Maiz’s body flew to the side, and he twisted in the air, flame-coated staff descending on the hard shell of an oversized bug. Maiz heard the percussive sound of the spell triggering, but his eyes were already searching the space of the floor. Lila danced past him, jumping up over the ledge separating the monster-infested floor with the path before it. So she was already done, then. Hugan was huddled behind his shield, easily weathering blows from a pair of the monsters, but not attacking back.

Maiz frowned. “Need help, Hugan?” He called, copying the same question Hugan had asked him a few times. They had grown somewhat used to the rhythm of fighting the groups of about a dozen monsters which spawned every two minutes. At this point he almost felt like he was simply working, trying to get through his stack before the day was out. No, this is much more interesting.

But Hugan called back in an easy tone, “No thanks.” Even as he said the words, he absorbed another blow from a jumping monster and pushed it away with his shield, chopping the other out of the air as it also flew towards him with a deftness that belied his supposed inexperience.

Maiz almost shook his head. He had no idea how Hugan was so incredibly adept at this. He himself rarely managed to hit his opponents, relying on the power of his Flaming Strike to actually kill them. At least he was fighting with the advantage of Fast Feet, which probably made him look at least competent to the other Novices. Even then, Lila still managed to make him seem like he was about as graceful as a toddler. She made Hugan look like a an amateur, killing all of her monsters in less than half a minute. By comparison, Maiz barely seemed like he had a combat title at all.

Shaking away thoughts of his inadequacies, Maiz spotted the last two monsters, both close to the pulsing… thing that was their nest. It looked something like a mass of entrails that flashed with red light at the pace of a heartbeat. Apparently, it covered some sort of spawning pit for the creatures, because whenever a new swarm appeared, it did so from underneath it.

Maiz had already killed two opponents from this swarm. Out of Lila, Hugan, and himself, they each would take four monsters for each swarm, which meant that the remaining two insect-monsters were his to kill. He jogged forward, careful not to slip on the floor slick with poison. Falling here had left his skin irritated wherever it touched the ground, though luckily the Clerics were able to heal that away. As Maiz ran, he cast Flaming Strike, finding it markedly easier than he had earlier in the fight. There was nothing quite like practice in real combat, it seemed.

He was extraordinarily tempted to just slam his staff down between the two creatures, injuring and probably killing both at once. However, he had been warned by Lila in no uncertain terms to leave the pulsing red thing completely untouched. If it was destroyed, even inadvertently, that would prevent every other group from being able to train for at least a week. Instead, Maiz simply waved his flaming staff a bit to get the bugs’ attention, then skipped back with the aid of Fast Feet as they jumped at him. Once they were away from their ‘nest,’ Maiz swiftly killed one of them, then danced around blows from the other until he could cast Flaming Strike and kill it. Even as his staff descended, a gruff, angry voice echoed down from the the cavern entrance.

“Get back up here, you’re done!”

The whoosh of fire as Maiz’s staff hit the last monster seemed to punctuate the officer’s words. Maiz looked back at the others of his party, who all seemed satisfied with the quarter hour’s work. Even the two Clerics had gotten a decent amount of Healing practice, mostly because Hugan constantly took small hits from the monsters as he fought. Maiz and especially Lila were rarely injured, but the Heal spell did a little to restore stamina and mitigate muscle exhaustion, so it was still useful to them.

With a collective nod, they ascended back up the stone ‘steps’ and out into the light. After being dismissed by the training officer, apparently released to do whatever they wanted until after midday, they all started back towards the barracks. As they walked, Maiz finally focused on the purple flashing icon in the corner of his vision, the symbol of Viselys. Purple text appeared in his vision, notifying him of the results of his first Dungeon run.

You have slain Tritantus Bug, Rank 1 (24)! +144 exp (120*1.2 knowledge modifier)

You have achieved Rank 2-5 in: The Nameless! You have unassigned attribute points (4/60 to next rank)

You have improved Flaming Strike to ranks 2-10! +45 exp (49/60 to next rank)

You have improved Fast Feet to ranks 2-8! +35 exp (84/60 to next rank)

You have achieved rank 6 in: The Nameless! (24/70 to next rank)

You have improved Shield Stance to rank 2! +5 exp (29/70)

Maiz blinked, though it did nothing to dispel the text now completely obscuring his vision. He was forced to stop as he read through the notifications, thinking that he would never look at them again. It was incredibly annoying to read through such a detailed accounting of his experience gains when he could just as easily look at his Name Sheet for the total changes. His annoyance faded, however, as he read through the notifications. Then his jaw dropped, and his knees went a little weak. Six ranks in his title? Not only that, but ten in Flaming Strike and eight in Fast Feet? He was already halfway to making Flaming Strike an Apprentice ranked ability, and not far behind in Fast Feet. And he ascended through a quarter of the Novice ranks in his title already! Holy hells, this is amazing!

