A spear!

Finally, finally, I held a spear of my own. Sure, it wasn’t exactly the design I’d have chosen, but compared to pickaxes and kitchen knives, I’d take it!

“Better be thankful for that one.” Suds stood off to the side of the basement, arms crossed. “I was of half a mind to model it after a Maid class and give you a battle mop. Would have done it too, except I’d be too ashamed to watch you sully the good name of cleaning-based classes. So that’s what you get instead.”

If not for the reasons I would have wanted, I was still glad I avoided that fate. Battling people in a kitchen apron and overall-painted plate armor was bad enough. Doing it all with a maid outfit and a mop would have been… a lot.

Instead, the weapon I currently held was modeled after a harpoon. The spear tip wasn’t exactly the same — a harpoon was designed to get stuck in something’s flesh, which, even though I could dismiss and resummon my weapon, wasn’t a property I was looking for. Still, with a rough wooden shaft wrapped up with rope, it had an unmistakably “harpoon feel” to it.

The corresponding armor was thankfully fairly tame too, at least for the most part. It was sort of chain mail-ish, in a way, except instead of actual chain links, it was crafted from interwoven, braided metal ropes. The entire thing had a sort of battle-sheik fishnet look to it, and in fact, with the same interwoven pattern protecting my legs, it kind of looked like I was wearing the non-literal, clothing kind of fishnets too.

Thankfully, a thin layer of mesh lay under the braided metal ropes, meaning I wasn’t showing off a bunch of skin that I would have been otherwise. The entire thing was styled like a fisherman’s coat, but more snug. Suds had opted for a much more tasteful sea blue paint job this time around instead of the bright yellow I’d have expected back on Earth.

“You know, I don’t think I even have anything snippy to say about this. Thanks.” Without pause, I bound both the weapon and armor to my empty class skill slots, bringing me up to three profession-specific gear sets.

“Hah! First time for everything. Just pay me back by using it well in your dueling class. Don’t want any stories of my grandkid getting her ass whooped, you hear me?”

Well, I’d certainly do my best.

“Better!” Alara roared. All over her body, she sported numerous open wounds, though none of them were especially deep. “The harpoon serves you well, PPG! I may need to start calling you Perceptive Harpoon Girl!”

I stood there, my Endurance working overtime to keep me from hunching over and panting. She was right: The harpoon did serve me well, at least against her. The knives and the pickaxe were too close range to fight against the brawler, as the fight tended to end as soon as she got a good grip on me.

That didn’t mean I was winning now, though.

“Why are you so tough?” She wasn’t even wearing armor! Sure, she had a whole boatload of Constitution, but in what world could you stab someone with a spear and only have it draw a few drops of blood?

“Ahh, just part of my class. But enough talking! I fear if I allow you to keep me at range, you may hold the day, PPG! Allow me to correct this.” Thus said, Alara crouched down, her lips never shifting from their easygoing smile.

In one fluid motion, she pounced, leaping straight at me in a way that suggested she was manipulating gravity again. For a second, I thought it was my lucky break: Apparently I had trouble landing a serious strike on the brawler, but if she was going to impale herself, perhaps I had a chance.

I funneled mana into Overload Weapon ready to end the fight then and there, bracing myself to meet her charge.

The expected impact, however, never arrived. In a move that felt far too graceful to belong to a brawler, Alara pulled up short right before arriving. Dramatically increasing her gravity, she hit the ground a single centimeter from the tip of my spear, arresting her momentum. Before I could rear back and strike at her, she floated to the side and slapped my spear out of the way.

In a heartbeat, it was over. The second she laid a hand on me, gravity tried to throw me to the floor, and despite my resistance, it made me sluggish.

Womp.

A forceful shove brought me to the floor, and soon thereafter, Alara was sitting on my back.

“Much better! I’m bleeding this time!”

I sighed.

“Yield.”

You have lost a duel!

Water, water, everywhere. I was pretty sure it was drinkable too.

The soggy, marsh-like floor was covered in ankle deep water, and the stone walls surrounding me essentially formed one, ginormous, continuous waterfall. How all that water was flowing downwards without raising the room’s water level, I wasn’t sure, but at least I wouldn’t drown.

Then again, even if the water level were rising, it would likely be at a pretty slow level. The room was massive, larger inside than out, leading me to believe there was some space-fuckery happening.

