Ignis’ First Firesday of Harvestfall, 1442, Tidebreaker Watch, Silvergale Strand.

  Vaelith finally felt like she was getting the hang of battle. They ran the same duty twice more, both runs smoother and faster than the previous one.

  Ryssa and Orion showed her the results of the battles and explained how she could improve. “Chain your spells back to back,” “Engage the enemy as soon as Zyra hits them,” “Don’t stand idle—remember the mage’s ABC: Always Be Casting!”

  During those two runs, she also experimented with Telekinetic Lance, the spell she had earned at level 8. She had tried figuring out how to utilise it properly, as the intended purpose did not seem obvious to her. It had a Bind component—something which rooted enemies in place. A useful tool for a mage trying to fight on their own, but a single point of damage on the target would immediately set them free. Therefore, once the fight started, Zyra’s constant cleaving and sweeping attacks would effectively render it useless.

  When she asked about the Bind effect, Orion simply shrugged. “Pretty useless in a party, yeah. You can ignore that part.”

  Her teammates clearly knew more than she did about the game, so she noted their advice.

  It was possible to hit multiple enemies with it, but it was a narrow line attack. The spell would pierce through enemies, like a rail gun or a ballista shot. As she experimented with it, Vaelith had concluded it was rather challenging to hit many enemies with spells like this one. Especially given how Zyra often kept her enemies in a circle all around her.

  When Vaelith had asked them, Ryssa had explained the different type of area of effect attacks, and which ones were the best according to the community at large.

  “Targeted Area hits the most enemies and does it from a safe distance. Point-Blank and Cone spells are next, as long as you’re fine being near your targets. Line attacks like your lance are the trickiest to line-up properly.”

  Vaelith had not had the chance to try using this way yet, but she suspected it would be much easier to line up her shot if multiple enemies chased after her in a neat line. She could use the spell, damage them all, freeze them in place, and then she could run to Telekinetic Blows’ maximum range. It would buy her time to reposition herself, and it, if she waited until the effect wore off naturally, it would help refresh Blink’s cooldown even further before resuming battle.

  When Vaelith had asked Orion for her assessment of how she could use the spell, Orion had agreed with her. “Yeah, sure sounds like the devs gave that for mage to use when soloing. With the Bind effect and all.”

  Unlike her Telekinetic Blows, her lance spell had a cast time. This allowed her to safely pre-cast, like Orion had tried to teach her.

  It was even safer for her to do so, compared to Orion’s Fire Blasts. After all, any enemy hit by her lance would stay in place and Zyra could simply walk up to them and swing her weapon to establish threat. She had made sure to double-check with Ryssa and Orion if this was a sound plan, as she really did not want a repeat of her pulling incident.

  Both had agreed with her strategy, and she had started using Telekinetic Lance as her opener for every encounter. She would look for the optimal angle of attack, to line up all enemies, and hit them all with a single spell.

  The damage itself was not bad, but it was no match for Telekinetic Blows against a single-target. Mathematically, she noticed how her new spell actually edged out as long as she could hit two enemies per cast. So it became her go-to spell as long as they had more than one enemy left.

  Ryssa, however, had been the one to point out something even more interesting about the damage it dealt. “For most of the small fry we fight here, a single lance and one of Orion’s Fire Blast spell is almost exactly the damage we need to defeat them. So if you spread your lances around and lower as many enemies’ health as possible, then they’ll all be ripe for Orion to pick them off, one spell at a time.”

  This led Vaelith to learn another important lesson. Spells with cast times carried an inherent risk she had not had to deal with until now. If she targeted an enemy with very little health remaining and started casting her spell, it was likely one of Zyra’s attacks would kill her target before her spell went off. Apparently, losing your target while in the middle of casting meant your spell would simply fizzle out, and you would lose all the time you spent preparing.

  So Vaelith discovered there was actually some interesting judgement involved when deciding which target to pick and which spell to use in the middle of battle. Telekinetic Blows were a far superior choice when all enemies were at death’s door.

  Orion had explained it was part of any elementalist’s basic concern. “For spells with long cast times, like mine, target the enemies with the most hit points. Nothing sucks more than wasting a cast on a dead body.”

  When weighing the pros and cons of her new spell, Vaelith felt rather disappointed at her newest addition to her repertoire. Mentally, she filed it as an opener and a spell of limited use except for solo-play.

