“Ok debrief.” Kylie said to Gob, “So describe the whole thing to me. How did the fight go?”

  “kylz, yo woz rite. ratz iz big” he gestured at the monstrous carcass “it bitez lotz. an iz stronga. but i mak it fal don an go SPLAT!”

  “Fall down? Where from?"

  Gob pointed up the shaft.

  "Wait, so you actually climbed up there? How?! I wasn't serious about that, I went to find a rope because I thought you had no chance!”

  Gob turned to the wall to show her.

  Stchak!

  He jumped up and embedded his claw in the stone, then dangled there comically.

  She laughed and shook her head, “Well aren't you full of surprises! I'm really going to have to keep an eye on you. So you actually climbed up there, found a giant rat, pushed it over the edge and then climbed back down to wait for me?”

  Gob nodded.

  “See!” She said “That's great! You're being resourceful. You don't just have to be bigger if you're smarter. Good lesson. And, I mean the points you got were awesome, no wonder if you've been embedding your claws into solid rock all afternoon…”

  She waved around in the air and the glowing blue shapes appeared again.

  “You probably can't read this for yourself but you've improved your claws by more than double, assumably that's from both climbing with them and fighting with them, you've added a few points to your hide, you've had new stats emerge: strategy, determination, courage and, this is one's fantastic: DRIVE! Also dexterity, agility and endurance… that must have been one heck of a fight Gob! And you've improved your mind in perception, awareness and memory, the all important base stats, AND you've got new skills:

  Actually for someone of your small size, your body points are really quite good… Ouch that rat did some damage though - oof that must have hurt. Guess it explains the blood. But you've regen'd some already, that's an amazing trait by the way, your regen, there are a lot of warriors who would bottle your fluids in little vials and drink you if they thought they could get half of what you can.”

  She made a face at the thought of it.

  “It will really mean we can push your progression hard, so eat up, keep those points coming!"

  "i won fite mor an level mor. wer can i find mor ratz?"

  "There's that DRIVE I mentioned! Actually there's a cave chocked full of bats up there for you to work your way through."

  He grimaced "batz tase lik puke"

  Kylie held her finger up,

  "tch tch troll. Remember bats give levels. Just like rats. Probably better than rats because they're bigger and they fly. So don't dis bats! BUT before we go grinding any more poor cave dwellers, we have a momentous decision to make. Now that you have had your first real fight, according to your quest it's time to choose an archetype and become an adult troll! Woot woot!"

  “lik big trol?” he asked. He took another bite of rat haunch.

  "Well that’s just it," She gestured at the shapes floating in the air again "you have archetype options available… now you need to choose one. You could choose to be like your Big Troll, sure, but I’ve got some options here for you to select from:” She swiped around in the air a bit, then satisfied, she flew over to his shoulder and sat on it again, getting comfortable.

  “So yes, there's forest troll, like your Big Troll. But there’s also river troll, swamp troll, cave troll, desert troll, ice troll, lava troll, shadow troll, mountain troll or pet troll… what the hell's a pet troll?" She looked at the magic shapes, her face changing from curious to disgusted.

  "Ew, nope. Pretend I never said that there's no way I'm letting you choose pet troll. Any of the others?"

  Gob scratched his head, thinking.

  "wot trol BIG?" he asked, then having a thought, "ooh, ooh, wot trol krunch? muntin! muntin trol! i pik muntin trol!"

  "Wait, wait, wait," Kylie said laughing, she scanned the magical shapes.

  "Oh, right - hmmmm, Gob there is a mountain troll here, but I’m not so sure about this one. I'm sorry to say it but it looks like it's probably the worst archetype available… well, except the pet troll but we've already crossed that one off the list. I don't reckon mountain troll is really going to be much of an option for you. Here listen:

  Gob's face fell. It wasn’t a promising class at all.

  "Hey, don't be like that, there’s a heap of other good options! Let's just have a look at some of them" she scanned again quickly, and her face turned thoughtful.

  "Hm, ok… well your Big Troll was clearly a Forest troll, and it’s got decent stats, but actually shadow troll and cave troll both suit you pretty well in other ways. I wouldn't bother with the others in your situation. I'll read them out for you, and you can choose:

  It sounded… nice. Although Gob couldn't help but think about how well that went for Big Troll.

  The hide and claw evolutions and stat bumps were quite good.

  "nope, not dat" he told Kylie.

  "Agreed," she said, "and you really want to avoid capped stats if you can. This next one's interesting and potentially a great match for your intelligence:

  Kylie looked at Gob. He crossed his arms and shook his head side to side.

  "nope, no dat trol. he creepy" he said

  "Fair" she replied, "Ok try this:

  Gob looked thoughtful.

