Maya worried for eight minutes, trying to figure out what could have gone wrong. Had Star respawned somewhere else accidentally and had to trek back on foot?

Speaking of on foot, now she had to make the decision: did she stop by Nirsym for more magic, even though that would add another fifteen minutes to her return time, or did she respawn in the dungeon and keep going as-is?

Clearly Star had chosen the former, and Maya didn't blame her.

If she stopped at Nirsym for her magic and notes, if she spent the whole trip over thinking over her spell options, there was a chance she could come up with something better. But fifteen minutes was a long time. If the others ended up wiped, the boss may recover from everything they'd done before Maya could get back.

It would be a risk, and out in the limbo of death she didn't have her luck bonus to help guide her decision making. Out here, it was just her.

Well, any spell she created, she could keep around forever. If they could grind the boss down from 50%, they could grind him down from 60%. And if they couldn't, she wasn't going to get her luck bonus today anyway, so she might as well take advantage of the +59 rather than throw it all away chasing the +79.

She could take an hour and craft some new armor too. 60% wasn't that much better than 100%. Better to go into it fully equipped and prepared.

But if she were going to leave for a long time, she couldn't leave the rest of the team hanging. She'd already left them for too long when she tested Inferno; honestly she was surprised they'd waited for her.

So when the respawn options finally appeared, she selected the Minotaur's Master dungeon and hurried in to the boss room.

Andy had disappeared, and Ben and Star either hadn't returned or had returned and then been killed again. Runescale lay beside the step up from the middle tier, eyes closed as though asleep while the boss's attacks flew just above him without touching him.

"Did Star and Ben ever come back?" Maya asked.

"Not that I saw."

Maya cursed softly, the world's filter muting her anyway. "Well, looks like it’s time to go recruiting again. And replace my gear." She thought about hunting Star down to retrieve her other items, then decided against it. None of them were particularly great, and she could probably make better with today’s luck bonus anyway. "I need to do some crafting and…" she trailed off, remembering that she’d run out of money.

She had some crafting materials, but not enough. "------- it!" She'd gotten too used to having Sevard's massive fortune at her disposal, now that she was running up against financial considerations again...

But thinking of Sevard made her think of Lucy. She could ask for her to help with the dungeon boss. Xaneta could make easy work of him, she was sure. And she had offered to help whenever.

It felt like cheating, and a bit of a let-down after they'd worked so hard, but everything else was falling apart. Besides, they were tricksters. If they did cheat, it would probably only make The Trickster happier with them.

"I need to go make a call. You can leave if you want, I think this run is a bust." Maya walked out into the antechamber where it was safe, nodding for Hunter and Snappy to follow her again.

"Xaneta, Xaneta."

"Xaneta here, may I ask who's calling?"

Maya giggled. "Maya. I have another favor to ask."

"Today's not a great day to be running around," Lucy said, sounding breathless. "I'm in the middle of something big."

"Well, me too. I've got to kill a dungeon boss, and my team is struggling."

"Which boss?"

"Minotaur's Master."

"Why'd you pick that one? He's stupidly hard, because the game creators wanted everyone to side with him or something."

"Well, I didn't have any others available."

"Boss monster, that means you're pretty high today? 50+?"

"Yeah. 59."

"And you're having trouble with Draconias Crystalstar?"

"My team isn't the best," Maya said, lowering her voice and glancing around in case anyone was listening. But Runescale hadn't come out, and the others hadn't come in.

"You should be able to solo him at your power level."

Maya blinked. "Not even close. He’s killed me twice even with everything I can throw at him, and he’s barely below half. I could probably grind him down, but it’d take hours at this rate."

"Sounds like you glitched him." Lucy growled softly, then sighed. "I’ll be there soon. But I’m going to ask for your help after this."

"Oh, sure, of course."

The connection cut off.

Maya crawled under the blades layer. "Runescale! I have help coming. If you want to wait out here—"

"Nope, I’m good," he called back, giving her a careful thumbs up. He was still lying on the floor.

"What are you doing?"

"Getting experience."

"By lying on the floor?"

"I’m evading attacks from a high level boss. It counts for a lot!"

"And how would you know that?"

"Because I can feel it. Like lightning in my soul."

Maya sighed. "Okay. Have fun. I’m going to wait outside."

She turned to crawl out, only to find that she’d forgotten to unfollow her pets. Hunter was crawling on his stomach after her, while Snappy grabbed the flying knives from the air one by one, carefully crouching, her eye stalks focused as she followed its flight, then leaping into the air with precision and snatching it to the ground with a quiet click.

