The sand pushed back differently, making it harder to run on compared to the easy jog Zahn had been practicing for so many weeks. The endless slog each morning now became a contest, where he was the competitor and judge as he lived out the ongoing experiment. It took five seconds of running at top speed for the Skill to trigger, but when it did he found the twenty percent reduction feeling like a breath of fresh air mid-stride. After his Stamina bar drained, he’d bend in half against the wall to recover until his running mate caught him and forced the Custom to walk until his green bar refilled.

The first time Ethan caught his student collapsed on the ground, he pulled the Player to a sitting position against the nearest wall and let him catch his breath as he jogged in place nearby. The Warlock continued his annoyingly in-shape exercises as he waited for the lowbie to look up, “What’s goin’ on buddy?”

Zahn curled over his cramped midsection as the blond reached down to help him up. “Gotta. Try harder. Use my. Skills when runnin’.” Gasping and panting out his answer, he tried to keep up with the shuffle Ethan inflicted on him. “Gotta. Push myself. All the time, or it won’t build up.”

Ethan nodded along, forcing the lowbie to keep moving and straighten up to breathe. “Right, right. About time, really, I was telling you this over a month ago. But no, I don’t mean your sudden spontaneous work ethic, I’m talking about the shimmer you’ve got going on. Why is the air around you vibrating?”

Zahn gave him a grin with a half-turn, “Benefits of letting your demon beast ‘guide’ my meditation. I’m pushing out a bunch of high-rank mana to get my body used to the low stuff. Apparently it takes a while.”

“Right, right,” the ‘lock repeated. “So, you’re doing the basic stuff, sure. Why would that make you a walking mirage?”

The Custom rolled his eyes as he stretched his legs mid-stride. “If your pet’s measurement is right, I need to scale down from eleven to one before it’ll stick. Then up from one through tops as my body gets used to it. Try with Mana Sight, it’s gotta be the reason you’re seeing it at all.”

“No, the reason is you’re displacing air,” Ethan began snarkily as he closed his eyes to focus on the Ability. He dropped a hand on Zahn’s shoulder to keep pace while he was blind, and the moment it activated he could clearly see his student through closed lids. “Ye fucking gods! Are you a body or just a fuckin’ spirit shoved into one you daft overcharged bastard!”

“‘Ey!” Chimed in Gardor as they neared him mid-bicker. “Teammates are to build one another. He’s not daft, just simple. Speak proper.”

With his morning jaunt stretched from a plodding jog into bursts of sprinting, Zahn found his Endurance stat increasing annoyingly fast. Two days of the intensified training gave him two points and another point of Constitution to boot. He tried to figure out what part mattered most as he stumbled through his walks for recovery, settling on the act of draining and refilling his resource pool. Unwilling to perform the same exercise for his health pool, he asked his muscled Barbarian friends for their input and immediately found himself pulled into more of their training sessions.

With his days filled by physical training and nights spent under Meditation with the demon familiar, Zahn found the time before the next match rapidly draining away. He’d finally drained enough power to carry around a high tier-one concentration of mana in his body, and the constant rush of the mana moving around was intoxicating. Trying to keep the flow out of his Core broken down to its weakest concentration took effort from a muscle he didn’t know existed in his gut. Whenever he focused fully on a session of physical training or lost himself in trying to discover the next magical secret hidden within fire he found the imaginary muscle clench and felt his mana rise in thickness as it flowed. Trying to use higher-tier mana for the lowest tasks felt like pushing syrup through a straw but caused a nearly explosive reaction when the spell completed.

He tried explaining his observations about mana to his roommate and pet but found their responses less than encouraging. When he described the feeling of pushing around second-tier mana in a first-ranked body the blond flipped him off and described a handful of reasons he was a first-world twat complaining about too much convenience. Trying to explain the same to his Barbarian crew gave him varied reactions, even if the group had a similar consensus.

“What you say is interesting, little Zahn. It gives me insight to some things our clan Shaman would say to his students, and perhaps you carry further wisdom that can be applied. However,” Jadfbug turned a stern eye to his novice pupil, “while what you say may have merit, you have practice. Again!”

Drilling with the hulks after his daily fodder kills forced Zahn to struggle and keep with their high-endurance pace and built up his Strength and Constitution to nineteen as his Dexterity crept up to eighteen. With almost all of his Physical stats nearly twenty, he was excited to break into the third tier of melee and be a challenge to Ethan. During his celebration of progress he brought it up to Gardor, who smiled at him and asked a simple question.

