An hour later, Lois stopped walking, and held up her hand to the others. Dutifully, they stopped.

“Do you smell that?” Lois asked in concern.

Niko and Jaden obligingly sniffed the air.

“Smell? What smell?” Niko asked.

“You mean the smell of smoke?” Jaden asked nonchalantly.

“Exactly.”

“We should probably start running, huh?” Jaden suggested with the calmest voice he could muster.

“Run.” Niko agreed, nodding vigorously.

With that, the trio launched into a dead sprint. Too out of shape to maintain this pace for long, Jaden devoted all of his free mana into the endurance stat. It created a strange, almost euphoric feeling as his limbs rejuvenated; his breathing evening out as if he was a master sprinter. Glancing backward, Jaden realized he could see the slight red glow of the flame, made brighter by the perpetual gloom of the sunless world shard.

“I see you’re running for your life. Would you like some help with that?” Came a voice from over Jaden’s shoulder.

“Sure, Clip. Lay it on me.” Jaden called back.

“You know what? I like you. Most people have been telling me off for my iconic greeting, but you just power through.”

“Bit busy Clip. Please skip the banter.”

Clip sighed. “Aw, and here I am trying to be legitimately helpful.”

“Thank you Clip. Please, get to the part where you help.” Jaden gasped out. Jaden’s investment in endurance was reaching the end of its usefulness. Pulling up his stat page, Jaden noted that his max mana had gone up two points. He assumed it was one for sprinting, and one for the MRE spell. Wordlessly, he shifted those points into endurance, and gasped in joy as it brought some relief.

“Alright fine, have it your way. I better do this while you still have some mana. You’ve got a card in your deck called wormhole right? It’s perfect for what you need. Pop that bad boy out, and aim it at coordinates three-five-zero, by two-five-nine, by one-three-eight. The card itself should only cost one mana because the creator decreed void travel should be easy to accomplish.”

“How exactly do I aim it at specific coordinates?” Jaden gasped out.

“If you think about it too much, you’re doing it wrong. Just pull the card out, and do it.”

Jaden stopped running, and redirected the a point of his mana from intelligence to free mana. His companions stopped as well, regrouping with him a moment later.

“This better work Clip. I’m really suspicious of how helpful you’re being.” Jaden muttered as he rifled through his deck.

“Don’t worry, the fun comes later.” Clip said cheerfully. “You should have time to recover before anything else happens.”

Jaden sighed, knowing he would regret taking Clip’s advice. Finding the wormhole card, Jaden held it up. For the first time, Jaden saw his game-mat. It was a kind of holographic neon-green construct. Grimacing, Jaden placed the wormhole card into one of the five spell slots. Focusing on the given coordinates, he felt the point of mana drain from his mana pool. A moment later, a sliver of darkness appeared between Jaden and the wall of flame that was hungrily racing toward them. The fire seemed to be only a few hundred feet away now.

“Better pile in guys. One mana will only keep it open for about thirty seconds.” Clip stated with an unconcerned cheerfulness. The trio looked at each other in concern, but sprinted toward the tear in reality a moment later. The sensation of passing through the wormhole could best be described as “cold” though it was more of a cold felt in the soul than a physical sensation of cold.

Jaden wasn’t sure how long he spent in that place, but he felt as though it was an eternity until he stepped out of the portal, promptly falling on his face due to coming out an extra two feet higher than he had expected. The hard earth did little to cushion the blow as he impacted painfully. Cursing Clip’s questionable parentage, Jaden began pushing himself off the ground only to be driven back into the ground a moment later when Lois and Niko fell out of the portal.

The trio dug themselves out of the unintentional dogpile in a groaning mass of limbs. “Where are we now?” Jaden asked, looking around at their new surroundings. The endless plains had now been replaced by a verdant jungle. He found himself wondering how the jungle could possibly become so overgrown in the absence of sunlight, but chalked it up to magical shenanigans. Hearing a voice over his shoulder, Jaden turned to find a floating human that resembled an overworked clerk; complete with glasses, and stress lines on his face.

