"You're sure everything's fine?" Misa asked again, and Max scowled at her.

"Yes," Max emphasized. "You're putting this off. I'll tell you about what happened later."

She was, technically. Misa stood in the field across from Max, far enough away that it would take a good few seconds of running for either of them to strike the other, though Max likely had significantly more speed. It wasn't that she was nervous about sparring — she enjoyed it.

The problem was more that Misa didn't know what her new skill would do about it, and she wasn't sure she wanted to find out.

She'd been reassured as much as possible, though. [Right Place, Right Time] wouldn't have brought Max here at all if the ensuing spar had a disastrous outcome. Her own mother's [Intuition of Truth] spoke nothing of anything bad happening.

"We were worried about you," Misa grumbled, still stalling slightly, and Max laughed.

"Are you ready yet?" she said in lieu of a response. Max bounced on her feet, and Misa sighed, lowering herself into a [Guard Stance].

She didn't need to guard. But she was more comfortable with it; this was how she fought. Standing still and letting Max punch her in the face felt odd.

"Fine," Misa said, and no sooner had she said it than Max flashed forward, as if unwilling to let her change her mind again. Her fist drew back, a strange purple gathering around it, likely the application of some kind of skill —

Misa realized with a start that she could react to the attack, if she wanted.

She hadn't gained that many levels from the fight against the — whether that had something to do with the reality anchor, or if the fight simply hadn't counted for whatever reason, she wasn't sure. But whatever few levels she'd gained and the points she'd put into dexterity still seemed to matter. She wouldn't have imagined being able to match up against a Platinum ranker at any stage, and yet...

This was an attack she could dodge.

Technically, the point of this exercise was to see what would happen when Misa took damage — to make sure that the skill wouldn't simply distribute the damage to her entire village, or if it did, then to see how that could be best mitigated. But Misa couldn't help herself. She saw a punch she could dodge. She liked sparring.

She dodged.

Not by a lot. Her perception being faster didn't mean her body could move to match, and the two things didn't seem to scale evenly. But moving even a little was enough for the punch to ghost past her nose, the flickers of purple flame brushing past her instead of blazing into her. She saw Max's eyes narrow slightly with surprise, and then a delighted grin crossed the [Adventuring Clerk]'s expression; she twisted on the spot, instantaneously converting all her forward momentum into a twisting momentum as she brought the back of her heel up and towards Misa's head—

This time Misa didn't dodge at all. She brought her arm up in a block, feeling the magic of [Guard Stance] guiding her movements. It wouldn't deny the damage entirely, but it would mitigate the damage. The purple flame, whatever it was, still charred her forearms black and the force of the blow knocked her back several feet; as soon as it appeared, the charring was gone, restored by the effect of health.

Misa paused and glanced at her parents. "Anything?" she called out.

"Hold on!" Charise shouted back, and Max grinned at her, still bouncing in place.

"Nice moves," the clerk said.

Misa snorted. "I dodged one and blocked the other," she said. "Could've done a better job with the block. Didn't need to let myself get pushed back."

"Well, sure, but they were still nice moves." Max grinned at her, and Misa smirked back.

"If you say so."

"How much damage were you expecting to do with that attack?" Orkas frowned as he approached, glancing through the air; looking through the messages and reports he was receiving from within the makeshift village, presumably.

"Enough to take out about half of Misa's health," Max answered. She glanced back towards the camp, though it was impossible to really make out if anything had happened to it. They hadn't gone far, exactly, but the camp was large and chaotic. "Did something happen?"

"One of the tents in the village caught fire," Orkas reported. He was still frowning slightly. "But it may be a coincidence. The damage was not bad, and no one was hurt. The fire was put out before it could damage anything."

"How much health damage did you take?" Max asked, and Misa frowned at her health bar.

"About half my health," she said, a little disgruntled. "That doesn't seem right. Was the fire just a coincidence?"

"It was not a magical fire," Orkas said. "Someone knocked over a candle, and the flame spread. But the timing seemed too perfect for it to be a coincidence."

"Let's try again," Misa suggested. She had a health potion on hand, since she'd expected that Sev wouldn't be available for the test — it took her only a moment to down it, and only a moment more for Max to flick yet more fire into her face. Misa didn't bother dodging this time, though it felt strange to let someone hit her.

Just as before, the strike did about half her health in damage — and just as before, a tent seemed to catch fire.

"Same tent," Orkas reported. "Same candle, too."

"That's odd," Misa said. "Did they just light the candle again?"

