All the plans [Sunrise] made flew right out the window the moment they pulled up to the abbey. They needed to hassle the drowsy doorman once they arrived, but as soon as they did, two stern-looking sisters immediately rushed the injured party members to the healing wards. In one way or another, over half the party was incapacitated.

  Alastair required the least intensive care. As a frontline melee fighter, his body was better suited to getting beaten up, but he still needed his arm reset and splinted. The [Priestess] threatened to tie his arm to his side if he couldn’t let it rest for a few days.

  Ellesea had a head specialist examine the side of her face, her inner ear, and test her motor skills to make sure she didn’t suffer any lasting brain damage. A [Stylist] was coming in the morning to help repair the burnt part of her scalp and regrow her hair. Fortunately, there were no complications.

  Y’cennia had it the worst. Despite never entering into combat in the dungeon, the one time she got hurt was worse than anybody thought. Her grit, Jessica’s steady hands, and quick thinking on the whole team’s part saved her life, but it was a quick and dirty job. Several minuscule chips of stone settled badly deep in her gut and reopened the wound, which got infected. In this world full of wondrous magic and impossible healing, there were no sterile operating rooms or effective anesthesia, so she had to be strapped to the table while a [Surgeon] cut her open and the [Priestess] constantly cast [Renew]. Melia watched them work for hours until an attendant kicked her out; her fretting was fraying everybody’s nerves.

  If one thing can be said, it’s that a bored dragon is a dangerous dragon.

  So Melia went outside to play.

  Her wandering feet led her to the newly seeded [Planters]. Tiny, green buds were sprouting from the ground, and a huge smile bloomed over Melia’s face. It had only been a handful of days and each one seemed to count for a whole week. That fertilizer wasn’t messing around.

  Sooner or later, those plants were going to mature into fully grown crops. [Planters] only enlarged the growing area and enhanced the rate of growth; they did nothing to protect the crops themselves from the elements or any scavengers. Unless somebody wanted to keep a full-time lookout over the new fields to keep the birds away, it was time for a scarecrow.

  Or in this case, a “scare-Moai”.

  Melia wasn’t joking when she first thought about building the huge monoliths in front of each plot. That’s why her first stop during the visit to her vault had been the stone and mining area.

  [Moai] were a useless decoration item in the game, designed to be a frivolous show of wealth, skill, and resources. If somebody had the means to craft one, not only did it prove they were a capable crafter, but highly integrated with the game as a whole. The list of materials wasn’t very long, but it was staggering nonetheless.

  150 [Base Stone].

  100 [Wonder Bricks].

  And worst of all, 10 [Deanimated Blocks].

  One hundred and fifty stone wasn’t altogether that hard to gather, even if that much for a single craft was a bit ridiculous. “[Base Stone]” simply meant any non-enchanted, non-magical, and basically non-special stone. Every single [Mining] node in the game had a possible gathering output of regular stone. It varied per metal and zone, such as [Copper] being lodged in [Limestone] or [Iron] with [Sandstone]. Rare, fantasy-themed ores like [Darksteel] were generally found inside equally fantastic outcroppings such as [Abyssal Slate] or [Deeprock Clusters].

  It might take a player 20 to 30 minutes to mine 150 [Base Stone] from a low-level area, double that from a high-level or endgame zone.

  An hour of a player’s time was precious, and wasting one of them gathering the most basic part of a vanity recipe was already seen as outrageous.

  The 100 [Wonder Bricks] were so much worse. Each brick was a single craft from an [Alchemist], which in itself had its own list of materials to make. It, too, was a useless item, having no other function than as an intermediate step in crafting, sinking time and money into something that gave no tangible benefit. Finding a high-level crafter to make them was a chore even when providing the materials, and nearly impossible when not, since one of those ingredients required yet another profession to craft. Needless to say, Melia crafted all of hers herself.

  And then there were the 10 [Deanimated Blocks].

  These blocks couldn’t be crafted; they were only found as a drop from an enemy inside a raid, [Animated Stone Constructs]. An enemy that wasn’t always killed, because it had to be summoned by another enemy before it even spawned, and if the summoning mob was killed too fast, the construct wouldn’t appear at all. On top of all of that, a player needed to be a high-level [Mason] to see the blocks as loot in the first place, which lowered the drop chance significantly. In the early days of the game, before professions got reworked, that required taking a non-combatant into a level 70 dungeon, removing a slot for a potential extra dps.

