meat into burger, and she contemplated going back for a straight steak recipe instead.

After some interrogation, the herbalist directed her back to a deli she'd passed over for having no recipes where they could convert slabs of meat into anything from steaks or slices to cubes and ground. She could also buy the equipment to do so herself, but it wasn't available in Kalyx and that meant it would be well outside her price range. She may be comfortably above the average wealth level of a tier 2 player, but Nirsym was meant for tier 4s, and that meant everything was proportionally more expensive as well.

"Every day a new adventure," Maya said, chuckling at the reminder of why she'd stuck with the trickster class so long. Yes, the perks were great. The downsides she could do without, but game balance or whatever. But the way it sent her constantly running from one place to the next, introducing her to new systems she might never have sought out on her own, that was the real greatest benefit of the class.

And who knew, maybe cooking could become a way to finance her other endeavors in the long run. Smithing already looked like a solid cash option, at least when her luck was good. Normal quality goods sold for significantly less than their raw material cost, uncommon a little more, but it wasn't until rare or higher that the return started to outweigh the investment. A normal player might break even overall, but luck provided a disproportionate advantage.

Maya spent a few minutes waiting in the deli while they processed her drile meat, mostly petting Hunter to keep herself occupied.

She wouldn't have imagined how comforting it could be to hug a scruffy dog until she was doing it. She wouldn't trade Hunter for all the unicorns in the world.

Then her order was ready, and it was back to business. She stopped by the nearest bakery to grab some bread, then headed to Nirsym.

Known for its excellent crafting facilities, the open crafting plazas of Nirsym City provided high quality equipment for a basic rental fee, one gold for access, another when you left if it had been more than an hour. But between then, you could stay as long as you wanted, and it included everything from commercial ovens to industrial forges, and everything you needed to work with your part finished projects in between.

"Don't get in anyone's way," Maya instructed, "but if you want to explore you can. It's a new city for you, after all."

Hunter did not need to be told twice. He took off, sniffing at anything and everything in sight. Maya smiled and turned her attention back to the stove she'd selected for today's project. The crafting plaza was busy, as usual, perhaps a bit more than usual, but not overly crowded. There were lines at the forge, or else gawkers, but the cooking area was almost empty. Two other players were working on something in the biggest oven, but Maya kept out of their way and they kept out of hers.

First, she needed to grind the herbs, then integrate them into the meat. She'd chosen a green onion-looking sprout, along with salt and pepper as her spices. Mixing it with her hands felt weird, but the lack of anything messy clinging to her afterwards made it much more tolerable. Once she'd squished it around until the spices were fully integrated, she squished it a few more times for good measure to try and get things distributed evenly.

Next, shape the meat into a patty. Easy, right?

Well, actually, yes. Very easy. Lopsided a bit, unevenly thick, but it was a patty. She'd made enough meat for three, so she continued shaping until she had three uncooked basic burgers. The cooking process was less involved, mostly automated, and timed differently than it would have been in the real world. Within five minutes she had each burger grilled to a different doneness, and she transferred them to their bread with a feeling of satisfaction.

Crafting complete! Basic Burger (normal), Basic Burger (uncommon), Basic Burger (exceptional). Recipe memorized: Basic Burger.

"Exceptional! Nice."

Mission complete: Trickster Day 18