ranged out with his skills active, Mato loping almost silently beside him in the form of a discertingly rge wolf. He was as tall at the shoulder as that Starving Alpha wolf, but there was far more bulk to his frame and his reddish-brown fur wasn’t matted and dirty like the monsters’. It was rather bizarre to see his friend in this form, but it served only to emphasize the undercurrent of excitement he felt. He had finally earned his Css, and it owerful one. He was an archer, of course, with two of his css skills focused ed damage and archery. Thanks to Aliandra’s shrine, he had unlocked a powerful affinity fht magid a css that seemed ideal for him, taking full advantage of his higher-than-normal intelligeribute and augmenting his archery with magical damage. Two skills were primarily scouting skills, and his new repertoire was rounded out with a det stealth skill and a blessing that improved his attributes.

  Bobbing overhead was a small Mote of Light – one of his new skills – which cast a clear and pure light all around him. Acc to the description, the light he was casting had anti-stealth properties, which would, no doubt, require some exteesting.

  The cavern, with the a dead forest through which they walked, was so huge that the light was lost in it, gobbled up by the brooding darkness. But where he stepped, and within their immediate surroundings, it was clear as day. He could easily make out the damp mossy ground, the huge deg tree trunks, and the abnormally abundant piles of bohat seemed to fill the endless expanse of the cavern. He was a little worried that the light would attract monsters, but the bination of being able to see clearly and their tributes and skills allowed them to speed through the treacherous terrain, leaping piles of crumbling bone or m wood, and skirting the slippery damp patches of moss with ease.

  Just how long had this enormous cavern in sealed and undiscovered right below Myrin’s Keep? A musty odor of age and slow decay filled his nostrils. Just the size of the gigantic dead trees implied it must have been hundreds of years, if not far more.

  Aurned rock the size of his fist caught his eye aopped.

  “Hold up, Mato,” he said, croug down to exami. Hmm… Other than the monsters, the only people who had disturbed this caverheir own group. And this did not look like a rat or a wolf. He cast around carefully, finding a freshly snapped bone a little way ahead.

  With a thought, he brought up the description of one of his new css skills – one which he articurly excited about. The white lines of text appeared in his mind, the same way they always did. Ohing which had surprised him was that his newly unlocked light affinity matched the color of his interface – as if the system had always known.

  Does it always work that way? It would be hard to figure out, but Mato had always said his status was green, adorned with some sort of floating leaves – and he had unlocked a nature affinity, so it wasn’t just him.

  Explorer – level 1You have enhanced spatial perception and perfect recall for pces you have explored. You dis importaails about the pces you are expl and the creatures that inhabit them.Stamina: Use your enhanced perception to track your prey.Knowledge, Identify, Scouting, Trag, Perception

  Explorer owerful perception skill that most certainly ted his role as a scout. When he had unlocked it, his css had ed his Identify general skill, produg a trag skill that also served as an Advanced Identify for pces and enemies. As with all advanced Identifiagic, there were some drawbacks, however. He had already verified that he could no longer identify the properties of his own bow.

  I’ll just have to rely on Mato to identify items iure, he thought, turning his attention back to the scrapes on the ground and the overturned rock. It’s still a det tradeoff. Let’s see how this works. He eled a little stamina to activate his Explorer skill, and instantly the outline of a small light footprint stood out against the ground, enhanced by the magic of the perception skill.

  Ta. He sucked in his lips.

  It had to be her, there was no other possibility, and the tracks were leading back up to the sewer, light and far apart suggesting the Catkin girl had been sprinting at the time. The flood of information into his mi a little strange, like an enhanced intuition that instantly ected his memories of Ta with the tracks. His mind, presumably augmented by the magic of his skill, built a clear sario of the speed, dire, and even the image of Ta rushing across the damp ground.

  Probably she was trying to avoid the monsters, he thought, examining a few more scrapes on the ground a little further on.

  “Mato,” he said quietly. “These are Ta’s tracks.”

  His friend instantly ceased his prowling circuit, searg for monsters, and turned his rge furry head toward him, holding his gaze for a moment with greehat seemed to glow softly in the darkness, refleg his light magi silent paws, the wolf loped over to join him, his form rippling and twisting discertingly as he switched back to Beastkin with his shapeshifting magic.