  Needless to say, crafting a [Moai] head was a status symbol above anything else.

  So how about two?

  Melia didn’t intend to physically craft two gigantic statues. Instead, she’d use [Duplicate]. High-level crafters didn’t have the time to sit around and churn out the same exact craft time and time again (despite that being exactly what crafting was all about), so the developers made a way to increase yield. The cost to make two crafts was identical to what they would have been if crafted individually, and the trade-off came from time. With one click of a button, a player got double results, but the quality of both crafts was locked together. If a player was confident in their skill, they could save a lot of time and potential materials. High-level recipes that were hard to 5-star? The chance to get two instead of one was often worth the risk of missing out on 5 stars for both.

  In this world, skills weren’t simply a button on a hotbar. Melia could have taken the time to carve a giant face out of solid rock, but that wasn’t what the system-guided recipe told her to do. She placed all of her [Infernal Bedrock] into a towering pile as the [Base]. Surrounding that she piled up the [Wonder Bricks], and on top of everything she gently set down the [Deanimated Blocks].

  The system recognized that all the required materials to create a special craft were present and prompted Melia to infuse the pile with her mana, synthesizing them together. Something different, something better than all of the individual components alone.

  But not something usable.

  Or pretty to look at.

  The giant pile stood nearly 12 feet tall and 6 feet around at its thinnest, somewhat melted-looking like clay that had gotten too wet and thinned too much. The amalgamation took on the look and property of the base components, mostly the deep, crimson hue of the [Infernal Bedrock] with gold vein-like lines from the [Wonder Bricks]. The [Deanimated Blocks] were nowhere to be seen, but Melia could feel them pulsing from deep inside the mound. She reached out a hand and started sculpting.

  [Mold] was a [Mason]’s skill for shaping pottery and Melia used it to bring the pile of malleable stone closer in line with her vision. She shortened it from 12 feet to 10, thinning and expanding where necessary to produce the famous head-like shape and distinct nose.

  But the [Moai] at this stage was still crude, a mockery of the ancient wonders, and if finished now, with a quality of 45 out of 1250, not only would it be a 1-star craft, it would likely fail outright. Melia took a deep breath and put on her [Dreamweave Apron] and readied her [Alexandrite Chisel].

  ?

  [Trained Eye]. She’d made this before. Recipes significantly below her crafting level are easier to make.

  [Preservation]. Minimize mistakes. More difficult crafts, but the quality goes up.

  [Grand Strokes]. Heavy-handed. Uses a lot more energy. Use it too much, run out of energy, fail the craft. Not really an issue.

  [Helping Hand]. Let out a small mana pulse. Reveals small imperfections, good for increasing quality.

  [Grand Strokes].

  [Preservation].

  [Grand Strokes].

  [Keen Eye]. Spotted a small fracture in the cleft of the nose. Easily fixed now, disastrous if left alone.

  [Subtle Strokes]. Lighter tips here, smaller taps there. Embellishing the relief, adding minuscule definition in critical areas to really make it pop.

  [Deft Hand]. [Finishing Touch]. [Appraise]. Quality: 1920 out of 1250.

  Not too bad. Not her best possible, but clearly more than good enough for 5 stars. The system wouldn’t recognize anything better anyway.

  [Duplicate].

  ?

  A dim light glowed deep in the heart of the stone statue, giving the left nostril a faint orange hue. Melia reached out her hand, sticking it through the solid stone, pulling out an identical [Moai] head. The second head phased through the first until it was completely outside the boundary of its form and it became solid. Suddenly gaining the tangible mass of 18 tons of solid stone, Melia was instantly jerked away from the statue as her meager force was no longer sufficient to move it. She huffed, blowing an errant strand of pink hair out of her eyes, and leaned her whole body into it.

  As expected, nothing happened.

  She grunted, focusing on her core strength, deep down inside, clenching her whole body. She was a dragon! Some silly statue wasn’t going to get the best of her! Not to mention her stats were, quite frankly, ludicrous. A frustrated groan escaped her gritted teeth, and after several seconds of futile shoving, the thing began to move. Slowly, imperceptibly at first, filling the night air with a grating, screeching scrape as she maneuvered it several feet away, placing it in front of the other [Planter].

  ?

  Melia stepped back to admire her creations, a wide, genuine smile plastered to her face. The [Moai], for all that they were big, silly, and sort of dumb…were magnificent.

  But there was something they were lacking. Not the statues themselves, how could she put it….

  Normal fields had scarecrows.

