Fey and Blade had each gained a level by the time Sirena messaged them to say she was coming to find them. They were expecting some kind of change regarding Squishy, but nothing quite like what they were actually confronted with.

Sirena had undergone what must have been an expensive transformation, wearing an entirely new set of equipment. Her robes were a complex weave of four different shades of blue, aquamarine accessories decorated her ears and hair, and she carried a long staff carved to resemble narwhal horn[i], topped with a large, faceted orb of aquamarine. Whereas her former equipment was balanced between water, wind, and lightning bonuses to reflect the specialties of Thrain, the storm god, the new set focused exclusively on water and offered a staggering 250% bonus to spells of that element.

The new equipment was very distinctive (and blue), but nothing that would cause anyone to stare for long. No, the staring was due to the fact that there was a huge ball of water suspended in the air above Sirena’s staff, one easily large enough to engulf the entire party, including Boris. Squishy floated within the magical sphere, still not quite able to extend its tentacles to their fullest length.

Sirena was casting the newly-purchased Water Mace, a spell designed neither to be maintained continuously, nor expanded to such an extent. Only the expensive new equipment and her innate merfolk affinity with water allowed her to maintain it without draining her mana stores faster than they regenerated.

“So? What do you think?” she asked.

Fey stared up at the preposterously-sized ball of water. “…Well, that’s one solution.” One that seemed to create more problems than it solved. “Can you still cast other spells while maintaining that thing?”

“No, but I don’t have to. Watch.” Sirena raised the arm holding the staff, causing the sphere of water to rise in tandem.

“Waitwaitwait!” Foreseeing disaster, Fey grabbed Sirena’s arm before the mermaid did any reckless swinging. “Don’t damage the trees unless you want to be murdered by the forest rangers,” she warned. (The statement was somewhat inaccurate, as the word ‘murder’ implied an illegal act. ‘Executed’ would probably be the better choice.)

The globe of water was simply too large not to cause random destruction everywhere it went. “Shrink it down,” said Fey.

Sirena complied, reducing the mana powering the spell until it was approximately the size of an exercise ball. Squishy’s tentacles were forced to curl several times to remain within the water, but the jellyfish otherwise suffered no ill effects. There was no way to tell how it felt about the change in its housing situation.

Fey judged that the forest would be safe from Sirena’s magic and removed her restraining hand.

Sirena resumed her demonstration, shifting her grip so that she held the lower third of her staff. “Watch,” she repeated. She whipped the staff sharply downward, stopping with its orb-topped end a handsbreadth above the ground.

The Water Mace spell was fairly simple in concept: A sphere of water of variable size was conjured with a fixed position relative to a magical implement, such as a wand or staff[ii]. When the mage moved the implement, the kinetic energy required to move the water was supplied by magic rather than the mage’s physical strength. This allowed her to manipulate the heavy mass of water at the same speed as she could move the much-lighter staff or wand.

What occurred when the water met an object depended on the speed of impact. At slower speeds, objects passed into the sphere. The spell only had power over water, so dense objects would fall out when the sphere was lifted. Jellyfish, being 95% water, stayed in suspension. This aspect of Water Mace could be used to drown opponents if the sphere was of sufficient size.

High-speed collisions were what the spell was primarily intended for. Much like falling into water from a great height, there was little difference between liquid-solid and solid-solid collisions when there was enough speed involved. The spell subtly increased the cohesion of the water so that the threshold for this was lower than in real life.

While Sirena’s staff stopped short of hitting the ground, the Water Mace anchored to it collided with a sound between a splash and a boom, creating a deep, rounded indent. (Miraculously, this rough handling somehow left Squishy unharmed.) Sirena quickly lifted her staff so that the water would not begin to seep into the ground.

Blade squatted down to examine the impression. He whistled. At its centre, it was deeper than his fist. “Nice,” he said. (*impressed*)

Fey wore an absentminded expression, busy analyzing the mechanics and utility of the spell. While a warrior armed with a heavy weapon that could be moved as quickly as a light weapon would be a cheat-level ability, mages were limited by the fact that their stats and equipment made them unsuitable to fight in close quarters. “How far from the staff can you extend the ball?” she asked.

“Depends on how much mana I want to spend,” Sirena responded. “For a short time, probably five metres or so. Keeping it up continuously, probably no more than two metres for a sphere this size.”

Fey nodded distractedly, running attack simulations inside her head. She nodded again, having come up with some kind of decision. “Let’s go level.”

Thus began a long afternoon of training. Sirena was set to the task of learning to extend her Water Mace away from the staff at the same time as she swung downward. Results were hit-or-miss as she taxed her Concentration attribute to its fullest. The mermaid kept her attacks slow, so no one sustained any crush injuries, but the rest of the party frequently had a limb or whole body soaked from a mis-aimed swing. Boris, being the only one with a large amount of skin not completely protected by armour, sustained frequent stings from coming into contact with Squishy’s tentacles. He bore the surface wounds stoically (and secretly enjoyed all the fussing Fey did over him).

Boris grunted in satisfaction as all of his welts disappeared. Being a reflection of the more diligent side of his owner, he had been constantly training Immunity during breaks and meal times and had now surpassed Fey’s level 9 ability. In reaching level 10, Immunity evolved to provide invulnerability to the non-damage side effects of poisons, including pain, paralysis, and stat penalties.

Squishy also inflicted severe neurotoxic injuries upon the completely unarmoured monsters they were fighting.

While fighting, Amethyst kept an eye on the Water Mace (or as she thought of it, the ‘Squishy-water-ball’). It did not actually matter whether the slime was hit by the spell, as she was immune to the poison, waterproof, and almost crush-proof as well. No, Amethyst was not worried about the danger from the Water Mace. It just seemed… not fully optimized (or as she thought of it, ‘stupid-weak’).