“Sorry friend, you’re saying that only your Endurance is over twenty? The other four physicals are still in the ten-and set?”

“Well yeah,” Zahn shrugged his answer back as he sank into another stance the hulk was running him through. “Once they’re all in the twenties I should be able to run faster and hit harder and all that, right?”

Gardor fell silent as he stepped through the form, letting Zahn follow him for a minute. “Maybe we aren’t speaking the same tongue,” he finally ventured. “Second tier, that’s the twenty numbers correct? Of which you have only one?”

Zahn opened his mouth to answer and found his thought process drawn up to a sharp halt. He sank into the stance and shifted his weight, copying the Barbarian’s movements as he tried to connect the train of thought that had been running through his head. “Yes?”

“So, you lied to the Ringmaster. I half wish to know how you’d planned to follow through on that, and you don’t seem like the kind of person to rush into this kind of venture without a plan.” Zahn’s legs wobbled behind Gardor’s back as he tried to follow the large man’s steps. “Alas, temptation drives at us all. I shall not ask, little Zahn, though it burns within me to know. I am sorry to say you have spoken incorrectly, you only have one out of five physical to second Tier, so you are a high-first not a second. Truth be known,” he turned to face the struggling Player without bending his legs, making himself look like a half-owl of a man. “I do not know of a tribe that would allow a child outside until they have grown to the first Rank of all stats. Luck cannot be influenced of course, but every parent I have known has instructed their child until maturity. I shall reflect on what else you may need to know, not having a parent in your life.”

Zahn’s eyes jumped to the sky, he lingered on the storm clouds gathering over the rim of the upper wall. His legs finally gave in, dropping him to a knee as he tried to regain his breath. “Thank you for the offer my friend, I have no idea what your parents would have taught you. And, what the fuck is that form?”

He heard the other man’s laugh, “It is part of the Lower Steppes, our first combat form. One of the many things my father passed on to me before he passed, something he used to defend our paths from the encroachers and mighty Beasts. And,” he chuckled again pulling Zahn’s eyes from the sky, “it is also something I learned in my tent before I could even play with the other children. Come, set your stance again. Eight steps, to each side and back before the charge again. Foot placement is vital. Come, stand Zahn and perhaps you shall attain this before the rains.”

Following the huge man’s training did allow Zahn to unlock the first level of their Hung Gar fighting style which emphasized steady blows and sturdy stances. He still couldn’t perform the attack combination perfectly without Charge unlocked, but with his updated Grimoire he could clearly see it simply needed second Rank physical stats to use. Undaunted by his apparent failures and the constant encouragement from his teacher, he bowed thanks and fled back to his shared commons before the rain could fall.

Outside the doors Ethan stood with weights in hands, pumping his arms as he watched the coming storm. “Have a good time?” He called out as the other Player neared, drawing Zahn to a halt. “Hold up, you want to see this. It hasn’t rained hard here in awhile, the spring’s been pretty dry. Nasty side-effect of living in the Fire Belt, but whatcha gonna do?”

“Fire Belt?” Zahn looked up at the gathering darkness, watching for lightning. “Not a term I’m familiar with. Is it part of the Burning Woods?”

“Sort of. It’s a line that goes about straight West from here, but curves to the North instead of straight East. Skims the Northern edge of our little plateau, makes it unnaturally warm here. It’s why that Elf city can just be relaxing on a lake this far North, not sure what you remember from geography but picture northern Canada. Mages told me it’s following a magical Ley Line, I just know there’s no Dungeon based on Fire anywhere nearby so it’s really not our problem.”

Staring at the clouds, Zahn muttered his answer without thinking. “Maybe not. The Hellhounds that got me came from somewhere, stands to reason there’d be a Dungeon out in the Burning Woods.”

Ethan dropped his weights, the sudden noise making Zahn jump and stare at him. “Not good. Not fucking good mate.” The blond bent to scoop the irons, shaking his head as he spoke. “Of all the things to keep to yourself. That means there’s Monsters actively leaving a Dungeon and breeding out in the wild, dude. We call that a Dungeon Break, and if it keeps up there’ll be more than critical mass inside and they’ll start pouring out in waves. That kind of shit usually needs to be walled in and purged, with whole armies and entire raids of adventurers and even commissioned Players to willingly run suicide missions. And you’re just telling me about it now?”

