26

Laying the Foundation

Rian stepped outside of the hut’s instance and into the bustle of Elmguard with Kat. Corvis, awaiting them with his hands folded behind his back, merely smiled. Rian breathed out in relief, then watched as Corvis’s eyes narrowed as if to say, I know all about what just happened.

Thankfully, as they passed him by, that was all he did.

“So you understand now, I presume,” Corvis said, following behind them. “You’ve seen their fate. Goam, Ezre, Altir, Yindra—what you’ve done to them. What all of you have done to them. The picture is becoming clearer with each step you take.”

Corvis produced a bag of coins and tossed it to him. Confused, Rian caught it and quickly stuffed it away. His inventory automatically opened, and he watched the gold combine into a tesseract with some coins left over.

“From a few killings along the way,” Corvis said, and Rian recalled that he’d been skewering meina and fellings as he and Kat had made their way to Elmguard.

He hadn’t really thought about it until now, but for someone who had chided him about starting a “reign of terror in his homeland” back at the plains, Corvis apparently had little qualms about doing the same thing—slaying random creatures and taking their spirits in the form of gold coins.

A bit hypocritical, but he was glad Corvis was steadily turning to his side, even if it was mandated through the companionship system. So long as Corvis wasn’t about to suddenly assassinate him in the middle of the town, Rian was grateful.

And then, on second thought, he hoped Corvis’s change in behavior wasn’t just because of the system—because that meant it was overwriting an NPC’s will, probably without them even realizing it. He wondered if it could it really do that. Was it manipulating Corvis’s behavior in such a way that it overrode his nature or forced him to do something he fundamentally disagreed with, like killing creatures for gold? It was a harrowing thought, but he’d have to question Corvis about it later.

Kat led him outside of Elmguard, where there was a large patch of grass in between the town and the forests. Having a sudden flashback to Thile Harbor, Rian hesitated at the edge of the town, realizing he was about to step outside of the safe zone. He looked out over the empty area: what he assumed would be their sparring ground.

In the distance, sticking out from the ground was a nullshard similar to the one at the center of Elmguard, but it was much smaller. The nullshard’s field was visible, extending as a circle through the grass only a few feet away from the crystal.

“Here we are,” Kat said, putting her hands on her hips. “This should do.” She walked off to the side of the area. Rian watched her go, Visha trotting along with her.

As much as he wanted to learn from Kat, fighting against her was almost certainly going to result in at least one death. If it was inside a PVP instance, then it wasn’t a problem—except for the Yindra Locator item being transfered, but he could deal with that when the time came. Though he hoped he wasn’t wrong about her, he trusted Kat enough if it were to happen.

“So,” he said, “this might be a dumb question, but can we spar inside the town instead of outside it, just so we’re not taking damage?”

“Nah,” Kat said. “The nullshard field gets in the way of combat—like the actual ebb and flow of it, since it stops all momentum, too.” She reached into her inventory and set into the ground an object like a miniature lamppost, sleek, black and unlit. Continuing forward, she continued to plant more of them into the rough earth between the grass and where Elmguard began.

“Are we really safe out here?” Rian said, inspecting one of the placed lamppost items.

Ward, Type-B (Level 10)

Grade: B

“An invention of Dr. Yang-Li that generates a field extending to the nearest ward of the same type and ownership. When the field is entered by any being or creature with malicious intent, the owner is notified.”

Malicious intent? So the ward could differentiate between players who were just traveling and those who were seeking to kill. That was a bit mind-boggling, the way it just knew.

It was good, though, to see that Kat was setting up a perimeter for them.

“We’ll be using a private PVP instance, so no worries!” she shouted over the distance to him. “We’ll be pretty safe. But just in case LastWhisper happens to find us and trip one of these things, that’ll be the cue. Worst-case scenario, if they corner us, run for either Elmguard or a nearby nullshard and they won’t be able to touch you.”

He hoped his constant need for reassurance wasn’t bugging her, mainly so that she wouldn’t suspect that something was up with him. The fact that she was going to such lengths to secure the area was only because she didn’t want other guilds to interfere in her efforts to qualify for the Sacred Tournament. Getting ganked meant having to relocate to a safer, more discrete area to train. And with the deadline looming in two weeks, Kat probably couldn’t afford to waste any time.

Rian doubted he’d provide much of a challenge for her. If she managed to hit the qualification cutoff of rank 256 for the tournament, it wasn’t going to happen through PVP with him. Kat was probably just focusing on leveling up until she could move on to actual, ranked opponents. That was a little disappointing to realize, but he appreciated that she was willing to help him out so much, even if it was only to get both of them started.

As Kat set down more wards on the other side of the area, Rian turned to Corvis, who was floating nearby. “Thanks for the gold,” Rian said. “You know, I thought you had a bit more sympathy for the creatures here than you were letting on, before.”

“Do you suppose I care at all for the lives of insignificant forest creatures?” Corvis said.

“Well…maybe a little bit?”

Corvis’s gaze went cold. “What I regret is what lies ahead—your rampant plundering of this world, like so many before you. But I am obligated, under the guidance of Yindra, to see it through whether I enjoy it or not.”

“So you’re not suddenly willing to kill things for me because we hit a certain companionship level, right?”

“I’m not bound by any sort of ‘system,’ as you perceive it, if that’s what you’re asking. The systems entwined with the nature of Miracia are but surfacing representations of its underlying reality.”

“Uh…what.”

“Do not concern yourself with it,” Corvis said. “One does not beget the other. The system is reality, and reality is the system. They are but the same.”

Rian had basically no idea what he was talking about, but it sounded like his fears from earlier were unfounded. Their companionship was organic. Or at least it seemed that way. He wasn’t going to—forcibly or unknowingly—“re-program” Corvis’s behavior through any action of his own.