  But despite suffering a little from class envy, Vaelith had made up her mind; she would stick out with mage, even after hitting level fifteen and unlocking the ability to class change.

  After all, she had enjoyed her time playing it. Even though she had picked it because M-E had suggested she do so, Vaelith had connected with it in a way that felt personal. Every aspect had grown on her—the rituals, the way she could manipulate her spells, the sheer joy of using Blink.

  She decided she would persevere and figure out the way to make it work; she just needed to understand her spells better. There had to be a trick to the class! Someday, she would prove she was more good than just a glorified water cooler.

  It was only after the third repeat of the party duty that both Orion and Vaelith finally reached level ten.

  Zyra turned to Ryssa with a spark in her eyes. She seemed finally excited about something. When Vaelith looked at Zyra, everything they had done so far today seemed to bore her, as if it was just tedious work. “AoE battle time!”

  Orion cheered. “Sweet! Time for my Rain of Fire and Conflagrate spells to melt all the things!”

  I wonder what kind of new spells he just got?

  Ryssa smiled and nodded at both of them. She faced Vaelith. “This next battle is quite simple; just a huge swarm of enemies. Zyra will handle all of them, and you and Orion just hit them all as hard as you can. Quick, simple battle, good rewards. When we’re bored, or newbies want some quick experience, our guild repeats this one often. It pays out pretty good money and experience for how easy it is.”

  Zyra grinned, her heavy hammer resting against one of her pauldron. “There are so many of them, even my damage gets pretty high here.”

  The tank’s attacks main purpose was to secure her enemies’ attention, but she actually did pretty decent damage, especially considering she kept hitting every enemy surrounding her. With a big enough crowd, Vaelith feared even the tank could out-damage her.

  But if the tank out-damages me, why am I even here? I mean, they said they had a spot open, and they don’t mind having me tag along. I can’t possibly make things any slower, she said.

  She hated the idea of not pulling her own weight. When she was playing with M-E in any other game, she had long given up on taking an equal share of the burden. The gap between the two of them had always been so vast.

  But right now, she was here. Playing with strangers, people who did not know her outside of the game. She wanted to prove herself. To be useful to them, to repay their kindness. And not just with summoning tasty bread and fresh water. She was playing a damage dealing class!

  I should be able to match anything Orion can dish out, right? Why am I worried about losing to the tank, when I should aim to match their elementalist, instead?

  Ryssa tilted her head, looking at Vaelith, who was lost in her thoughts. “You all set there, Vaelith? Ready for this?”

  She shrugged. “I think I am…”

  Zyra stepped next to her and placed one gauntleted hand on her shoulder. “Okay, dudette. So this is a defence mission. The enemies will rush us as soon as we accept the duty. Let me get one swing in before you throw your spells out, but then unleash hell.”

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  Vaelith nodded at the red-scaled dracan with the demon-like horns and forked tail. Every once in a while, it dawned upon her how, despite their difference, they were both of the same species. Zyra gave off this impression of having some red-dragon bloodline. She also looked almost like a succubus wearing plate mail. Vaelith, in contrast, looked almost like an angel; a cute little silver-haired witch who inherited her traits from her aquatic, gold-dragon ancestors.

  Orion had a wicked grin on his face as he gripped his fire-elemental rod tightly in his small, furry hands. “Hell yeah, time for fireworks!”

  He adjusted the hood of his cloak, covering his face with shadows. His bright eyes shone visibly despite the darkness.

  They had not even started the battle, and Vaelith already felt envious of him. Rain of Fire and Conflagrate. She did not know what those new spells would do. She could only guess. From their name alone, they sounded so powerful.

  All her mage attack spells so far had such boring and simple names.

  I didn’t even receive a new spell at level ten!

  All she got was a new passive skill, called Arcane Buildup. She had quickly glanced over it. It had something to do with building up some charges of arcane power whenever she did damage with her attack spells. She had not figured out what those things did or why she should try to gain any. But as she figured whatever it was, it would happen as part of her normal damage routine. So she stopped thinking too hard about it.

  Ryssa nodded to the dutywarden and accepted the newest contract. Level ten duty, Tidebreaker Watch Defence.

  Vaelith raised her right hand, the crackling arcane power coming from her grimoire dancing between her fingertips. She scanned the horizon, watching for the foes who would soon attack them.

  Zyra lifted her heavy hammer to point down the hill. “Here they come.”