  “We should find her and have a tle discussion,” Mato said, his voice low and gravelly like the beast whose form he had just shed still lurked, growling within him. “I’ll help track her,” he said, and watched the somewhat disturbing transformation reverse as Mato’s body lengthened and twisted, shapeshifting bato the form of the wolf. In his new form, he was uo talk, but had known him long enough to guess his thoughts. Mato s the tracks for a moment and then took off in a loping run.

  followed, easily keeping up now that his css skills boosted his dexterity. He tirig his stamina into his Explorer skill to keep the trag magic active, still able to pick out the footprints in the mud and mossy ground, enhanced as they were by his perception skill. But the longer he kept his skill active, the more a strange, unfortable feeling stirred in the back of his mind.

  What is this pce? He had felt it before, the moment he had climbed down the rope from the sewers into this cavern – a strange prickle that made the hairs stand up on the back of his neck.

  After running for quite a while, the light of his floating magical mote finally illumihe great pile of rock that had avanched into the cavern from the sewer above, and the nasty waterfall of sewage that had beeed in the process. He wrinkled his the stench. The rope that had been hanging from the sewer above was gone – of course – and the tracks led right up to the stone sb that had crushed their froup leader, Donavan Asterford. carefully checked the surroundings, but he found no signs of life. Ta had clearly left, taking the rope with her.

  “Over here, Mato,” he said, croug down to examihe tracks in the dirt. There were finger-sized furrows in the dirt uhe stone and a deeper set of footprints.

  She must have tried to lift the rock. The Mato had built to cover Donavan’s protrudi had been disturbed, and some monster had clearly stopped by to sna him. There were no signs of his expensive, ented boots.

  Explorer has reached level 2.

  At the sound of the chime, the prickle in the back of his mind suddenly intensified. Like the insistent knog upon a door within his mind. A door he was uo find. The tracks sharpened, growing far clearer, suddenly showing him the story of how Ta had tried several times to move the heavy boulder.

  “Was she trying to steal his stuff?” Mato asked, ba his normal Beastkin form as he leaned over to see what he was examining.

  “I think so, but I don’t think she was strong enough to move this. She took his boots, though.”

  “Well, whatever else he had is probably crushed.”

  “Mato, I know you despised him, but I don’t feel good about just leaving him here to rot. Are you strong enough to lift this?” Mato had shared that his css focused orength attribute, and that he had already spent more points to make himself stronger.

  “I try,” he said, in his typical direct manner. He strained and struggled against the weight but to no avail. In Mato’s defehere was an enormous stack of stoing on top of Donavan’s corpse. With a st herculean effort, Mato mao shift the sb just a little, and with a crad rumble, some stone from higher up the pile began to shift and slide.

  darted in and snatched up the exposed pieces of Donavan’s sword and dodged sideways before the rock crashed down, burying the corpse once more.

  He coughed several times, waving the dust cloud out of his face, and examihe sword he had recovered. It wasn’t Donavan’s body, but the sword was distinctive and reizable, even in three pieces.

  It will have to do.

  “I’ll drop this off with the mayor,” he said. “He’ll know how to tact Donavan’s family and maybe they will want to retrieve the body.” What’s left of it.

  “Hey, ,” Mato said, “perhaps don’t mention the shrio anyone? I’m worried that when wets out, someone will want to take it from Aliandra.”

  “Hmm, that’s a good point,” said, suppressing a shiver. Left unsaid was the obvious fact that the shrine was a soulbound artifact, and the only practical way of transferring one would be to first kill the current owner. Perhaps I should have Mom drop this sword off with the mayor. It was going to be hard to ceal the fact that he had somehow earned a css without using the official shrine or waiting the week for the natural path to force his css sele.

  “Ok,” Mato answered, “Let’s go.”

  pulled out another rope from his pad k to a fist-sized rock before lobbing it up into the dark sewer to around the boulder he had used to anchor the first lio his surprise, he mao snag it on the first try, and soon he and Mato were shimmying up into the sewers where, strangely, the uneasy prig in the back of his mind vanished.

  dismissed his Mote of Light whewo of them emerged from the sewer tunnel into the dirty, run-down alleyway where they had inally entered. A once-profitable mert district that had grown progressively more dipidated and abandoned over the years. Overrun with crime, many businesses in the area had been forced into bankruptcy by the prohibitive prote taxes demanded by the local militia anizations or had been gutted and looted by the criminal syndicates. In a way, felt even more wary now that he was iown after dark, than he had been down in the cavern and sewers where he just had to worry about monsters.

