Being a high Level agent with a good standing meant that the Bureau and the Office were not prepared to lose an important asset.

Reviving fallen was possible on Arkadia, but the cost was heavy for the one doing the casting and for the revived person both. On one side was an investment of expensive components for the spell, on the other side losing Levels – for the ritual the Elves practiced it was fifteen Levels. Allegedly there were rituals with less or more lost Levels, but fifteen was the number the Elves had to work with.

And so Foxy Delahaye was revived.

Not that she was overly grateful for it.

Around sixteen years of working, training and levelling went out of the window. A few thousand Skill Point gone in an instance – for her at least, the ritual took a few days to complete – her balanced Skills messed up into a chaotic pile. [Herbology], that she haven’t raised for a long time, because it was mostly useless for her, stayed on 160%, but the more important [Acting] went down from 243% to a mere 90%. [Investigation] from almost 300% to 150%, [Interrogation] from 207% to 80%. And so forth.

From a highly skilled solo agent she was back to a mere trainee, no, actually an apprentice. Skill-wise, at least, officially she was still regarded as a solo agent.

But, with so low Skills, how could she do field work on her own?

She was promised further training and a longer break to get her bearings in order again. The Academy decided that although she acted within her rights of an Internal Insurances agent, and the vice-chancellor was indeed filth, she was asked not to enlist ever again. Her title as an adept was not revoked, but in the roster she was considered being on “extended research leave”. She actually didn’t care that much, if she needed academic challenges, there were still two universities in the Domain, although of lesser standing.

Since she didn’t drink, a lot of academic challenges were wasted on her anyways.

The next few month she spent with getting used to her lower Skills, less Mana and less Chi. Most problematic was her magic. Previously, her fighting style depended in parts on [Magic: Floramancy]: bind her enemy with roots, use the greenery as early warning system, let the botany hide her. With only 60% instead of almost 200% in the Skill, two thirds of her Spells fizzled. She had to retrain herself to not only use silent verbal short-form, but the normal loud full chanting, gestures and material components too.

Again.

She was over that phase ten Levels ago, or so.

If the Skill was high enough, one could do with only silent verbal short-form, but it was much, much harder.

Even so, around half of her spells fizzled.

Her training regime was cut short, however. The Oracle from Dragon’s Womb, who worked with the Little Sisters, sent an alert that a new Traveller arrived to the East, right at the borders of the Domain. With no other solo agents available for immediate deployment, Foxy was asked to take on the mission. She was an experienced agent after all, although of ridiculously low Level.

Packing up her gear was fast, she had enough experience with immediate deployments in the last decade and a half, but even making haste, reaching the borderlands took more than two weeks. Finding a person in more than twenty thousand square kilometres – that was the closest the Oracle could manage – looked impossible on first glance, but Foxy had two things working for her. First, her experience of a long time in spotting Travellers and filth.

And secondly, a magical compass.

It wasn’t the most precise when searching for an unknown person, but at least it gave the rough direction. More or less. If the person she was searching for was not farther away than a hundred kilometres or nearer than about a dozen. Because of the weakness of the compass, a searching plan was implemented a long time ago: head to the center of the indicated region and proceed in a spiral outward till the compass gave a return. Head into the indicated directing, and as soon as the minimal distance was reached, try to triangulate the narrower area. Enter the area and use your training to find the right person.

As it turned out, the new Traveller arrived on Arkadia near the very limit of the region around where her search patter led Foxy the latest. It took her almost two weeks to get a rough fix and she still needed to double back. Following the compass for a few days, she realised that her mark was on the move, luckily in her direction. Broadly speaking.

Not far away from the Domain’s border, she lost the return from the compass, meaning, she was near. With the territory of a Red Clan to her left (if the Traveller entered there, Foxy’s job was done), she continued to the right – or West – to complete the next phase of the search pattern.

