Mayana looked as if she had not slept all night. She handed a weird construction to Yi-é containing rope and wood. She showed him how to put it onto the shoulders, to channel magic into it and to spin the rope containing magical symbols. It would then fire several casts of the lowest level of the [Bite of the Elemental Beetle], the only one she had access to, at a target, far quicker than any person would be able to. She explained that the spinning might not be integral, but it was just a proof of concept and this was as much as she could scrounge together with whatever scrap she found. Yi-é was quite dubious about it but agreed to do a run with it. Kiresula explained that the dungeon had challenged Mayana and this was her initial response.

Yi-é understood: "Will you teach this to enchanters here?"

Mayana grimaced: "When I return. This is too bad! I will teach it when it is in a way that I like it!"

After a bit of talk with Yi-é, Zaiké, Seníye and the elders, they were about to leave. That was when Kanzoo arrived. "The Derebey arrived! And he's not happy!"

The entire group reacted chaotically: people screamed, shouted and argued. No one was clear as to what to do. Before people dispersed, it was Yi-é who demanded attention by a shout: "To the dungeon! The synthic magic is too thick in that area!"

Many did run there. Kiresula and the others from Memleket were a bit confused about what to do, but then Kju said: "We can keep him away! Let's meet him and distract him!"

Kiresula was unsure about it but decided to assume Kju had a plan. Mayana looked at Kju, tilted her head, Kju nodded. Then, they walked towards Jetahkalesa, the place where the village leader would come from. As they heard footsteps, Kju pointed to Kiresula, put a ringer in his lips and nodded. Kiresula knew her social stats. She didn't need to be reminded of the fact that her Deception languished at 8.

"Stop where you are, Glitchlings!" A harsh voice commanded.

They did so as a group of 5 armed men approached them.

The leader of them asked harshly: "Do you speak Mainlandish?"

Mayana nodded: "We do."

Kju added: "We hail from Memleket."

"Why are you in a broken magic exclusion zone‽" the leader asked.

"Less chance to get attacked by wild beasts be they the animal or the human kind." Kju said. "We are on a journey to meet some family members, but we carry nothing but our souls, so we would prefer not to get robbed again."

"That doesn't explain anything!" the leader growled.

Kju responded: "We are weak and have no way to get stronger. Even a level 1 person is an existential threat to us. So we hoped not to meet anyone. And with just how broken this area is, we assumed not to meet anyone who isn’t either a glitchling or a cat."

“What about that human?” asked the leader.

“I am Mayana-tsei-Nahmaya. I came with the others as the status of glitchlings is very much questionable. I would be there as assistance,” she said calmly.

“Are you not afraid to be glitched by the broken magic here?” the leader asked.

Kju responded: “We are keeping Mayana under the threshold. Glitchlings can see broken magic, so we can keep her in magic concentrations low enough to prevent her from glitching. Talking about that: Be careful. There has been a recent increase in broken magic. I am not quite sure why, but we barely got our butts out in time.”

“I need you to come with us to Jetahkalesa. You are in serious danger for your life around here!” the leader exclaimed.

“We can handle the broken magic.” Kju confidentally exclaimed.

“There are worse threats than that around here. There’s a wild group of cannibals around here! I’d stay clear!” the leader expressed.

Kju raised an eyebrow: “How do they handle the broken magic without glitching?”

The leader looked at Kju as if he was a child. “They are glitchlings who hunt humans using their sheer numbers!”

Kiresula straightened her pose and her face hardened. Mayana grabbed her hand. Mayana's thumb wrote "No" onto Kiresula's hand.

Kju said "This is scary!" in pretend-shock.

The leader motioned to his group: "Get 'em! And haul 'em to the town!"

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

They grabbed the group and used rope to tie them to themselves. Then, they walked to town. Mayana and Kiresula had no issue with the pace while Kju made it seem like his legs were made of lead.

Kiresula gestured towards Kju to suggest a cast of [Enhance Ability].

Kju gestured downwards where Kiresula gestured upwards and pointed to her. As they came to a narrow part of the path, Kju whispered: "Slow down, Glitchling, your Endurance might be 255, but it's not like that matters!"

Kiresula was about to say that her Fortitude was 306 when she realised that Kju was trying to convey discreetly that she needed to pretend to be a regular glitchling and she blushed. She reduced her pace, making it seem like she was out of breath, then slowly ambled after the others while the soldier dragged her.

