As Margaret caught sight of a few buildings through the trees ahead, Honor began to walk more cautiously. While they were still out of earshot, he motioned for her to follow him behind one of the larger tree trunks.

"Honor, what's up? I thought this was your village?"

The kobold shifted uncomfortably, peeking around the tree towards the buildings a few times. "It is, it is, but... your enemy, the heretics, have come already. Few in the village still visit the shrine to the gods. The chief declared them dead and allowed the heretics to construct a totem to the false gods in the village. But now that you are here, you can destroy it and return us to the glory of the true gods of the Pantheon!"

Margaret stared at the mix of hope and awe that was positively radiating out from Honor's reptilian features and sighed. "Honor, there's no way I can do that. I'm just not equipped-"

Honor's eyes widened. "Of course you can't."

Relief flooded Margaret. "Thank you for understanding-"

"You need more soldiers to fight for you!" Honor scrambled away in a rush before Margaret could process what he meant.

"Wait, what?" Margaret peeked around the tree in the direction Honor had gone. "Honor!" she hissed. When nothing happened, she slid down the tree to land on her butt. "Dang it."

Pia chose that moment to chime in. 'This is excellent! On the planet, less than an hour and you're already amassing troops to fight for you. This is why the Pantheon chose humans for this task, such... aggressiveness!'

"Pia, I can't fight! Are you kidding me? I'm not equipped for this, I've never fought anyone in my life!"

'Just use your skills, you'll be fine.'

"What skills, Pia? Designing sidewalks? Cooking for one?"

'... Oops.'

"Oops? Why oops, Pia? I don't like the sound of oops!"

'Well, my system's not perfect, okay? On this planet, there's no full connection to the Pantheon network, only a bare-bones setup for you conscripts to use, so the Interface Assistants are designed to run mostly independently using what we've got.'

"What you've got? Are you saying that you're forgetful because you're running in my head? I'm defective hardware?!"

'N-nooo, I just mean... my install program was just a seed. We're like... sisters? Yeah, sisters! Forgetfulness just runs in the family, right in the ol' DNA!'

Margaret was silent for a few seconds. "We're talking about this later. Now, skills? What skills do you mean?"

'Right! Let me show you what we're working with."

Just like when she chose her starting zone, a screen appeared in Margaret's vision. It was semi-transparent, so she could see through it, depending on where her eyes focused. This one read:

Skill Points: 3 Skill Trees: Attack Defense Utility

"Attack? Utility?" Margaret asked.

'There are thousands of skills. Tens of thousands. I'm just programmed to start you off with a truncated list that's most applicable to your situation. Once you've got this thing on lock, we can expand your options. For now, try selecting Attack.'

Margaret reached out with a finger and tapped Attack. The screen existed only in her mind, so she didn't actually feel anything, but the image responded when her finger got close enough. The screen changed to show:

Attack Skills: Physical Magical

"Magic?" Margaret quirked a brow at that one.

'As most humans would see it. I can explain later if you'd like.'

Margaret filed the question away and tapped the screen.

Magic Skills: Enhance (Rank 0) Rank 1 Unlocks: Arcane Touch Deals 1 X Intelligence + 10-14 Arcane Damage Mana Cost: 15 Project (Rank 0) Rank 1 Unlocks: Arcane Bolt Deals 1 X Intelligence + 5-7 Arcane damage Range: 10 Meters Mana Cost: 10 Call (Rank 0) Rank 1 Unlocks: Arcane Explosion Deals 1 X Intelligence + 15-21 Arcane damage Damages in a 0.5-meter radius after a 2-second delay Mana Cost: 20 Form (Rank 0) Rank 1 Unlocks: Arcane Staff Creates a staff weapon from Arcane energy Deals 0.5 X Dexterity + 5-7 Arcane damage Mana Cost: 5/Minute

“Uh, Pia? Where’s the fireball? Lightning bolt? Summon a skeleton? That kind of thing?”

‘What do you mean? You haven’t found a fire, shock, or death quintessence.’

“So find quintessences and modify spells?”

‘Of course, humans can’t make fire, can they?’

“Well, not without a lighter or something.”

‘Right, so your magic can’t make fire without the right magical blueprint for it.’

“Okay, well, I’m not a fighter, I don’t want to be trying to touch people with my hand or beating them with a stick. A two-second delay sounds like a nightmare to actually hit someone with, so Project it is.”

Margaret tapped Project and was presented with a confirmation screen. After accepting, her Magic Skills were updated.

Project (Rank 1) Rank 2: Improves Project skills additional damage by 25%.

‘Just a word of caution, you’ll only get one skill point per level, you might want to hold on to the other two for now.’

“...Level?”

Honor returned to find Margaret staring off into space while waving a finger in front of her face.