The rest of the group had also stopped, and as the purple text cleared from Maiz’s vision, he looked around at them with excited eyes. Hugan had an odd, absent grin on his face and a far off look, which meant he was probably looking at his notifications as well. Maiz knew that, if he couldn’t read, he’d be seeing something like colored bars filling up to indicate how much experience he’d gained, as well as some instinctual knowledge about what rank he was currently at. Honestly, being literate in both words and numbers made viewing one’s Name Sheet much more rewarding.

Ziya was looking at Maiz without a hint of emotion, as per usual. Sifet and Lila, however, had tolerant smiles on their faces, looking almost nostalgic.

“Gained a few ranks, huh?” Lila asked in an exaggeratedly jaded tone.

Maiz grinned back at her. “Six! And ten in my Flaming Strike!” In his excitement, he almost blurted out the gains in Fast Feet, but he’d caught himself just in time.

She nodded knowingly. “Sounds pretty good. But you’re slacking a bit on training. My first run, I got ten ranks in my title, and the second was five.”

“What?” Maiz was shocked at this casual announcement. “But then why--”

“--why am I still a Novice?” Lila’s smile had a hint of bitterness to it. “The last five ranks of Novice require you to do something special or get huge losses in experience gains. They call it a ‘feat.’ Like Clerics have to choose a god to serve before they can become Apprentices.”

Ziya and Sifet nodded at this. “I’ll probably have to do that before my next run.” Sifet said. Ziya remained silent.

Huh. That was extremely interesting information, but it raised another question. “But then how do you know what your, uh, ‘feat’ is?”

Lila laughed. “You don’t. I mean, it usually makes sense for whatever your title is. Like you,” she gestured at Hugan, “will probably have to do something involving defense, or shields or something. But once someone figures out the feat for their title, they usually write it down or tell someone. It gets recorded, especially the one for Novices. That’s what Mr. Rin is there for, to tell everyone what their feat is and how to accomplish it. Of course, that only works for people with titles common enough to have information about them recorded.”

“Oh.” Maiz’s stomach dropped a little. Not only was his supposed title, Spellsword, rare enough that such information would probably difficult to find, but his actual title was literally a myth. Where would he get information for that?

“Right. Puts people like us,” she made a gesture which included Hugan, Maiz, and herself, “in a gods-damned tough spot.”

“But it also means that, when you figure out your feats, you’ll just be stronger than other people. That’s it. Only reason Lord Massahn let some titles be more powerful than others, you know.” Sifet put in. His expression was a little… unsettling. He seemed slightly resentful of the three with rare titles, perhaps because Cleric was only a little rarer than most other non-combat titles. Riala probably would have called it a ‘rare’ title to Hugan and Maiz’s ‘epic’ ones. Maiz didn’t know how Lila’s title ranked, and of course Maiz’s actual title was ‘legendary,’ completely unique and presumably among the nine most powerful in the world.

Considering how he’d performed in the Dungeon compared to the other two combatants, he didn’t quite feel like that was true.

“Who wants to practice?” Maiz blurted out. He suddenly felt like he hadn’t been doing nearly enough with his title. For Hudith’s sake, he was a God-Chosen! He’d literally spoken to Viselys and the god had granted him a title! And he hadn’t even done as much on his first Dungeon run as Lila apparently had. He needed to practice more.

“Heh. I’m always game.” Lila gave him a genuine smile. That was almost enough to pull Maiz out of his self recrimination. She really was very pretty, those gray eyes giving her an exotic air Maiz hadn’t ever encountered before. Well, Riala had been more exotic, but Maiz didn’t think it was fair to compare Lila to an actual angel.

“Sounds like fun!” Hugan jumped in, pounding Maiz on the back. I wonder how many times he has to do that before it raises my Constitution.

Coughing a little, but laughing, Maiz followed Hugan and Lila to the training fields. Ziya fell into step beside him without a word, and when Maiz shot her a questioning look, she simply shrugged, a slight smile touching her face for the first time that Maiz had ever seen.

