041

After some hiccups with security concerns, thank you Poi, the whole group eventually [Teleport]ed to the Thousand Kilometer Ring, a mostly nondescript region of the Crystal Forest where adventurers sometimes congregated, since 1000 kilometers was the maximum range on [Teleport].

The afternoon sun shone down from the western skies, glittering off of 10 foot tall crystal agaves in every single direction. Somewhere in those agaves, probably everywhere in those agaves, were mimics, who glittered just as well as the agaves, but who only fooled the unaware. There was one difference in this part of the Crystal Forest, though: A spire of stone, an obelisk, maybe 500 feet away from where their [Teleport]s dropped them.

A few strangers were standing by the obelisk, fiddling with something at the base. Apparently there was a natural fountain there, but Erick couldn’t see over that distance.

Kiri stood nearby, but not too close, taking pains not to eye the closest person to Erick: Guildmaster Mog.

Mog shouted, “Let’s kill some mimics!”

Draz said, “You didn’t have to come, Guildmaster.”

“Oh yes I did! I’ve got a special interest in this one right here—” She laid a broad hand on Erick’s back. “But do your thing, Draz. I won’t interfere.”

Draz turned to the other members of the remedial class. A crimsonscale male kid, maybe 18, named Lowhit. A long-haired blond female orcol, likely also 18, named Waelog. Zimmy Saker, the [Force Shrapnel] girl. And Greenscale Kiri, from the Greensoil Republic, who was probably either a spy, or just really motivated and lucky. Erick still didn’t know which, and at this point, even if she was a spy, she seemed nice enough.

There was also Poi, Mog, and Draz, but those three didn’t count for this hunting party.

Draz said, “Each of you is going to kill a mimic on your own, using tier one spe— normal basic magic, or martial technique. I am going to evaluate each of you, one at a time, and then I am going to fail you, and then tomorrow we’re doing it again, and again, and again, until you get it right.” Draz looked around. “Waelog! Find your mimic! Everyone else, follow Waelog! Don’t help her!”

Erick trudged in the sands several people behind Waelog. Poi stood behind Erick; Mog at his side.

Mog whispered, “This takes me back.”

Draz whipped around to stare at Mog, but said nothing.

“Sorry, drillmaster.” Mog smiled, throwing up her hands in mock defense. “I’ll be quiet.”

Draz frowned, speaking to the group, “Treat this as a hunting exercise. Silent, deadly, like we’re in Ar’Kendrithyst and monsters can pop up out of the ground at any moment.”

Erick felt a chill. He whispered, “That can happen?”

“Yes, Erick!” Draz shouted, “Constantly! Now shut up!”

 

– – – –

 

Waelog found her mimic and, being 8 foot tall herself and basically a walking tank, as soon as she donned her boxy, solid [Conjure Armor], she grabbed two of the largest spines, ripping the monster wide, then stomped. The mimic never stood a chance. She exposed the rest of her body to countless stabs, but the mimic couldn’t get one attack through her armor, though it did stab some spines between Waelog’s not-metal plates. She didn’t seem to mind; most of the mimic’s counterattack slipped off of Waelog’s boxy armor. After twenty seconds, Waelog stood over the monster’s pulped corpse, holding a shiny rad like a grain of salt between two huge fingers.

Draz said, “Good armor design. You took too much damage. Fail.”

Waelog didn’t look like she had a single scratch on her, even after she dispelled her [Conjure Armor].

She didn’t argue with the drillmaster.

 

– – – –

 

Lowhit flew backwards, next to the ground, staying just out of range of the mimic, while shooting [Force Beam]s at the monster. Eight of the ten seconds of [Force Beam] went wild, reflecting off of crystalline flesh, scattering through the air.

Erick complained, “But… It’s Force, not light?”

Draz took Erick’s complaint as a reason to yell at him. “Crystal Mimics have a natural [Reflection] active at all times, rookie! Even if a force spell manages to hit through its [Reflection], it only hits for a fraction of its original damage!”

Mog whispered to Erick, “Altered force doesn’t get reflected.”

“Correct again!” Draz said, “But we’re not using mana altering today!”

Lowhit eventually killed the mimic, but not before scattered beams clipped through the onlookers once, and himself three times, slicing off hundreds of points each time.

Every time that happened, Draz automatically, and enthusiastically, yelled, “Fail!”

 

– – – –

 

Kiri threw a [Decay Force Crash] over her mimic. Like localized acid rain, the spell burst in the air and soaked into the monster, reducing it to mush in seconds.

Draz said, “No rad; Fail. Mana Altered spells; Fail.”

Kiri nodded. “I will do better next—”

“I didn’t ask for excuses!”