  Pirates were running up the hill, sword and axes drawn. Most of them appeared to be large homini. Northerners? She could see row boats on the rocky shores, not too far from where they had fought the giant crab boss monsters earlier.

  Vaelith stepped back. “We’re killing people?!”

  Zyra walked forward, intent on intercepting the oncoming wave. She positioned her large shield between the team and the attackers. The pirates shouted war cries as they climbed up the hill at breakneck speed. Zyra seemed entirely unimpressed and unaffected at the prospect of slaying people. “They’re just mobs, dudette.”

  Seconds later, the tide crashed against her; the battle had officially begun. The cacophony of metal hitting metal ringing like a school-bell marking the beginning of Jason’s class.

  Ryssa did not hesitate and immediately started chanting healing spells. That took Vaelith by surprise, as Zyra did not show signs of serious injury yet.

  One of the skills most competent healers learned over playing games like this was the ability to predict the incoming damage. Ryssa had explained how healers would sometimes start casting a healing spell before the damage actually happened, so that the cure spell would land at the right time. It required good judgement; start too soon, and your spell would result mostly in over-healing and wasted mana. Start too late, and the tank could die before your spell landed.

  Vaelith took a few steps to find the right angle, lining up multiple pirates ahead of her. She started chanting the Telekinetic Lance spell. Over the duration, an invisible spear formed in her right hand. Once fully formed, and as the final trigger for the spell, she had to actually hurl the thing with all her might. It reminded her of a javelin throw.

  Well, an invisible, magically propelled javelin capable of piercing through multiple enemies.

  Orion grinned and starting channelling one of his new spell. It worked in similar ways to her Telekinetic Blows; as long as he kept chanting, the spell effect would continue. He waved his staff in slow, circular motions, giving off the impression he was stirring a giant cauldron. The staff glowed red. Even at the respectable distance she stood from him, she could feel heat waves emanating from it.

  When she threw her first lance, she hit four, no… five pirates at once! She felt a swell of pride, and Ryssa gave her a quick thumbs-up. “Oh, that was a good one! Keep at it!”

  Vaelith blushed at the compliment, but she wanted to do better. She use Blink to get an ideal attack angle. She estimated six, maybe seven, targets would get hit on her next spell.

  As she took the time to steady herself after the short range teleport, she noticed ash raining in a small area surrounding Zyra. A rain of ash and cinders. Then the sparks came, and tiny embers caught on fire throughout the area. The flames grew bigger and brighter, and more appeared. The flames set the pirates’ clothes on fire and started burning them alive. But they did not stop their slashing, cleaving and bashing their weapons against Zyra’s armour and shield.

  Are they rabid? This is madness! They’re burning alive, and they keep trying to kill our tank instead of dealing with the flames…

  Vaelith began chanting once again, but as she did, her focus drifted. The enemy health bars distracted her, periodically blinking as their health trickled down. It was slow and steady, and it would stay that way as long as Zyra kept them within the range of Orion’s deadly spell.

  The effect of the Rain of Fire kept building up. What fell from the skies was no longer just sparks or bright embers anymore. It was a forest fire-like inferno, the heat intense, the roar deafening, and the sight terrifying. It devoured everything and kept spreading with each second. The flames roared, creating a powerful suction that pulled the air towards them, leaving Vaelith feeling the intense heat and a strange pressure on her skin.

  In the middle of it all, Zyra seemed entirely impervious to the effect of the raging chaos. Her hair, armour and clothes were still as pristine as it had been minutes ago. She kept blocking hits with her gigantic shield left and right, moving it to intercept attacks with an ease that made the massive slab of steel look almost weightless. She was smiling, swinging her heavy hammer around with abandon. Accompanying it was the sound of bones cracking and snapping, of yelps of pain and grunts of attacks in retaliation.

  Orion opened his eyes. With one arm, he pointed his staff at the ground, but kept his left arm up. The rain of fire stopped.

  In a voice far deeper than his usual, Orion growled, “Omae wa mō shindeiru!”

  Was that… Japanese?

  Vaelith vaguely recalled it as some kind of pop culture reference, but the exact source flew over her head. But despite not catching the tribute, she burst out laughing. The voice and intonation he had used was a clear mismatched with his fuzzy burrovian appearance.

