Kevin closed the book he had been reading and stretched. He had been doing research and experiments for over a week now. Ever since he found out that you could create custom spells he had been working feverishly in an effort to create a masterpiece and become famous. Most had settled for relatively minor modifications that were ultimately either cosmetic or only moderately useful, but not Kevin. He had been excited about Shard from a gamer point of view, but truly fell in love with it when he realized the gift it gave him. He stood up, and the happy smile such a simple act always brought him spread across his face.

He headed for the heavily enchanted and reinforced practice hall and paid the small fee to use a private room, ignoring the mocking gazes of those that had noticed how much time he had spent here. He knew they thought he was stupid, most people only spent a day or two at a time to modify one of their spells, and he hadn’t kept it secret that he was still working on his first. It only made him more determined. He walked into the room and shut the door.

Whenever he was waiting for the forced logout timer to reset and let him back into the game he spent his time scouring the forums for information on the different methods and requirements for spell creation that had been found. He took a deep breath, pulled out the component he would need, and began. The first step he had developed was inspired by cultivator stories and some meditation stuff he had learned in an effort to cope with depression and stress. He cycled his mana in a pattern that resonated with the spell he wanted to cast, letting it build up within him until he felt like he was about to explode. When it was at its absolute peak and he knew another cycle would exceed his ability to control it he made a rapid series of hand gestures and said two words that were completely at odds with the now-familiar Latin phrases used across the sword and sorcery side of Shard.

“Verdant Cascade.” He intoned, in a stern voice that demanded, ordered, the world to obey his will. Immediately every drop of mana in his body exploded out of him in a brilliant flare of emerald light. The roiling ball of energy shot straight down into the ground at his feet and a wave of green energy swept across the space between him and the dummies that were provided in every room. For a moment he thought it was another failure, that he was doomed to spend even more time slaving away at a task that might very well be impossible when the ground trembled. Countless vines with sharp points and razor-edged leaves erupted from the ground wherever the wave of emerald light had passed and shot out towards the dummies in a colossal wave of destruction.

The vines pierced and shredded the dummies, rending them into splinters and bits of ruined cloth as they twisted and tore their way through their targets before weaving themselves together and reaching towards the ceiling. A triumphant grin plastered itself onto Kevin’s face as the spell ended, leaving behind a twisting green tree surrounded in the decimated remains of his ‘foes.’ He approached it, stretching out a hand to gently caress the leaves that sprouted from the nearest branch, his grin only growing wider at the velvet-soft feel of the once supremely dangerous leaves.

[You have discovered a new spell casting method: Reckless Overcharge. Cast spells beyond what you could normally manage by cycling your mana and allowing it to build up at the cost of temporarily reduced mana regeneration. (Effect is limited by endurance and willpower, exceeding your limits will result in a harmful backlash) Limited to spells with a variable mana requirement.]

[You have created an entirely new spell: Verdant Cascade!]

[Verdant Cascade’s effects will vary dependent on the amount of mana used to cast it.]

[Raise your willpower stat to gain the ability to specify targets for Verdant Cascade and prevent it from harming your allies!]

[Global announcement: Congratulations to player Gaia’s Wrath for the creation of the first player-produced Master level spell!]

The slew of messages only surprised him towards the end, the moment he witnessed the spell succeed he expected the system to redundantly inform him of his success, and while he had hoped the cycling would result in something a bit more useful than an all-or-nothing final resort type of ability it was tolerable. If nothing else he could use it to surprise people that wouldn’t expect him to cast something stronger than others his level could manage. No, the one that surprised him and made him shake with excitement was the Global message.

Already his inbox was overflowing with messages and friend requests, and he quickly turned it to private. He gave the tree a loving pat and left the room. He had about three hours left before he would be forced to return to his depressing little slice of reality, and he wanted to use them to demonstrate his new spell in as spectacular a fashion as he could manage. He rushed towards the nearest gate out of the city, only pausing to collect a few leaves from one of the Silverleaf trees that were fairly common in the region. They possessed a few magical properties, and he had worked hard to ensure that an intact leaf from this particular species of tree would be the only component he would need.

