Skills generally fall into one of three categories, which are displayed by the System when you Inspect them. Active Skills are exactly what they sound like, you have to intentionally activate them or they won’t do shit, and they have a specific effect of limited duration. Passive Skills are the opposite, in that they are always functioning with or without your attention.
Triggered Skills are more interesting, combining some aspects of the other two types’ characteristics. Like active Skills, they only work for a specific period of time and generally have some amount of cooldown. However, they are automatically used whenever the ‘trigger conditions’ are met, meaning that you don’t need to consciously activate them.
Every active and some triggered Skills require either mana or stamina to activate. The only known Skill which can run on either is Inventory, which is fucking weird but also awesome because Inventory. Not that you get to pick, it uses whichever of your resources has the lowest maximum value between mana and stamina.
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“She’s outside, but what’s going on? Is everything all right?”
“I need to talk to Tara, in private, first,” I said, pushing past them and walking out of the cool administration building back into the hot afternoon sun. Tara was standing not too far away, the sun shining off her polished plate armor, biting her lip. She looked at me with a hurt expression as I approached slowly.
“Let’s find somewhere private to talk,” I told her.
“I don’t understand what’s going on,” she replied hesitantly.
“Look, I’ll tell you, but not out here,” I gestured to all the people standing around, some leaning up against buildings to stay in the shade.
“Fine, follow me.”
She led me through the bar and upstairs into the restaurant, which I hadn’t seen yet. It was distinctly more luxurious than the bar downstairs, though not as nice as the administration building. We ended up in a small private room with a table for four and she ordered a pitcher of beer, the Barmaid closing the door behind her as she went to get our drinks.
On the wall by the door there were two switches where I was used to seeing at most one. The plate around them was engraved with the letter ‘L’ under one and ‘P’ under the other. She flipped the ‘P’ switch up and sat down.
“OK, now talk to me, Az. Why did you freak out when I introduced myself? We’ve never met before yesterday!”
I stiffened. “First of all, my call me Az, and we’re friends. Let me explain why…” I launched into the same explanation that I’d given Thompson. I stoically ignored any sympathy in her big green eyes as I laid it out for her. She tried to interrupt once or twice but I just kept talking and she fell silent until I was finally done. The only time I paused was when the Barmaid returned with a pitcher and two glasses.
“I’m sorry Az, shit, I mean Azure, I really am… that sounds horrible! But, I mean, if this was five years ago then I was only thirteen too! I didn’t even know there was language like what you described in any of our contracts until just now! It’s not fair to blame me for what happened!”
“I blame ,” I emphasized. “I’ve blamed your family for the, since I learned why the dungeonjacks weren’t fighting on the wall that night. I don’t fucking care if it’s irrational or not, it’s not changing anytime soon either! Why don’t you just join the other advanced track team and save us from having to deal with this shit?”
She shook her head empathically as I reached for the pitcher and poured myself a glass of beer. My throat was dry, and the beer was, well, at least it was better than the shit we’d been drinking in East Bank.
“Why the fuck not? I told you my reasons, I think I deserve to hear yours!”
She grimaced. “Fine, I’ll tell you. It’s not really a secret, just something of a small scandal back home. Yuri thinks I’m his fiancee.”
“What? He you’re engaged? What the fuck does that even mean?”
She buried her face in her hands with a sigh.
“Our families are close business partners, the Gleasons and the Kalmárs. Have been for decades. My uncle is very good friends with Yuri’s dad, but they both only have sons. Yuri is the oldest child in his family, and when I was born, my uncle proposed to Yuri’s dad that someday he and I should get married.
“Yuri’s dad loved the idea – by the way, this was all without consulting my parents – and to this day Yuri’s family insists that we’re getting married. They don’t give a shit that I’ve always said no way, I hate that creepy fucker, and they don’t care that there’s absolutely no legal way for them to force me to marry him.
“But my uncle keeps putting pressure on my parents, even threatening to cut me off from any inheritance if I don’t marry Yuri and ‘unite the two families forever’, as he loves to say. That fucking prick. I thought I was going to get away from him for at least a year when I got my parents to enroll me here, but that asshole just followed me here with those scary bodyguards of his.
“His parents are the richest people in LA, and he’s bought his way into leading that Squad. If I end up in his Squad, it’s going to be a mess! So, I’m sorry, but a baby will survive the Wastes alone before I willingly spend any more time than I absolutely must with Yuri Kalmár!”