  Disappointingly, Ta’s trail had petered out in the alleyway, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. Trag someone over a hard stone pavement that was regurly used by the denizens of the town wasn’t easy, even with the aid of magical trag skills. It’s still only a level two skill, he reminded himself.

  “I’ll get some food and potions for supplies,” Mato offered, as they began walking down the alley towards the better-lit main street, while kept a sharp eye glued to the shadows for any signs of movement.

  “Remember, now that Malika has a heal, potions aren’t as critical anymet a few if you find a good deal, they’re good for emergencies. I’ll see if I get my mom to make some clothes for her and Aliandra – they’re both wearing rags.”

  “Good point,” Mato answered as they reached the dubious safety of the rger main street. “I think Aliandra’s wearing more blood than cloth. How about we meet back here tomorrow to go back down? Dawn?”

  nodded. I’ll have Mom return this in the m, he thought, gng at the shards of Donavan’s sword. With so many ongoing css trials in progress, the mayor would undoubtedly still be waiting, and it would be a simple matter to stop by the Town Hall and drop it off. With a quick farewell to Mato, he set off at a brisk pace towards his mother’s house. She would be so relieved to see him alive.

  Ta

  Ta sat quietly in the shadow of the stone ey on top of the gutted shell of an old, abandoned building. She shifted her weight carefully to let a little blood flow to the leg that was growing numb. It was cold, and she was tired from keepiealth and cealment skills fueled with her stamina while she kept watch over the sewer entran the alleyway.

  It had been a great day, by any reasonable at. Kieran Mori had worked her hard, expeg immediate results – and she had delivered. Her css, in jun with her general skills, meant she was ideally suited for covert assassination, but she had also learhat her skills worked just as well for sedary jobs in intelligend espioealth, after all, was great fetting in and out of pces without being seen.

  Although the information-gathering burgry had paid well, assassination was what she really excelled at – every mark Mori had provided had died in a sirike from the shadows.

  As happy as she was with her amazing css, Ta simply couldn’t get the image of Jax and Bastiaing in that alleyway out of her mind. It haunted her, leaving her with a pall of darkness and a sense of impending disaster that had loomed over her all day. She could not allow word of her killing Donavan to reach the ears of Kieran Mori or Jax Hawkhurst. While she had beeain her previous teammates had been running headlong to their deaths trying to save that pathetic dying creature, especially without her help, now that the stakes were her own life and future, she could no longer afford to rely on assumptions. She couldn’t shake the feeling that they may have survived somehow and would return to the Town Hall to choose their csses. Then her secret would e crashing down on her.

  She remembered the look Malika had given her right after the rockfall. She shook her head softly, so as not to interfere with her stealth skill and give her position away while trying to put it out of her mind. I must be imagining it, she thought. But her mind refused to let it go.

  She knows.

  At least I leveled up today, she thought, firmly taking trol of her errant thoughts. At level two, her Silent Assassin should be more than a match for her uncssed former panions. Which was why she here freezing her ass off while watg the sewer entrance all night. If they had survived, they would return to choose their csses, and then she would ambush them, and her secret would be safe.

  k.

  Her head so the side at the clear ring of metal against stoaking in the sight of the sewer grate shifting and moving as it suddenly lifted. Two forms emerged from below – two forms that she reized instantly.

  The Beastkin and the Half-elf. She waited in silenalika, but nobody else emerged. The Beastkin carefully lowered the grate bato pce, with much more care and silehan she would have expected. Huh. Guess she’s feeding the mushrooms down there.

  It was whewo of them started talking and turhat she suddenly saw it.

  Tucked into the Half-elf’s belt were the shards of Donavan’s expensive sword. She felt the icy chill of fear as her worst nightmare began unfolding in front of her. They know. It was the only possible reason they had his sword. They would return it to the Town Hall as evidend then the mayor would ask questions.

  Questions she couldn’t afford to have answered.

  It was all she needed. She rose from her hiding position and crept forward. I have to kill them and bury that sword. She carefully slipped two daggers from their sheaths on her belt. If she used her twin-dagger Mutite from stealth and triggered Ambush she should be able to instantly kill the Beastkin, and then the Half-elf would be easy to overe one-on-one – his skills were all in archery, and archers were vulnerable to melee csses like hers.

  As she was about to leap down, a s of their versation reached her ears, causio freeze instantly.

  “Remember, now that Malika has a heal, potions aren’t as critical anymore.”