 

– – – –

 

Zimmy shot her mimic full of [Decay Force Shrapnel], earning an easy victory, but another failure.

 

– – – –

 

Erick frowned. His mimic was a hundred feet away, and it looked perfectly at peace.

Then he remembered the ‘peaceful’ looking walls of Ar’Kendrithyst, and flew into the sky—

“No flying!” Draz shouted.

Erick frowned. He looked to Lowhit.

Draz said, “I must be getting old! You’re right! Lowhit failed for that, too. Sometimes it’s hard to keep track of all of the failures in a single rookie.”

Erick turned back toward his mimic.

Can’t hit it with [Force Beam]. Can’t Mana Alter.

Oh. No. So?

Fuck him?

Right.

Mana Shaping X. [Withering].

Erick’s slime [Withering] rolled forward across the land like a tidal wave released, slipping across agaves and sand, but sticking to every mimic it found. A shrill keening filled the air in front of Erick, as a small portion of the near-invisible [Withering] held on top of the mimic, and the rest traveled onward. Liquid burst out of the monster as every crystalline leaf cracked open like a broken water main, spraying clear goop into the air. In seconds the monster was dead. Thick air flowed into the sky, transforming the monster’s liquid remains into gasses, or whatever [Cleanse] actually did, as similar scenes played out across the land, each tableau of death too far away to see.

Notifications started pinging. Mog laughed loud.

Draz said, “Mog. This is intolerable.”

Mog was still laughing. She said, “You could have at least tried, Erick!”

“You’re entirely right. My bad.” He pointed away from his still-expanding [Withering]. “We can probably find more in that direction.”

Kiri asked, “How many is that killing right now?”

Erick walked away from the expanding [Withering], counting up, “20… 25… 30… a lot.”

Zimmy looked a bit scared. The others looked impressed.

Erick led the way to the next mimic, inspecting his [Withering] as he walked.

 

 

I’m out here. I might as well level this to 10 and actually make the ooze version.

Erick was learning quite a lot in this class, but it was a slog. Draz didn’t seem to be trying, like, ever. Was this really what one of ‘Mog’s Classes’ that everyone told Erick he should take…

Was this really how it was supposed to be?

Ten minutes later, Erick found another mimic; it wasn’t hard, they were everywhere once you knew where to look. While everyone else waited well away, Erick began [Stoneshape]ing a massive, twenty foot long, ten foot wide, rolling pin of stone. It took twenty seconds to make, and then a few more seconds to shape properly with a few spikes here and there to catch and crunch, and it was much, much too large to actually lift and swing with [Stoneshape]. So he simply took control of what he could, and rolled the stone across the land, charging a suddenly active mimic who had no way to escape.

SquICK!

Erick released his [Stoneshape], letting momentum take the rolling pin another twenty yards past the remains of the mimic’s mangled, flattened corpse. With his Handy Aura, Erick plucked a glittering rad out of the pressed remains.

Mog laughed loud while Draz sighed. Kiri smiled. Poi kept his expression mostly schooled, but the sapphirescale dragonkin couldn’t help but grin a bit. The other three students looked like a deity of Insight had personally come down to Veird and showed them a new way of fighting. Lowhit’s mouth was fully open, his eyes wide.

Mog said, “That used to be a popular technique, but how much Participation did you get?”

Erick looked at the notification box. “95 percent.”

“What!” Mog laughed loud, saying, “You should have gotten 30!”

“I did all the work!” Erick pointed at the rolling pin. “I made that.”

Mog laughed again.

Draz frowned. “Was that just [Stoneshape]?”

“Yes, sir.”

“… You still fail.”

Erick nodded. “I’ll do better next time, sir.”

“… See that you do.” Draz added, “Rookie.”

Mog laughed again, and she wasn’t the only one. Draz seemed to be having a bad day, though.

 

– – – –

 

Jane did not call that night. Erick tried not to freak out. He failed.

He asked Poi, “Is Jane okay?”

Poi looked into the air. A moment later, he said, “She is on a mission and cannot speak. Killzone is with her, and expects no difficulty.”

Erick relaxed. “Good.”

 

– – – –

 

The next day of classes began with a trip to the Crystal Forest, but the whole group only traveled one kilometer out of town, to the north. Mog did not come, but Draz had brought in a specialist, who Erick already knew. Sizzi Zago, daughter of Guildmaster Zago, of the Mage’s Guild. Erick suspected they wouldn’t be hunting mimics today.

Erick and company stood on one side of an empty space in the Crystal Forest. Sizzi stood on the other side. Draz stood in the middle.