“This would be the water room, hopefully for pretty obvious reasons.” The silver-haired instructor ushered us all in, not seeming to care that she was dooming our socks to sogginess. “It’s indicative of a room you might encounter if you found yourself in a water dungeon. Now, some of you are fighters, or maybe healers. In that case, you can reserve this room for spars to see what it feels like to have to fight with your ankles covered in water. The real value of these rooms, though, is for the Perceptive variety. If you’re filling a scout, treasure-finding, or trap-seeking role in your party, you’ll be using these rooms the most. Just to check, are there any of you who can see anything from here?”

I did a quick scan of the room before raising my hand.

“Yup! You. Just call out whatever you see. Don’t worry about spoiling it for anyone else. The room is set up to change the location of everything for each session.”

Well, in that case… I started pointing.

“Pit fall. Pit fall. Uh. Another pit fall.”

Detect Trap has increased to level 8!

Those looked particularly nasty. Once the ground gave out, it looked like the victim would tumble down with loads of wet mud and water burying them right after. That was all I could see on the trap side of things though. As for the secrets…

“Uh. Hidden room behind the waterfall over there. Some sort of tiny fish carving on that rock? That patch of mud is glittering just a tiny bit. I think there’s an alcove up at the very top of the wall there, where the waterfall starts? And, uh, there’s a chest sitting over there. I think there’s some sort of illusion over it.”

Detect Secret has increased to level 7!

Whoops. Should have turned on Mana Sight. Ah well. They’d really gone all out though — the average dungeon room didn’t have even a fraction of this nonsense in it.

Belatedly I realized everyone was staring at me like I’d grown some sort of second head.

“Hah! Fitting for your moniker. Perceptive! I am glad you will be delving with me.” Alara slapped me on the back, the force of the blow making me glad I’d be delving with her.

The instructor, on the other end, seemed fairly nonplussed. “Not bad. I think you got a solid fourth of everything. Although this is one of the simpler rooms we have. For the rest of you — regardless of your Perception, this room will be a part of the final! Even if you lack any Perception skills at all, you might end up in a situation where your scout is out of commission. In that case, everyone should know how to check for basic traps.”

“Do we really… really have to do this again?” There was something about getting sat on after losing that hammered the failure in.

“Today is different! I have been looking forward to this for some time, PPG, dark plant man! Let us see and celebrate our new friend’s skills!” Alara threw her hands to her hips, swiveling towards Emin — or rather, “dark plant man.”

After grabbing a drink with the two, I’d let it slip that I was frustrated that I could never beat Alara. Emin had very hesitantly and tentatively offered to help out, interested to see if his skills might be able to level the playing field. Alara had jumped on the opportunity, and as a result, the three of us had met in the training area today, which was thankfully open to students when not in use for classes.

“I’m, uh, happy to be here. Even if I end up being useless, I’m sure it’ll be nice to watch you two pros.” Not a frontline fighter, he stood off to the side, dressed in his usual voluminous robes instead of donning armor.

“I’m sure you won’t be useless. Before we start though, do you want to explain exactly what you can do so that-”

Alara slammed a hand onto her chest, cutting me off with a loud thump. “Nonsense! Then I will know what he can do, and you will lose the element of surprise. Prepare yourself! We start now!” With no further warning, she leapt at me, signaling the start of the fight.

With a yelp, I summoned my spear and slashed at her, forcing Alara to abort her initial lunge. I jumped back, eager to keep my distance, holding my spear out far, far in front of me.

Wait.

“Why am I- What? My arms are not that long.” I watched with some level of concern as my arms extended out and out, solving my range problem if perhaps in an unconventional manner.

“Apologies for that, but from what you’d been saying, I figured you might desire some further range. I brought a sample from a certain species of three toed sloth. Fascinating animal, really. The arm to body ratio is-”

Alara darted from side to side, slapping at the spear and testing my newly lengthened range. “Ha! He has magic arm-lengthening powers! Very tricky, dark plant man!”

“I’ve also modified her arm and leg muscle composition to allow for stronger strikes and more rapid movements. Also, perhaps a nit, but I wouldn’t quite describe the sloth transmogrification as arm-lengthening powers, per se. More of a-”

Oblivious to the researcher’s protests, Alara continued trying to close the gap between us. Despite finding the switch to my movements a bit disorienting, however, I found I was able to successfully adapt enough to keep her back. Much like in our last duel, I scored shallow hit after shallow hit, dotting the Dense Brawler red.

A few times, she attempted to repeat her dash attack, but seeing as she had to start from farther back, I found myself with more time to dodge. Especially knowing that it was coming, a well timed dash of Flash Feet helped me sidestep out of the way.