  "wot pet trol?" he asked

  "NO!" Kylie replied immediately "I am NOT even going to read it!"

  "i mak jok!" he said with a grin

  POP!

  "OK!" she said with a laugh, reading it out to him, "Wow the runt kid’s funny now. So what do you want me to do? Read some more options?”

  Gob thought about things. He sensed this was important. He knew this is what he would have been doing as soon as Big Troll turned them out of the den. If he didn’t get immediately eaten that is. Except he also knew trolls never had the options read out to them and explained like this… they just kind of copied their adults, he supposed, or even just ‘wandered’ until they stumbled on an archetype that suited them. The choice was the difference. As well as the intelligence to make it.

  “muntin” he said.

  “Aah… Gob… it gives you nothing.” replied Kylie quietly “nothing at all. In fact it’s actually going to give you some traits that look SO questionable they’re more likely to do you damage. What you really need right now is some stat bumps and a few skills. Like cave troll would be awesome… tough hide, a great claw evolution… and the ability to find a way out of here, because I just flew up there and I couldn’t find a way out. I don’t even know how you got in here!”

  Gob shook his head. He knew she wouldn’t agree, and he knew he needed stat’s. But he knew he had to pick mountain troll. He didn’t know how he knew. But he did know. He knew if he picked anything for stat’s ‘right now’, he wouldn't stand a chance of getting where he wanted to go. He knew that as long as he picked Mountain, no matter what, he would end up getting there. He didn't yet know quite how, or exactly when, but if he bided his time and picked his moments he'd get there. Runts could be like that. Runts knew that not being big wasn't the same as being little. Maybe Mountain Trolls knew it too.

  “i pik muntin kylz. truz mi. i work hard an i git big levels."

  She sighed reluctantly. "I can see by the way your face is set there's no point arguing. Anyway, I don’t know much of anything about trolls after all. Maybe trolls just know your archetypes and that's that… it's not like you all have a literate fairy to go through the options with them! Alright then, as long as you're sure, all you should need to do is ‘think it’... let’s see what happens"

  Pop! Pop, pop, POP!

  The magical shapes changed, but Gob still couldn't make any sense of them.

  "Congratulations" she said "you just grew up. You’re now an adult. An adult Mountain Troll. Feel any different?"

  GERVAIS.

  They had spent the afternoon finding a healer for Joss. The term 'healer' could mean many things in the different parts of The Realm. In the city, healers of different ability levels and specialisations tended to group together in dedicated clinics, out in the more sparsely populated regions, like where they were now, was a different matter altogether.

  She was bleeding badly, but trudged on heroically anyway. It had been a long afternoon. The first village had advertised 'healing service', which turned out to be a window down a side alley next to the the local general store. The 'healer' had taken a look at her wrist and said,

  “I'm just a tonic brewer, I can't fix this… this isn't the big city you know, it's just me here! Go try the hospice in Giventry!”

  Giventry had three healers in their hospice including an aroma therapist, a poultice mixer and a pill stamper. None of them 'did bone work'.

  "Try Cartstrong Hamlet."

  Cartstong Hamlet had also been a waste of time. There was a man there advertising 'healing bone grafts' on a sign out the front of his shop. Which was also the Hamlets butchery. Gervais hadn't even stopped walking.

  Two villages later they had found a clinic. The sign over the door had been ornately laid out in brass letterwork: "

  CLINIC.

  LIVING MAGE: LUCIUS, Henry, LM.

  ALCHEMICAL WRIGHT: FERIUS, Lucena, AW.

  REGISTERED: administratum ref no. 34129b.

  Gervais had sighed with relief, and had handed over what looked like a fortune in gold coins. Joss' eyes had boggled and she had urgently told Gervais she could never afford to repay him that kind of money. He had waved her off and assured her he needed her fighting fit as soon as possible more than he needed the gold and to consider it a gift. He didn't say he probably would have paid double to ensure he wouldn't have to walk any further tonight, his feet were aching.

  The Wright had administered a lit paper pipe full of something that kept Joss quiet and docile while she kneaded a pliable material she called 'bone clay' into Joss' wrist wound. The Mage then ran a curved metal implement with a faint white light backwards and forwards over the wrist for nearly an hour to "set it", before the Wright returned to wrap her arm with something that smelled spicy and burned where it touched her.

  It was the middle of the night and Joss was finally resting now. Too late for service at the local public house, the other soldiers had set up the camp on the outskirts of the village and were putting together a rabbit stew.

  Gervais waited until they had eaten and gone to their tents before he cast his tracking magic. He said a few priming words them thumped his staff down on the ground. The Spheraxial summary of the troll floated into the air in front of him.

  He chuckled to himself "Hmm mountain troll it is then. This is going to be interesting... Hold on tight Kylie!"