“Welcome adventurers, to the second training world. As a world uninhabited by sentients, this is an excellent location to train your survival skills in a true danger scenario, as well as gathering useful materials. That said, I caution you that this world is balanced for those with between a hundred, and three hundred mana capacity. Training here with less than the recommended amount is likely to result in death, while training here with more than the recommended amount would be inefficient. As a training world, you need not worry about depleting the vegetation, animals, or minerals. All will be replenished as a free service by the arbitrators. That being said, you may only reside here for one week per month. If you are still here at the end of the week, you will be forcibly relocated to your homeworld without penalty.”

The clerkly figure stopped to take a breath, and to forestall a continuation of the rapid-fire monologue, Jaden interjected. “Hey, uh, actually, I was wondering if you could give us the coordinates to get home? The arbitrator from our world gave us this location while we were running from a grass fire, and we have no idea what we’re doing.”

The clerk sighed. “Let me guess, it was... Oh right he’s going by Clip now. That guy is such a dick. Let me guess, you have under twenty mana?”

Jaden nodded. The clerk swore, and rolled his eyes. “Millions of years serving the creator, yet he never learned the difference between humor and unnecessary cruelty. Unfortunately, as much sympathy as I feel for you, I am prohibited from directly aiding those who come here. Only those in the vicinity of my nexus may receive direct aid. The most I can do is provide you with a map to help you navigate.”

All three party-members received a sudden notification screen.

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

Your map of [Training World 2] has been updated

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

“Wait, we have a built-in map?” Jaden exclaimed in surprise.

“Let me guess, he didn’t tell you about that either? Don’t even bother responding, I already know the answer. This doesn’t count as direct aid, since I am charged with providing you a map, understand? In this case, I am interpreting that to mean teaching you how to access the map.” He said this with the same speed and vocal tone of an infomercial rushing through the disclaimers.

“Now, open up your character screen, with the intent of going to the map section.” Jaden did, and it worked. The maps were divided by world, with extra filters to sort them by region. Looking at the names attached to the map, Jaden finally understood their earth shard a little better when “Great Plains Region, America” came up as the only unlocked option for the earth shard. There were other names listed, but they displayed only grayed out question-marks.

Jaden sighed. “Well that would have been nice to know. Maybe we could’ve hunted some bison or something.”

“Anyway, that’s the most I can do for you. Either survive for a week to run out the timer, or make your way to the nexus. Be advised that the closer you get to the nexus, the stronger the opponents will be; with a boss monster located at each cardinal point about a mile from the nexus itself. If you reach the nexus, I will be able to directly aid you with both access to the nexus shop, and information services. Proper information services I mean. Regardless of your choice, if you must travel, I recommend learning your homeworld’s coordinates first.” Unceremoniously, the clerk disappeared into nothingness, with Jaden staring at the empty air he had occupied a moment before.

“So…. I vote we wait it out.” Jaden declared.

“Seconded.” Lois agreed.

“We go for nexus.” Niko declared.

“We already voted. I’d rather not die.” Jaden told her patiently.

Niko stuck her chin out defiantly. “I don’t care. I… not weak anymore.”

“No one here thought you were weak to begin with.” Jaden reached out his hand to pat her shoulder sympathetically, but she batted it away.

“No. I not be a burden, I…” tears welled in her eyes, and she made her status screen visible to the others.

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

Veronique Bisset

Max MP: 12

Free MP: 2/2 (20%)

Stats

Strength: 13 (30%)

Agility: 10 (0%)

Fortitude: 13 (30%)

Endurance: 12 (20%)

Charisma: 10 (0%)

Intelligence:10 (0%)

Magic Resistance: 10 (0%)

*all stats are rounded to the nearest whole number

Skills:

None

Titles:

Scourge Level 1

Status effects:

None

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

Looking away in shame, she poked the scourge title. It expanded, causing Jaden to stare at Niko in pity after he read it.

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

Scourge Level 1

Whether on purpose or not, you have killed over a hundred of your own species in a single action. Rejoice, for as proof that the world is criminally unfair, you are actually being rewarded for this feat. Next level earned for killing over two hundred. People. You monster.

Reward: the base value for all stats increases by a small amount.