“Truly a worthy set of foes! I will endeavor to go all out then! Prepare yourself!” Alara crouched down into her signature leaping position, and I tensed up, not sure what to expect.

Instead of breaking out some grand new skill, however, Alara just launched herself at me once again. Unlike the other times, however, she did not attempt to come up short before I struck. At the last second, she twisted, botching my aim, but even so, my spear sank deep into the flesh of her shoulder.

Her smile momentarily turned into more of a grimace, only to turn exultantly triumphant a second later. Even with the ability to dismiss my weapon, I realized my mistake all too late.

“Gotcha!” Having taken the straightforward path to me and still connected to my weapon, Alara managed to close in before I had a chance to react. A hand slapped into me, and my weight increased dramatically while I braced myself for another loss.

And then, all of a sudden, the weight disappeared.

Not questioning and not taking the lucky break for granted, I acted. The spear was far too unwieldy for such close quarters, and as quickly as I could, I swapped it out with my knives.

Before Alara could disengage, I funneled as much mana as I could into Overload Weapon, stabbing forward. As close as we were, and without a weapon of her own, there was nothing she could do. Even with the ungodly resistance her skin granted her, the knives sunk deep.

I pulled them out, and a moment later, it was over.

“I will yield! I do not believe I have the ability to heal from that without using any items.” As soon as she said it, the magic of the training arena kicked in, closing the wounds in her chest in real time. The message I’d been waiting for popped up at last.

You have won a duel!

“Emin, we did it!” I jumped up and pumped a fist in the air, turning to the researcher.

Instead of finding him cheering with me, I found him slumped on the ground.

“Emin, what the hell? Are you okay?” I rushed over, helping him pull himself from the ground. Thankfully, he seemed unharmed.

“Hah. All good. It’s just, well, it was monstrously hard to get my magic to work on the Lady Alara, so all I could do at the end was remove the gravity debuff from you, and, well, shift it to me. Can’t say I enjoyed that.” He grinned sheepishly, scratching at the back of his head as he spoke.

“Well, it was perfect. Thank you Emin.” I gave him a quick hug for helping me finally score a point on Alara.

For the brawler’s take on things, it seemed like Alara was as graceful in defeat as expected. “Well fought! You two work well together! A good match, through and through. Are you seeing anyone, dark plant man? Uncle always says battle synergy is a good sign of a fit between people.”

Had I been drinking anything, I was confident I would have choked on it, and for his part, Emin barely managed to splutter out a reply: “I, uh, would like to- that is, we should try again, shouldn’t we? Practice! That’s it. Get some practice in!”

Alara simply shrugged. “I will not be the one to say no to another round. Prepare yourselves!”

“All that I’m saying is that if we want to fund research, it’s far better to increase the budget for the Chamber of Peace. We’re already the top funder of research grants, and increasing the budget will only give us more room to invest in furthering the city’s knowledge.” Warram spread his arms wide as if delivering a sermon to the rest of the discussion group.

“Just… just a question here,” I hesitantly offered, “if we wanted more research done, is there a reason we wouldn’t just… increase the Chamber of Knowledge’s budget instead?”

Warram scoffed. “Have you met the researchers? If you gave them free reign, they’d spend half the budget naming different bugs or inventing colors or whatever it is they like to do. At least if we’re the ones commissioning a study, you know the result is actually going to get used.”

I was disheartened to see a few students nodding along, although the ones that I knew came from the Chamber of Knowledge looked none too happy at the jibe. One of them audibly grumbled before jumping in. “Wouldn’t that mean that the bulk of research would all be about weapons? Is that really what you want?”

This time, Warram upgraded from a scoff into a harumph. “Of course not. The Chamber of Peace needs all sorts of things. Advancements in building for the barracks. Advancements in armors and defenses that help keep people safe. Advancements in healing and potions to keep us at our best. It’s not all weapons at all.”

Another round of nods at that, this time with more heads than the first. A number of frowns made it clear that some of the students weren’t completely sold, but before anyone could follow up, a bell rang, signaling the end of class. We shuffled out, and I spent the rest of the day feeling unreasonably frustrated.

“And then he said that researchers would just spend all their time naming bugs if they had higher funding. Like, what sort of bubble is he living in?” I sipped at my third cocktail, a fluffy yellow concoction that only barely qualified as a liquid at all.