"They did not," Orkas said, shaking his head. "So this is almost certainly caused by your skill. But it is a strange one. I cannot see any direct benefit. If anything, you will have to be even more careful."

"Which is hard, considering I'm the tank. I'm supposed to take hits," Misa said with a slight frown. If taking hits caused problems in the village, no matter how small those problems were, then the skill seemed to be more of a liability than a benefit — especially since there was no clear reduction in the damage she was taking.

"You can't control the passive skill at all?" Max suggested. "Sometimes you can influence how skills like those turn out."

"For passive skills?" Misa asked, surprised. She supposed she shouldn't have been, though; with all the adventurers Max worked with, she would know something like that. But nothing had stood out to her as something she could actively control, the same way she could when she used an active skill under the system...

Now that she was looking for it, though, she realized there was something there. She couldn't manipulate it quite the same way she could manipulate an active skill, but there was a sort of dial she could adjust, and that dial was turned almost all the way to its lowest setting.

She turned that dial up, of course.

"I think you're right," Misa said, and then indicated to Max that she should try again.

Max did.

This time, there was shout from the village as Max's fist contacted with Misa's face — though Orkas quickly reported that no one was hurt. He'd looked anxious for the first few seconds, checking through his messages frantically, but the villagers had learned quickly to avoid that particular tent.

Which, well, fair enough. Misa figured she couldn't blame them for that.

More importantly, she had taken significantly less damage from the hit — only about a quarter of her health. "Shit," she whistled. "That worked pretty well. Uh, sorry, dad. I probably won't actually use this skill very often. Keep the dial turned down and all."

"You should use it if you need to," Orkas said, frowning severely at her. "Do not limit yourself because of us. Though I ask you try not to inconvenience us for your own sake, either."

"It seems like a good opportunity to make sure the new village is as strong as possible, though!" Charise spoke cheerfully, placing one hand on Orkas' arm. "I imagine that would give you a little more durability in turn."

"I think so," Misa agreed with a nod. Charise beamed.

"We can't test anything else, I think," Max said thoughtfully. "Probably not a good idea to see what happens if you lose all your health... what about if something happens to the village?"

Orkas grimaced. "I can order someone to set a tent on fire," he said, sounding very much reluctant to do so. But he did it anyway, as was evidenced by the column of smoke that rose up from the makeshift camp a second later.

Misa winced. "Ow," she said. The sensation manifested as a persistent heat across her right collarbone, like a burn that wouldn't go away — which was uncomfortable. System health usually took away pain almost as soon as it appeared, but this pain lingered,

And then she noticed something on her status that made her pause. "It doesn't damage me," she said in wonder. "It lowers my max health."

Charise blinked. "So if we build up the village..."

"It's not a guarantee," Misa said. "But I bet it'd give me more health."

"I bet it'd give you more health, too," Max said with a grin. "How much are we putting in the betting pool?"

Misa shot Max a look. "It's a turn of phrase," she said.

"Five gold," Max responded immediately.

Misa pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed.

"One last thing," she said. "I need to accept the skill evolution for [To Fall Yet Hold the Line]. Any of you see anything going wrong with that?" Misa glanced between Max and her mother, but both of them shook their heads, and she nodded, satisfied.

She pulled up the skill prompt, and — as the message about a skill evolution being available flashed in front of her eyes — she accepted it.

The box flashed orange.

Sufficient understanding has been achieved to unlock evolution of [To Fall Yet Hold the Line]. Evolving skill...

New skill granted.

[Misa's Endless Echoes] [Active Skill] [Grade: 1]

No longer a mere guard, you have become a true guardian — you, and all your other selves.

If you would fail to block an attack, you do not. In addition, you may call upon an echo to understand more about the world around you.

Misa paused and stared at the skill.

It... made sense, in a way. Her echoes, or reflections, or whatever those were — were different versions of who she was. It stood to reason that they were more than just tools to wield power. They would have their own experiences she could draw from.

In theory. In practice, she wasn't so sure. There were still too many questions about her echoes — if they were variations on her that had made different decisions, did they all live in the same world? Or were those worlds slightly different, filled with other people that had made different decisions?

"Didja get something good?" Max asked, raising an eyebrow at her. Misa blinked.

"I think so," Misa said, then grinned. "It'll need some testing, and I'm always down for testing. But we don't need to fight to test this one. Hey, mom? Want some help getting dinner ready?"

"I'm never going to say no to some help," Charise said. "Especially from my favorite daughter."

"I'm your only daughter."

"Touché."