Kat and Alicia kissed, then Kat moved back to her spectator’s spot for the real training to begin. With Tabitha now finished showing off, she began walking Alicia through the basielee bat. They talked about foot positioning, how to hold a on, and how to shift weight to stay on bahey walked through a series of basieuvers, all for different purposes: defending, repositioning, advang, and dozens more.

  After the first few minutes, Katrina grabbed her guitar and a chair from iheuro watch the training. She settled in, double checked the tuning just to be safe, and began to give both fighters some stamina regen. She had to remind herself that, as much as she wao serve mana for the Dungeon, she also would be signifitly more helpful if she could reach Level 3. It also looked like the irls appreciated the extra energy; they weren’t actually fighting, so HP Regen would have been wasted, aher was using any mana.

  She also took the opportunity to extensively study Tabitha’s movement. With her Bardiowledge, she was able to it things to memory much faster than most, and she k would be just as helpful for her to familiarize herself with the Mage Knight’s movements.

  Alicia, for her part, utting in a solid effort. Despite her obvious ck of fighting experience, she was doing everything in her power to improve. Over the first hour, her forew more reliable, her ability to read Tabitha’s movement began to develop, and she seemed more fortable with her on. She even scored a hit on Tabitha at one point, who put up a good show iending like she hadn’t let it happen.

  Eventually, they decided to take a rest, and Kat quickly got everyone a gss of water. They all colpsed on the front wn, one of them signifitly more out of breath thaher.

  “Keep it up, Alicia! You’re taking to this like a natural,” Tabitha said.

  “We both know that’s not true, but I appreciate you making the effort.” Alicia ughed, holding her fingers ier to absorb it through her roots. “Why am I learning to fight again? My css is all about barriers, but I haven’t even touched them yet.”

  “We’ll get to those in a sed, especially since we need you to Level Up, but you o start thinking in terms of resource allocation,” Tabitha said, setting her water down. “If a mories to hit you, and you block it with a barrier, how is that any different than taking the hit yourself? Now, imagine you block the attack with a club, or a shield. The damage is blocked entirely, and you don’t lose any HP. Your stamina is a resource too, and it would be foolish not to use it.”

  Alicia paused for a moment. “That does make sense. I don’t follow delvers like Kat does, so I’ve hought about that stuff.”

  “After the break, we’ll practice with your barriers. I want to see how fast you make them, how flexible you be with their shapes. Normally Bulwarks spawn them in midair, but it doesn’t seem like you do that.”

  “I ’t, it’s a weird quirk of my Rad Css bination. I’m not sure if there are any bes, though, since I’ve never explored it.”

  “Hey, ued question,” Tabitha started, “but is there anything I could sna?”

  Katrina and Alicia looked at each other awkwardly, both probably thinking the same thing.

  Shoot, she actually o eat.

  “Um, I could check my ets? But anything in the house would be four years old, minimum.” Alicia started to get up but stopped when Tabitha started ughing.

  “Don’t bother, I ulling y. I’ve got some food for myself, I just wao see the look on your faces.” Tabitha tinued ughing, falling ba the wn before stretg her arms over her head. “Long term, though, I’m going to have to fill your pantry. Something t down into the Dungeon with us would be nice.”

  Everyone tinued resting for nearly half an hour. Tabitha didn’t he rest as much, but seemed to be enjoying the quiet atmosphere and the cherry blossoms floating on the wind. Alicia was still holding her practice club, moving it bad forth to try a more fortable with it. Katrina’s music had opped, the soft sounds of her cssical guitar giving everyone a healthy helping of stamina. Alicia clearly more, but when Katrina asked Tabitha, she said it was also a big help. The Foxgirl hadn’t used much stamina during the training, but apparently she’d had a cam show earlier in the night that had kept her pretty busy.

  Katrina was just about to suggest that they get back to practig when a System notificatio off in her head, causio flin surprise.

  *PING*

  She stopped pying, the peaceful guitar melody halting just moments before reag a satisfying clusion. Alicia looked down, ed at the sudden movement. “Kat? What’s wrong?”

  “I just hit Level Three!” There was a moment of shock, then Katrina started ughing. After years of staring at her Status, of using it solely to inflict terrible headaches in hopes of distrag her bloodlust, something had finally ged.

  Alicia dropped to her knees, sh Katrina’s face with kisses in celebration. “Kat! That’s so exg!”

  “Way to go, Fangs! You said that gives you spellcasting, yeah?” Tabitha said, sitting up again.

  “Alright, alright. Let me pull up my Status, and I’ll actually pick my Feature.” Resting her guitar on her leg, Katrially summoned her Status s, and was greeted by a message she thought she’d never see.

  ***

  Gain: Bardic Spellcasting (Lesser)

  Choose one:

  Bonus Spells

  Barbed Tongue

  Sedary Method

  Extended Inspiration

  ***

  “You want us to look anything up for you?” Tabitha asked.

  “No need, I’ve been dreaming of this moment for years. I’m getting Bonus Spells, it’s too good to pass up.” With a quick mental and, the Status s disappeared, and Katrina looked around again.