  With a sharp *snap* of his left fingers, Orion turned his back to his enemies, the sound echoing in the tense silence. Suddenly, the flames which had been slowly eating away at their foes all burst out simultaneously, each with the impact of a massive bomb. The sudden flash of light nearly blinded Vaelith, who had not expected such an explosive display. She shielded her eyes with both arms. Her sensitive dracan fins made her yelp in surprise as the sound wave reached her and knocked her backwards a few steps. She felt the earth tremble beneath her feet as the detonation sent a powerful shockwave through her entire body, a jarring, bone-deep vibration.

  When the last vibrations faded into silence, Vaelith cautiously opened her eyes. Only charred remains, mounds of ash and dust, smelling faintly of sulphur and burnt wood, marked where the pirates once stood. The sea breeze slowly blew their remains away, fine particles vanishing almost magically before her very eyes.

  She stared at Orion incredulously. The sheer intensity of the spell—a single snap of his fingers turning the entire enemy line to nothing—left her speechless. For a moment, envy and awe warred in her chest. She wanted to match him. She wanted that power, that confidence. Next time… next time, she would show them something spectacular!

  Since that was the first time she saw this spell effect, she guessed the finger snap was part of the Conflagrate spell.

  How did it work? What did it do?

  Some targets still had about half of their health left right before Orion disintegrated them!

  Ryssa looked at Vaelith and gave her a knowing look. “An elementalist’s damage is crazy if you let it build up long enough. Rain of Fire applies a damage-over-time effect on the targets. It starts weak, but gets way stronger the longer it goes.”

  Orion stepped closer. “But Conflag’s where it’s all at! It consumes all the fire-based damage-over-time effects on an enemy and immediately applies all of its remaining damage.”

  Ryssa nodded. “Damage-over-time spells are very efficient, but they don’t work fast. Elementalists being able to take what should be five-hundred damage over fifty seconds and do all of that over a single finger snap? This spell is the reason they’re one of the most sought-after class in the game right now.”

  Vaelith was not a gaming expert like M-E was, but Jason was a middle school teacher, and he knew how mathematics worked. Ryssa’s explanation made it easy to figure out why elementalists were so popular.

  Orion pulled out the damage parser results and did a little victory dance when he saw his name at the top, by a significant margin. Vaelith saw Zyra was in second place, and that she herself was last. Well, Ryssa was last, but she had not used a single offensive spell.

  “That was your highest damage score so far, Vaelith. You hit many enemies, you lined them very well. Telekinetic Lance simply isn’t that good of an area of effect spell for damage. Mage’s AoE potential will come in later when you unlock Overload, Pulse and Nova. Trust me, you’ll get incredible spells too; it just takes a while to unlock them. The game balance can be weird at low levels. Some classes really only shine once they have their full kit.”

  Vaelith heard what Ryssa said, and she knew it was probably the truth. Despite that, she wanted to do better than last place.

  I can’t keep being last. There has to be a way to keep up.

  So she took another look at her spell list.

  Blink, for mobility. Instant-cast. Short recast, multiple charges.

  Telekinetic Blows, for single-target use. Channelled.

  Telekinetic Lance, for crowd-control.

  Telekinetic Blast. Cone attack. Short range. Instant-cast. Eight-second recast.

  Could it be this one? The missing piece of the puzzle?

  She had learned to use that spell and to control its output so she could make force cushions or levitate lamps. But Vaelith suddenly realised she had never used it in any battle yet.

  She looked at the details of the spell again. It did almost as much damage as Telekinetic Blows. And it did so without a cast time. Just like her lance, it could hit multiple enemies. Except cones were much easier to use than line attacks.

  That’s it! This is what I’ve been missing! Why had nobody brought it up before?

  A warm feeling of pride bloomed in her chest, a smile slowly spreading across her face. Next time, she would use that spell, and she would do better.

  She knew Orion focused on competition between the players, and she tried to not get stringed along with his antics. The only thing that truly mattered was making progress, each step forward a small but meaningful one. /She wanted to becoming the best version of herself—just like Jason kept repeating to his students. That lesson applied here just as much as it did in the real world.

  Vaelith would strive to keep improving herself, one fight at a time. One level at a time.

  “You have reached level eleven for the mage class.”

  Speak of the devil…

  She steeled her resolve. She was ready for round two. Vaelith would really show them what a mage could do. What she could do. She would hit hard enough to make a difference next time. Nothing would hold her back.

  “Can we run it again?”

  Zyra smiled, and Ryssa nodded. “Of course, dudette.”

  Telekinetic Lance tried its best, but sometimes, you need an actual AoE spell, not a pretend one.