Draz said, “Miss Sizzi has been kind enough to help us with some training exercises because mimics are too easy and none of you are actually learning anything.”

Actual teaching? How novel! Erick probably failed to keep the sarcasm off of his face, because Draz shot him a miffed look.

Draz said, “Waelog! You’re up first. Prep for normal combat.”

Waelog nodded, conjuring her blocky grey armor along with a massive grey spear. She swung the weapon around once, then thumped the base hard into the sand.

Sizzi lifted her hands to the sky. Pale violet light flowed out of her like streamers of sparkles, hitting something invisible, soaking into nothing, gradually revealing a toothy maw, then a jaw, then skin, then a face leaning against Sizzi’s hands. As mana poured out of Sizzi, a monster was gradually revealed, like flour hitting an invisible man. A menacing face was attached to a short neck and powerful shoulders. Two long arms, one arm made of a dozen tentacles, the other sporting a massive crab claw. A strong torso came next, with a thick waist. Two front legs and two back legs made the violet translucent monster something of a centaur, but instead of hooves there were three-clawed almost-chicken feet. A thick, whipping tail with serrated edges flowed out of the monster’s back end.

The monster was twelve feet tall; built to take a hit and dish out pain.

When Sizzi was done, the monster moved like a tamed beast. It nuzzled against Sizzi’s hands, and she laughed to pet the massive monster. She spoke softly to it, and the monster immediately shifted to attention; ready for instructions, or battle, or whatever.

Erick’s eyes were wide the whole time.

No one else seemed impressed. Zimmy picked at her fingernails with a conjured knife.

“Oh, come on! That’s impressive!” Erick said, “What is it, though?”

Sizzi blushed.

Draz answered, “[Conjure Force Elemental]! Sizzi here is on her way to becoming one of the best summoners in Spur! Don’t think this’ll be easy, Waelog. Summoners are almost like Shades; you have to get through a thousand monsters in order to attack the summoner themselves. But you’re not attacking Sizzi,” Draz pointed at the monster. “Your goal is to kill Zog! Ignore Sizzi herself. Get ready!”

Waelog moved like the wind, taking off from a dead stop to rushing across the sands, dirt flying, spear flowing forward, aiming for a direct center mass hit against the monster; against Zog. Sizzi’s monster was still a hundred yards away, but that didn’t seem to matter to Waelog. It didn’t seem to matter to the monster, either, who didn’t move a single limb.

Sizzi rushed away from her monster, though, while Draz similarly evacuated the ‘arena’.

About a hundred flying magenta bunnies appeared out of the ground, right under Waelog, thirty feet in front of the monster. Like suddenly soaring groundhogs, they had always been there waiting for her approach. Waelog repositioned, instantly kicking off the ground, flying left, but not actually flying. She was pure martial power. Meditation didn’t reveal much magic on her at all, except for the armor and the weapon.

Sizzi shouted, “Zog! Dodge and flow! Occupy!”

Zog had moved when Erick wasn’t looking; it was preparing to strike, but instead slipped down a fraction, and leapt away, twenty feet, directly backward, while the—

Sizzi shouted, “Bunnies! Go for the kill!”

Waelog landed away from the bunnies, but they followed. She didn’t charge forward, but instead to the side, guiding the bunnies to attack one at a time, slicing and smashing the flying magenta-things as they attacked, and she curved around toward Zog. The ‘bunnies’, who were not bunnies, and never had been, each vibrated once, as they flew around Waelog, searching for a stray body part to attack.

Each translucent, flying magenta bunny, inverted, into bright, blood-red spike monsters. Too many teeth, too many exposed tentacles and guts, too large of a central eye. They glowed bright red, and then they cackled.

The monsters cackled, and they all sped up.

Erick smiled and laughed. “They’re so cute!”

Zimmy whispered, “They’re ungodly monsters…”

Well, yes. They were ungodly monsters, but this whole summoning-thing looked like the workings of a child who wanted friends, who only had conjured monsters to work with. Erick might have been way off on that guess, though. But kids back on Earth drew crazy monsters all the time. If they had access to [Conjure Force Elemental], Erick wouldn’t be surprised if some of them made creatures like Sizzi’s.

Erick really should pay more attention to the fight.

Waelog blurred. She was an orcol with a ‘fast forward’ button. Countless bunny-monsters ripped out of the air as Waelog smashed and crashed, but she was still surrounded. She zipped out of the melee; the bunny-monsters trailing her. Three stuck to her body with long tentacles, trying to gnaw at her armor, but she was past that distraction. Her spear was pointed at Zog, and Zog wasn’t moving.

Something really fast happened. Erick didn’t see what.