Having lost Skill Points in a few crucial Skill, she was only saved from blindly wandering into a Dire Bear by her high Perception and Good Nose – and even so it was a close call. She had only time enough to throw her packs on the ground and instantly she had to defend herself. Her Sleep spell was mostly resisted by the Bear, only slowing it down a bit, but that was enough for Foxy to at least survive.

Victory was, however not in the cards, she knew. It took all her Skill in [Acrobatics] to avoid the bear – everyone knew, [Acrobatics] was actually better than [Evade], [Parry] or [Block], since it didn’t have such a narrow focus and was useable outside of combat too. It was so obvious, you didn’t need to read a Rulebook! The floramantic spells she managed to cast did nothing to reign in her opponent.

She was saved by a Monkey, of all things. He burst out of the bushes and started to hack away at the bear with wild abandon. He was a quite good fighter, Foxy estimated him to be around Level 4 or 5, maybe even Level 6, but she couldn’t spare the time to observe him more closely. In short order he blinded one of the bear’s eyes, but was hit himself by a strong swipe.

So much for the help, Foxy thought. Even a Level 6 would probably not survive such a hit.

However, she was surprised, as the Monkey… no, she decided to call him Human, staggered back into the clearing. He must have survived by the hair of his teeth and have drunk a potion already.

“I need some potions to continue!” He shouted in Bergian. Probably some adventurer or mercenary, then.

Fortunately Foxy had quite a collection of potions, it was part of her field kit, supplied by the Office. The better ones she kept in her office-issued Bag of Holding (but she was not prepared to flaunt it to a stranger), so she directed the Human to her bags, left in the bushes.

A short time later the Human was back in the fight, and kept pummelling the bear’s head. It was a strange way to fight, concentrating only on the most protected part of the bear, while disregarding obvious openings for other parts. Strange it was, but not unheard of. She knew of a few individuals who always went for the head, hoping for a deliberating Critical Hit, but if the Perks were not there to bolster that kind of fighting, it was not worth the effort.

The Human and the Bear started to rotate around each other, while Foxy frantically tried to cast Spell after Spell. Most fizzled. It was despairing. Less than a year ago she would have defeated the bear without much problem on her own – she could name around a dozen ways to do it – and now she needed the help of a Human to even survive!

She checked the bear to know how far victory still was.

“Fifty more HP!” she exclaimed. It was starting to look good – fifty HP she probably could deal on her own, and with the Human warrior to occupy the bear, it was almost easy.

The Human went flying again. And came back! What tenacity!

Finally, they were able to kill the beast.

Foxy finally had the time to check her saviour. The young Human wore a good set of leather armour – probably this is why he survived – and rich clothes. Both were of an unfamiliar style, definitely not Elven or Bergian. Probably not Garulian or Halitchian either. Maybe Forestian, they had so many styles and traditions. Strange nevertheless. She observed the Human to get a feel for his Stats and Level. She was immediately surprised: the Human was only Level 3, with quite an interesting spread of Stats!

An unnatural spread to say the least.

As an agent for the Office, she had the right and the means to check other people’s Character Parchment, as long it was done inside the Domain, or she suspected a Traveller. Well, they were inside the Domain, and Foxy did have a suspicion.

Taking a look, she was almost certain, she met her mark. Very high fighting Skills for the Level, with a good selection of Perks, a few good utility Skill ([Speech: Bergian] and [Etiquette: Bergian] included), but an utter disregard for Skill probably everyone on Arkadia had in the range of 60-100%. Maybe he just grown up sheltered – or in a cave – but that was still a flag raised in her experience. He definitely wasn’t an Utter Moron, and with those Skill no Crafter either. For a Hero he missed the overpowered “Cheat Powers” and the other Perks most Heroes had. And looked too intelligent.

“Ma’am, my name is Ferenc Hegyesi, but everyone calls me Prof. Who you may be?” At least he was polite, so definitely not an Utter Moron. The name sounded a bit like a Bergian one, but combined with his strange clothing that meant nothing.

It was time to start the investigation in earnest.