The solution came to her as the magical globe of water came splashing over her and Boris yet again. She activated Poison Sphere and filled the Water Mace with furyweed poison.

Lost in the flurry of system messages associated with party combat against multiple opponents, Fey, Sirena, and Blade failed to notice the initial skill activation. Fey noticed the multiple poison notifications first, and sent Amethyst an approving look without saying anything. Sirena noticed next and accordingly adjusted her strategy from targeting one monster at a time to trying to get them all drenched at least once.

Blade paid little attention to system notifications about his party members and their pets, adjusting his settings so that anything involving him or Firefly was highlighted. It wasn’t until one of Squishy’s tentacles stung him at a small gap in his armour that he noticed the Water Mace’s new properties.

“[Censored word]!” Blade swore as the burning pain of furyweed poison spread through his body. “Fey!” he yelled.

Fey winced apologetically while still delivering deathblows to the nearest monsters. “I really didn’t think anything would happen to you,” she said. After all, with all of his armour, the chances that he would get cut and allow the poison to enter his body were small.

Blade gritted his teeth as he deliberated over whether to use an antidote. The reduced-effect furyweed would not kill him, but it was quite painful. “Couldn’t you at least pick something I’m already immune to?”

Amethyst squeaked an explanation, and Fey nodded in agreement. “All of the other ones would damage Squishy as well. The only other that needs to break skin first is bomblebee venom, and that would cause a small explosion and 50 damage every time it hit you,” she translated.

Somehow, Fey had logic on her side with this poisoning incident. Sensing that the combination of Water Mace and Poison Sphere was something he would have to deal with for a long time, he decided to endure and train Immunity until he could resist furyweed poison. In pain and aggravated about it, he growled as he ploughed into the monsters arrayed against him.

“Hey, cool skill!” Sirena congratulated, noticing that it was slightly easier to control her magic now.

Somehow, benefiting from being poisoned made the whole situation more aggravating. He Growled again, though the effects did not stack.

***

◊◊◊

Leander alternated between one- and two-handed grips of his sword as he flowed through the swings and thrusts of a battle pattern he had learned in a real-life sword academy. In preparation to test the sword-and-sorcery world of Fantasia, the company had paid for him to take swordfighting lessons. Fighting mostly quadruped monsters armed with teeth and claws and the addition of a seven-metre wingspan had necessitated huge adjustments in technique, but he liked to maintain his original skills, both in case he encountered humanoid opponents and because it was a fun form of exercise.

Repeating the pattern and two others at quarter speed, half speed, and full speed, he was breathing hard and sweating by the time he finished. He took a drink from his water bottle with a relaxed sigh. Exercise felt more invigorating in the real world now that his game avatar had so much stamina that it took flying to even deepen his breathing.

Leander’s cell phone, a wrist model that looked like a plain black band, chimed discreetly. Tapping it, he activated the holographic display and read the campus-wide notification that the morning shuttle leaving for the city would be departing in half an hour. He took a shower and was seated in one of the shuttle’s comfortable seats well before the last call for passengers.

VirtualRealities was a company that took very good care of its employees, providing optimized living and working conditions for employees and their immediate family. Internationally, they had three main company campuses, each of which was a small, self-sufficient town that offered enough amenities that people did not feel the need to leave very often.

Aware that creating an isolated community that did not integrate with mainstream society would result in a loss of innovation and relevance in their games, company policy dictated that employees spend at least one day a week off campus, doing something not directly related to work. They even provided complimentary shuttles to and from the nearest urban centre, vehicles whose interiors looked more like first-class cabins than buses.

Leander was signed up to play laser tag with other company employees that evening, but he had several hours to kill until then. Stepping off the shuttle, he waved goodbye to the other passengers and wandered into the city without a particular destination in mind.

There was a peculiar kind of serenity to be found in having a pocket of silence within a bustling space. Putting in earbuds, Leander played his favourite music and lost himself in the crowd. He found himself doing this approximately once a month, just exploring, letting his feet take him towards anything that looked interesting, people-watching while his earbuds insulated him from real social interaction. He used to also finish part of his online work during the day so that he could go on walks around campus at night, enjoying the hushed quiet, but he had not done that since he had met Fey, wanting to synchronize with her play schedule.

Leander found an out-of-the-way café and purchased a morning coffee, manners dictating that he remove his earbuds while he ordered. Smiling at the friendly barista, he retired to a table next to the window and sipped at his drink, prepared in a real cup rather than a disposable one. The café was fairly quiet, so he left the earbuds out.

As he finished, the barista came over to clear the table. “Are you new?” she asked. “I haven’t seen you around before.”

“I’m from out of town,” Leander answered truthfully.

She looked disappointed for a moment. “Oh… Well, how about I give you my number, and you call me when you’re in town. I can show you the fun spots nearby,” she said with a wink.

Leander was mildly surprised at the invitation, as he was dressed casually in a sweatshirt and jeans, nothing that hinted at wealth unless you were familiar enough with technology to see that his cell phone was a custom model. Still, he had an excuse ready. “Sorry, I have a girlfriend.”

As Leander left the café and resumed his wandering, he realized something: For the first time since he had begun using that excuse to avoid awkward conversations, it had not felt like a lie.

Footnotes:

[i] Monodon Monoceros is a species of small Arctic whale whose males have a long spiral tusk extending forward from the upper jaw. In earlier centuries, these tusks were passed off as unicorn horns. No narwhals were harmed in the making of Sirena’s staff.

[ii] The basic premise for this spell was inspired by a magic weapon from The Irregular at Magic High School (Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei)