Maya and Fridget spent the next several minutes in a leisurely stroll through Kalyx toward the beginner plaza, while Maya tried to explain the tangled mess she’d somehow gotten herself into. Since she’d already explained most of it to Venix, it came surprisingly easily to her.

“So, you’re a super secret, overpowered class that’s only accessible by a glitch or exploit in World 9352’s code, and it is Domitius’s secret class as well.”

“Yep.”

“And he has been enslaving every other trickster he finds, which is how he’s maintaining his high levels and also managing to unlock new zones at an unprecedented rate. And your deity is probably evil but definitely sneaky, engaged in some shadow war with other deities, and you aren’t sure you want to be involved at all, but you’ll probably be dragged into it somehow?”

“Basically.”

“Hmm.” Fridget paused a long moment, then grinned. “Where do I sign up?”

Maya laughed. “Unfortunately, you can’t. Unless you’re permanent and get very lucky. Or …” she hesitated. “Well, Domitius implied that there was another way, his way, but I don’t know what it could be. He said it has something to do with the new seventh zone he unlocked though.”

“So a bit outside my league for the moment.” Fridget pursed her lips in contemplation. “I’ve considered going permanent, you know. I spend as much time logged in as I do out there, more some days. But I’ve never been able to convince myself to go through with it. It just feels so … final. You know? But, you’re permanent, then. What was it like? Are you glad you did it?”

“In my case, I have almost no memory of my life before. Just flashes of … more impression than anything. I couldn’t tell you what anyone looked like, or sounded like. Just the vibe of them.”

“Oh dear. That certainly doesn’t make me want to—”

“No, no. I mean, it’s not like that. I was … from a long time ago. I’m actually Andrew Stader’s sister.”

Fridget stopped walking and turned to look Maya in the eyes. “The Andrew Stader?”

“Yes. I died long before Otherworlds was ever completed. I have no idea how he managed to have me preserved or eventually scanned in, but back when I was alive there was no indication that this kind of technology would be feasible within my lifetime. As, I suppose, it wasn’t. Since they only figured it out a couple weeks ago.”

Fridget inhaled deeply. “You were in the final batch of Founders.”

“I suppose so. But that’s why I’m permanent. Because of my brother. I had nothing to say in the matter.”

“Are you glad?”

Maya hesitated. “I don’t know how to feel, honestly. I try not to think about it. If I can treat this world as though it’s mostly real, as if it’s all that matters, I can feel like I’m still a person instead of code. If I stop and think about it, it’s so easy to wonder if I’m real or if I’m just an AI who thinks it’s Maya Stader. Is this really me? Is my soul somehow inside the computer? Or is Maya Stader long gone, and I’m just a copy made from her remnants?”

“Yeah,” Fridget said softly. “That’s one reason to hesitate, for sure.”

“And what is even the point, then?” Maya asked, though she wasn’t sure any more if she was talking to Fridget or just talking to get it out there. “If everyone is immortal and just lives in an endless game, does anything matter any longer? I can die a thousand times in a day and be no worse off.”

“I wouldn’t want to die a thousand times. At that point I’d leave and go to a different world.”

“Yes, and that’s just it. You can leave at any time, go anywhere. It’s so easy to make a clean break, if you ever decide you’re done somewhere you just log out and that’s it. Sure, maybe there’ll be some psychological damage if things get really crazy, but even that seems dull and largely safe.”

Fridget nodded. “I heard about the failsafe for mental damage. They save backup reversions, in case you need to undo anything. It’s illegal to store copies of consciousnesses, but it’s not illegal to save a changelog so long as it’s small enough not to become self-aware.”

Maya shivered. “That’s horrifying.”

“Is it?”

“That such a rule has to exist at all. Like, are the NPCs self-aware? Or just very very well-coded? They all act very human, very real.”

“I don’t know. My granddaughter would know more. Trixy. Have you met her? She’s one of the reasons I know so much about this world.”

Maya gaped. “Trixy … is your granddaughter?”

“Mmhmm. She works in a related field and has always been fascinated with immersion tech, so she’d know more about it than me. If you’re curious, you should talk to her.”

“Maybe,” Maya said, noncommittally. She couldn’t help remembering how Trixy had let Desi hold her back, how she’d refused to come help. She knew it was petty to hold it against her - they’d only known each other a couple days, while Trixy and Desi were clearly old friends.