Huh. Maiz wondered if this was what it felt like to have friends. It felt… good.

********************************

Maiz went to sleep exhausted, feeling a bit sorry for the mages who would be washing his tunic and pants tomorrow. After hours of non-stop sparring with both Lila and Hugan, he’d eaten and then spent the rest of the day in mage training. He’d been doing much better on the mana manipulation exercises than he had on his first day, and he found it relatively trivial to collect his mana around himself in a small bubble. Afterwards, he’d spent hours intermittently practicing fighting maneuvers with his staff and studying his Flaming Strike. That was the least productive thing he’d done that day--he hadn’t even been able to fully commit the second layer of the spell to memory, yet alone attempt to duplicate it.

However, in all he’d taken the day at a breakneck speed, invigorated by his first rank-ups in his title. Funnily enough, he hadn’t really felt much different despite all of the ranks he’d gained. Certainly, his Flaming Strike seemed drastically different, costing much more mana to use and having a much stronger effect, but he hadn’t really felt an overall difference in his abilities as a whole. He’d been completely outclassed not just by Lila but also Hugan when they’d sparred, though he’d certainly learned a good deal from the training. It was almost like…

If Maiz hadn’t wanted to accidentally wake anyone else in the room, he would have cursed himself aloud. How could I be such a Ulion-cursed idiot? Despite the feeling of almost painful stupidity it invoked, he opened his Name Sheet, eyes quickly finding the bit of information he’d somehow managed to miss through the entire day.

Maiz-Spellsword (Rank 6)

Title Status-Hidden (Default)

Bonus Titles-

God-Chosen of Viselys (Hidden)

Title Options Available

Health-120/120

Mana-140/140 (+ 1.1 pts/second)

Stamina: 110/110 (+ 1.1 pts/second)

Attributes (You have 24 unassigned attribute points):

Age

16

Constitution

12

Intelligence

14

Wisdom

11

Strength

11

Dexterity

11

Agility

12

Charisma

9

Luck

8

Skills:

The Mask

Printing

Shield Stance

Fast Feet

Spells:

Flaming Strike

Mana Sense

He almost didn’t want to see it, but the words ‘24 unassigned attribute points’ seemed to mock him. With another inward curse, he focused on the prompt and set about assigning the points he’d completely forgotten about through the entire day.

His first instinct was to buff up his physical attributes, Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution. After all, those were his weakest, and he certainly liked the idea of being able to fight at a level similar to that of melee combatants his rank. But there was a problem; his inspection earlier in the day of his Flaming Strike had shown that the cost of the spell was now 80 mana instead of 30. The spell also did 100 damage instead of 50, but at that mana cost he could only cast it once before he needed to wait. That wasn’t the worse thing, but it brought up the real possibility of his being short on mana at some point in the near future.

Of course, I already have that issue with my skills. There was no question he would need to increase his Strength, if only to keep him from constantly running out of stamina. Dexterity would also help with that, and, from his experiences in the trials, it was simply a useful attribute. More Agility would bring down the cost of Fast Feet, and make him more maneuverable in fights. And, of course, he didn’t want to die, so Constitution was an excellent choice as well.

He very quickly decided to put just two points into Intelligence, enough to allow for two consecutive casts of Flaming Strike. After some debate, he increased his Strength, Dexterity, and Wisdom by sizable amounts, bringing each into the high teens. With a bit of thought, he’d realized that, while dying was indeed not good, his Constitution was not directly related to his survival. His abilities, basically just Fast Feet and Flaming Strike, would keep him alive and let him kill his enemies. With that consideration, he added the remaining points into Agility, bringing that attribute to 20. If Fast Feet was to keep him alive, it needed to cost as little as possible.

Maiz was happy and more than a little excited at the changes he’d wrought, no matter how late they’d come. He’d be a completely new person the next day, ascended beyond what he was once capable of. But for now, he needed to sleep. In just a few minutes, his exhausted mind drifted off into nothingness.

***************************

Instead of nothingness, Maiz blinked his eyes open almost immediately after closing them, and found himself standing in… a room? A void would be a more accurate description. In fact, ‘floating in a void’ would be a more accurate description. Am I dreaming? Maiz didn’t dream, ever. Not even nightmares when he’d lost his father.

