25

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 exhaled 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. Thankfully, it seemed Kat hadn’t noticed all the money appearing out of nowhere. Rian’s inventory automatically opened, and the gold coins suddenly merged, forming a glass cube. Inside it was another cube, gently revolving, splintering the sunlight like a prism.

Tesseract (Colorless)

“A condensed form of temporal energy, equivalent to 100 gold.”

“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 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 Rian 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 with that nullshard staff, Rian was grateful.

Rian faintly wondered how he was able to wield a weapon made out of a nullshard. But a more pressing thought arose: he hoped Corvis’s change in behavior wasn’t just because of the System. 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? Or was it just reflecting his natural will? It was a harrowing thought, but Rian would have to question him 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, realizing he was about to step outside the safe zone. He looked out over the empty plot of land: what he assumed would be their sparring area.

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 alongside 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 Y-Locator item being transferred, but he could deal with that when the time came.

“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 town’s 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 planted more of them into the rough earth between the grass and where Elmguard began.

Ward

Grade: B (Rare)

“A device that generates a field extending to the nearest ward of the same ownership. When the field is entered by any being or creature with malicious intent, the owner is notified.”

The ward could differentiate between players who were just traveling and those who were seeking to kill, somehow, which was a bit mind-boggling. It was good to see that Kat was setting up a perimeter for them, though.

“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. Getting ganked meant having to relocate to a safer, more discrete area to train.

Rian doubted he’d provide much of a challenge for her. If she managed to hit the qualification cutoff 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 found 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. The necessary sacrifices we’ll have to make to fulfill Yindra’s wishes. But I am obligated 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?”

“The systems entwined with the nature of Miriad are but surfacing representations of its underlying reality.”

“Uh…what.”

Rian wasn’t entirely sure, 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, reprogram Corvis’s behavior through any action of his own. The System sounded like it was parallel to the world rather than the world itself, if that made sense.

Kat set down the final ward and returned to where Rian was standing. “All right,” she said cheerfully. “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) (Top 13%)

(2-0)

“INT?” Rian said. “You 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.”

It made sense from a role-playing perspective. Mages might’ve used their massive Intelligence to read ancient tombs and cast world-ending 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 many 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 kinda crazy.”

“It really is. And regardless of what kind of instancer is used, for any 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 level.

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 +25%.

Shadow Walk (Level 2)

68 MP

Cooldown: 60 seconds

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%; timer 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 a consumable Smoke Bomb item that, when thrown, produces a cloud with a radius of 5 meters for 10 seconds.

About what he expected. Thieves seemed exceptionally strong at this level—not for the class skills themselves, but for their ability to distract opponents and land Critical Back-Attacks. It was certainly a bit more complex than his class, for now. All he did was move fast and punch things.

“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 XP reward?”

She shook her head. “You get XP 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.

But if this world is real, he thought, is it really an AI?

If the System existed in a way that was adjacent to everything, like how Corvis had suggested…then maybe it was true: the System wasn’t native to Miriad. Rather than generating the world, the AI had infested it.

He shook his head. It didn’t feel like he had the whole picture yet. He needed to keep his head in the game for now.

For him to gain EXP against Kat, he’d have to outplay her. And for her to level as well, he’d have to put up a fight instead of getting 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, let alone defeat her in combat. She was entire leagues above him.

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

Kat opened her inventory window. She gestured for Visha, who came running up and leaped in. Kat closed the inventory, turned to face Rian, and 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 with a shimmering heat haze. The instantiation effect faded, and Elmguard in the distance went silent.

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