Cayla gathered all the forms and retreated to a desk on the far corner of the room. She laid them out on the desk and then brought out more documents from her bag. Instantly sensing the dangers of leaving Cayla alone with a desk full of paper, I made my way to the refreshments desk to pick up the last tray of cupcakes. I carried the tray of cupcakes over to a confused Cayla.

  “Not a level stone, but does the job just as well”, I told her, as I placed the limited number of cupcakes strategically at various points across her desk. Most went on tall stacks of paper, a few where they overlapped, but the last one I left within arm’s length from her – in case she needed a quick bite in between.

  After half an hour, Cayla gathered everyone in the middle of the room to announce the final results. At least, that’s what I thought she was about to do. Instead, she started to read out loud everyone’s preference lists. Why was she reading it out loud? I would die of embarrassment if she read mine to everyone.

  When she got to the Kerakars and their list, several faces in the crowd audibly groaned at the mention of my name. When they realized they had been tricked into dropping out of the race for the mage, they cast angry glances at the Kerakars. The Kerakars had spent most of the break spreading vile rumors about me, and to find my name at the top of their list after all that, soured the mood in the room. I wasn’t surprised to find that their interest in me was still alive.

  The dreaded moment arrived as Cayla picked up my sheet of names. Sera waved at me as soon as it was revealed that her party was my first choice. The friendly archer, who was my second choice, also acknowledged with a guilty nod – he had not picked me then. I couldn’t complain – we had both agreed it was best not to. Then, Cayla read out the last name in my list, much to the shock of a bewildered Dust.

  “Take notice everyone. The easiest way into Lady Alysa’s heart is to turn her down – play hard to get and let her come chasing after you”, Cayla announced to a room full of people. That wasn’t why I picked him!

  She had gone one step too far this time. And just like that, Cayla was back on my list of enemies.

  There weren’t too many surprises with the final party announcements. Kerakars picked up the old man for their party, the nice archer managed to get himself a warrior and Dust was left without anyone – his earlier outburst had cost him.

  “Finally, another girl in the party”. Sera came over to hug me. Gref and Leos were close behind.

  “That guild receptionist is a real piece of work, eh?”, she asked. Sera was such a kindred spirit. We were going to get along just fine.

  I was about to go on a rant about Cayla when Gref interrupted us. “We still have half of the day left and I hate to see all that daylight go to waste”.

  “We can’t afford to take any days off, lady. It’s tough on the wallet”, Leos told me. Then, he announced to everyone, “I’m good with skipping lunch and leaving right away”.

  “A battle to work up an appetite sounds good to me”, Greff agreed.

  “Let’s get going then. I’m sure Alysa can go a little while longer without food”, Sera said with a smile. She meant because of all the cupcakes, didn’t she?

  “Need to make a quick stop for supplies? I have two low grade healing potions, and some herbs”. Sera and Leos both announced that they had three potions each, at which point, everyone turned to me.

  “I have no potions and I’m almost out of coin”, I replied sheepishly. Sera locked her arms with mine and admonished the Krugels. “Leave my new friend alone, you two. I’ll share my potion with her, if it comes to that”.

  We left the city through the south gate, but veered off the main road to the outpost. It was a small trail that passed through a meadow and ventured into the forest. Gref walked in front with his shield, while his brother, Leos, brought up the rear. Sera and I were safely nestled in between. The party’s usual hunting ground was a small lake which was the water source for the local monster population. It was a two hour hike through the forest.

  Gref spoke without breaking stride, “The place we are going has plenty of tall vegetation for cover and altitude. You can stay out of sight and send ranged attacks to support us. It’s a foolproof plan - which becomes a requirement with Leos around”.

  “And I thought it was named after the fool who came up with the plan”, his brother shot back.

  “Banter is the lifeblood of adventurers – helps us navigate the hardships”, Sera explained. I nodded back in agreement. The trio was constantly trying to lighten the mood with banter. I wasn’t sure whether they were trying to make the new girl feel at home, or whether this was their usual dynamic.

  “It will be a different matter if we run into trouble on the way. I will stay close to the two of you and protect you. Leos has a lot of points in agility, so he can get a monster or two to chase after him. That should give you two some time to thin their numbers”, Gref revealed his plans.

  “You have some sort of taunt skill then?”, I asked curiously.

  “A taunt skill? Nothing so useful. I’m just a warrior with shield proficiency and a couple of skills. Taunts don’t come until later – when you manage to specialize your class further. I have a cover skill that lets me close the distance to a target faster. A shield throw skill for some range, but then I am left standing there with just a sword that is better off in the hands of someone like Leos. It is not that I haven’t considered getting more skills, but that’s the eternal trade-off, isn't it? To save up your skill points for a half-primer or to spend it now for the immediate use”. Gref paused to ruminate on that choice.

  “A half-primer?”, I asked, much to the surprise of my party members.

  It was Sera who replied. “Lady Alysa, for someone from a noble family, you aren’t so well-informed in most things. Is the knowledge of primers closely guarded in Seleca Valley, out of reverence to the System? Is that an aspect of faith woven deeply into the fabric of your society?”

  That was genius. Why had I not thought about it? I could pin all the blame for my ignorance on the strange ways of faith. All sorts of things could be explained away with the excuse of religion. No one would bat an eyelid. I was ignorant, because it was expected of me. Faith demanded it.

  “That knowledge itself isn’t considered taboo, but the tenets suggest that the world and its laws have to be learnt by experience”, I lied, though that last part wasn’t too different to what the System would tell me if it wanted to skip a question.

  “Then I shall take you under my wing, my young pupil”, Sera offered. “A chance to corrupt the sweet princess with forbidden knowledge”, she added with a mischievous smile. After the party finally accepted that I wasn’t their exiled princess, they decided to use that as a nickname to tease me every now and then.

  “Now, for your first lesson..”, she began. “A half-primer goes hand-in-hand with weapon proficiency. It costs half as much as a regular primer and offers limited access to magic that can be paired with a weapon.”

  She let me stew on that for a moment, before continuing with the lesson, “An elemental half-primer would let an archer infuse the arrowheads with magic of that element. Leos could wield a flaming sword — assuming he didn’t catch fire first”. Leos didn’t comment, all too familiar being at the receiving end of banter. I suspected I would take his place soon.

  Gref cleared his throat to speak. “For most of us not fortunate enough to be born into a noble house, it is the most common path to magic – train yourself to be proficient with some weapon, somehow come to possess enough skill points to formalize that training into a system skill, and then work towards getting enough skill points for a half-primer. Our dreams are fulfilled in installments, princess”. There was that resentment again.

  We walked in silence after that. Gref became increasingly more vigilant the closer we got to the lake. Fortunately, we arrived at our destination without running into any monsters.

  We stood at the edge of the forest that surrounded the small lake. Gref kneeled on one knee and extended his shield forward – with the outer surface facing up. Sera took a deep breath and then used the offered shield as a springboard to leap at the lowest branch. Once she managed to grab on to the branch, she swung back and forth to generate momentum. At the highest point of her swing, she let go of her grip on the tree, flipped mid-air and landed gracefully on the branch. I stared wide-eyed at the effortless display.

  Sera saw my reaction and winked, “I have enough points in technique, agility and strength.”

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  “Technique? I don't have that stat”, I replied after a quick check of my statsheet.

  “Sub attributes are unlocked when a class is picked. Technique and ranged accuracy fall under dexterity. Technique is important even for these sword wielding brutes”, Sera answered. The brothers groaned in protest. She continued, “Putting an entire point in dexterity is a waste for someone who fights up close. That’s where sub-attributes come in. It lets them put these ‘half-points’ into technique, without raising their ranged accuracy”. Half-points and half-primers — whatever would they cut in half next?

  “All that technique to swing from a branch like an ape”, Gref chuckled.

  “From where I am sitting, the only ape I see is the one who fights with a giant plate”, Sera retorted. Gref raised his shield proudly in defiance.

  Sera turned to me. “I will teach you more when you are at eye level”, she added with a smirk, while looking down from her high perch. At eye level? She would have to climb down for that or…

  I frowned when Gref switched his attention to me, while pointing at the next tree. “Your turn”, he said.