Shrugging, Zahn turned back to the storm. “Not really relevant, is it? We’re way up here, the woods are forever that way. Even if I were to give the fodder hunters the location on a map, they’d just know to stay away from it. I couldn’t help my village if I wanted to, and it’s the closest settlement.”

Ethan slapped his shoulder, jostling him. “Don’t be so fatalistic. Might be that hounds are the first things out, or the village gets actual help from someone useful.” Zahn glared at him but didn’t speak before going back to eyefucking the sky. “You should sell the info, maybe to Two. He could barter with the Ringmaster for favorable someshit then drop it’s from you, who knows. Will you stop fucking staring up there? What is wrong with you?”

“Just remembering something. We’re so close to them, they’re practically in reach.”

“Well, yeah.” The Warlock stepped around him to peer up at the looming darkness. “The north edge is higher than the south, you can’t even survive a jump from this side to the bottom. I’m not sure about the elevation, but we’re talking mountain height for sure. The whole lake is, makes taking the Sea Gate a huge pain for pressure balancing.”

“My father used to tell me a story, one his dad told him.” Zahn couldn’t pull his eyes from the clouds as they seemed to sink closer, as if filling the sky wasn’t enough for them. “His grandfather told him, and he was there. Generations ago, during the invasion. He saw them, coming over the sea like a storm as they came for us.”

Ethan carefully stepped back from the Custom as he fell into a sort of trance, narrating something from his home world. The ‘lock didn’t want to get caught up in anything Psychic coming out of the man’s face when he was completely coherent, and he suspected the current story would be as disturbing as the other unburied secrets so far. He’d managed to tiptoe halfway to the doors before he spoke again, and from the vibration creeping up his back the idiot was pushing mana into his voice again.

“We had planes, helios, tanks. Standing armies, militias, we were proud and strong. But then they came, and they came like a storm. Our mighty planes could do nothing, making a single pass against the masses in the skies before being shot down and burning on the sea. Our helios did worse, each time they paused to hover the great mounted cannons would blast them from the air. Each time one of their ships missed, the shell destroyed something else of ours and they lost nothing for it. Our tanks could take them, but they were limited by their mounting and burned on the very ground they died defending. The Iron Clouds were unstoppable, the massive fleet took the entire Seaboard in a single day. When a Cloud landed it would pour out Reichers like a disease, festering blood pouring out an open wound to infect us all. My great-great grandfather watched as a boy, and hid in a cellar from the invaders. My grandfather passed on the story, but died before I could know him. My father died to the same men, trying to live in peace. There is no peace from a storm.”

The clouds broke, rain pouring down to strike the sands with a vengeance. Each drop landing scattered sand around, covering the hapless dirt mound as it wandered around in mud and rapidly filling pools all around the rings.

“Come inside! It’s just starting!” Ethan shouted from the doorway, hearing the volume rise higher and hoping the idiot would hear him before getting soaked. “Let’s go!”

Zahn turned away from the skies, panting for air as he tried to see through the rain. He stumbled in the general direction of their commons, blind in the heavy downpour and shouting in the general direction, “I probably should have gone inside!”

The storm reigned supreme for two days, leaving the Players to their own devices as the final few days before the next Match approached. The first night of the rain Zahn spent time explaining the meditation process he’d learned with the imp, and Ethan agreed that the little beast wasn’t allowed to eat more than a certain threshold of energy above its current amount. Keeping the little thing from taking in too much power at once was excused behind reasons such as the mana conversion rate inside its body being low and gorging on energy foreign to itself could cause its body to distort. Eventually the demon’s vanity and ongoing sculpting project were enough to elicit a promise about how much mana it would eat from Zahn per meditation session, and left Zahn questioning if he’d even won anything in the hour-long debate.

Spending his nights meditating instead of sleeping kept his nightmares at bay, and spending each morning refreshed instead of grumbling curses at invisible laughter helped him focus and dive into projects immediately. They couldn’t run in the weather, and the little commons room barely offered Zahn enough space to practice his new first form. They spent some time arranging the couches differently until he had his room to pace and left Ethan sitting on a stack of cushions practicing his own Meditation via imp.

By noon both Players were bored with their chosen tasks and talked about options over lunch. The sands were flat out during the rainstorm, and the one time Zahn opened the doors to check outside he found a small lake at the door ready to pour into the sunken room. The rain wasn’t showing signs of stopping, leaving the two settling into telling stories and playing games that didn’t need cards.

