Fantasia

Fey looked back and forth between the sturdy-but-not-built-for-heavy-cargo travel coach and her newly enlarged boar. “Uh, nope, not happening.” Boris was now six to seven Feys[i] in weight, and the carriage was designed to carry no more than six people.

Fey stuck her head into the carriage, where Sirena and Blade were already seated. “Hey, I think I’ll just take the teleport gate ahead and wait for you in the Moonwood. Might as well get my warrior advancement done while I’m at it.” Blade had already completed his advancement while in human lands, choosing the heavily-armoured path of the tank (with minimal prodding from Fey and Sirena).

Sirena nodded her agreement to the plan without even questioning the reasoning behind it. “Okay! We’ll meet you there.”

Blade nodded in agreement. “Sounds like a plan.”

Fey glanced at Blade, huffed in amusement at Sirena’s poorly-hidden motivations, and backed out of the coach.

 

“Wait!” Sirena stuck her head out after Fey. “Leave your bunny with us.”

Fey glanced down at her glooms, who had taken evasive measures at the mermaid’s words by lining up side by side and then melting into formless piles of shadow, essentially looking like a single puddle. “Which one?”

Sirena flapped a hand. “You know which one. The cute one.”

Fey was pretty sure that if she dug through the pile of glooms, she would find Ebony at the very bottom, but she was not about to hand her poor pet over to Sirena’s clutches.

An idea popped into her head. Digging into her belt-pouch, Fey pulled out Squishy in his potion bottle (whom the author totally didn’t forget about for the last ten chapters). The immature jellyfish was now noticeably bigger and looking distinctly cramped within the glass. (More like Squished than Squishy. Ha ha ha…? *smacked for terrible pun*)

“Here, you can have Squishy.” Fey used the game’s gifting system to transfer the jellyfish’s ownership to Sirena.

 

<Ownership transferred.>

Sirena took Squishy’s bottle with a peeved look. “I want the cute one.”

“Hey, Squishy is adorable. Don’t be jelly. Besides, he’s a water-element.”

Sirena looked ready to argue further, but the coach driver came over to shut the door. “We’re off!” he announced. Climbing up to the driver’s seat, he flicked the reins and headed out at a steady trot.

 

Waving a cheerful goodbye (*got the last word*), Fey proceeded to lead her pets back to Seaport and its teleportation gate.

One of the benefits of having a massive pet, she discovered, was that crowds parted where he walked. Conversely, Fey drew more attention than she really wanted. She brazened it out, keeping her posture straight and confident, trying to project an air of ‘don’t bother me; I’m an important person with important things to do’. It (apparently) worked, as she managed to reach the teleportation gate without incident.

 

Fey pulled out her teleportation key. As a cash shop item, it could not be lost and appeared whenever she wanted to use it.

The key did not look like it would fit into a lock; rather, it was a flat, silver disc delicately etched with geometric patterns. Fey laid it against one of the stone pillars comprising the gate. As the pillars and the circle of ground between them began to glow, a map appeared to Fey’s vision. The teleportation circle she stood on was represented by a blue dot, and the ones she could travel to by green dots.

Fey selected Moonwood Village, then settled down to wait, making sure all of her pets were within the circle. A few minutes later, the light flashed for a blinding moment, and she was in the Moonwood.

 

From Fey’s perspective, it seemed like the land outside the teleportation gate had been swapped out rather than her moving anywhere. Quickly regaining her bearings, Fey strode out of the circle, ignoring the gawkers who had gathered around. It was her experience that people were less likely to bother you if you looked like you were going somewhere, so she quickly headed down the path towards the warrior trainers. Boris (with the glooms sitting cutely on his back) followed with a heavy tread, dissuading the bolder of the gawkers from bothering her.

 

As she walked, Fey checked to see if she had enough warrior feats to learn her next skill. Somewhat to her surprise, she did. Perusing the completed feats, she saw:

 

<Follow from the Front: Belong to a party for a total of 25 hours. Must be in physical proximity to party members – 10 points>

<Been There, Killed That (I): Kill 50 different monsters – 10 points>

<Quantity over Quality (I): kill 1000 monsters - 5 points>

<To Pieces (I): Execute 5000 slashing attacks – 5 points>

 

Fey supposed that all of her pets’ activities contributed to her achievements because she could not quite remember killing 50 types of monsters. (*cough* is the non-parenthetical narrator supposed to start pointing out the flaws in the author’s writing?)

 

Since she had the 30 points she needed to learn her next skill, Fey walked directly to the warrior trainers.

 

Both Irrilana and Irrilathan were on duty when Fey arrived.

Irrilana spoke first. “Well met, warrior. Have you come to take the next step in your journey towards combat mastery?”

Fey felt the need to match the NPC’s formal wording but was unable to quickly think of a suitable reply. What came out was, “Er, yes.”

“The path to becoming a warrior is manifold; you must discover your own unique style and pursue it to the end. Do you have an idea of the sub-class you wish to specialize in, or would you like us to analyze your current abilities and make recommendations?”

 

When playing video games, Arwyn generally went with whatever class looked the coolest, usually ending up with a ‘glass cannon[ii]’ build. She knew that she had to be much more careful in virtual reality because choosing a class she was physically or mentally unsuited for would end up with her dying.

“Recommendation, please.”

 

The warrior trainers’ eyes focused on a status screen invisible to Fey as they looked over her attributes, skills, and abilities.

 

Fey shifted uncomfortably (in embarrassment) as the NPCs’ expressions shifted from focused to confused.

 

“Ranger…?” Irrilana said uncertainly to her partner.

“Assassin,” Irrilathan disagreed. “Or maybe general.”

They stared at each other for a long moment, communicating in a way that was silent to Fey.