After an unreasonable amount of time, they arrived in the village. She had been there occasionally before she glitched, but now, the place looked very uninviting. The soldier shouted something in a rising, falling, rising intonation and as soon as he did, people made a run for it, some dropping what they were carrying. Shutters in front of windows were closed. Doors slammed shut. People shouted at children and pets to get indoors. She had experienced that once before and been told it was because of wolves. Now she knew better.

They were dragged into the only house of the village that was made of stone, not wood. The house of the village leader Sakat.

They were dragged there and then into the cellar. The glitchlings into one room and Mayana into an adjacent one, much to the anger and rage of both her and Kiresula.

As the door closed and the bolt was pushed close, Kiresula shouted angrily.

Kju looked sad, disappointed and defeated. “I hoped that they would have just let us pass.”

Kiresula nodded, slowly getting a hold of herself.

Some time passed in which there was a lot of chatter outside.

Kiresula asked Kju if she should increase his Might so he could break down the door but he declined. “Later maybe. Not when literally everyone is out and about.”

“If Mayana is still okay then.” Kiresula sadly responded, “If anything happens to Mayana, if anything makes it seem that she is under duress, we go in there and leave a bloody trail!”

Kju looked at her: “I can’t fight against an entire village guard team with just my level 10 attributes and a cast of [Enhance Attribute]. My own abilities and spells are not combat related at all and the only offensive spell we have among ourselves is your beetle spell, which,... might be situationally useful, but I would not bet my life on it. Especially with how much your wife harped on it.”

“Add my Terrain spells as situational as well.” Kiresula added, “[Icy Terrain] saved my butt once already.”

“Sure, but I would bet even less on that one than on the elemental beetle spell that might at least be situationally lethal.” Kju added. “I don’t mean that as an insult, but as a chance of improvement.”

“What kind of improvement can be done here?” Kiresula asked, half expecting a lecture from the cleric.

“I can help you gain a secondary class.” He gulped as if this was something he struggled with. “Now, generally, this should not be done before the first threshold as it can only be done once. But if you do not see any fighting capabilities in your spell list, there is a much lower chance of spreading your experience over two classes, essentially halving your growth.”

Kiresula checked her spell list and didn’t see any spells that relate to combat except in the way of adjusting territory, movement, disguising or other related ways. “This might work, there is nothing in it the list that is attack-related, per se. Just in the way in which Icy Terrain is. Adjusting territory, masking scent, understanding weaknesses, boosting allies, you understand what I mean.”

Kju nodded: “That ought to not interfere too badly if your new one is narrow enough in scope. But with the lack of synthic magic, we only have one attempt. Still, of you feel this going south, consider just getting your colourful self out of it without a choice. Best would be to gain a class that has some amazing combat ability as level 1 ability, but anything that gives you an edge or has synergy with your existing class would be great.”

“So, how would this work?” Kiresula asked.

Kju explained: “I will channel something off the system into you. It will use your… identity, or, not as permanent, can I say, presence… to give you visions of particular classes, or the idea of them expressed via other senses. A blind glitchling felt different impressions as if they touched his skin and heard noises. To me it was incomprehensible, but to him, it was seemingly the easiest choice ever. As I said, it will use just about all of my magic to do so, no matter if it succeeds or fails. From my experience, there is no time limit, but I have only ever really used it for one day and everyone was in a rush.”

“So, you want me to focus on the most angry, hateful thoughts so I have an angry presence for the ability and get a fighting class so I have a snowball’s chance in hell to get us out of a potential confrontation?” Kiresula asked.

Kju nodded: “Yeah, very much.”

Kiresula thought of the people who tricked her into the dungeon back then, she thought of Ikandijenja’s father, of the Holy Order, of the village leader, of anyone doing anything hurtful to Mayana. She nodded while grimacing.

Kju touched her forehead.

Then everything went dark.

The warrior’s sword hit a weak point in the armour of the black knight. Blood shot out of the gap as the black knight tried to return the attack, which the white knight parried with his shield. In the armour, she could see that the white knight was a glitchling

The glitchling in the clothes of a mainland native hid in the bushes with a dagger made from sharktooth. As the invading Mounted Messenger approached, the native threw the dagger imperceptibly fast. The Messenger fell off the horse, which proceeded to run off. The glitchling took the dead Messenger’s missives and placed forgeries in the bag instead.

The Imperial Mage cast fireball after fireball targeting everyone in the village with wooden houses: men, women, children, even the livestock. Those who tried to flee were attacked again.

The running Island and Coast fugitive was heavily outnumbered by a group of clerics of the reconquista, but it didn’t care. It flung spikes out of its body at the clerics, its hands turned to claws that sliced through skin.

The knight scene returned again.

She needed to choose. She just had no idea what.