  Most of the fields surrounding Hammerfall had a [Harvest Reaper] or other mechanical construct to guard against the sudden intrusion from monsters thinking they’d found an easy meal. The lands surrounding Abbyton had very few real predators, but it was entirely possible some sort of scavenger or pillaging beast would get attracted to their new fields.

  For all Melia knew, a brand new monster might migrate in or start spawning, and she really didn’t want that.

  [Engineering] was one of Melia’s earliest and most favorite professions, so she could have easily added some sort of [Training Dummy] or other bot to fill the role of scarecrow.

  She could. It’d be easy. She even had the materials on hand.

  Or.

  Orrrrr.

  She could pull an absolutely god tier troll.

  What’s better than a gigantic Easter Island head chillin’ in front of a veggie patch?

  One that turns to look at you as you approach.

  Now, Melia was no horror fiend and she wasn’t looking to scare the pants off any unsuspecting brothers. She wasn’t going to make this a “weeping angel” scenario where the [Moai] only shift in place when somebody’s back was turned.

  Her new [Planters] had enough fertilizer without somebody soiling themselves.

  Just a simple enchantment to make the statues pivot in place to face anything larger than a mouse as it approached. Kind of like an automatic sensor door in front of a supermarket.

  The only problem was…that wasn’t exactly a spell or skill that came pre-packaged from the game.

  But why shouldn’t she be able to do something like this? Melia realized she was still thinking in Earth terms, where magic didn’t exist, and any sort of spells or enchantments needed to follow a predefined set of rules, almost entirely focused on enhancing equipment and weapons.

  This world was real. It wasn’t limited to what she could hold in her hands or wear on her body. She saw it everywhere she went, from small artifices in buildings like light crystals or heat gems. The party’s new chatgems. Some carriages they had been in even had a noise-canceling feature.

  Common wisdom of the world would probably tell her there were limited applications of magic, mostly down to an [Enchanter]’s imagination and mana pool. Melia didn’t have those problems. She was a gnome and a dragon. The most terrifying imaginations combined with the most fearsome magical capabilities. And she was both a grandmaster [Enchanter] and an Archmage.

  She could physically see mana and read magic.

  ?

  Melia tapped her chin thoughtfully as her mind raced. A lightbulb went off and she knew exactly what she needed to do.

  She started out with a large, thick base of [Deepslate], so dense it wouldn’t get crushed under the giant statue’s weight. She didn’t want to enchant the [Moai] themselves, because that would cause issues down the line. Instead, she would place them onto an enchanted pedestal and essentially weld them together with magic. After a little digging in the dirt, she had two large square blocks, 6 feet on edge and 2 feet thick, planted where the [Moai] would stand. She retrieved her chisel once again and brought out her [Enchanter]’s [Truesilver Rod]. Crawling down on her hands and knees, Melia began to scrape out an arcane lattice.

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  As a spellwork affecting an item and not a person or monster, she wanted to use a 6-point base. She could also scale up to 36 points if she needed enough nodes for activation sigils, but this wasn’t going to be an overly complex array, so she settled on a 12-point star, otherwise known as a dodecagram in Sacred Geometry. 6 points held major glyph attachments while 6 were better suited for minor.

  Scraping thin lines into the dense rock was tedious and time-consuming, but Melia’s hands were steady and she crawled from edge to edge with dedication. After etching a lattice base most grandmasters could only envision in their dreams, Melia uncorked a small vial of [Liquid Starlight]. Mythril that was melted down and then stabilized in liquid form at room temperature by adding various enchanting essences. With a steady hand, she filled the entire array. Once the liquid settled on all 12 points, the circle began glowing a dim blue under its own power.

  On the north point, the first major glyph, Melia wrote Artaz. “Return to form”. When at rest, the statue would do nothing. It sounded simple, and perhaps a bit redundant, but that was the real trick to [Enchanting]: redundancies. Melia thought of [Enchanting] a little bit like computer programming, though if she was honest, she knew less about programming than she did writing magical script. Regardless, it was an easy-to-overlook step that needed to get beaten into apprentices early, or else their creations would either run themselves out of energy and destroy themselves. Or worse…everything around them.

  Connected to Artaz on the minor glyph was Fuuli, for “always”. After every action that the object took (in this case the [Moai] head), it should “always” “return” to rest. Again, simple enough.

  But what actions needed to be taken?

  Hotch, for targeting, and Mogul, for turning.