Finally, they turned as one to regard the (strange, strange) player in front of them.

Irrilana spoke. “You have very… disparate skill development that points to many different class affinities, so we are unable to recommend a single sub-class or set of related classes. Due to the same disparity, our recommendations are all hybrid classes.”

“What are hybrid classes?” Fey asked.

“These are subclasses that can only be unlocked by belonging to two of the main classes. They require more extensive training, as you must complete feats from both classes for every advancement, but offer a wider variety of skills and abilities.”

The trade-off sounded pretty good to Fey. “So what are the classes?”

Irrilathan answered, “Warrior-rogue is assassin. We recommend this due to your affinity to poison, as well as the spontaneously-learned skills Bleed, Vicious Strike, and Isolate.

Warrior-archer is ranger. We recommend this due to your high dexterity as well as your Monster Tamer ability.

Warrior-mage is spellblade. We recommend this because of the spells you have learned and your spontaneous intelligence gains.”

 

They all sound pretty cool. Coolness factor aside, Fey attempted to figure out which sub-class was the most suitable for her.

Dexterity or no, Fey did not see herself as having any talent with a bow, as it required upper body strength and hand-eye coordination, two things she distinctly lacked.

The other two sub-classes both sounded promising, so she asked, “Could you tell me a bit more about assassin and spellblade?”

 

Irrilana spoke as if reading off a written description:

“The assassin knows one thing: the kill. Stalking from the shadows, she specializes in critical hits and status effect damage. She can strike from medium distances with thrown weapons. Between her stealth, critical damage, and blinding speed, she has often moved on to her next target before her current opponent realizes that death has arrived.

“The spellblade is the ultimate hybrid class, overcoming the limitations of the warrior and the mage to become proficient at both physical and magical combat. Using special casting techniques, she is able to use magic at full efficiency while wearing heavy armour. Spells that temporarily enhance her equipment give her extremely high base attack and defence in both the physical and magical domains. In combat, she seamlessly integrates skilled weapons-work with fast, simple magic attacks, giving her great adaptability to fight a large variety of opponents.”

 

…They both sound really cool. Having two amazing choices before her made the decision both very easy and extremely difficult. On the one hand, Fey was sure that she would be happy with either sub-class, so it did not much matter which one she chose. On the other hand, neither choice was obviously better than the other, which paralyzed her with indecision.

 

The more Fey thought about it, the more that she thought spellblade would be the best class… for somebody else. Having both magic and physical attacks was a huge advantage, not to mention both magical and physical defence. However, the class seemed like it would require a lot of on-the-spot critical judgment to determine the best course of action in combat, as well as the ability to multi-task. It would clearly have a steep learning curve to master, especially for Fey, who was not particularly good at tactics.

In contrast, assassin seemed to match exactly what Fey was already doing (sneaking around and using underhanded methods to gain an advantage over her opponents). The sub-class did not have as much versatility as spellblade, but she thought that it fit her so well that she could take full advantage of its special characteristics and perform better than if she chose spellblade.

“I choose assassin.”

 

Irrilathan nodded and held out his arm, dropping a small token into Fey’s hands. “Take this. When you earn a similar item from the rogue trainer, put them together and they will lead you to the assassin trainer.”

 

Fey glanced at the token, a circular disc of grey metal that was smooth on one side and printed with a sword and shield on the other. Tucking it carefully into her belt pouch, she thanked the trainers and bade them goodbye.

 

“Wait,” Irrilana called. “Would you like to learn Ex-quip?” As Fey turned back, the trainer added, “It’s a completely optional ability that is not a prerequisite for anything, merely for convenience. It requires 30 feat points to learn.”

 

“Ex-quip? As in, change my armour with a spell?” Fey recalled seeing Leandriel do this.

“And weapons and accessories,” Irrilana agreed. “You can switch out a piece at a time or designate whole sets.”

“Sounds good. I’ll learn it,” said Fey.

 

Irrilana hefted her spear. “Watch carefully.” The weapon turned the luminous white-gold of the trainer’s mana, then began to morph, elongating and becoming flexible until its tip hit the ground. When the light dimmed and disappeared, Irrilana was holding a lethal-looking whip.

“Clearly imagine the item that you want,” she instructed, “then trigger the Ex-quip skill. You may call any item that you claim ownership to, including ones in storage.”

 

Fey still had her beginner weapons; since every player received a dagger and every warrior a short sword, they had next to no sale value. Holding up her right punching blade, Fey clearly visualized the short sword currently sitting in her safety deposit box, then said, “Ex-quip.”

The sensation of mana flowing down her arm accompanied the (purple) glow and transformation of her weapon. 10 MP was consumed, a negligible amount at her level.

 

<Fey has learned Ex-quip!>

 

Irrilana nodded in approval at Fey’s success. “If you find Ex-quip in your Abilities menu, you can designate sets of equipment to be switched at once.”

 

Fey nodded her understanding. “Thank you,” she said to both trainers, then headed off to find the rogue trainer, switching the sword back to a punching blade. The higher-levelled weapon required 20MP to summon.

 

Irrilathan eyed the massive iron boar trotting after the player. When she was out of earshot, he said, “Maybe we should’ve recommended lancer,” referring to warriors who specialized in mounted combat.

“Nah, you were right the first time,” said Irrilana. “Did you see the level of her Immunity? She didn’t even have the rogue class to make it level up faster. With those other offensive skills, she’s been an assassin the whole time.” Irrilana paused, then added, “But yeah… that skill set was so random.”

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Footnotes:

[i] One Fey is approximately 50kg (110 pounds), depending on whether she has eaten recently and whether clothing and equipment count

[ii] This refers to having extremely high attack power and next to no health or defence. Glass cannons generally rely either on killing opponents in the first move or having meatshields to survive