  What? Malika is still alive? How the fuck does she have a heal?

  With mounting dread rising within her, she identified the two boys in the alleyway below – something she should have dht at the start.

  Druid – Beastkin – level 1Archer – Half-Elf – level 1

  Shit! How do they have csses already? With csses came defensive skills, and while she was still a higher level thaher of them, there was no way she could be certain of killing them both.

  And Malika is still out there somewhere.

  She crouched on the rooftop, racked with indecision, until eventually the two of them left, quickly heading toward the main road.

  Fuck.

  The only thing she had was the knowledge that they would be meetiomorrow and heading back down.

  I must find Malika and silehem all. I need a pn. Fast.

  Aliandra

  Ali woke to the sounds of a strange, dull thumping in the background. She sat up with a start looking around at the unfamiliar enviro for a few moments before she realized she had been moved back to the cave where they had fought the wolves. The corpses were gone, leaving only bloodstains and drag marks to tell the gruesome story of the battle.

  Her eyes sed the dimly lit cave, searg for whatever was making the noises, but she didn’t have to look far to find Malika practig her kicks against one of the walls of the cave.

  Surprisingly, the rod hard-packed dirt seemed to be worse off. Her eyebrows furrowed briefly as she sidered the se before Ali settled down, reassured that she was not in any immediate danger.

  I fell asleep halfway through reading my css skills.

  While she sat there, she pulled up the skill descriptions again and sed through the first three quickly. Her fourth skill, Destru, seemed rather unusual. Ali couldn’t figure out what it was really useful for. If it was a bat skill, it looked like a poor one.

  Destru – level 1Mana: Release the mana from an uing or inanimate target, learning about its structure, aaining some in your oool. Requires tinuous uninterrupted focus and the target is destroyed. Raouch.Are, Knowledge, Intelligence

  I ot be interrupted. I only use it on an uing target. What monster is going to stand there while I use my magic to turn it to dust? The skill seemed strangely restrictive. Perhaps it’s just a way to restore mana? Ali articurly curious about the phrase about gaining knowledge about magical structure – the skill was even tagged with the Knowledge trait. Maybe it’s a non-bat skill? Her css was an anomalous ‘hybrid’ css – a unique-ranked css like her mother’s – with one of its main traits listed as Knowledge. That had been one of the most important factors that had drawo the css in the first pce – a bat css that didn’t require her to entirely give up on magical knowledge and study.

  A problem for ter. She moved on to her skill.

  Runic Script – level 1You are profit with runic magiguages: A Dal’mohran, Elvish, Dwarven.Mana: Inscribe a runic circle with your mana. Reserve: by level.Are, Knowledge, Intelligence

  It made her immensely happy to see the Runic Script skill as one of her css skills. Ali had always been fasated by the nguage and script of written magic. It was so versatile aiful. A well-doted, but rare skill typically used only by archmages and schors, it was clearly not a bat spell. Finding this skill as part of her initial set took much of the sting out of her decision to pass on the Runic Sage css. Runic Script provided an aveo pursue her passion, provided of course she could find a library and some magical books to study.

  I hope they still have good libraries.

  Her final skill, Sage of Learning, appeared also to arise from her years of study and her passion for research. It seemed exceptionally timely that she would learn a skill that might even help with her nguage issues. Sage of Learning was essentially a bination of her Schor and Linguist skills, evolved and fueled by both her css and magical aptitudes. She couldn’t wait to see how it worked.

  Sage of Learning – level 1Your ability to learn nguages, history, and simir academiowledge is signifitly enhanced. You have enhanced memory for the tent you have studied.Are, Knowledge, Perception, Intelligence

  Given the profound frustration of being uo uand her rescuers, she decided to try the skill immediately. Her first problem though, was that the skill cked an activation cost. Is it a passive skill? The Schor and Linguist skills that had been absorbed to make this one had simirly cked activation and were simply always on – but that didn’t help her figure out how to use it.

  For a few minutes, she tried mentally shovierday’s memorized versations at the skill. It felt like bumbling around in the dark, but something shifted within her memories. Or am I just imagining that because I want something to happen? She tried several other ideas, but nothing she could think of had any obvious effect.

  Shaking her head and frowning, she finally gave up, getting up and walking over to where Malika was still kig the wall. Ali admired her remarkable persistend patience, and the grace of her movement, watg in silenot wanting to interrupt her intense focus. After a few minutes, Malika noticed her watg and turo say something in a rexed voice.