But Waelog was on the ground, groaning. Zog’s crab arm was gone, but its tentacle arm was wrapping around Waelog—

“All stop!” Sizzi shouted, “All retreat!”

The monster-bunnies flipped inside out again, hiding the red monster inside, revealing the fluffy pink-violet outside, with big floppy ears and long hoppy feet. Zog leapt away from Waelog.

Waelog stayed on the ground, staring at the sky, defeated. She sighed, more resigned than angry.

Sizzi petted Zog’s flank, while the remaining bunnies hopped around her feet. Sizzi shed violet mana like a tree in fall. Mana soaked into Sizzi’s monster. Zog’s crab arm regrew. Seven bunnies became 10, those 10 became 20, then 30.

Erick looked up [Conjure Force Elemental].

 

 

Not yet.

Erick asked, “Is this some specialized spell with stuff I’m just not seeing, like [Ward]?”

Kiri whispered, “Extremely. Later ranks of the skill let you infuse your monsters with extra mana and skills they can use at your command.”

Lowhit said, “I can kill them.”

Zimmy said, “I don’t think I could. That’s a lot of bunnies.”

“Put up or shut up, Lowhit!” Draz turned to Sizzi. “Ready?”

“Yes,” she said.

Draz shouted at the still downed Waelog. “Get up, Failure! Clear the arena!”

Waelog lifted her legs up fast then tucked into a backward roll. She lifted to her feet with subtle grace, then walked over to join the audience, as Lowhit walked into the makeshift arena.

Lowhit started flying.

Four seconds into the flight, he screamed, as fifty pulsing tentacle bunnies reflected his magic back at him like they were all crystal mimics, each using [Reflection].

“How come [Reflection] isn’t in the Script when I search?” Erick asked.

Lowhit flew away, trying to avoid the rampaging monsters, testing them with various Altered spells. Decay Shrapnel did nothing; they weren’t organic, so that made sense. He had much better luck with fire Shrapnel, though. The bunnies burned, and knocked into other bunnies, which also burned.

Kiri said, “[Reflection] is not a base spell. It’s from [Ward], and it’s very specialized. It doesn’t have an option to buy, like how you can buy[Teleport]; you have to get [Reflection] some other way, like how [Polymorph] comes from a Mimic Potion. Some people spend years learning [Reflection]. Aside from Crystal Mimics, you almost never see someone outside of Archmages with [Reflection], and even then—”

Lowhit screamed; a tentacle bunny was attached to his leg, the others were close! He shot out an unaltered Shrapnel, and dozens of the Force shards reflected in dozens of directions; some right back at Lowhit.

Erick asked, “Is it expensive? They seem to have an endless amount of [Reflection].”

Kiri said, “She must have a good version of the spell. Look closely at her; she’s still shedding mana into the ground—”

Erick looked. She was; violet mana dripped from Sizzi’s skin into the ground like tiny drops of water.

Kiri continued, “—The bunnies must be horde monsters, and she’s constantly feeding them new mana through hidden paired bunnies in the sand below her.”

An explosion of fire rocked out from Lowhit, blowing apart twenty bunnies. He had cleared a path to Zog, but he was obviously injured. Blood dripped from his arms. His robes were in tatters.

Sizzi said, “Stand down!”

The bunnies retreated to Sizzi’s side, where she infused them with more mana.

Lowhit shouted, “FUCK! Dammit. I thought…”

Draz slowclapped as he said, “Great job, Lowhit! Bunnies took you down! FAIL!”

Lowhit grumbled, moving off the field, as Sizzi finalized repairs on her monsters. Shrapnel wounds vanished, burns healed over, translucent pink-violet not-flesh returned.

Kiri strode out into the field. She bowed to Sizzi. “Thank you for this opportunity.”

Sizzi smiled, then turned to Draz.

“Whenever you’re ready!” He shouted. “Go!”

Kiri took to the sky, straight up.

The bunnies leapt and tumbled, crossing the field and then flying up, straight at Kiri.

Kiri pulsed, bright green, and the air flexed. A wave of fire crashed out of her, cascading down the bunnies, hitting each one on the way to the ground, and then booming sand out, causing a minor crater. One of the bunnies closer to Kiri instantly popped and exploded in fire, burning another one, that then one popped, spreading the fire. Dozens popped, then all of them popped, scattering violet and red remains into the air.

Kiri pointed at Zog, her finger bright, bright green; the world around her seemed to dim.

Zog dashed to the side to avoid what must have been a specialized [Force Beam], because the thin line of light that came out of Kiri’s fingertip came out all at once, not over ten seconds. It did not crater the ground like her other attack; it just went in deep, like a nail from a high-powered nailgun.