I stepped back from the wall and wiped my face. I pulled a waterskin from my pack and cleaned up, swishing some of the water in my mouth before spitting, then I turned to see how everyone else was doing. They seemed to have broken out of whatever shock they’d experienced from the deaths of their copies and were in the midst of cleaning themselves up, and regrouping. Tristus was the only one who hadn’t moved. I walked over to him, and saw that he was still gripping the dagger I’d given him tightly in his hand. While the shock the adventurers in the party had experienced seemed to have been a side effect of the magic of the mirror, Tristus seemed to be affected beyond that. I sat down next to him, making no sudden moves, and making sure he was aware I was there.

“First time?” I asked, gently.

He nodded.

“First time killing someone and it’s a copy of yourself. That’s just… ridiculous.”

He nodded again.

“Could you do me a favor?”

He moved his eyes to meet mine.

I reached into my pack and pulled out a whetstone. “Could you sharpen that dagger up for me a little bit?”

He looked confused, so I moved closer and put the whetstone in his hand, then walked him through the motions of how to sharpen the dagger. I myself had learned from Zev, so the knowledge of how I’d been taught was still fresh in my mind. After a few moments, he was doing it himself and I left him to check on the rest of the group.

Tib and Nica were already standing together talking, so I made my way over to Millicent first. She seemed tired, and was sitting on the ground panting. I handed her my waterskin, which she accepted and took a long drink from.

“I really underestimated my own skill,” she said, wiping a trickle of water from her chin.

“I don’t know, it seemed to me like you and your copy were mostly just standing there making eyes at one another.”

She smirked. “I suppose complex counterspells and the manipulation of mana, which I just learned about this morning, may look like ‘making eyes’ at someone to a novice such as yourself.”

I shrugged. “I dunno, seems like a whole lot of work considering I beat her by throwing a spear.”

“Only because I stopped her from creating a shield of rock as you threw it.”

“I saw no evidence of that.”

“Exactly.”

I smiled, she seemed in much better spirits than Tristus, which made sense given she’d had more than a little experience with combat and death. “Oh, I unlocked a new ability in the middle of combat that you may be able to access.”

She raised her eyebrow and her smirk became a full smile. “Go on.”

I explained to her the Use Regents ability I’d received, and I watched as her eyes briefly went blank, as she looked through her system, then her smile widened. “Got it! Oh, that’s going to be very useful in the future. And figuring out what regents go with any new spells I unlock will be an extra fun bit of research.”

“I may have to lean on you a bit when it comes to that.”

“May have to? You know as much about magical theory as I do swordsmanship.”

“I believe I just told you about an ability I was able to unlock in the midst of combat.”

“I’d’ve figured it out eventually. You’re just such a weirdo that it came to you in the middle of a fight.”

“True.”

Millicent pushed herself back onto her feet. “I’m going to see if those mirror shards still have any hint of magic about them.”

With her back up and into the swing I moved on to Patience, who was leaning against a wall, cleaning a cut on her thigh.

“Need some help with that?” I offered.

She looked up at me and smirked. “Any excuse huh?”

I nodded. “Absolutely.”

She handed me the bottle of alcohol and cloth, and I began gently cleaning each of the cuts she received from her copy’s daggers.

“You must be disappointed,” she said, as I cleaned a cut on her inner forearm.

“With what?” I asked, as I moved onto a cut on her shoulder.

She tilted her head back to look at me. “With being down to just one of me. I’m sure your mind was full of all kinds of ideas when you saw my copy.”

I smiled. “Oh, certainly. Mostly ideas about how to kill you, but I’d be lying if there wasn’t a split second of thought spent on the alternatives.”

She moved to kiss me, and I placed a finger on her lips to stop her.

“You may not be so interested in doing that so soon after I lost my breakfast on the wall back there.”

She chuckled and kissed me on the cheek instead, taking a moment to adjust a lock of hair out of my face. “You really know how to lay on the charm.”