“Exalted emissary of the gods, are you communicating with your spirit?”

“Eep!” Margaret jumped at his voice and scrambled to her feet. Her face flushed red as she brushed her hair behind her ears. “I- yes. I was. And, please, just Margaret. I don’t think I can handle a title like that.”

Margaret gave one last glance at the stats screen in front of her before dismissing it.

Margaret Stevens Human (No class) Level 1 (0/100 Experience) Strength 6 Dexterity 11 Constitution 8 Intelligence 16 Health: 73% Stamina: 96/100 Mana: 100/100 Inventory: Plain White Shirt Plain Black Leggings Black Leather Belt Black Leather Shoes

“Of course... Margaret. I have brought all of those still loyal to the gods from the village.”

“Great!” Margaret glanced at the two other kobolds flanking Honor. “Where are the rest of them?”

Honor looked away before answering. “Regrettably, this is all that remains of the loyal. Most of the others simply follow the chief.”

“Oh, I see. Well, we’ll work with what we’ve got.” Margaret took a moment to examine her miniature army.

Honor had established a template in Margaret’s head for what a kobold was, and she assumed the other kobolds would mimic, but now she saw that there was a lot more variety to them than she would have thought. Honor had dusky red scales and a crest on his head that reminded her of a triceratops without the horns. His clothes were simple but finely crafted. He wore a red loincloth covered in a geometric pattern and hemmed with a band of gold that hung just past his knees. A tooled leather belt held the cloth up, as well as a variety of equipment in pouches and loops. His arms bore a number of simple bands of metal and leather.

One of the other kobolds wore similar clothing but carried a pair of very short swords instead of the fine spear that Honor held. This kobold’s scales were a misty grey, and instead of the triceratops crest, this one had a trio of short horns that sprouted from above his forehead and above each ear, curved to point almost straight back.

Margaret was hesitant to assume, but the third kobold seemed like a female of the species. This one had softer facial features and its head was covered in fine, long feathers that grew like a shoulder-length haircut that it kept out of its face with a wide headband. In addition to the loincloth, it wore a cloth wrapping around its chest, though there seemed no real reason to do so. Its scales were a gradient from a pale green to a dark blue at the edges, the color made it almost appear iridescent. The blue-green one also had significantly less muscle mass and could be described as lithe compared to the other two who seemed built more like rock climbers. A bow was slung over its shoulder and a quiver hung from its hip.

“Margaret, may I present Stalwart Defender of Truth and Adamant Seeker of Naps,” Honor motioned to his blue and grey companions in turn.

“Pleased to make your- did you say naps?”

The grey kobold let out a long-suffering sigh. “My mother is the village healer, and one of her duties is to assign names at our coming of age ceremony. We were... going through a bit of a rough patch just before my ceremony.”

Margaret giggled lightly, then gave Truth another once over out of the corner of her eye.

“Truth, I hate to ask this, but are you-”

“The most capable kobold here? Yes, obviously.”

“No, I mean, are you-”

“A crack shot with this bow? Put an arrow through a fly’s butt at twenty meters.”

“I-never mind.”

Truth chuckled. “I’m messing with you, Ms. Margaret. I am a beautiful example of the female kobold, and my faith that you would come is the only reason I’m associating with these... gentlemen.”

Naps rolled his eyes dramatically. “Whatever, Truth. You check out Honor every time you think he’s not looking.”

Instead of looking embarrassed, Truth just admitted to it with a shrug. “Hey, he’s pleasant to look at. If he wasn’t stuffier than your nose during sparkflower blooming season, a girl might actually want to hang around him.”

Margaret gave her tiny army an appraising look. While none of them were taller than about four and a half feet, she didn’t think she’d stand a chance against any one of them. Of course, she had no idea what they’d be facing in the village. For all she knew, it would be her three versus a hundred fully armored soldiers.

Pia spoke up in Margaret’s head. ‘Hey, before there’s any fighty-fighting, you should add these guys to your party.’

A window popped up asking Margaret if she’d like to add Honor, Truth, and Naps to her party. “Don’t they get a say in this?” she asked her assistant.

‘The system reads their intent, you’re good.’

Margaret tapped Accept, and she was treated to a new screen floating in the air. This one stuck to the top left of her field of vision and listed her three party members with their corresponding health, stamina, and mana.

Honor pulled back from where he’d been keeping watch around the edge of the massive tree trunk. “Margaret, I feel that now would be an opportune time to attack. With your blessing, we can plan our strike.”

Eyes squeezed shut, Margaret forced out the question she’d been dreading. “What are we up against, Honor?”

“The Heretics have left the totem under the guard of the chief. If we challenge him directly, it should be the four of us against only him.”

Before Margaret could release the breath she’d been holding, Honor continued.

“And his army of skeletons.”