I spent a bit of time reviewing the additional gear available to me from the other vendors; most of it was considerably out of my price range. A lot of glass-cannon style gear, giving more umph to the spells in exchange for defence. Each school also had preferences regarding its style. Inferno, very much favoured being in their faces, with bonuses granted to a point blank style and damage build up, which was in counter to Arctic's slower, more ranged style, with its bonuses to slowing and controlling spell effects. Storm’s was more about rapid movement and penetration, and its armour bonuses reflected that. The Explorator set was fitting my playstyle more. I was tempted by a belt which talked about a chance to proc an arcing strike when an enemy was hit by a Storm spell… only the wording about how it was to a random nearby entity made me ask the attendant, who reluctantly admitted that it could hit a friendly as likely as an enemy. I almost missed it, but in one of the second-hand gear cabinets was a [Magitech Toolbelt] which was part of the Magitech Engineer set. I was told it had been traded in as part of a part-exchange by another player. Set me back 500 rep points, but it did mean I was a single piece away from finding out what the set bonus was.

  

  ‘[Magitech Toolbelt]

  Part of the Magitech Engineer set (3-piece set)

  Belt

  “This belt can supply a Magitech engineer with the tools of their trade”

  Grants Magitech engineering tools to an engineer in the field’

  “These common?” I asked after I put on the belt, which had been the cheapest belt they had.

  “We see a few a year; most mages don’t tend to have much use for them. I’m told it is a common recipe to find on the Ancients’ auto-crafters machines. We haven’t found much use for them, to be honest. I think you are the first I know of who has brought one in years…”

  I tried to put aside my buyer's remorse, as I realised it didn’t seem to respond to my pokes or prods and seemed pretty inert as far as belts were concerned and headed for the Arcanum.

  The crowd seemed to have grown since my last visit here. Lots of players sat or stood in circles trying to figure out how to put mana into their rings. As I approached the tall man in the mage’s robe, still in his pointy hat and overly long ornate staff, he congratulated a player in the noob set and sent them into the maze for their first spell.

  “Greetings, Professor Song,” I greeted him with false cheer and a large smile.

  “You?” he sighed. “Here for access to the library?”

  “Please.”

  “Another spell already? Those who fly too high too soon tend to fall hard. No need to bother me, Ravenscroft, your access is permanent, unless you do something to have it revoked.”

  “Cheers,” I thanked him with a genuine smile.

  I was surprised to see another player perusing the stacks when I got upstairs. He was decked out in a full Inferno mage set. He turned to look in my direction as I came through the door, surprise apparent on his face. We exchanged nods in greetings.

  “Mage Ravenscroft. Welcome back, I didn’t expect to see you so soon. It’s always a pleasure to assist a keen mage. Can I help you with anything?”

  “Librarian.” I nodded at her in greeting. “Thank you. I’m after two spells. Snowman and Lightning Step.”

  “Interesting choices. Do you have the slips needed?” I pulled them out of my storage and offered them to her.

  “Both for spell mastery. You have been working hard. Let’s see, ahh yes…”

  

  ‘The Librarian wishes to transfer a spell to your spell book:’

  ‘Snowman: rank 3’

  ‘Do you accept [y/n]’

  I selected yes and then immediately afterwards:

  

  ‘The Librarian wishes to transfer a spell to your spell book:’

  ‘Lightning Step: rank 3’

  ‘Do you accept [y/n]’

  “A pleasure doing business with you.” She grinned. “Keep up the good work. Listening to the discussion about you last night at dinner was most amusing.”

  “I’m sorry, but did you just get spells by talking to the librarian? You didn’t need to find them in the stacks?” the other player asked.

  “Yes,” the Librarian and I said at the same time.

  “Did you think I’m here to keep the place clean and tidy?” she asked with wry amusement of someone old who gets to wind up someone young and foolish. The guy actually facepalmed.

  “When you assume…” he muttered to himself, which I couldn’t help chuckling at.

  “Thank you,” I told the Librarian, “I’ll be back once I have more mana.”

  “I’ll look forward to it,” She grinned, “Now, young man, as you have finished going through our records, do you have a spell in mind?”

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “Do you have Fireball?” I heard as I stepped out the door.

  

  ‘[SOK]Peachy…: AENARA! I’M ON’

  ‘[SOK]Peachy…: hubby as well’

  I facepalmed as I stepped out of the Arcanum and headed for the main entrance.

  

  ‘[SOK]Aenara…: Hola! You two up for a bit of a trek into the sticks to get a teleport core?’

  ‘[SOK]Peachy…: Is that so we can go sunbathing on your island?’

  I blinked… that was completely in character…

  

  ‘[SOK]Aenara…: …Yes.’

  ‘[SOK]Peachy…: We’re in! INVITE! GO!’

  ‘Jacobs Von Jacobs the III has invited you to their party. Accept? [y/n]’

  I hit yes and found myself in a group with Peachy and Jacobs. Shortly after I joined, Darksider and GoldenFist joined as well.

  

  [SOK]Jacobs…: Voice said you would probably want a party this morning, and Kenda has to work.’

  ‘[SOK]Aenara…: Cheers. Appreciate this.’