  “Well, how do you feel?” Alicia asked. “ells did you get?”

  “Bards are a little weird, we don’t pick our spells from a list or have them randomly assigned. We have to develop our spells ourselves, e up with ideas and thee on them until they coales our Status.” Katrina squeezed her girlfriend’s hand iement. “I guess this gives me something to do while you two get back to sparring practice.”

  “Aww but I want to see you make spells!” Alicia moaned.

  “I’m not going anywhere, and the process is holy going to be pretty b. If I mao figure out any spells tonight, I’ll make sure you see them.”

  Tabitha jumped to her feet, grabbed her practice stick, and poi at Alicia. “Alright, you heard the dy, Cherry Blossom. Back to work!”

  With another loud grumble, Alicia grabbed her on and moved back to the middle of the street. “Ugh, fine. You said you wao practice with my barriers , right? So, are you just going to—”

  “En garde!” Tabitha shouted, cutting Alicia off. She ran at the Dryad, clearly taking a leisurely pace, and started testing Alicia on the mahey’d been practig earlier. As they fell bato a familiar pattern of attag and defending, they started incorporating Alicia’s barriers into the equation. Their discussion, and whatever progress they made, was of sedary io Katrina at the moment.

  She’d just unlocked Bardic Spellcasting, after years of dreaming up possible spells for herself. Thankfully, she’d just formatted everything for her phone, so it was easy to scroll through her list of options. Every Bard forum she’d ever found cimed that Bardic Spellcasting, along with the Bonus Spells, would give her a total of eight spells. Although her list of ideas had signifitly more tha spells on it, she had separated them by presumed strength, as well as flexibility.

  Whenever she imagined being a delver, Katrina always assumed she would work best as a jane-of-all-trades caster. Someohat could adapt to any situation, while also providing helpful supp magic so that other casters didn’t have to give up valuable spell slots for basic spells.

  It was almost overwhelming, having to choose a single spell to start with, but she had to start somewhere. With an idea in mind, she started practig.

  The music came easily. After all, she’d dohing but improve her musical expertise for years now. The tricky part was readjusting how she ied with her magic. With her Regeion Buffs, she only had to make a simple sele oatus s, and thehe magic do its thing. Now that she had the tools to i more directly with her magic, she struggled to figure out exactly how to trol it. She could feel an impressive amount of magical energy inside her, waiting to be unleashed, but every time she reached for it, she couldn’t pull it free.

  Eventually, Katrina decided to go back to the basics. Instead of eborate flourishes and dramatic arpeggios, she started pying simple musical scales. She examined how the musiteracted with the magic, how the energy reacted to different expressions of melody.

  With a solid uanding of the basics, she added a tiny bit of plexity. She pyed a secutive series of simple chords, up and down the register, again examining how they resonated with the magic. After this, she tried more plex chords, pying around with minor diminished progressions. This iteration tinued for nearly another hour, during which Katrina was pletely oblivious to whatever Alicia and Tabitha were doing.

  At the end of the sed hour of sparring practice, Katrina finally felt she was ready to attempt a spell.

  “Alright you two, want to take a quick break?” Katrina asked.

  “Yes! Please!” Alicia said, perhaps a little too eagerly. She was clearly exhausted, panting and gasping for air as she walked back towards her wn. Her face winced with pain as she moved, and Katrina was fairly sure she could see the beginnings of several bruises. Tabitha also moved closer, but Katrina held up a hand to stop her.

  “Actually, Tabitha, could you help me test a spell?”

  “Depends, you gonna throw a lightning bolt at me and hope I dodge it?” the Foxgirl asked, crossing her arms suspiciously.

  “Nothing like that, it won’t do any damage. It’s just something that might disorient you for a couple seds. I don’t want to get into the specifics, or it might skew your rea.”

  “I’ll volunteer if you want, Tabitha,” Alicia said, her voice still panting from all the training.

  Tabitha paused, tapping her fingers on her arm as she thought about it. “No, I got this. Just remember, I’m here out of the goodness of my heart, not to be your little Dungeon guinea pig. Where do you want me?”

  Katrina poio the road. “Could you start there, and just jog past us?”

  With a mock salute, Tabitha took her spot. She looked at Katrina, the two girls nodded, and she took off at a leisurely pace. After the first couple of steps, Katrina started pying. She let the music flow through her fingers, reag for the musid using the melody to form a bridge. The magic bound itself to the song, catg a ride out into the night sky, and Katrina directed the spell at Tabitha.

  When the spell hit, the Foxgirl immediately tripped over her ow. She hit the ground, her hands reag for stability as a stream of profanity erupted from her mouth. The effects of the magily sted a few seds, and when Tabitha returo her senses, she gred at Katrina. “What oh was that?”

  “I gave you vertigo. At least, I tried to. What did it feel like?”

  “It felt like vertigo! It was awful! My head inning, I couldn’t see straight, and I’m pretty sure I almost threw up. Wow, that was nasty.”

  Katrina jumped to her feet, running over to Tabitha aending a hand to help her up. “I hope it wasn’t too bad, truly. If you want to take creative revenge on me, I totally get it. Holy, I think Alicia and I should feel what that spell is like anyways, just in case.”