He wasn’t entirely sure why the thought of that bugged him. Hell, he still wasn’t completely convinced that this was just a game or a simulation, despite what the guild had told him. He couldn’t quite grasp it yet, but there was something off about everything—as if there was some central aspect that he was missing or misunderstanding, and any attempt he made at reaching toward it was met with nothingness, like trying to grab hold of smoke.

Kat set down the final ward and returned to where Rian was standing. “All right,” she said, cheerful. “Let’s get the basics covered.” She opened her character page and flipped it around for him.

Kat

[Moonlight]

Level 16 Thief

HP: 527/527

MP: 311/311

STR: 18

DEX: 11

INT: 17

SPR: 4

—

PVP rank: C (Silver) (#3,040,971) (Top 13%)

(2-0)

“INT?” Rian said. “You really need that much on a Thief?” He’d thought they were more Strength- and DEX-centric, like him.

“We’re an INT and DEX class,” Kat said. She made a stabbing motion. “Crits and back-attacks scale off INT, eventually. Has to do with knowing how to exploit weak points, I guess.”

Rian nodded. It made sense, at least, from a role-playing perspective; mages might’ve used their massive Intelligence to read ancient tombs and cast world-rending spells, but Thieves were all about street-smarts. They probably had their practical, small scale uses for the stat like knowing how to target specific organs to maximize their damage.

“Our stats are going to balance themselves out once we start PVPing,” Kat said, “so our levels aren’t that big of a deal. You should be able to see my equipment, too. Go ahead.”

When he looked, above her head was an icon that, when he focused, displayed her equipment information. Nothing too special. She had about as much armor and stat bonuses as he did.

“Just keep in mind,” Kat said, “when you’re out PVPing randos, you won’t be able to see their stats unless they show you. Usually it’s not a problem, since there’s a balancing effect in most instance-generators. But not all of them have it. The Sacred Tournament has no balancing whatsoever, for example.”

“That tournament sounds pretty crazy.”

“It really is. And regardless of what kind of instancer is used, for any sort of PVP, you can’t see what skills the other player has until they use them. Or unless they show you ahead of time, like this.” She brought up another window, displaying her class skills. She only had three—one passive and two actives—but it was still one more than he had, due to her being level 15.

Thief’s Trickery (Level 1 [MAX])

(Passive)

Sleight of hand increases a Thief’s ability to surprise their targets, catching them off-guard. Damage inflicted by daggers or throwing stars +10%.

Shadow-Walk (Level 2)

(68 MP; Cooldown: 1 minute)

Stepping into the shadows, a Thief becomes momentarily entwined with darkness and cannot interact with the world of light. For 5 seconds: movement speed +112%, weight -55%; duration refreshes upon touching shadows.

Smoke Bomb (Level 1)

(88 MP; Cooldown: 2 minutes)

A staple for any fledgling Thief looking to conceal themselves or escape from a dangerous encounter. Generates 1 consumable Smoke Bomb item that, when thrown, produces a cloud with a radius of 10 feet for 10 seconds.

About what he expected for a fledgling Thief. They seemed exceptionally strong at this level—not for the class skills themselves, but for their ability to distract opponents and land critical back-attacks. The class seemed built around it already. It was certainly a bit more complex than his class, for now. All he did was move around fast and punch things.

They were both in their first jobs, so their skills and the interactions between them wouldn’t be that complicated. They still had their Beginner skills like Dash and Heal for him, and Critical Back-Attack for her; but when he asked her about them, not all of them would stay relevant at higher levels. Critical Back-Attack remained a staple for the Thief class, but Dash would eventually become obsolete for the high-DEX characters, as players would eventually start moving faster than the skill itself, meaning that using it would literally slow them down.

He soaked up all the information the best he could.

“Skills never balance, either,” Kat said. “So higher level opponents will still have a slight advantage over you.” She closed her pages. “And that’s about it!”

“Just…one thing, before we start,” Rian said. “Can we not fight to the death?”

“That’s the plan!”

“Oh, uh. Cool.” He scratched the back of his head. He hadn’t thought it would be that easy to convince her.

“Don’t worry,” she said, smiling in a way that told him she thought his reluctance was cute. “I’m not gonna stomp you or anything. You’re here to learn. Besides, if I end up killing you, it’s just gonna slow things down for both of us.”

“But what about leveling? Don’t you have to kill to get the EXP reward?”

She shook her head. “You get EXP when the fight is over—not necessarily if one person or the other dies. If both people decide to stop fighting, that’s when the game tallies everything up. But it has to be mutual, of course.”

He nodded. This was so different from the way normal games worked. It felt like Mirage’s AI was constantly there, an unseen eye that was always watching, judging every move.

So the problem here was that, for him to gain EXP against Kat, he’d have to outplay her. And for her to level as well, he’d have to actually put up a fight instead of getting rofl-stomped. He could feel the pressure already, the fear of not living up to her expectations. He wasn’t even expecting to land more than a few hits on her, let alone defeat her in combat. She was entire leagues above him.

He felt so helpless. But that feeling would pass, he knew. He could trust Kat. It was just a matter of learning the ropes.

Kat opened her inventory, and it took on the shape of an actual window. She gestured for Visha, who came running up and leapt into her inventory. Kat closed it, turned to face Rian, and then flipped up the hood of her garb. She took out a glass orb like the one Lahir had used. When she whispered into it, an expanding sphere of light shot out and encompassed both of them as if in shimmering heat. The instantiation effect faded, and Elmguard in the distance went silent.

“All right,” she said, retrieving her dagger and spinning it around once. “Get ready!”