A soft pop that seemed to echo strangely in the empty space interrupted the silence. Suddenly, there was a young woman in a purple dress standing before him. Her skin was unnaturally pale, pinkish but without a hint of pigment in it, and she had a beautiful face. High cheekbones, lips that always seemed on the edge of a smile, and a delicate nose. Her dark hair framed her face, and in any amount of light Maiz might have thought it black. Against the darkness, it was clearly a deep purple. All of this was secondary, however, to her eyes. They glowed the color of a fresh bruise, a light unlike anything Maiz had ever seen before. Except once.

“Do you really have to go with the all-purple color scheme?” The words came almost unbidden to Maiz’s lips. But really, it was a bit silly in his opinion.

The young woman had been looking at him with a hesitant, almost fearful expression, lips turned down at the corners and shoulders hunched slightly. But at his words, she began laughing. She laughed long enough that Maiz got a bit annoyed, tears streaming out of her glowing eyes. How did that even work? What purpose would tears serve on eyes that clearly did not need moisture to function?

“Uh,” Maiz said after it was clear she wouldn’t stop on her own. “Hi, Riala.”

Finally, she calmed down, her chest heaving as she recovered from the fit of laughter. “Hi Maiz.”

She strode towards him as if the darkness was a floor, and, with a determined expression on her face, gave him a hug. A hug.

Maiz had never encountered this situation before, and hadn’t really considered how to deal with it if it came up. Pushing her away and using Flaming Strike seemed a bit extreme, but the alternative was to...hug her back? Should he pat her on the head or something? He ended up simply standing, muscles in his back tensing so hard he almost cramped up.

Thankfully she let go in a moment, looking at him straight in the face from a few centimeters away. Her eyes hurt to look at a bit, but Maiz didn’t turn his gaze.

“I’m sorry.”

Maiz let out a weak chuckle. “You know, up until now I’ve actually been angry at you. And then I realized that I was just as guilty as you are, and probably more. I mean, you were basically just doing your job, and you knew what would happen to me. I thought I was sabotaging your work under a god.” Maiz shook his head. Maybe it was the boost to his Wisdom, but harboring even the slightest resentment to Riala seemed incredibly childish, even downright narcissistic. “So, I guess that I’m sorry.”

Riala’s face broke into another smile, and she stepped back. “I accept yours if you accept mine.” At Maiz’s nod, she continued. “I’m sorry, but I have to handle… business.”

Maiz frowned. What business? What had changed? “Yes?”

“I know you don’t know this, because there’s no way you could, but I can’t talk to you whenever I want. You have to do things, stuff aligned with Lord Viselys’s goals, to speak to me.”

That was nice to know, but it raised another question. “What did I do to let you talk to me this time?”

She gave him a smile. “Oh, you just fooled some people who trust you about your title!” She seemed to be edging back to her cheerful demeanor, but her words caused Maiz to wince. Of course. And not only that, but the fact that this was happening now meant that his friends actually trusted him. That would have been heartwarming if it weren’t accompanied by a reminder that he was constantly lying to them.

“Oh.”

“Right! So I can give you a bit of knowledge. Let’s see, you are the youngest God-Chosen, and Lord Viselys was the last god to Choose. All of the others know that they aren’t alone, and some are probably looking to kill you before you can get strong enough to matter!”

“Oh.” Now Maiz’s voice was a bit strained.

“Also, if you forgot, you were supposed to do some stuff after the war around your area settled down.”

“Oh-- I mean, yes.” Viselys’s exact words had been something like, ‘take control of the losing side.’

“Right, right. Well, apparently there were some, uh, developments. So your assignment hasn’t changed, but Lord Viselys wants you to be a Journeyman before you do it. And--I guess I can say this--you have about six months to do it.”

“Oh.” Six months to accomplish what many combatants only managed over a lifetime followed by jumping into a gods-damned war. Nothing outrageous.

“That’s it from me, are there any questions you had? Or, I mean, one question. Rules, you know!” She gave him an apologetic smile at that.

Maiz shook himself out of his numb stupor at her insane ‘information.’ He needed to choose a good question.The most obvious thing seemed to be how to speak with her again, but what if the answer was completely unachievable for a long time? Or so simple that he would have done it without her information? He had to assume the former, because it was the worst-case scenario. What was information he would need relatively soon that he couldn’t get anywhere else?

“Riala, what feats do I need to do to get to Apprentice and Journeyman rank?”

Her smile lit up her face once again, and her eyes flashed with their strange, dark light. “You know, funny you should mention that…”