The knives, being special attacks and not actual weapons, naturally disappeared immediately. Snappy skittered back and forth in annoyance, then tried again.

Maya giggled at the sight, but pulled out a throwing knife from her inventory. "Here, if you want to have a knife, you can borrow this one."

Snappy considered it for a moment, then took it in one of her foreclaws, swiping it experimentally through the air. Then she raised her other claw. When Maya didn’t react, she clipped it together suggestively, gesturing at the knife she held.

"Another one?" Maya shrugged. "Sure, why not?" She passed a second knife over to her crab, who waved her new blades in appreciation, then skittered toward the boss.

"Be careful!" Maya called after her, resigning herself to the loss of the knives. They’d stick around a few minutes if you retrieved them, but once used in an attack there was always the chance they’d disappear. Sometimes immediately, other times once the game decided you’d neglected them for long enough.

She crawled back out, Hunter close behind her, but he glanced back and forth between her and Snappy, as though wanting to go after the crab.

"If you want to—" Maya started, then paused. "Hang on." She checked the description of Stone Ward and found no mention of it being self-only, so she cast it on Hunter. He was immediately surrounded by a stony shell. He froze, confused, then turned in a slow circle one direction, then the other, peering at his new armor.

"If you want to go with her, you’re allowed. I’ll be waiting outside. Your call."

Hunter yipped once, then belly crawled along the floor toward Snappy, who was skittering around the boss’s feet in a quick sideways scuttle, uneven enough that his light blasts missed her, darting in to slash him with the knives held in her claws.

Maya was astonished. Maybe she shouldn’t have kept her pets outside so long. "I’ll definitely get you some proper knives when I’m crafting," she promised, though Snappy was too far away to hear.

"Can I have some too?" Runescale asked.

"We’ll see."

"I’ll trade you my new spell."

"You mean the one I made for you?"

Runescale grinned, looking very fierce with his giant lizard teeth. "Nope. The new one."

"Which is?"

"Stun Strike."

"Very original."

"I know you did the best you could, but your version wasn’t quite what I wanted, so I fixed it."

"Oh, really?"

"Really. How did you think I stunned the big ugly guy?"

"By putting more power into the attack and being closer to him."

"That’s not how Runestrike works." Runescale laughed. "Its overcharge increases the duration, not the power. Which is what I needed to change."

Maya had never actually used the ability version of Runestrike, since it had never been intended for combat purposes. "Show me."

Runescale spread his arms, at least the one of them not pressed up against the step. "I did, twice."

Maya thought back to his casting when he’d stunned the boss successfully. She’d been paying attention to her own attacks and evades, not watching him closely. "I was busy, you may recall."

"Will you make me an awesome lightning sword?"

"I don’t know how to do that," Maya said, and immediately ideas began flooding in. If she made a specially conductive blade, and a paired spell to go with it… "Besides, I can’t afford the materials."

"Then promise you’ll give me the next lightning spell you make, and we’ll call it even."

Maya sighed. Sure, trade a variation on the spell she’d made for a new spell she’d make in the future. But Runescale, for all his irritating qualities, was proving himself to be creative enough that she kinda wanted to recruit him for real.

It was all well and good to say ‘I’m going to attract attention’ but her inclination was always to hide. She wasn’t one to search for the spotlight, or know what to do with it when she had it. But Runescale? He wanted attention. Chased it tirelessly. And he was young, modern, not an upload from forgotten history. If anyone knew how to get the world’s attention, it would be him.

"Are you permanent?" Maya asked.

"Huh?"

"You’re a player, do you play from a computer or VR rig or something, or are you permanent?"

"Oh, I’m an upload, permanent, yes." But he sounded flustered, the least confident of anything she’d ever heard from him.

"Is there something wrong with being permanent?"

"No, not exactly."

Hunter yelped as his last health disappeared, vanishing as his health bar - a smaller one under Maya’s - went grey.

"If you don’t want to talk about it that’s fine. But I have… a request."

"What is it?" Runescale asked.

"Make a new character, and tell me what you get for your random stat bonus."

"I already have an alt. Can’t get another one until I tier up."

"What was its bonus to?"

"Agility."

"And you get new ones after advancing a tier?"

"Yes."

Wait. Maya was technically tier 5. From a glitch, yes, but if a glitch would let her be a Trickster without passing The Trickster’s deity questline, then why wouldn’t it unlock new character slots?

"I need to go check something. If Andy shows up, tell him to wait outside and not get killed. I need to talk to him."

"Sure."

Maya exited the boss room and logged out. She brought up the character creation menu, and sure enough she had 2/4 character slots available.

She loaded in her merla character preset, gave her the name Myna Seasworn, and clicked play. Just out of curiosity. Myna got Flexibility as her bonus for being permanent. Maya wasn't really expecting another trickster, but it sure would be nice to have her class advantages without the disadvantage of everyone in the world knowing who and what she was.

Leaving Myna at the start of the tutorial, she went back to the creation menu, threw together an elf with the randomize button until she didn't hate his looks, named him Bruffon, and checked what his bonus would be. Flexibility again. Ah, well. She could always check back once she leveled some more.

When she logged back in, Runescale was still where she’d left him, though she had to re-summon Snappy and Hunter. She would never regret spending her entire fortune to soulbind them; she couldn’t imagine leaving their survival up to the whims of chance. She did not trust chance very much.

Maya stood for a long moment, considering. Then she took her trickster’s orb and whispered, "Is it alright if I share the trick to getting your class at character creation with the mage academy?"

The invitation didn’t appear, and a spot didn’t vanish from her orb. Instead, she only got a window: YES

A new plan had begun formulating, now that she wasn’t entirely focused on finishing this dungeon. Xaneta could take care of it. Thinking about working with Runescale had brought a bigger question to mind.

Andy respawned just as she was heading into the boss room to talk to Runescale again, so she motioned for him to wait outside. Snappy was already edging toward the boss room, eyes obviously fixed on where her knives had fallen. Maya laughed. "You can go get them, but don’t get killed. We’re going to wait for Xaneta outside."

Snappy skittered off eagerly. Hunter glanced to Maya for permission, then crawled after her, tail thumping the floor.

"Runescale, come on out! I need to talk to you."

Runescale shook his head. "I can’t."

"Why not?"

He waved a hand at the attacks flashing just overhead every half second.

"Oh." He was stuck. Without her or Andy to draw aggro, Runescale would have to keep lying there or risk dying.

"I’ll cover you," Maya said, climbing onto the platform. She crawled into the boss room, fired Heart of Stone, then took off running as the weight of his aggro fell on her.

She used the rest of her energy attacking him, since she might as well, bringing him down to 41%, then slipped out into the antechamber. Snappy and Hunter had escaped unscathed, with Snappy proudly waving her knives around in demonstration of her prowess. Runescale was bragging to Andy, who looked impressed.

"Alright, guys. I have a friend coming to help, she said this boss is probably glitched which is why we’re having so much trouble—"

Rominian ran through, jumped up onto their platform, then slipped through into the boss room.

"Ignore him," Maya said when both her team members stared. "He’s doing his Rominian thing. We need to be ready. But first, Andy, are you permanent? I don’t remember if I asked before."

He nodded.

"Excellent. I want you both to make as many alts as you can. Any time you unlock a new slot, use it. And tell me what stat bonuses you get before you do anything else."

They both stared at her in confusion, but she waved it off. "I have a plan for the future, but it requires specific builds. I promise, it’ll be worth it. Well, assuming you want in."

"I do!" Runescale said. "What are we doing?"

Maya grinned. "Racing Domitius. He’s been unlocking new zones, and we’ve been playing catch up. No more. I’m done chasing him or trying to stop him. Now, I want to beat him. He has the advantage of numbers, obsessed fans, and a head start now that Cydrin has reached tier 6. But as of now, we’re racing him."

"Isn’t that what Shardlord is doing already?"

"Yes it is. But he’s doing it on his own, working with the academy instead of forcing us to help him. But he’s falling behind. It doesn’t matter how much nicer his system is, when in practice it means that we, the academy as a whole, are losing. If he won’t take charge, then—"

"I WILL!" Runescale shouted. "If we’re starting a Mage Army to take over the leaderboard, you can count on me to lead us to victory!"

"I like that enthusiasm, but it won’t be enough. Thankfully, we have a secret weapon."

"Your secret build?"

Maya grinned. "I discovered it independently, but it’s Domitius’s secret build. The advantage that’s letting him pull ahead. An advantage that I have, and more importantly know how to get."

"And this has to do with making lots of alts?" Andy asked.

"Just to get the right bonus. Hey, you’re tier two, you should have a free slot too!"

"I do. What stat is it that I’m looking for?"

Maya considered. "I’m not going to say, just in case. I’d rather wait until we have at least one more person besides me capable of doing it before I risk the information spreading too far. Just let me know what you get, and I’ll tell you what to do next once you get the right one."

Andy nodded. "Okay. My first char has Sturdiness, I’ll let you know about the next one. Oh, and this one has Luck."

Maya’s beak dropped open in astonishment.