I shrugged. “It’s a gift.”

I went to walk over to check on Tib and Nica who were standing next to Tristus and speaking with him. Patience went to check in with Millicent who was examining mirror shards closely. As I approached, Tristus stood and handed me my dagger and whetstone.

“You can keep them. I don’t want you to be completely unarmed.”

He shook his head. “I have a dagger I just… kept it in my pack rather than at my waist. Didn’t think I’d actually need one.”

I nodded, and took my dagger back, sliding it into its sheath. “Are you feeling any better?”

He nodded, hesitantly. “Between you and Tiberius, yes. I think I’ll be fine.”

I turned my attention to Tib and Nica. “Are you two okay?”

Tib nodded. “Yeah, just bruised. My duplicate used our new combat powers a bit more capably than I was able to. Guess he gained some insight in the middle of the fight that I didn’t”

I nodded. “That’s how I beat mine actually. Gained an ability in the midst of the battle that gave me an edge.”

“You didn’t seem to have much trouble with me.”

I nodded. “I uh, know you like to fight fair. It was a bad match for him.”

He nodded and stroked his chin. “I’ll have to think on that.”

I turned my attention to Nica. “How about you? Any worse for wear?”

She shook her head.

“Good.”

“Your copy didn’t attack with the others,” she noted.

I nodded. “I noticed that. I’m not sure why. The others also didn’t attack until they heard that command to fight. Made it… harder to stomach fighting them.”

She nodded, and I saw a quick concerned glance at Tib that she quickly corrected.

After I was sure everyone was alright, I checked my notifications.

Congratulations! You’ve slain your friends! (lvls 8-9)! You gain 2400 xp!

I blinked and checked the notification again.

Congratulations! You’ve slain Mirror Clones! (lvls 8-9)! You gain 2400 xp!

That was better, though the initial misread didn’t exactly bode well for my mental health.

Congratulations! You’ve reached level 9! You receive 2 stat points

Congratulations! You’ve increased the skill Feint!

Congratulations! You’ve increased the skill Spears!

I distributed the points and pulled up my sheet.

Cormac

Half-Elf

->Lvl 9 Mercenary

->XP: 22120

->HP: 131

->MP: 85

Stats:

STR: 14

->DEX: 19

->SPD: 19

INT: 14

WIS: 10

PER: 13

CON: 12

LCK: 8

Known Skills:

Sword (LVL 12)

Club (LVL 6)

Mace (LVL 5)

Axe (LVL 5)

->Spear (Lvl 9)

Hammer (LVL 5)

Bow (LVL 5)

Dagger (LVL 14)

Improvised Weapon (LVL 8)

Barehanded (LVL 15)

Stealth (LVL 7)

->Feint (LVL 10)

Trapfinding (LVL 4)

Negotiation (LVL 2)

Trapping (LVL 2)

Acrobatics (LVL 7)

Abilities (Racial):

Half Borne of Magic

Abilities (Class):

Anything in a Pinch

For the Right Price

A Job is a Job

Abilities (Unique):

Left Hand Free

Borne of Two Worlds

Reduce Magic

->Use Regents

Spells:

Flash Step 15 mp

Grease 15 mp

Spark >1 mp

Stone Toss 20 mp

Fireball 120 mp

Invisible Steps 15 mp

I was another step closer to level ten and my first class change. I was feeling both confident and sure of myself in ways I’d never experienced on Earth. I was certain that a good portion of that was due to whatever internal changes had occurred when I became a half-elf, but the other element of it was that I had good reason to be sure of myself. I’d made some mistakes since coming to Tu’reyne, but I’d also had more successes than ever before. I’d taken risks, made friends, defeated enemies, and overall had a fun time doing it. Couldn’t really say that about my time back on Earth.

Once everyone was suitably recovered, we gathered together and started back on the wide path we were standing in. I felt in my bones that we were close to the exit, I could only hope that Zevrack would be there waiting for us.