She pounded the table for emphasis, making our glasses jump, then flushed as she sat back in her chair. I was definitely not affected by how cute she looked when blushing. Cooly, I took a deep drink from my glass and sighed.
“Well that’s just fucking great then. So, let’s talk about the other problem we’ve got.”
“There’s another one?” She seemed surprised.
“You tell me. And be honest here, for fuck’s sake. How do you feel about orcs, well, not just orcs but non-humans in general?” She tried to interrupt but I kept talking. “I grew up in Sunland, and I really didn’t meet a single non-human until I joined the Guild. From what I’ve heard, that wasn’t a coincidence. It seems like Sunland isn’t very welcoming to non-humans, and I’m betting that has something to do with your family.”
Tara looked down at her hands for a minute before meeting my eyes.
“I was raised to believe that humans are superior to any of the dungeon races. My uncle non-humans, and my parents, well, I can’t really tell if they agree or just don’t care. Either way, you’re right – wherever my uncle has influence, he tries to push out the dungeon races. I, honestly, I just don’t really know what I believe. I’ve never met any who weren’t servants or laborers before I left LA.
“Everybody I know says they’re more violent, less intelligent, that they’re dangerous. But they also live their lives in LA and most of them don’t cause any problems, so my family must be exaggerating somehow.”
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I glared at her and spoke coldly.
“Your family isn’t exaggerating, Tara, they’re just fucking . Period. Zaire is the most polite, respectful, and reliable person I know, and we’ve saved each other’s lives more than once already. And H’ruk and G’hala are becoming my friends too. I don’t give a shit what your uncle says, they’re just people.
“If you’re going to be in our Squad, you’d better be prepared to treat them just like everyone else, or I’ll talk to the Head Instructor about it. I bet discriminating against your teammates is a valid reason to get kicked out of a team.”
The blonde looked angry, but I could tell she was also scared by my threat.
“I’m willing to try to work with them, even the orcs!” she said desperately. “As long as they don’t, you know, try to hurt me or something, I’m sure it will be fine! I can get used to it!”
That made me laugh.
“Aside from kicking your ass in the training rings, you don’t have anything to worry about from them, . No, to me, it sounds like the person you’re actually worried about hurting you, the one trying to you to marry him, is a Maybe spend some time thinking about that!”
She flushed and looked down as I drove my point home. I drained my glass, trying not to make a face at the bitter taste, and stood.
“Looks like we’re fucking stuck together then, at least until you screw up. Let’s get the rest of the team together.”
We found everyone downstairs, sitting at two separate tables. The bar was packed with people waiting to find out if they’d been moved to another Squad. Though the tables were able to seat eight people, when you had two huge orcs it looked like an uncomfortably tight fit. Arlo suggested we get a room upstairs, so the whole group of us walked up together.
The Barmaid was surprised to see me and Tara again right after we’d left, and I noticed her giving the orcs the stink-eye. I had a feeling that if we weren’t with Arlo and Tara she might have objected. She didn’t say anything though, just took us to a bigger room with a table large enough to seat everyone comfortably. Tara again ordered beer for the table and I sighed.
“OK everyone, welcome to Team Hard Limit. This is Raylan, Zaire, H’ruk, and G’hala, and over here we have Arlo, Jayce, and Tara. Let’s talk about what our plans are for this Squad and how we’re going to work together.”
“Should we not discuss first who will be the Squad Leader? Now that we are a larger group?” asked Jayce in their strange dual voice.
“There is no room for debate,” H’ruk rumbled immediately. “The Black Razor himself endorsed Azure as our Squad leader before we even arrived at the Academy. Would you go against his wishes?”
The three newcomers reacted with shock at the mention of Mason’s callsign.
“I think,” Arlo said carefully, “that there is a story here that we should be aware of…”
Raylan immediately jumped in. “Well, you see it all started back in this shitty little town called Sunland when this girl disappeared into the Tutorial and never came out…”
I groaned, but seeing no alternative other than to tell the story myself, let him continue. I’d emptied another beer by the time he’d finished, and I felt a little more relaxed. The second beer even tasted better than the first! Was that the secret? Just keep drinking? It would certainly explain a lot…
The others sat there for a moment, digesting what he’d told them. Even the orcs hadn’t heard the story leading up to the dungeon before.
“So,” Jayce said slowly, “you are already Level 5?”
I nodded.