Trying to craft wafer-thin playing cards showed Zahn just how little control he actually had over Shape, but he wasn’t sure how to refine his ability. When he’d crafted half a dozen cards each as thick as a finger he brought the stack over for advice and got mockery from the blond along with assistance from his pet. Casting the spell repeatedly was all that would help him mold and refine shapes into his exact mental picture, and with a sigh he set about trying to re-make the pile.

Casting Sever on the sides let him split the little card cleanly down the middle into two thinner copies, but if he pushed too much power into the spell it would either slice a thick divot out the middle or punch all the way through to scar the wall and floor. Zahn lost his afternoon casting and recasting Shape and Sever and Seal let him repair the room and make new cards as he broke the ones he’d started with. By the time Ethan interrupted him with dinner, the Custom had made more than a dozen mock playing cards that stacked only twice as high as a real deck.

The magical crafting had consumed him, with his eyes showing the process as he tried to refine it. Filling the small stone slab with mana let the stone glow blue, but whenever the energy found dregs of green Earth mana from previous spells it would take the color in and spread. Converting normal mana into a type inside of another object fascinated him, and had the lowbie casting Sever partly through a card just to inject more green mana into the swirling colors of blue and teal. With his experiments, he’d even learned about what he understood to be similar to breeding among the rocks and their energies. Finding a segment rich in green he’d cut it off as a corner and slowly fed it more, letting the entire triangle become verdant before affixing it to a solid card filled with blue and watching the color change grow. The darker green he let the broken piece become the faster it would change the raw mana into its type, so long as the concentrations were comparable or thicker on the Earth side. Slurping at soup and considering his project, Zahn almost missed the opening notes of their conversation.

“So, are you ready for Bunato’s crew? They have you the day before the match.”

Losing his spoon in the meal, Zahn cursed and scrambled for it before answering. “Haven’t really thought about it. But, I’ve done a lot with my skills this month and I’m almost level seven. So I can punch up to anything level sixteen with some penalties, and maybe pop off an Investiture-boosted fire spell to anyone higher than that. I mean, they can’t be leveling that fast anymore right?”

Iengoris choked on its burnt scraps off the coals when the lowbie casually mentioned Investiture, but Ethan patted its back as if the thing were merely a foolish pet. “Well, I wouldn’t count on that. Remember, there’s two of the strongest fetching new fodder and they bring a team from a few of the more dedicated groups. They bring back a lot of stuff, with your requests of no-rank mobs they’re bound to pick up a bunch of single-ranks as well. And if the brats work as a team, they could feasibly take down something in the second rank, which would pay off a lot at their levels. I wouldn’t count on them being inside your ‘punch-up’ range for much longer.”

Zahn considered the news and silently berated himself for nothing thinking that far ahead. Of course they’ll be leveling, and they’ll work as a whole party. Well, party plus one and no healer, but still. Even if they just split roles between tanks and damage while training, they could easily kite something around and take it down with minimal casualties. The train of thought made him sit up and give Ethan his full attention. “They’re going to come at me together.”

The Warlock gave him a look over his soup before taking another slurp. “Because you showed up, everyone’s been given Fire-type beasts to fight. Everyone’s been learning how they fight, and how to take them down without getting burned. Everyone. I’ll admit, your fire-hand trick to straight fucking grab whatever the animal is doing is downright inspired. You’re a regular caveman, and no critter below level twelve should dare wrestle you in the woods.” His tone dragged from serious to sarcastic and had the other Player chuckling by the end of his tirade. “Seriously, you can’t just count on burns all the time for more damage.”

“It’s not just the damage, if I can inflict a Burn on them, it’s like opening a wound.” Zahn charged up his breath and spat a wad into his hand, feeling the difference in the lower tier of mana take longer but tasted cleaner. Holding the burning wad between them, Zahn studied the flame as he fed it power through his palm. “All I need is the opening. Then it’ll work, and I’ll win this shit. Once something gets that debuff, they remember what every living thing knows deep down inside.” Popping the burning bit off his hand, he held the charge balanced on the tip of his finger and fed it even more mana, watching the blue pushed inside convert to red before merging with the shape. “Everything burns.”

“I like this guy.” The little demon’s grating voice snapped him out of his trance, nearly making him drop the spell. “He’s completely fuckin’ nuts. Reminds me of Jerry, back on your Earth. Remember, you told me about how he almost burned down your office?”