  Rictis needed to act on Hotch, as a minor, telling how far to look for targeting, while the minor Delci told Mogul how fast to rotate. Lokk, another minor, also linked to Mogul, stating that the object should only rotate along a flat plane and should not attempt to tilt or topple.

  That left three more major glyphs and two minor.

  On consideration, Melia added another conditional minor to Hotch, telling it how often the object needed to check for valid targets and the frequency it should update its orientation toward the target.

  Of course, the array needed to know where to get its energy from, and how much to pull, which was another minor and a major. She directed a rune to pull from the nearest leyline, which was surprisingly strong now that Melia felt it, and these enchantments needed a paltry amount to activate and sustain. They could work all day and barely use the equivalent of a single mana point.

  As a bonus, and certainly not because she didn’t think about adding it at first, Melia rounded out the major glyphs with “warding against critters and pests” and “stamina replenishment for workers”. That also filled out the remaining minor glyph as a precaution to specify that the “warding” and “replenishment” targets should always be strictly defined and relegated to their specific targets and never overlap. She didn’t need the brothers getting warded off while any small dangers to her veggies got reinvigorated as they devoured their way through the plot.

  ?

  “Do I ask? I think I’m afraid to ask.”

  Melia jolted upright from where she was gently applying a sealing coat of protective essence on the enchanted lattice. Jessica stood several feet away, looking quite relieved that she hadn’t taken another step closer, as Melia held her [Truesilver Rod] like a baseball bat, ready to strike.

  “Sorry! I didn’t mean to spook you!”

  “Ah, no, I didn’t mean…what are they doing?”

  Melia looked past Jessica, only to see half a dozen brothers in scholarly robes sitting at tables taking copious notes. Melia stood up and dusted herself off; all traces of her prior startled state vanished. Her curiosity almost got the better of her; she was about to go wander over to the tables and poke around when she noticed Jessica wasn’t wearing her normal armor. Instead, she had on a simple white dress, almost a gown. Light, breezy, and made for comfort.

  What was with that? And now that Melia thought about it, when did the sun rise? What time was it?

  “You were in the zone and nobody wanted to disturb you,” Jessica said wryly before smirking. “I told them you weren’t planning on blowing up the abbey.”

  She paused, thought about it for a second, and crouched down. Her smile faltered ever so slightly.

  “You…aren’t planning on blowing up the abbey, right?”

  “Pffft, no,” Melia giggled. “So what are they doing? And why are you dressed like that?”

  “They’re taking notes. Apparently, the first brother came out when the sun rose to tend to the garden, and that’s when he noticed those two gigantic heads. He ran back inside to get backup, just in case they were some sort of bizarre new monsters invading, but no, they’re just weird statues made by a weird gnome. What the heck made you want to make…whatever the crap these are?”

  Melia couldn’t help the bubbly giggle as it escaped her mouth.

  “Because they’re awesome?”

  “Riiiiight…,” Jessica sighed, already over it. “And what else were you doing? They didn’t actually notice you until after they started weeding the fields, and one of the brothers noticed you were working on some sort of magical mumbo jumbo, so he went in to find somebody to check and see if it was dangerous. One thing led to another and you have a whole class of students trying to learn from you.”

  “Oh,” Melia glanced down at the array. To her, it was incredibly simple, but she supposed that to a normal human being, this was overwhelmingly complex, delicate, and technical work.

  “They’re welcome to study it for as long as they like, but…oh! Let me finish real quick.”

  Melia marched behind the closest statue and pushed. Jessica’s eyes slowly grew wider and wider as Melia maneuvered it into position.

  “I’m going to pretend I didn’t just see a tiny gnome move a giant hunk of rock multiple times her size,” Jessica said in a slightly dazed voice as Melia dusted off her hands and marched up to her.

  “Ok!” Melia called out to the researchers sitting at a table with a wave. “It’s all clear!”

  Jessica was about to turn around when Melia’s hand caught the hem of her dress.

  “Wait,” the gnome whispered mischievously, “Watch this.”

  “Oh Melia, what did you-”

  “Gahhh!”

  One of the brothers walked up to the closest [Moai] head before Jessica could finish her sentence. The statue, which was facing away from the field, suddenly turned. The grating sound of stone against stone was heavily muted, but a gigantic stone face suddenly turning to observe him was still terrifying. The poor man quickly tried to step back, tripped over himself, and fell onto his butt. Melia burst out laughing.

