Fire Affinity +1

  …

  Fire Affinity +1

  Congratulations, you have learned the skill Fireball!

  EXP +4,000

  Level up! You have 3 Skill Points to allocate!

  James blinked against the sudden barrage of notifications. All the achievements he should have gained while he was working with Fiyero were happening all at once. After so long stuck in the school so long, weaving spell after spell, he’d forgotten how simplified the System made everything. Hours of spellwork and understanding were reduced to a number. Fiyero would be disgusted to see it.

  When his disorientation passed, James realized that Inara, Desiree, and Virgil were all looking at him expectantly.

  “Well?” Desiree asked. “Did it work? Did you learn the spell?” She was bouncing on the balls of her feet, eager as any child to know that such a shortcut existed.

  “It worked,” James said. He was still shaking off the transition. It felt like waking up from a particularly vivid dream, and already the details of his experience were beginning to fade away. “I learned the spell.”

  He wanted to tell them about the school of fire, about the instructor — what was his name? — who had taught him the spell. They’d sat in an arena… no, a room? And there had been candles. A lot of candles? Or just one? The more he thought about it the less certain he became, and he knew even before speaking that it would have come out an incomprehensible jumble.

  “What was it like?” Virgil asked.

  James took a half step back from the intensity in Virgil’s eyes. “It, uh. I don’t know how to explain it,” he said. “It’s like I had a dream where someone taught me the spell, and then I woke up knowing it.”

  “What do you remember? Anything?”

  James frowned. “It’s hard to explain,” he repeated. “I remember it had something to do with a candle? And an old man taught me how to knit? Or something?” He shrugged. “That’s all I’ve got man, I’m sorry.”

  Virgil’s nostrils flared. “Surely you know more than that!” he snapped. “What was the name of the old man? What did he do to help you gain affinity with fire? Is it something you could teach anyone else?”

  James laughed nervously. “I’m starting to feel kind of attacked, here.”

  Inara stepped between James and Virgil. “If he says he doesn’t remember, then he doesn’t remember.”

  “I was only asking,” Virgil blustered, suddenly reigning in his earlier intensity.

  Inara’s glare did not soften. “James is the Hero. You should think twice before you question him again.”

  James winced at that. It didn’t even sound like she believed him, not really. More like, even if he was withholding information from Virgil, she supported him doing that. That was… something, he supposed? He certainly appreciated having her on his side, even if it was less out of loyalty to him and more out of dislike for Virgil. At this point, he would take what he could get.

  Virgil inclined his head. “My apologies. I didn’t mean to imply anything untoward.” He leaned to the side so he could make eye contact with James. “Apologies, Hero. I will be more cognizant of your authority in future.”

  That was enough to set James’s teeth on edge. It was framed like an apology, but it felt like an affectation. Like he just wanted to be accepted by the group and was willing to say or do anything to maintain that. Perhaps Inara was right to distrust him.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Then again, he was the sole reason James knew Fireball at this point. Surely that had been a worthy gesture of goodwill?

  James shook his head. He wasn’t used to this kind of suspicion. He generally liked people and held an expectation that he would be liked or at least treated well in return. It usually turned out to be the case, and when it wasn’t, the stakes were low enough that nothing really terribly happened.

  Grimora was different. Trusting the wrong person could mean a knife in his back.

  Once upon a time, James had watched Survivor. It was a game show where contestants were pushed to their limits physically and mentally, competing in athletic challenges while playing a mind-bending game of alliances and betrayal.

  James always used to say that the only reason he wouldn’t want to play was because of the outdoor survival aspect of it, but the truth was, it was the social game which would break him. He trusted too easily, and that would be used against him. Sometimes the players came away from the show with social trauma, and he knew without a shadow of a doubt that that would be him.

  No. Thank you.

  But then here he was. Stuck between Inara and Virgil. Inara, who’d taken him in from the beginning, and Virgil, who he’d saved.

  He didn’t want to think about it — so he didn’t.

  “Let’s move on,” he said. “There might be more secrets in these cells.”

  Virgil’s eyes lit up once more with something that might have been greed. “You said you found the book in a cell, didn’t you?”

  James nodded. “It was the cell I spawned in. There was a pressure plate tile which opened up a tunnel. Through there, I found an old study. The book was the only thing worth taking, and believe me, I searched the place.”

  Virgil looked like he did not, in fact, believe James and would very much like to double-check it himself — but a quick glance at Inara was enough to make him hold his tongue.

  Instead, he said, “Perhaps we will be fortunate enough to find another such room.”

  Inara snorted. “There’s typically only one secret per floor. Hasn’t that been your experience, dungeon explorer?”

  Virgil wisely did not respond.

  “But yes, we can look. Besides, your quest does demand a full clear.”

  Virgil perked up at the word “quest,” but he didn’t ask.

  “Let’s go, then!” Desiree stomped an impatient foot. “Dunno why you guys want to spend so much time standing around.”

  “Alright.” James waved his hands in a shoo-ing motion. “Everybody split up, call out if you find something.”

  They all wandered off. James held back. He had a couple things to take care of. It was tempting to dump his skill points into a stronger fireball, but he was still sitting at half his health. He needed a health regen skill more than anything else.

  He searched his list. It was massive — hundreds of skills, most of them minor and clearly not worth it — but fortunately he was able to filter, and since he knew what he wanted, it came up quickly.

  Vital Pulse

  You have listened to your heartbeat; you cling to life.

  Restore 20HP over 30 seconds.

  Perfect. He purchased the skill for two points, then shifted his attention to stats. Up until now, he’d been pouring his stats into INT and WIS, which helped him pack a powerful punch with his mana, but there was more than one occasion, now, when he’d wished for higher STR. His CON was weaker than he’d like, too. It was a bad sign that he’d been hanging out at half health for so long. A little more might go a long way.

  James decided to do a mix of STR and CON this level, and see how that played out. Once the changes were made, he looked over his status.

  Name: James

  Race: Human

  Class: Hero

  Level: 10

  HP: 91/150

  MP: 290/290

  EXP: 3,010/11,000

  Stat Points Available: 0

  STR: 18

  AGI: 14

  INT: 59

  WIS: 29

  CON: 20

  Skill Points Available: 1

  Skills: Meditation 1, Mana Bolt 2, Vital Pulse 1

  Affinity: Fire 5

  He would have to work on his agility at some point, but everything else was coming along nicely. He immediately activated Vital Pulse and was pleased to see his health tick back up.

  “Over here!” Virgil called out. “I found a chest!”

  The party quickly gathered. At the center of a cell sat an old treasure chest. To James’s eyes it looked like a classic loot chest, wooden with a curved top and an iron clasp

  “Great find!” James clapped Virgil on the shoulder. “Do you think it’s locked?” If it was anything like the video games he was used to, the chest wouldn’t be locked. If it was, he could try is almost-master key on it. Or maybe, with his increased strength, he’d be able to smash it open.

  “Hard to say for sure,” Virgil hedged.

  “It shouldn’t be locked,” Inara said with a sideways glance at the party’s “explorer.” “Locked chests are far more opulent.”

  “Well, either way, James should be the one to open it.” Virgil straightened his spine against Inara’s suspicion. “In case the item within is soul-bound, the Hero should be the one to receive it.”

  Inara hesitated, clearly unwilling to agree with Virgil, but she finally nodded.

  Desiree pouted. James shrugged. He entered the cell and bent down to unclasp the treasure chest.

  The chest opened wide to reveal rows and rows of teeth, and a long pink tongue.

  James lurched back, but it was too late.

  You have entered combat!