  This time, the twist in her mind was real. Something ected the sounds of Malika’s voice to the memorized versations and the previously frustratingly familiar sylbles actually veyed some vague meaning.

  That was a greeting!

  Sage of Learning has reached level 2.

  Mana drained from her mana pool in a rush, and her mind was filled with a brief disorienting feeling as if several important things had simply been rearranged in an instant. Her supposedly passive skill was ing a disturbingly rge amount of mana without her trol.

  Will I be able to stop it?

  The sense of meaning had to be from the Knowledge trait of the skill, and it seemed to be attag the meaning to the memorized versations as she heard Malika speak. It was a thhly discertiion, a little like the skill was rifling through her memories and rearranging the library card catalog of her mind on her behalf.

  Malika looked at her curiously and said some more words. Ali’s mana drained again, and a fresh sensation of meaning emerged, ected to what she heard.

  Food? That sounded like a question. Guessing that perhaps she was being asked if she was hungry, Ali cautiously nodded.

  Malika walked over to a pae of the boys had left behind and produced an apple.

  Ali happily accepted a few slices from her and sat down. Not only was she excited that she had guessed correctly, but she found she was also ravenous after all the strenuous activity from the day before. Her stomach produced a ferocious growl that made the dark-haired woman beside her chuckle. Ali met her sparkling blue eyes and then burst out ughing too. She’s not quite so scary when she’s not crushing walls. Then, Malika began talking to her. Ali wasn’t sure why she was talking, knowing Ali couldn’t uand, but perhaps she just wanted some pany. At ohe magic kicked into a, providing a difficult-to-follow flurry of meaning, all the while her mana drained into the voracious skill.

  Sage of Learning has reached level 3.

  After about twenty minutes and about a hundred mana ed, she noticed she was even burning a few stamina points. Ali wondered curiously if perhaps there was something to the idea that mental activity made a person physically tired. Her skill reag level three seemed to create a sharper sense of crity in her mind, and the flow of meaning became immediately fuller, somehow richer. Malika seemed to be talking about something to do with skills and csses, but the abstract meaning derived from the Knowledge-based skill was still exceptionally difficult to uand, certainly at the speed of normal versation.

  Malika said something else, and the discerting magi with a memory of Mato shouting something during the wolf fight. As if a key piece of the puzzle had been unlocked, the e set off a cascade of memorized ss of versation shuffling and intereg within her mind as all the memorized versations, and Malika’s one-sided monologue, densed into some vague sembnce of order. A clear soft tone sounded within her mind as two new notifications appeared.

  Sage of Learning has reached level 4.You have learhe on Language.

  The greedy Sage of Learning skill eased up, slowing the magical restructuring to a much more fortable level. The torrent of mana ption died down to a small trickle as she suddenly heard Malika’s previously unintelligible words snap into crity as her new nguage Aptitude activated.

  “... all these skills. So, what do you think?” Malika said. Then she sighed, “I wish you could uand me.”

  Ali’s rudimentary and of the on nguage wasn’t quite good enough yet to pick up the words as clearly as she seemed able to, however, her Sage of Knowledge was still burning some of her mana, so it resumably still filling in the many gaps in uanding.

  Ali tried.

  Holding up the slice of apple, she spoke carefully, “Thank. You.”

  Malika whipped her head around and she fixed her with a look of incredulity. “You talk?”

  Ali answered, “I learn.” Her Sage of Learning skill bent her memories again. This was the only description of the feeling that made any sense. She tried again, “I learn on nguage.”

  “Wow, that’s incredible!”

  Your proficy with the on nguage has improved.

  Her and of the new nguage was atrocious, but she had to marvel at the power of her new skill. Sage of Learning had, for the mere cost of almost her entire mana pool and a handful of points of stamina, done what would previously have taken her about a month of studying to achieve. Basic – very basic – profi a new nguage! While she couldn’t see any bat use fe of Learning, Ali was heless enormously pleased with her powerful new skill.

  Excited to have overe the frustration of not being able to unicate, she looked at Malika’s surprised face. “Thank you … save … me.” Her speech was still broken, but she was heless vinced she was being uood.

  The irl smiled at her, “You’re wele. Thank you for sharing your shrine.”

  Ali smiled back at her, a soft warmth filling her heart at her first real versation since waking up.

  timewalk