Maya grumbled into her pillow, but knew she would hate herself if she allowed the -50 penalty without even trying. She pulled her quest log into focus, yawning and trying to force herself out of the warm sleepy haze that she’d just managed to attain.

Trickster Day 16: Attempt a Conquest without using any equipment above normal quality.

For a moment, Maya stared at it in dread. Then she parsed the meaning of the first word and breathed out a sigh of relief. Attempt. Not succeed. So she could attack any random player house and call it good.

She stood and stretched, yawning, but the tiredness was fading quickly now that the game had ascertained that she intended to stay up. By the time she finished swapping out all her unique and rare items for normal replacements - or often nothing at all, since she hadn’t kept around a ton of low-quality loot - she was back to full alertness and growing excited for the coming challenge.

She’d technically participated in Conquest twice, once in defence of the mage academy, then very shortly after to defend Domitius’s base, on that day that still didn’t make a lot of sense to her. Something about depriving each other of bonuses. It really didn’t seem to justify the effort, but it wasn’t her call.

Thanks to Sevard, she knew where the player housing district was. She’d been there frequently, using the box by the door in his house to trade things with him whenever he was offline or she was out of contact. So, she figured she’d just find an empty house, try and take it over, and see what happened.

She walked past Sevard’s house and further down the street until she found one that caught her attention. It was the same standard shape as the others in the row, but painted with dark blues and teals in flowing patterns, and accented with pale yellow trim.

She tried to walk up to the door, but the familiar error message appeared:

You have attempted to enter a player’s home uninvited.

>Request invitation

>Begin conquest

>Activate perk: Housebreaker

>Leave

Maya selected the second option, and the house lit up in a bright red wireframe overlay.

Conquest system engaged. You have five minutes to prepare your assault. Your target has been notified. 4:47 remaining.

Maya double checked her equipment to be sure she was within the Trickster’s quest parameters. Her throwing knives were normal quality, so she’d still have her backup weapon in case magic proved insufficient. Unfortunately, having just sold all her low quality loot and gear drops, she’d been forced to switch to Mayon and trade back some of the weaker items through her apartment storage box in order to come close to outfitting herself, and even then she had several slots empty. She’d considered purchasing gear from the shops to fill out her set, but decided against it. Anything of Normal quality would become obsolete within a few days, and she had only a limited amount of funds at present.

Her check complete, she stared at the house she’d chosen to assault and waited while the timer continued to tick down. She felt weak and small without her usual gear, her stats anemic. But her spells were another thing entirely. The weird error that unlocked tier 5 when she’d helped Sevard with his tier trial quest had dramatically improved all her abilities. Wind Whisper and all its variants had increased their damage output by 50%. Wind Whisper dealt 9 damage in its base form now, over the usual 6, but the increase was far more dramatic at higher power levels. Wind Word had gone from 30 damage to 45, without any corresponding increase in energy cost.

She’d also noticed while fighting goblins and driles that she felt much more control over her spells now as well, and couldn’t wait to have a high luck day to spend tinkering with her newfound magical potential. She hadn’t realized before that the tier had anything to do with damage of abilities, yet another way in which higher tier players were all but unbeatable for those beneath them.

Then the timer reached zero, and the red overlay turned white.

Rooms claimed: 0/4

Defenders remaining: 1

Maya stepped hesitantly forward, and the barrier did not prevent her. She strode more confidently toward the front door, which was closed and locked. She banged on it loudly.

"This isn’t a great time," someone shouted from inside. "Could you maybe bother someone else?"

Maya immediately felt guilty, but not enough to stop. "Sorry, I really need to do this now. I’ve only got an hour or so left."

"Fine. Then let’s get it over with. No point in having you wreck my door, repairs aren’t cheap."

The door unlocked, then opened to reveal an empty room. Maya stepped inside, and its wireframe overlay immediately turned yellow.

Claiming room: 58 seconds remaining.

So she had to spend one minute in a room to claim it? That didn’t seem so hard.

Glancing around, she saw it was sparsely but tidily furnished, in a roleplayer style rather than Sevard’s more utilitarian one. It looked like a cozy front sitting room, with paintings of ships and ocean views on the walls, which were painted in soft pastel hues. The tiled floor formed an abstract mosaic that resembled waves.

"Quite the theme you have going here," Maya said, though her opponent had yet to appear. She turned a full circle, but the room remained stubbornly empty, and no one replied to her comment.

She shrugged and waited, watching the claim timer tick down.

It reached 30 seconds, and continued downward toward zero.

"You’re not even going to try defending?" she asked, walking toward the doors into the other rooms. One on the wall opposite the entry door, another to the right. Both were open. "Hello?"

Then something hit her. Hard.

-195 health

Nearly 80% of her health gone in a single blow. She staggered and whirled, hands coming up instinctively to charge a Wind Whisper. A merla stood behind her, a two-handed sword raised for a second blow. Maya skittered backwards, fired the Wind Whisper, and barely evaded the incoming strike.