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

“I hate here. I want home. No one die when I fail papa.” Niko spluttered. Screaming something in French, she began punching a nearby tree furiously. Surprisingly, the tree splintered under her onslaught.

“That’s a small increase?” Jaden thought absently as he pondered what he could do to help her. He started to take a step forward, but stopped when a small notification appeared in front of him.

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

Title earned: Fop Level 1

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

Reading through the description of “fop” Jaden’s expression darkened.

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

Fop Level 1

Due to your incompetence, over a hundred people died. You may not have caused the incident, but you spectacularly failed in preventing it. Despite the fact that you earned this title for such extreme failure, you are still being rewarded. Here’s a small boost to your base intelligence, in hopes that next time you’ll think before you walk away from a grass fire. The next level of this title can be earned by finding some way to fail even more spectacularly.

Reward: small increase to base intellect.

Auditors note: I see you’re trying to put out a grass fire. Do you need some help with that? XOXO

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

Jaden growled, no longer amused by Clip’s antics. “That joke stopped being funny the second time you said it.” He ground out under his breath, unable to dispute the message, despite his anger.

Meanwhile, Lois approached Niko cautiously. By this point, Niko was alternating between sobbing, and panting from the exertion of her merciless assault upon the tree. For its part, the tree was making ominous creaking sounds.

“Honey, I think you already killed it.” Lois said gently. “Let’s go sit down ok?”

“No. I’ be strong. Must be strong. I fail, always fail. Papa say I am born that way. Say he beat it out. Still I fail. Papa is gone now, so I beat it out of myself. I get strong, maybe finally to kill the fail.” The tree groaned, punctuating the ominous creaking from earlier.

“Honey, the good parts of you will die too when that tree falls on you.” Lois suggested softly, voice cracking in sympathy. Niko stopped hitting the tree, and knelt in front of it. Her bloody knuckles dug into the earth with enough force to displace some of the dirt.

“What good parts?” Niko asked quietly as the tree began to tip over.

She yelped in surprise as Jaden tackled her from the side; just in time to save her as the falling tree crushed the earth where she had been kneeling a moment later.

“Why?” She yelled at him. “Now I fail death.”

Jaden, stone-faced, grabbed her chin, forcing her to look him in the eyes. “You haven’t failed anything. If anything, those people failed you.”

“I murder them, they fail me? No sense.” She protested.

“Every single one of them knew how to use magic. If they were thinking, they could use that magic in any number of ways to douse the fire or escape it. Instead, they let themselves die because they were too panicked to stop and think. Now you think the universe is blaming you? Fuck that. Clip is the one who hands out the titles, and he’s just a sadistic prick who likes to torment people. You want to get stronger? Get strong enough to kill Clip for torturing the people he’s supposed to be helping. Even if it takes a million years, I know you can do it.”

“I… kill Clip? Kill a god?” She asked, shock evident in her voice.

“Clip isn’t a god. Just an asshole who’s been alive way longer than he should be. Do you know what I… no, we do to assholes?”

“Destroy them?” She asked innocently.

“I… well I mean…” Jaden sighed, and released her face to rub at the bridge of his nose. “In the sense of hitting them, yes. Not in the way I think you meant.”

Niko stared at him in confusion. “You don’t destroy the assholes?”

Jaden coughed, while Lois, a few feet away, let out a relieved chuckle. “No, not like that.”

She flushed bright red, and crab-walked backward several feet. “Oh no, I am a fool.”

Jaden laughed, and Lois stepped over to her. Extending her hand, Lois smiled softly at Niko. “Come on honey, let me help you up. The nexus isn’t gonna come to us.”

“The nexus?” Niko asked in surprise.

Lois nodded. “You wanted to go there right? If we work together, I bet we could do it. Besides, it would be nice to get information from someone who isn’t trying to mess with us.”

Niko sniffed. “Ok. We get strong together, yes?”

Lois smiled at her. “Exactly. As long as you have me, I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

Niko looked down at her feet, and nodded.

“What am I? Chopped liver?” Jaden complained.

Lois glanced at him, and shrugged. “As long as you have the two of us then.”

Niko turned to smile shyly at him, but her gaze fled his the moment they connected. In companionable silence, they began walking.