  When the statue didn’t sprout legs and walk away, or do anything much worse, a few brave brothers ran in to retrieve their fallen comrade and made a hasty retreat.

  “See? See?” Melia waved at the head, which was slowly turning back to its original position.

  Jessica stared at her judgmentally. Eventually she could take it no more, bent down, and picked Melia up so she could stare her in the eyes.

  “Did you really stay up all night, craft two artifact-level objects, then perform a virtuoso feat of magic…just to prank some brothers at the abbey?”

  Melia squirmed slightly in Jessica’s arms.

  “Yes?”

  The sigh Jessica let out was loud and profound.

  “But,” Melia sombered up, “It was better than the alternative. I was watching Y’cennia’s healers work when they kicked me out. I needed something to take my mind off things so I came out here.”

  “You’re telling me you made those [Moai] heads on a whim?”

  Jessica [Inspected] them, and as level 1 items, the system was more than happy to oblige her.

  ?

  [Moai Head]

  Quality: 5 stars

  Level: 1

  Rarity: Artifact

  ?

  Decoration.

  ?

  Debate may be had, but the intelligence of neither the head, nor any subject addressing it, is in question.

  ?

  Made by: Melia the Magnificent

  ?

  “Well, no, I planned on making them,” Melia admitted. “I needed to get the mats from my bank.”

  “Why? Why would you make something like that?”

  “Because it’s fun?” Melia tilted her head. “And it makes people smile? Look, they’ve gotten used to them already.”

  Jessica turned and saw that yes, the brothers were now laughing and posing next to the heads as they turned to face newcomers. She had to admit, though she wouldn’t say it out loud, but Melia had a point. There was something rather charming about the giant statues.

  “Did you come out to find me? I’m sorry if I caused a ruckus.”

  Jessica turned back to Melia and found she couldn’t stay angry at the gnome. She sighed again and shook her head to clear away the nonsense.

  “Yeah. Mostly to tell you that we’re on a forced day of rest. I don’t know if you figured that out last night or not, but the sisters are making us take a rest day. To be honest, after the last several days, specifically after the dungeon, I think we all need it. Looking back, the dungeon was actually kind of fun. I think we’ll probably try running more of them again, but we need to wait a while between runs.”

  “Makes sense to me. Minds need just as much rest as bodies. Don’t push yourselves too hard. So what are your plans for today?”

  “Don’t know,” Jessica sighed explosively. “But whatever it is, it won’t be much. I’m on resting duty too, you know? The only reason I’m not being forcibly detained on bed rest is because I’m healthy and barely got a scratch on me. They let me out to walk around so I don’t die of boredom. But if I get so much as a speck of dirt on me….”

  Melia glanced at Jessica’s white dress. Her pristine, very easily stained and smudged white dress.

  “Yeah,” Jessica nodded.

  “Well, that actually works out,” Melia said as a plan started forming in her mind. “You want to come hunting with me?”

  “Did you literally not just hear me say I can’t go out and do anything strenuous?” Jessica hissed. “What part of going out hunting sounds like me taking it easy and resting?”

  “Um…the part where I’m doing all the hunting? I just wanted to know if you’d like to tag along. I could use somebody to talk to.”

  Jessica gave the gnome in her arms a hard, long stare.

  “Fine,” she muttered, because the prospect of watching such a high-level class of any type was too much to pass up. That and she really was bored sitting around inside the abbey. Alastair and Ellesea had their books, while Y’cennia was sleeping. Jessica had nothing to take her mind off the severity of their situation. And maybe Melia could help with that, too.

  ?

  “So you just sort of…what? Wish to be invisible and then you simply disappear?”

  As requested, Jessica took Melia out to the spawning grounds so the small gnome could hunt big game.

  Technically, anything was big game compared to a gnome…Jessica swore she had seen squirrels large enough to be like hounds to Melia.

  Melia returned to her tried and true method of killing wolves: vanish in [Stealth], reappear with a [Backstab], rinse and repeat. The shock wasn’t so great as it was the first time Jessica witnessed such…thoughtless killing.

  Not that Melia was reckless or careless.

  It simply seemed like these monsters were truly so far beneath her that she didn’t spare them a single thought. As if they were so insignificant that she could wave her hand and they’d be gone.

  Which was sort of what was happening, as the wolves instantly disappeared into her inventory. Jessica didn’t need to worry about getting dirty when Melia killed everything so cleanly and efficiently that they were dead and gone practically before she could realize it.