"Well, that was interesting," he said with a laugh, sheathing his weapon across his back. "I underestimated you, with that noob gear. What brings you to my humble cottage with such dire intent?"

Maya noticed that the timer had paused while they fought, and now slowly resumed its movement as the tension of combat eased. She could have started another attack, but given how easily he’d dropped her health with his first attack she figured he must be much higher level than her. Her quest was to attempt a conquest, after all, not to get herself killed.

"Just a quest," she said, moving slowly toward the door to the next room.

Rooms claimed: 1/4

The wireframe turned green and she jumped through the door into the next room, slamming it closed behind her. This room turned from white to yellow, and a second claim counter began ticking down; this one from two minutes.

"It’s pointless," he called, "The Conquest questline is bugged. You’ll only get Conquest points, none of the other rewards, and Conquest points can’t be used for anything."

Maya stood pressed against the door to hold it closed, but he made no effort to open it.

"I see," she said, glancing around in case he was trying to distract her. The room formed the other half of the front of the house, which seemed to be divided roughly into quarters. This room was furnished as a kitchen, with an old-fashioned round stove and a polished wood table against the back wall. The front wall was nearly entirely filled by a wide bay window with blue curtains. A second open door led into the back quarter of the house.

"I like your house," she said, conversationally.

The merla didn’t reply.

The timer reached 1 minute and continued downward. She didn’t see any way to lock the door, but she crossed to the other connecting door and pulled it shut as well, then backed to the wall by the stove. From here she could see if either door opened, or if he’d gone outside and planned to sneak up on her through the window. If any of them opened, she was ready.

Her health regen was too slow. By the time the room lit up as claimed she’d only recovered 7 health, bringing her current total to a meager 54 out of 242. She considered charging Heart of Magma, but her current energy pool could only sustain its heavy artillery attacks for two seconds. Flame Word, though, the high-power fire-aligned version of Wind Whisper, could be held in abeyance indefinitely before it needed to be cast. She began charging it, then once it was ready she shoved the door open with her foot and stepped into the third room.

A three-minute timer started counting down. Maya glanced around for her target, but the merla house-owner was nowhere to be seen.

She didn’t let herself relax, holding the supercharged ball of flame ready to fire the moment he showed himself, backing herself carefully into the corner away from the doors or window so there’d be no chance of him sneaking up behind her.

This room was a library, shelves and storage boxes and cabinets arranged neatly around the walls, a small table with a lamp set by the sole window with a fancy armchair by its side. Several books sat artistically stacked upon the table, and Maya was immediately curious to know what they were. But, alas, she was here to conquer, not to admire the furnishings. Though they were admirable furnishings. It definitely moved her designs on the Standalone quest up in priority. She couldn’t wait to get her own house, decorate, expand…

The timer reached 30 seconds and continued downward. She braced for some attack, but none came. Her health reached 65. The room lit up green.

Rooms claimed: 2/4

He must be waiting for her in ambush. And with the kind of damage his hits could do, she knew she wouldn’t survive another. She silently backtracked through the rooms she’d already claimed, only to find that the entry room had reverted to white in her absence.

The first room required 3 minutes to reclaim, and she didn’t like his way of drawing out the fight. Either he was setting up traps, or up to something else. Possibly trying to delay her until her quest failed, but she wasn’t sure if he’d know to—

…wait, of course. She’d already admitted aloud that she had less than an hour to finish the quest. Ugh. Of course he was taking advantage of the information. High level and smart. She really had done a terrible job of choosing a target.

Rooms claimed: 2/4

Maya scowled. "Oh, seriously? You’re going to play hide and seek while reclaiming rooms the moment I leave them?"

His chuckle echoed from the fourth room. "You’re the one who’s invading."

"Yes, and once I’ve claimed it I’ll be out of your hair probably forever." Maya hesitated. He didn’t have hair. "Out of your gills? Fins?"

"I don’t want to lose my crafting bonuses. If I intended to let you take over my house I wouldn’t have come back to defend it."

"Lose your crafting bonuses?" Maya asked. She edged toward the door, spell held ready in both hands.

"Don’t you know anything about Conquest?"

"Not really." She stepped slowly into the fourth room, did a quick once-over to determine he wasn’t present, and crept toward the other door. This room was more of a workshop, with a bed tucked in the corner behind a crafting bench.

-195 health

You’ve been killed by a defending player. Character Maya Starborn has been locked for 10 minutes.

Maya stared. She hadn’t even seen him enter. How had he snuck up on her so completely? Also, wow, his attacks hit hard!

She frowned at the 9 minute plus timer remaining before she could log in again, and decided to switch back to Mayon and do a quick scan of the area in case the Overdrile had spawned. She still wanted to get her secondary character into tier 2 as soon as possible, so there wouldn’t be an increasingly huge level gap between the two. She spent the ten minute lockout period jogging toward the woods east of Kalyx. She stopped when she reached Windy Creek, logged out, and returned to Maya Starborn.