  The elder Krugel waited for me with his shield. I cautiously took a step back and then attempted to launch myself into the air with the help of the shield – much the same way Sera did, at least in my head. My foot made contact with the shield, but I didn’t quite leap so much as get tossed into the air by Gref. I came down, almost as soon as I went up, bringing down Gref and the shield with me. On my fifth attempt, I somehow held on to the bottom branch, and was left hanging from it by my arms. I tried to copy Sera’s swing, but failed miserably at it, and flailed my limbs around aimlessly. My legs frantically kicked the air, while the brothers tried to push me up from below. It was quite the sight. I somehow crawled my way up the branch to a sitting position – in a display entirely lacking in grace. My arms were scraped and badly bruised at places, but my pride suffered worse.

  Sera smiled at me. “Not that I didn’t enjoy watching that performance, but it comes second to the view from up here”. I was still hugging the branch with all my strength and had not paid attention to the scenery. She was right. It was a spectacular view – a pristine lake, heaven and earth reflected off its clear surface.

  “I promised to answer your questions once you made it up here, didn’t I? Well, ask away”, she encouraged.

  I still had several questions on sub-attributes. I started with the most obvious question. “Does every attribute come with two sub attributes?”

  “They do. Once you pick a class, you no longer get a single attribute point at every level. You get three sub-attribute points instead. Think of that as a point and half, in full attribute terms”.

  Ah! fractions! Couldn’t round it up to the next whole number, System? Ever so stingy. The monumental achievement of getting a class didn’t even come with a proper raise.

  I moved on to the next question. “You already covered the sub-attributes for dexterity. What of the other attributes? I’m most curious about imagination, willpower and agility”.

  “Agility is easy, as I have a lot invested there. It governs nimbleness and reactions. As for the other two..”, she paused. Her eyes glazed over for a moment before she continued, “Imagination has one component that deals with creation and another which helps with visualization”. I suspected that the former helped craftsmen, while the latter helped with spellcraft. If that was the case, it would save me half an attribute point.

  “Willpower covers focus and mental resilience. I do not know a lot about the first one, but mental resilience helps against attacks on mind – charm, fear, illusions and more mental intrusions that I can’t recall ”.

  “Bargaining with merchants”, I added to the list, which made her laugh. I was entirely serious.

  She pensively glanced towards the lake. “Let’s save some lessons for the way back, or for the tavern tonight. You will join us for a round or two?”

  “If you promise to teach me more”, I told her.

  “To tempt this sweet girl out of Seleca valley to stray from the path of faith? Count me in”, She teased.

  “We’ll be nearby. Just follow Mina’s lead”, Gref shouted from below. With that, the melee half of the party disappeared behind some tall vegetation. I was upset they didn’t have to climb up a tree and make a fool of themselves. Wait, who was Mina? Right, that was what everyone else called Sera.

  It didn’t take long for the first set of beasts to show up at the watering hole. It was a small pack of kobolds. Instinctively, I began to ready a luminous blast. “Wait for them to get closer – unless you think you can put an archer to shame and get them from this range?”, Sera shouted from her tree.

  “I have no such delusions”, I admitted. Archers invested heavily in dexterity, and by extension, ranged accuracy.

  Sera kept guiding me through the process. “Keep your eyes open. There are always more lurking around. We don’t want to pull a second group, while we are still engaged with the first”.

  “Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Understood”, I replied.

  “Does that apply to cupcakes too?”

  I walked right into that one, didn’t I?

  We waited patiently, but the kobold pack stayed out of range. One of the kobolds dared to step further away from the rest of the pack, but just as he was about to come into range, he turned around and went in the opposite direction.

  “It’s a waiting game”, a dense, prickly shrub that sounded a lot like Greff yelled.

  The kobolds didn’t hang around for long. Another twenty minutes went by, before we caught sight of more monsters. This time, it was a herd of beasts that went by the name rheinfrets. Their levels averaged to around twelve, which I suspected was less than everyone else in our party.