  With a smirk, Tabitha grabbed Katrina’s hand and pulled, standing to meet her. “That’s not a terrible idea. The two of y it, I mean. There’s no telling when a monster might reflee of these spells at us, or something like that. As for creative revenge… well, you already wrote me a bnk check for a favor. Let’s just say I’ll factor this little escapade in when I think of something. I’ve already got some ideas, truthfully, but all in good time, Fangs.”

  “I do appreciate this, Tabitha. It means a lot. Just let me know if this ever gets to be too much for you.”

  “Hey, I’m a grown woman, I take care of myself. Besides, I just spent the st two hours beating up yirlfriend, a little payback is more than warranted.” The two girls smiled at each other before rejoining Alicia on her wn. “How you feeling, Cherry Blossom?”

  In lieu of a proper answer, Alicia instead let out a prolonged groan of misery. She was currently on the ground, unmoving, and Katrina was fairly sure she saw a series of roots extending from her back. “I’m gonna be so sore tomorrow, ugh. I want to just pass out in a sunbeam for like, a week. That won’t be a problem, right?”

  Katrina sat dowo Alicia, softly brushing her hair from her face. “You soak up all the sun you want tomorrow, hun.” The Dryad nuzzled into Katrina’s hand, humming with appreciation. She seemed like she was on the verge of passing out, and Katrina had to tap her cheek to make sure she didn’t fall asleep on her front wn.

  “In all seriousness, Alicia?” Tabitha said, clearihroat. “You did really great today. For someoh no bat experience, I’d say you’re pig things up pretty quickly. We’re all finished for tonight, if you two want to retire to more private affairs.”

  “How did the sed training session go, anyways? I was too busy with my spells to pay attention,” Katrina asked.

  Alicia slowly sat up, the roots on her back detag, her bones crag in a manner remi of an a, lumbering tree. “I definitely noticed the ck of stamina regen, for ohing. Otherwise, I agree with Tabitha. The movements feel a bit more natural, and I think I’ve got the beginnings of an uanding of how to protect myself. Plus, I used Css Features! That’s gotta t for something right?”

  “How close are you to leveling up?”

  “I guess I should check, shouldn’t I? Status!” Alicia was now leaning against Katrina, her eyes fighting to stay open as she started reading through her Status. Barely a sed passed before her eyes snapped wide open, and she leaned forward in surprise. “Wait! I leveled up too!”

  “Dang, look at you two! We’re on a roll!” Tabitha said. She was in the middle of slowly removing her delving gear but paused to sloud Alicia.

  “This is Level Twht? What stats are you going to take?” Katrina asked.

  “Um, it says my only options are Health or Endurance. I should take the Health, right? The more HP I have the better?”

  “You’re our tank, that seems like the right call to me.” Katrina squeezed Alicia’s hand, noddihusiastically. “Anything that keeps you alive is a win in my book.”

  “Alright, two points ih, and… done!”

  As Katrina watched, she swore Alicia’s skin grew more vibrant. She’d always had a bit of a glow to her, though it was hard to say how literal that was, and now she seemed just a bit more alive. They smiled at each other, quickly kissing as they celebrated their respective level gains today. Eventually, the intense physical activity began to catch up with Alicia, and everyone decided to call it a night.

  Tabitha left her delving essentials in Alicia’s living room, then walked home to get some sleep. Katrina eagerly walked upstairs, taking a few mio brush her teeth and put on her pajamas, then joined Alicia in her bedroom. The Dryad had already buried herself in the pile of bs, and Katrina kneeled down to figure out how they might be able to cuddle. As soon as she id down, however, Alicia tackled her with excitement, sh her with kisses. She ed her hands around Katrina’s waist, nuzzled her fato Katrina’s shoulder, and was asleep within minutes.

  —

  "Ugh, Nyx, I'm so sore!"

  That's a good thing, isn't it? Sore today to avoid dead tomorrow?

  "I mean, yeah, but I'm not a fighter!"

  Tabitha seemed like she was taking it easy on you, though. That was nice of her.

  "Easy for you to say, you're not the oing smacked with a stick."

  Do you want to hit me with a stiake thing fair?

  "No, that'd be mean, I just want to pin about it. At least I got to cuddle up with Katrina again in the end... Oh! Her song! Okay, where's the note... alright. Today's song is "Mio in E Major: Danza Mora" by Francisca. She says 'This song is short but sweet, and has some really iing interpy between major and minor themes. To me, the bad forth of the melody feels perfectly in lih our first real sparring session. Alicia and Tabitha dang bad forth, each flourish on the guitar pairing with a new movement or attack. Plus, we end on a happy note, which certainly shows how was to fall asleep with Alicia at the end of the Chapter.' Nyx, have I ever told you how cute my girlfriend is?"

  I think it's e up once or twice. Hopefully that bed arrives soon!

  "Hehe I 't wait! Hopefully it won't be long before... um, you know what? I don't o share that with the audience. See ya!"

  Nyx <3