At this, Emin only chuckled. “Whoever this guy is, he, uh, sounds a little unpleasant. Guilty as charged, though. I’d have a field day if I ever got to name a bug. What would I even name it though? Would you, uh, perhaps want a bug named after you, Lady Tess?”

Not really a bug girl, to be honest. “Would have to be a really cool bug, I think. Can you stop with the whole ‘Lady Tess’ thing, though? I get enough of that with the whole ‘Suds’ thing, you know?”

Emin stared at me, his eyes momentarily unfocusing as he seemed to wrack his brain. Refocusing, he blinked a few times. “The ‘Suds’ thing?”

Oh. Had this really not come up before? I guess not, although with how much everyone seemed to gossip, I’d sort of just assumed it was known.

“That whole thing where I’m the granddaughter of the chamber head? No?”

My words were met only by another few blinks.

“Come on, it can’t be that weird. I mean, we’ve been hanging out with Alara this entire time, and her Uncle’s a chamber head too, right?”

More silence. More blinks. And then, finally-

“Oh my.”

“Strike. Swing. Block. Strike. Again! And you over there! With the ridiculous pickaxe! Don’t think I can’t see you with those limp-armed swings. You think with a weapon like that, you’d at least strike hard enough to break some rocks. Again! And then again!”

I groaned, putting some more oomph into my swings, feeling as my muscles protested. The instructors here knew exactly how hard to train someone to break through their Endurance.

The results, however, spoke for themselves.

Axes has reached level 9!

Class after class after class after class.

I slumped down into bed, tired but unable to keep myself from grinning. About half the semester had passed in a flash, and I had more and more to show for it. I pulled up my recent gains, unable to keep myself from beaming at them.

Axes: 7 -> 9

Heavy Armor: 4 -> 6

Light Armor: 2 -> 4

Small Blades: 10 -> 11

Spears: 10 -> 11

Dodge: 4 -> 5

Mental Magic: 5 -> 6

Dark Magic: 8 -> 9

Gust: 2 -> 3

Air Magic: 1 -> 2

Sense Minds: 5 -> 7

Herbalism: 3 -> 4

Alchemy: 4 -> 5

Advanced Internal Mana Manipulation: 4 -> 5

Detect Secret: 6 -> 7

Detect Trap: 7 -> 8

I sighed with contentment. Progress.

Character Sheet:

Name: Tess

Age: 26

Race: Human

Class: Arcane Arsenal

Level: 11

Prestige: 1222

Health: 300/300

Mana: 325/325

Stamina: 240/240

Constitution: 28 (+2)

Strength: 26

Endurance: 26

Dexterity: 21 (+1)

Intelligence: 31 (+2)

Wisdom: 27 (+2)

Perception: 28

Charisma: 21

Luck: 27

Skills:

Skills

Weapon & Armor

Spears: 11

Small Blades: 11

Archery: 10

Axes: 9

Heavy Armor: 6

Medium Armor: 5

Light Armor: 4

Swords: 3

Hammers: 2

Staffs: 2

Unarmed Combat: 2

Movement

Dodge: 5

Magic

Fire Magic: 10

Water Magic: 10

Dark Magic: 9

Light Magic: 8

Life Magic: 6

Mental Magic: 6

Earth Magic: 2

Air Magic: 2

Advanced Internal Mana Manipulation: 5

Demonic Summoning: 2

Ritual Magic: 1

Spells

Conjure Water: 11

Flameploof: 10

Darken Small Object: 10

Illumination: 9

Minor Healing: 7

Sense Minds: 7

Summon Pebble: 3

Gust: 3

Resistances

Trauma Suppression: 13

Mental Resistance: 7

Poison Resistance: 6

Bleed Resistance: 4

Pain Resistance: 4

Heat Resistance: 2

Detection

God's Eye: 8

Detect Trap: 8

Detect Secret: 7

Craft

Construction: 6

Woodworking: 7

Jewelry Making: 5

Mining: 5

Alchemy: 5

Herbalism: 4

Social

Conversation: 5

Etiquette: 5

Trade: 3

Flirt: 2

Dancing: 2

Deception: 2

General

Drinking: 9 (+5)

Reading: 3

Gambling: 1

Writing: 1

Class Skills

Weaponmaster

Bind Weapon: 5/5

Arcane Armament: 2/5

Overload Weapon: 1/5

Armorist

Bind Armor: 5/5

Arcane Armory: 5/5

Resist Magic: 2/5

Augmenter

Mana Feet: 1/1

Arcane Vision: 1/1