  ‘[SOK]Peachy…: Island vacation!’

  ‘[SOK]Aenara…: I’m assuming you logged out together? From the Explorator’s map, there is a road east out of town which eventually gets to a motorway going south, which should take us to our destination. Are you near the Warden’s camp?’

  I felt arms wrap around my torso.

  “Nope! We are behind you!” Jacobs said.

  “Aenara hugs are good hugs,” a voice mumbled into my back.

  “You could have given me some warning,” I grumbled to my friend as I tried to unentangle his missus.

  “Nah. I’m perfectly fine with this,” he said.

  “Traitor.” He laughed at my scowl.

  “We picked up some new spells before logging out last night, so if it is ok with you, we’ll go to the Spell Forge first, get our heads round how to cast them and then head off?”

  “Sounds good. Hey, guys!” I waved at G and Dark.

  “Vax.” Damian Darksider nodded at me.

  “Dude!” G said.

  “What spells did you all grab?”

  “Shock Weapon,” Peachy mumbled.

  “Snowball,” Jacobs said.

  “Shocking Grasp” added Dark.

  “Burning Touch” came from G.

  Damn, wish I had known, I could have taught them two of those. “Good choices,” I said supportively. “I just picked up a couple of new ones I can work on while you get your heads around those.”

  We headed over to the spell shooting range. The damage I had inflicted earlier was gone. We sat down on the nearby grass to work on understanding the new spells. I pulled up the movement ability first, figured that might be more impactful on how I fight. Well…huh. This one started by stressing destination selection. Ensuring both a clear mental image and that the location itself was empty.

  Damian was the first to head over to the melee end of the range, though G caught up with him before he arrived.

  The last three of us all stood up shortly after, though I split off to go and speak to the Professor in charge.

  “Hello Aenara, what can I do for you?”

  “I just picked up Lightning Step…”

  “And you want to know where you can try it out safely? Behind the melee training area is your best bet. There are some dummies set up there; you can practice using the ability to appear behind.”

  “Cheers,” I responded and made my way in that direction. I had the opportunity to see Jacobs first attempt at Snowball. He conjured the white ball with pronounced, flamboyant arm movements, then threw it like a baseball. It slammed into his target, and it became covered in white.

  “Nice,” I called out to him as I walked past. He turned and, with a grin, breathed onto his nails and then buffed them on his jacket.

  I found the area behind the melee zone. Where the melee end of the range was a number of small booths with a single dummy in them, I hadn’t given much thought to the amount of space that was behind those booths. It looked like someone had set this up to allow for players to practise formations; there were small packs of dummies and lines of them.

  I picked a dummy to be my target and then pulled up the instructions again. Did one last run through, and then gave it a go.

  The first attempt was a failure. I reflected on what went wrong and tried again. This time, there was a flash, and I appeared behind the dummy, facing the same way I had before, which meant I had my back to the dummy. Not ideal. I walked back to where I had been and tried again. This time, I pictured myself facing the way I wanted.

  It worked. It was more expensive to pick the direction, but it worked. I picked another target and Stepped. I grinned. This was fun. I pulled out my new staff. I started to swing it and then Stepped. I came out behind my target, and I completed my swing into it. The thrack of the collision felt strong. I tried a couple more before I got the warning signs that I was burning through my mana too quickly. I checked, and it was down to 25%. I stored my staff and headed back to the others to see if they were done.

  I found Peachy cackling manically as she bludgeoned the dummy with her shield.

  “Does she even use that sword?” I asked Damian.

  “Occasionally. We’ve jokingly suggested she just gets a second shield.”

  “Who is joking?” asked Golden. “You can get shields designed for it.”

  “We should get a move on,” Jacobs declared, “Otherwise we will be here all day watching Peachy laugh.”

  With our new spells successfully cast, we headed over to the heads of schools to get the completion quests. We split up at the top of the stairs, with the three of us who had learnt a Storm spell heading for that classroom. I was expecting it to be instanced, but instead the three of us entered the room to find Gretchen sitting at the big table in the middle of the room with a bunch of paperwork spread out before her.

  “Hi. I’ll be right with you,” she called out as we entered and made our way down towards her. She looked up as we got down to her level, and her eyes lit up on seeing me. “Aenara, I wasn’t expecting to see you so soon, and you brought friends.”

  “Aenara?” Peachy asked, looking between me and Gretchen, a tone I didn’t recognise in her voice.

  “Guys, this is Gretchen, the second in charge of the Storm School. Gretchen, these are two of my guild, who got lucky enough to get Storm spells from the Arcanum. Didn’t The Spark order you to rest?”

  “He did, but then he got pulled into a high-priority meeting, again. I’ll go when he gets back, if he gets back today. You are here for new spell assessment?”

  “We are.” I pushed Peachy forward.

  “Err…Hi! I’m Peachy, I got Shock Weapon.”

  “Show me.” Gretchen simply said as she waved her hand, and an electric blue man-shaped dummy appeared to the side.

  Peachy didn’t wait for a second invitation; her shield was equipped on the first step, the spell cast on the second, she pounced, and her first hit landed as the edge of her shield struck at the dummy's neck.