She knew if she could just talk to them and explain everything in a calmer circumstance, when she wasn’t desperate and rushing, they could clear this up. She’d forgive them for doubting her, they’d apologize for being bad friends, and everything could go back to being happy.

Except … Desi seemed pretty determined.

Gah, no. She was supposed to be talking to Fridget, not moping about people who she couldn’t control.

“Looks like we’re here,” Fridget said, before Maya could decide on how to resume the conversation. And, indeed, they had arrived.

The smith didn’t remember Maya at first, but once she removed her mask again he became absolutely delighted to facilitate her adventure into smithing.

“I am utterly ashamed that I cannot give you sufficient materials without charge, but alas, I have already exceeded my profit margins for the period and if I do not at least recoup the cost of the materials it would bankrupt me utterly.” He looked truly remorseful as he said this, and she was further assured of his honesty when she opened the trade menu and his prices were a fraction of the cost of any of the items she’d seen for sale while browsing in the past.

“This will suffice, thank you,” Maya said graciously.

Fridget watched the exchange with growing bemusement. “You’re sure I can’t get this class? You didn’t mention it comes with crafting discounts!”

“I didn’t realize you were a crafter.”

“Isn’t everyone? I mean, this world has little enough to do.” She smiled. “I bet you can’t guess what kind of crafting I do.”

Maya thought about everything she’d seen of Fridget. She was knowledgeable, active, a little aggressive at times, helpful and cooperative and kind. What kind of crafting would she lean toward?

“Scribing? Is that a skill? Or leatherworking? Do you craft armor? Maybe enchanting?” Maya shrugged. “I don’t know very much about the system, so I don’t even know what the options are.”

Fridget chuckled. “Farming.”

“Farming? Like, killing monsters for loot, farming? Or planting stuff in the ground?”

“Planting stuff. It can be very lucrative with enough patience. I enjoy just spending the evening taking care of my plants.”

“Huh. No, I would not have guessed that. Do you use your ice and fire magic to keep them the right temperature or anything?”

“No, not at all. Magic is rarely useful for such things. Too aggressive, too non-variable.”

“May I interrupt?”

Maya turned in surprise, to see the smith standing to the side. “Go ahead.”

“This weakness of magic, it is a new thing. Only in recent centuries has magic become so restrained. It is said that it once flowed through all the world, not only in deep caves and enchanted forests. And back then, it was used for everything from cooking to decoration, from war to celebration, from protection to construction. It is said that one day the gods will return this gentler magic to us, and it is for that which we wait.”

“Wow, never heard that before,” Fridget said. “New exposition? I want your class even more now. Imagine what the lore guys will think of this.” She typed something rapidly in mid-air, presumably making a journal entry. Or perhaps writing an email.

“Oh, that reminds me. Do you know of any way to contact people on other worlds?” Maya asked, once Fridget was done typing.

“Go to an internet-equipped hub. World 77930 is the usual one. It has the best connectivity you’ll find, but there’s usually a long waitlist to get in.”

“Oh, yeah. I think Sevard mentioned that world too. How do I get there?” She imagined trying to find a single world out of the spinning galaxies of the Otherworlds universe. It could take years to hunt down one specific one.

“Just focus on the number when you’re in the universe view and it should zoom right to it. Or if you’ve been there before, it’ll be in your history list. You can also favourite worlds so they appear in your universal quickbar if you use some more frequently than others.”

Maya made a quick note in her journal. “Thank you.” As soon as she finished her trickster quest for today, she decided, she’d head over there first thing.

It was long overdue that she tried to get in touch with Drew. It may prove impossible, but at least she'd know she tried.

The smith also offered her a discount on basic recipes, which he insisted he ordinarily didn’t offer for sale at all, but could make an exception for her. (Despite his assurances, she got the distinct feeling that he made similar exceptions regularly. At least, he happened to have an awful lot of duplicate recipes on hand.)

Maya assured him that she did understand, paid him for the materials, and followed his instructions as she set about learning the surprisingly uncomplicated smithing craft. Unlike real life, things like temperature control and form were more or less automatic. As long as she had the recipe in mind as she crafted, it would come out right.

Once she’d decided on the recipe to craft - simple shortsword - and gotten used to the basic motions required, she spent the next two hours pounding out shortsword after shortsword in hopes of getting an Uncommon quality one.