He dashed across the fields, reveling in the simple joy of being able to run at all, and skidded to a stop at the beginning of what players lovingly referred to as the Grinder. It was an area a few football fields wide that encircled the city just beyond the fenced-off farmland and guard patrols, riddled with all manner of nasty vermin that new players could learn the basics against. It was also used quite often as a testing ground for new spells, as it was the closest place to the city in which you could find monsters to fight. Unless you wanted to pay for a teleport to somewhere further out, but then you would be stuck walking back or burning a pricy Return scroll, and nobody did that for initial testing.

He wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from his spell in the open. The testing room limited its effects with the heavy warding and lack of properly deep soil. His vines could likely chew through stone ground as easily as earth, but even the stone layer under the dirt in those rooms was warded against magic. He noticed a crowd starting to grow, watching him closely. It didn’t surprise him in the slightest, as those that had an Inspect skill would be able to see his name and recognize it from the Global, and even those that couldn’t would be able to guess that he had run out here to test a spell. It was fairly common for people to have passersby stop and watch them test something new.

Whispers from the crowd confirmed that someone had inspected him and recognized his name from the Global Announcement. "Hey, it's that guy that just finished a Master level spell! I bet he's here to test it!"

"Well duh! That's what most people that rush out here like he did are doing, testing spells. Wait, did you say Master level? This should be amazing then!"

"What do you think it does? I've never seen a Master level spell before."

Hardly able to contain his excitement he opted to go for maximum effect, just as he had in the testing room. Cycling his mana until he couldn’t contain it anymore without suffering a backlash, he cast his spell. Whispers and expressions of shock erupted across the watching crowd when he uttered the command phrase. “Verdant Cascade.” Then there was a brief moment of confusion when the spell seemingly just dropped into the ground at his feet and did nothing. That moment passed quickly, as the ground started to roil and churn, vines twice as thick as the ones he had conjured before sprang from the earth in a large cone in front of him, seeking out and viciously impaling every living thing in their range, which turned out to be a surprisingly large amount.

The crowd watched in stunned silence as the vines began to rotate and twist into the sky, forming themselves into a towering tree nearly sixty feet tall and festooned with the dangling carcasses of the spell's victims, who had the great misfortune of not coming apart quite so easily as canvas-covered straw dummies with cheap stick bones. Horned rabbits, dire rats, venomous possums, and even an emaciated wolf were all dangling from the limbs of the tree or embedded halfway in the trunk. It was a macabre display that he felt suited his avatar perfectly, what better representation of Gaia’s Wrath could you find than a relentless wave of plant life eliminating the vermin that offended the Earth Mother and displaying them for all to see as a warning to those that dare to risk invoking her wrath?

He decided to spend the rest of his time exploring the city, since he was now suffering from a double stack of his Reckless Overcharge and his mana regen was abysmally low, and ran off while the crowd was still distracted by the tree. He wandered aimlessly, waving to Players and NPCs alike, chatting with a few of them cheerfully as he went, regardless of which group they fell into. The NPCs were remarkable in Shard, with a broad range of conversation options and capability, and some players had stumbled across hidden quests and interesting backstory that added incredible depth to the world the game was set in. Still, they did have limits, and if you talked to them long enough, you would eventually get repeated lines and phrases.

Inevitably, his time came to an end, and the dreaded message announcing he had been in the game for eight hours and was about to be forcibly logged off. When the headset powered off, and his vision went black, he sighed despondently. He didn’t remove it right away, having developed a habit of waiting a moment and hoping it might glitch and let him back in or something. His hopes were dashed and his thoughts were forced back to reality by a knock on his door. He tugged the headset off and set it gently on the table that was its home when he couldn’t use it. “I’m coming!” he shouted as he wheeled himself towards the door, half hoping that whoever it was would leave so he wouldn’t have to deal with someone gawking at his missing legs and unkempt appearance.

“What do you want?” He asked as he opened the door, being rude on purpose to encourage them to leave him alone.

A vaguely familiar-looking man in a fancy suit was standing outside his door. “Are you Mr. Jackson? Kevin Jackson?” He asked politely.

“Who wants to know?”

The man smiled at him, and that was all his brain needed to make the connection. His jaw dropped open in shock, and the man spoke again. “Judging from your expression you recognized me just now, but I am Evan Ebonheart, one of the creators of the game you have been playing with so much drive and vigor that you have triggered the logout failsafe each and every day since launch. Our systems keep logs of such things, for insurance purposes of course, and I came to offer you an opportunity and ask for a favor. May I come in?”