Conquest result: You have failed to conquer the home of Ylliorlio. You may try again in 2 days 58 minutes.

Mission complete: Trickster Day Sixteen! Reward: +5 favor with The Trickster.

No item this time, but she wasn’t surprised. It probably would have been an item if she’d succeeded in the Conquest, but against someone who could hit for almost 200, she knew she had no chance of that.

A quick check of her luck showed that between the reward for finishing the quest and how late in the evening it was, she’d ended up at +6 for the next half hour.

She considered trying to accomplish something before midnight, but decided against it. +6 wasn’t good enough to be worth risking anything serious, not for less than an hour of progress. She’d lose her bonus just when she started getting into her flow. With any luck, she’d roll much better than +6 in the morning.

With that thought, she headed back to the academy to take that long overdue nap. Tomorrow would be tomorrow, and she would deal with it when it came up.

Character Maya Starborn Average Androgynous Harpy Mask: Mage Stader Affinities: Magical Physical Level: 12 Class: Trickster None Tier: 5 Specialization: Path of Life Augmentation: None Resistance: None Total Base Items Modifiers Sturdiness: 17 8 1 8 Momentum: 40 15 2 23 Agility: 25 8 4 13 Control: 29 8 13 8 Attunement: 29 18 6 5 Focus: 16 8 3 5 Intelligence: 38 27 1 10 Flexibility: 15 8 2 5 Luck: 6 -14 - +20 Unassigned: 0 Health: 242 of 242 Will: 29 of 29 Stamina: 152 of 152 Energy: 146 of 146 Speed: 246% Switch penalty: -31%, 8.1 secs Stealth: 156% Chain bonus: +13% Awareness: 123% Cooldown: 92.5% Max abilities: 12 Abilities Abilities: [18 of 12] Wind Word

[50 energy] Blow into cupped hands, then push the air toward the target.

Creates a forceful burst or damaging slash.

[Overcharge: +50 energy, +1 sec cast time, +50% force/dmg] 4 sec

45 dmg

{wind} Frost Bolt

[10 energy] Condense power into a frozen spike, then propel toward target.

[Overcharge: +5 energy, +.6 sec cast time, +33% dmg] 2 sec

21 dmg

{cold} Flame Hand

[30 energy] Spread magic to cover hand, then ignite. Deals damage on contact.

Secondary: +25% resistance (fire) for the duration.

[Sustain: 2 energy every .2 sec, +2 fire dmg] 3 sec

50 dmg

{fire} Flame Word

[65 energy] Blow into cupped hands, then ignite while pushing toward the target.

Creates a concentrated blast or fiery slash.

[Overcharge: +50 energy, +1 sec cast time, +50% force/dmg] 6 sec

50 dmg

{fire} Flame Whisper

[7 energy] Blow into cupped hands, then ignite while pushing toward the target.

Creates a quick fiery gust, or a damaging slash.

[Overcharge: +5 energy, +0.2 sec cast time, +50% force/dmg] 2 sec

10 dmg

{fire} Wind Whisper

[9 energy] Blow into cupped hands, then push the air toward the target.

Creates a light breeze, a quick gust, or a damaging slash.

[Overcharge: +5 energy, +0.2 sec cast time, +50% force/duration/dmg] 1.9 sec

9 dmg

{wind} Throw Knife

[5 stamina] Throw a knife at a target with high accuracy. Requires a knife. 0.8 sec

3 dmg

{physical} Windborne Blade

[45 energy, 5 stamina] Cast Wind Whisper in a loop up and behind, aligning with throwing arm.

Throw knife straight at target with wind as augment. 4.3 sec

33 dmg

{physical} Spark

[9 energy] Draw magic into palm and snap fingers to ignite into a spark of fire.

Can be used as a light or thrown at a target. 1.1 sec

11 dmg

{fire} Sense Balance Discern if an area is lacking in or has an excess of any materials, creatures, etc. Stone Ward

[35 energy] Compress hands together flat, spread vertically; then repeat in opposite direction.

Lasts up to 1hr.

[Quick-cast: +30 energy, -3 sec cast time] 4.5 sec

absorb 45 dmg

(physical/wind) Magestrike

[50 energy]

Targets a 5-meter diameter circle 3 sec

57 dmg

{Magical} + more Equipment Item Name Slot Stu Mom Agi Con Att Foc Int Flx Trousers of Control Legs 6 Gloves of Control Hands 4 Rogue's Belt Belt 2 2 1 Runner's Footwraps Feet 1 1 1 1 Armband of Attunement Arm 1 3 Acrobat's Ring Ring 1 2 1 1 Dancer's Ring Ring 2 1 1 Cheap Ring of Sturdiness Ring 3 1 Minor Mage's Token Misc 1 2 1 Trickster's Mask Special