“Then we do not feel bad about losing to you in the ring. I am only Level 3.”
I winced inside thinking of how close Jayce had already come to beating me that morning. She – he – whatever – were clearly dangerous as fuck.
“Um, Jayce, I’m confused about how to refer to you. Are you a boy or a girl or what?”
“We are the binary embodied.”
“Uh, that doesn’t really mean anything to me…”
The cyborg held up a metal hand and formed an ‘o’ with the fingers. “Binary. 0. Curved, soft.” Jayce pointed at me, then Tara, then G’hala. I would have argued that I wasn’t really curved and G’hala was about as far as you could get from soft, but Jayce continued.
“1. Straight, hard.” This time it was the flesh hand held up in a line, the metal hand pointing at Raylan, then Zaire, Arlo, and H’ruk.
“We are both and neither. You may use any pronouns you wish to refer to us, all are equally inaccurate and therefore equally accurate as well.” They – brought their hands together, holding the metal ‘0’ in front of the flesh ‘1’.
“I object to being called straight,” Raylan suddenly added, and my jaw dropped open in shock. He laughed at my expression. “I like boys girls, but probably boys a little more. I’m open to changing my mind, though.”
“OK moving on then, from now on I’m going to use ‘they’ to refer to Jayce. Where was I? Oh right, I’m Level 5. Raylan and Zaire are Level 4. H’ruk and G’hala, you’re Level 3, right?” The orcs nodded. It turned out that Arlo was also Level 3, but Tara was only Level 2. She seemed upset to be the lowest Leveled in the group.
“Right, now let’s talk about the Squad. First, don’t blame me for the name, Raylan came up with it. The idea is that we’re going to push ourselves to the very limit to be the best.”
“The HARD limit!” Raylan threw in with a huge grin, and everyone looked at him. He continued smiling, undaunted.
“Whatever. We’re going to work fucking hard, is my point. He told you about the kind of training the three of us went through before we even got here, and the orcs have had their own equally intense training. So, we’re gonna see what these instructors here have in mind for us, and if it measures up to what we’re used to. Mason, aka the Black Razor, definitely implied that things here have gotten soft, so I’m not sure what to expect.
“Either way, if they don’t push us as hard as we can take, we’ll just have to do it ourselves. That’s the deal if you want to stay with this Squad. Can you handle that?”
“We can,” said Jayce evenly.
“Every Hammersmith is expected to be an expert with firearms. I will train as hard as I need to in order to live up to that standard,” Arlo added, resting a hand on the butt of one of his pistols.
“I’ll do whatever it takes to stay away from fucking Yuri,” Tara added.
Then she had to give a quick explanation of the situation, and we all agreed that we needed to be on guard whenever we were around his Squad. Between the way he’d acted towards me the day before, and now Tara joining us instead of him… It was obvious that we were not going to get along well.
There was a knock on the door, and when Zaire opened it Wolf was standing there with some papers in hand. Once inside, he handed one of the sheets to each of us. On mine was a class schedule with my name at the top.
“I have so many questions,” Tara said as she rapidly scanned her paper. I did too. There was too much to take in at once.
Wolf laughed. “Let me explain the basics, it’s not as complicated as it looks. You’ll train six days a week and have Sundays free. First, everyone does physical training in the morning, followed by breakfast. Next, you’ll have your primary combat class – that’s ranged for Az and Arlo, magical for Zaire and Jayce, and melee for H’ruk, G’hala, Raylan, and Tara. That’s every day at 0800.
“At 0930, you’ll have your first classroom-based class. Mondays and Thursdays, you’ll have Magical Theory, followed by Magical Practice – that’s for everyone, not just Mages. Everyone needs to know at least some utility Spells after all. Tuesdays and Fridays, that’s Dungeon Basics, followed by a session in our fake dungeon for hands-on work. You won’t be going into the real dungeon for quite a while, don’t worry about that.
“Just before lunch, you’ll do what we call a ‘Sprint’. Basically, you’ll have a short period of time to use as many Skills or Spells as you can to blow through any unused mana or stamina before lunch. By the time you’ve finished lunch and your 1330 class, your mana and stamina will be full again, which is when we do Squad Combat four days a week and Physical Training II on the other two days.
“All of your classes are fixed except for two electives, which you’ll have on Wednesday and Saturday. Those are primarily in the classroom, but not always. You’ll wrap up each day with a final classroom period before dinner. Got it?”