  I shifted around to get into a better position. The rheinfrets weren’t shy like the kobolds, stepping perilously close to our range. Sera saw me prepare a spell and immediately discouraged me from the idea, “Don’t engage. Their tough hides prove quite challenging for steel and I haven’t yet seen a display of your magic to say how you would fare against them”.

  I should be able to get past their tough hides with magic. I had forty-one intelligence. Drat! The system was right afterall. I did bring up that number often.

  The creatures looked like rhinos, but possessed long, curved tusks resembling that of a mammoth. We tried not to make too much noise, lest we caught their attention. The rheinfrets loitered near the lake as we sat around in silence. Sera was fidgeting with her bowstring out of boredom, and the bushes Leos had disappeared into were also rustling impatiently. Me? I was a champion of staying put, the poster girl for serenity.

  Just when we thought the beasts were about to leave, one of the smaller rheinfrets waded into the lake, which made the entire herd decide to go for a swim. Sera groaned in frustration.

  After some jolly good swimming and some wallowing in the mud afterwards, the rheinfrets decided to make their slow exit. Another fifteen minutes passed before a new kobold pack showed up. Much like the last kobold pack, the new group stayed far out of range.

  A frustrated Leos came out of hiding. “This is taking too long. I will go bring them to us”, he said, and took off in the direction of the lake.

  “No, stick to the plan”. The dense, prickly shrub sounded a lot angrier this time.

  “Gref hates it when we don’t follow his script. He hates leaving anything to chance”, Sera explained.

  “No plan survives contact with the enemy – a common saying where I come from”, I told her.

  “Don’t let Gref hear that. He will put us through even more training to perfect his plans", Sera replied, bringing her index finger close to her lips.

  It seemed like the dense, prickly shrub had an ear, because a response quickly arrived, “With a new member in the party, we will have to rework our battle plans and find ways to fit her into our practiced moves. She will also need to get up to speed with our drills. This warrants an hour or two of additional training”.

  Sera barely got time to protest as she caught sight of the approaching Leos. “Here comes Leos and an entire Kobald pack on his tail”

  “They are all around level fifteen”, I yelled out a warning. I was still at a measly level five.

  “ Almost a contest then”. Sera smiled smugly. “Kobolds have a bit of everything, but are exceptional at nothing.The joke goes that the rheinfrets have their thick hides, the barghests have their speed, the imps have their magic, while the kobolds couldn’t make up their minds ”. The jack of all stats then?

  I readied my luminous blast to take out the nearest kobold, but Sera with her better range was first to it. Two arrows in quick succession left the kobold wobbling. I finished it off with a couple of luminous blasts. Soon, more kobolds entered my range. Kobolds were much bigger than rabbits and I had no trouble hitting my target.

  One of the Kobolds noticed Gref and charged straight at him. Gref managed to hold it back with his shield. Leos was there in a flash, sandwiching the kobold between his sword and Gref’s shield. A training ground move. Then, Leos was off again, using his superior mobility to shrink the battlefield, attempting to be everywhere.

  The younger Krugel dived to avoid a death blow from a kobold that snuck up on him. A shield flew past the space he vacated, knocking back the Kobold. An arrow came sailing through moments later, piercing the kobold's heart, while Leos tossed the shield back to his brother. It was swift and coordinated, as if they had practised this exact move dozens of times before.

  The key to elevating a group of mediocre adventurers into an exceptional party was to rely on practiced moves – eliminating the need for decision making and conscious thought. Sticking to a familiar hunting ground, repetition giving way to routines that became second nature, and removing any room for surprise. It was automatism and the death of romance – but it kept them alive.

  One of the kobolds noticed where the arrows were coming from, and attempted to climb up the tree where Sera sat. With its short stature and mediocre stats, there wasn’t really any danger of the kobold making it up the tree, but Gref crashed into the kobold with his shield. It took a moment for the stunned kobold to get back to its feet. I didn’t pass up the chance to throw some spells at a stationary target.

  Just as the kobolds were almost routed, I heard Sera’s panic-filled voice, “We have more company and not the kind we will enjoy!”