  Jessica didn’t want to think about how small that made her feel, so she focused on how the gnome did what she did.

  Frustratingly, she was no closer to unlocking the secrets of [Rogue] now than she was before. Her eyes simply couldn’t handle whatever technique Melia used to [Stealth]. She wasn’t high enough level to see it.

  After Jessica’s eyes slid off the gnome for what seemed like the hundredth time, she decided she might as well ask. Melia, despite being ridiculously high level and having no reason to share her secrets with anyone, stopped to consider.

  “No, not really,” she said at length. A wolf passed her by and wandered off, oblivious to how close it had been to getting obliterated. Melia stared at her hands for a moment and considered.

  “That’s…closer to how [Invisibility] works, if you’re a [Mage]. You speak the words, infuse them with mana, and will yourself to not be seen. [Stealth] is more like…erasing your presence?”

  She tapped her finger on her chin.

  “Spreading yourself thin? Becoming one with the air?”

  Melia squinted.

  “No, not that last one. Definitely not. [Stealth] is more like, poof, bam, gone. You know?”

  “No. Not a single clue.”

  “Haaa…watch again?”

  Melia leaped onto the back of a grazing Wololol, which trilled in annoyance before forgetting the gnome existed. Melia took a deep breath, and as slowly, deliberately as she could, she [Stealthed].

  At that very second, Jessica thought she caught movement to her right, which her eyes flicked to. Before she could catch herself, her attention diverted, and as soon as she wrestled it back on track, Melia was gone.

  She had a strong hunch there hadn’t been any movement, and the knee-jerk reaction had been her brain trying to cope with a very powerful skill focused on disappearing.

  “No, I didn’t see anything,” Jessica said, unable to mask her frustration. And suddenly Melia was back, as if she never winked out of sight in the first place, running her hands through the thick wool coat she sank into.

  “Don’t worry, if we practice hard enough, I’m sure you’ll get it.”

  Melia tried to be reassuring, but honestly, she had no more insight into how skills worked than Jessica. Jessica swallowed her bitterness and stared at the happy, cheerful gnome.

  “Why are you doing this?” Her rage had fled and now she was apathetic. Everything seemed so pointless in the face of a being who might as well live on a higher plane of existence.

  “Because I’m hungry?” Melia tilted her head. “I told you I wanted to come secure some food for myself. I don’t want to make the abbey mad at me.”

  Jessica shook her head.

  “Not the wolves…though do you really need that many? You’ve killed, like, a bajillion.”

  “We’re at 58,” Melia chuckled. “Yes, I need that many. But that wasn’t your real question?”

  “Trying to teach me!” Jessica threw her hands up explosively. “It’s such a waste, I’m not a [Rogue], I don’t have any sort of affinity with [Stealth], and it isn’t like I’m some sort of learning savant that can pick up abilities after watching them a few times. If you’re so set on teaching people your tricks, there are loads better people that would make decent apprentices-“

  “But they aren’t you,” Melia cut her off. “I’ll repeat it however many times I need to until it sinks in. I want to be with you. You and Al and Cennie and Elsie. You’re my friends and my party. I don’t care if you never learn [Stealth] from me, I’ll try my best to teach you as long as you ask.”

  “I don’t get it,” Jessica slumped, tired and exhausted, but she gave Melia a weak smile. Her party member. Her friend.

  “Was this how it always was back then?”

  “Gosh no,” Melia laughed. “Though I suppose it actually depends on what you mean.”

  Melia thought about it and shook her head.

  “Were there tons of people, I guess we’ll call them adventurers even though we didn’t go by that title, running around slaughtering monsters? Yes. Definitely.”

  “Were they all like you? Strong like you, I mean.”

  “Definitely no,” Melia laughed. “I wasn’t as strong as me back then. In the beginning, I suppose I wasn’t that much different than everybody else. It was just…a different time. And I did kill a lot of monsters over the years.”

  “I’ve heard stories of the Age of Upheaval,” Jessica ventured cautiously. “How did you find the courage to face such…such….”

  Monsters didn’t seem to do the word justice. Calamities? Disasters? Cataclysms?

  Such overwhelming, oppressive evil?

  “Like anything else?” Melia smiled. “One step at a time.”

  She patted the sheep she was sitting on, probably thinking it was a comforting measure, and most certainly forgetting her chair was, in fact, a monster itself. Melia paused, as if realizing something.

  “Do you think the abbey would mind if I take a few Wololol too? They make a nice light snack.”

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