Ethan pushed his minion off his perch and leaned in, as if denial and mute were the same thing. “I kinda miss when he couldn’t talk. Vague psychic impressions and grunts, those were the days.”

“Only because you were told how I should be behaving, so that’s what you believed. Once this guy read you the shit outta his book you flipped your idiot switch to ‘useful’ for the first time.”

Ignoring the heated debate, Zahn extinguished the spell and bent to finish his food. “I’m almost done with the pushing out mana practice anyways, so once my body gets used to the low stuff I can up it and start getting stronger faster. Lowering the ranks is no picnic, I’ll tell you what.”

Ethan cocked his head to the side, listening to his roommate’s complaints. “Sorry, are you talking about Mana Infusion? When you push mana in your body and hold it, making it able to withstand the stronger ranks of magic? Like, to let your body use any magic at all?”

Zahn blinked slowly, his gaze turning from Warlock to demon as he answered. “Yes.”

The other Player joined him, training a furrowed brow on his minion. “The process that takes a magic pressure chamber of specifically contained and processed ranked mana. The one that is done to all magic initiates when they are accepted to the colleges. The mandatory process for all magical casters, done by the equivalent of fucking doctors? What the hell Iengoris?”

Zahn continued the other man’s rant. “Yeah! What the hell dude? You know you have to want to teach me the skills and you flat haven’t! You’ve been holding back on me you fuckin’ runt! Do you have any idea how hard it is to constantly force this stuff down? And it’s still not the right stupid weakness!”

Ethan paused and tried to correct course, even as his demon’s eyes lit up. “No, no. No Zahn, that’s not it. This isn’t something-”

The imp jumped between them, landing with a paw extended in the Custom’s face. “Ah, you have my sincerest apologies dear Zahn. Indeed, I did not intentionally teach you the Ability and that was my mistake.” Its annoying voice practically purred as it spoke, both of them ignoring Ethan’s growing complaints in the background. “Of course I will do my best to pass it on. You have my word.” Its little paw dangled between them and bobbed even as the lowbie squinted with distrust at its owner.

Finally, disregarding the Warlock’s ongoing rant about never making a deal with a demon, Zahn grabbed the little hand and shook, feeling a dash of cold as the thing leeched energy from even his grip. The moment shook him, as if he’d plunged just the inside of his arm into icy cold water. The sensation reminded him of Orinoth’s invasion so strongly he dropped his hold on mana and pushed the other direction instead.

Gripping the little imp’s paw firmly, Zahn stood from his seat and looked down on the beast. “I expect you to give your best. Efforts. And teach me everything I need to know, little demon. I’m the only reason you’re even here, and nothing would stop me from sending you back.”

Iengoris’ mouth opened wide in a toothy smile, displaying well over a hundred tiny triangular teeth just behind its scaly lips. “But of course,” it groaned as the offered limp shuddered and twisted in an escape attempt. “I would never, try, ah. Look.” The demon abruptly stopped struggling and let him squeeze its hand without fighting back. “This is just a vessel, my dear Custom. Even if you completely destroy it, I’ll just wake up in Chaos. You can’t actually hurt me, so just take the deal and let’s get on with your training.”

Zahn growled, his temper flaring at the little thing not taking his threat seriously even as he felt the heat burning in his chest as higher-ranked mana returned. “And when I break you into shreds, I’ll break the stupid spellform and nothing will summon your miserable ass back here. Enjoy chilling in Chaos with your friends forever, you runty shit.” Pushing magic down his arm wasn’t the same as flexing it, but it felt good to put some hurt on the offending demon’s hand as he forced dense power down his bones and into the little thing’s paw. “Don’t fucking forget who brought you here.”

Iengoris grinned wider, panting and slightly drooling as the mana given purpose began to singe its scales. The mana that fed the demon when willingly given instead invaded, crawling up the beast’s arm on the inside like some horrid evil worm. The demon wriggled again, gasping and trying to pull free before trying to pull its arm off at the shoulder and going limp. It tilted its head back and opened wide, the vaguely triangular mouth opening completely up into a sharp diamond of tiny teeth and bright red mouth. Its head looked almost like it had been folded inside-out, and the demon held its pose long enough for both Players to share a concerned glance before it snapped back together with a clash and looked at Zahn again with intelligence in its eyes.

“Deal.”