Actually, she got into the rhythm of it and, between talking to Fridget and the occasional discussion with the smith, she wasn’t even checking the quality of them. She kind of saw why players would choose to be crafters. It certainly had its place. The rhythm, the structure, the weird combination of peace and furious effort.

By the time she stopped to check on her work, she’d spent less than the cost of a single shortsword in materials, and created six of them for her collection.

Not a single one was below Uncommon quality. Two were Exceptional, one was Rare, and one was Legendary.

She glanced at the cloud of menus, summoning the one she wanted with a thought.

Mission complete: Trickster Day 14! Reward: +5 favour with The Trickster. Item(s) gained: [Legendary] Acrobat’s Armwraps

A quick check of her luck, and it seemed her previous choice of ‘negate penalty’ had been automatically applied. She was back up to +47! Which probably accounted for how she’d crafted so many good weapons.

She checked their stats more fully and nearly choked when she saw some of their attributes. They were all crafted at level 9, but the difference between them was astonishing.

The lowest quality dealt 3 physical damage; the Legendary one? Seven. A level nine sword that anyone could use without passing a single tier trial, still dealt 7 damage? Maybe she was in the wrong line of work, using magic and thrown weapons, if even a normal crafted sword could do this. She couldn’t help imagining the sorts of truly legendary weapons that could surely be crafted at higher levels. Maybe she wouldn’t need Oceanblade after all to be competitive in the arena. Maybe she didn’t need to buy equipment at all.

Maybe she should take a break from studying magic and spend the rest of her luck right here, with extremely cheap materials, and see what else she could craft.

“Say, what other recipes do you have for sale?” Maya asked, as the smith looked at her pile of shortswords with something between awe and pride.

“Don’t suppose you’d be willing to make a trade?” he asked, running a hand along her Legendary shortsword.

“I’ll be keeping that one,” Maya said, depositing it in her inventory. “But any of the others are fair game.”

The NPC looked puzzled for a moment, then nodded. “If you will trade me these, and perhaps a few more samples of your work if you are willing, I will give you every recipe I know.” He looked pained, then nodded. “Including one that cannot be copied.”

Maya perked up at this. “A Unique recipe? Absolutely, yes. It’s a deal. What is it?”

“First, here, take these.” He opened a sale window for her, with all his recipes but the price lowered to ‘free’. “I will fetch it.”

He turned and left the room, while Maya went down the list and ‘bought’ every recipe he had. Longsword, dagger, bastard sword, spear, halberd, knife, throwing knife, throwing star, arrowheads, plate armor, chainmail, plate leggings, chain leggings, plate gloves, chain gauntlets … and on and on and on. She began to feel overwhelmed, wondered if her inventory had a numerical limit she would run into before finishing.

But if there was a limit, she didn’t encounter it. By the time she’d finished, the NPC returned with a sealed scroll in his hands.

“It can be opened only once a year, and I have already used it this month. But it is Unique and cannot be duplicated or stolen, only given. And now I give it to you, worthy trickster.”

Maya tried not to feel incredibly awkward. Fridget’s aura of envy was almost palpable.

“Thank you. I am proud to accept this gift.”

Item gained: Crafting Recipe: Spirit Dagger (Sealed: 319 days)

“Awesome,” Maya breathed. “Alright, let’s get some smithing done!”

By the time midnight arrived and dropped her luck back to -100, she’d crafted another 15 items of various quality and type. (Fridget had long since logged out for the evening.) She’d started out by filling in any gaps in her own equipment, or replacing significantly inferior items. She had a ton of great loot from overleveled places like the Phoenix dungeon or her trips into Nirsym’s wilds, but very little was low enough level that she could equip it.

While it resulted in a typically bizarre look, the large number of plate mail items helped make her look less like a crazy woman and more like an ordinary adventurer. Maybe a warrior, even.

She couldn’t wait to start recolouring all of it, make it into different outfits for all her alternate personae. Oh! And she could put some in her storage chest to transfer to Mayon! And store the rest for any future alts, once she started unlocking more slots. She still wanted to make her merla. And honestly she hoped that eventually she could get lucky again and make a new trickster without the baggage that Maya Starborn had accumulated.

Oh, and try some different stat alignments. She hadn’t really studied the stats much at all, so any chance at properly min-maxing would be out the window on this character.

Maya grinned. “You know, I think I might love crafting after all.”