"[Frost Nova]," Morgana said. "Have either of you heard of it?"

"I think so?" Vesper said. "That's the one that, like, snares them, right?"

"It says it encases them in ice, slowing or disabling." Morgana frowned. "Why slow or disable? Why one or the other?"

"Depends on the target," Flint said. "Something too strong to be fully disabled would only be slowed. Like a boss. Smaller, weaker monsters would get the full effect."

"That makes sense." She probably could have guessed it herself, but there was no point in guessing when she could ask. "Is it a good one?"

"Skills are tools. Most of the time, it's what you make of them." He shrugged. "Not that I have firsthand experience," he said dryly. "Don't even have a class."

"It's decent," Vesper said. "But probably would've been better if you got something with a bigger area of effect. Since we don't have too much to be scared of when it comes to single enemies. You'll just blow their head off."

"Though," Flint mused. "You can do that even better now. [Frost Nova] locks them down, then you can keep firing off [Magic Missiles]. I wonder how many levels above yourself you could fight, now, against the right enemy."

"Can you do what you did earlier?" Vesper asked Morgana. "Where you make the spell even stronger?"

"It would be odd if I couldn't. It's rated clumsy, so there's proficiency tiers to it." Not all skills came with those. Like her passive ability, [Efficient Usage]. "I want to test the spell on its current rating first…but I don't think I should waste the mana." She doubted there'd be much to learn; it was a curiosity thing.

Flint said, "Don't think either of us need a show. So yeah. Don't bother."

"Let me do that real quick, then."

She was excited to take a look at [Frost Nova]. It would be the third System design she had seen so far—the first, [Magic Missile], and the second, the simple light emission spell that powered their lanterns.

Concentrating and willing the formula to appear in her head, frosty lines etched themselves onto her mind, appearing in a thick, dense tangle. They were whiter than the ones of [Magic Missile], since the spell had a foundational design centered around the element of ice, not the arcane element.

Like with [Magic Missile], the clumsy-rated [Frost Nova] was an absolute mess of a spell, a horrendously inefficient bundle of runes and lines. The spell was contained by a hexagon—therefore six lines of symmetry—though of course balance was nowhere to be found: almost all of the weight, at least from initial appraisal, appeared to be focused on the leftmost side, where the arrays for expansion and initial powering were located.

Morgana pored over the design before eventually storing it away inside her head to be sketched and scrutinized more carefully later. While interesting, it was nothing she hadn't seen with [Magic Missile]. What Morgana really wanted to get her hands on were the more complicated spells governing the System. Like whatever handled 'stats.' She couldn't even begin to imagine how that framework operated. Or the spatial spells responsible for the dungeon's shifting nature—those especially interested her, since they were in a domain specific to her studies at the Institute.

"I don't have a design immediately available," Morgana murmured. "So this might take a second."

Indeed, with [Magic Missile], she had simply drawn on a design stored within her head, a culminating effort of the Institute's competition to produce the most efficient [Magic Missile]. [Frost Nova] was different. While Morgana was obviously aware of various types of warmagic, it wasn't her specialty, and something so small-scale and low-powered as [Frost Nova] was a spell she hadn't paid much attention to. She would have to create her own custom design.

Which, of course, wasn't a challenge. She closed her eyes, brow furrowing as she studied the [Frost Nova] diagram hovering within her mind. There were insights to glean there. While the Architect was clearly making a mockery of the spell, the core of something incredible existed—which was why it was such a fascinating sight. Rather than random chaos, it was as if…as if he had taken a sledgehammer to some magnificent statue, then patched it crudely with clay.

For five minutes, she restored the statue as best she could. She moved runes, balancing the heavier ones so each side of all six lines of symmetry were roughly equalized. She discarded the sections that were superfluous. Kept the hexagon container—that was fine, if perhaps not what she would have chosen.

Eventually, she had something she was pleased with.

***

Spell design recognized as a variation of [Frost Nova].

***

***

Stolen novel; please report.

Saved as default.

***

***

[Frost Nova]: EXPERT. Encase a target in ice, reducing magical defenses and slowing or disabling.

***

Morgana opened her eyes in shock. "Expert?" she asked. "Not mastered?"

Vesper tilted her head at Morgana's sudden reaction. A second passed before she laughed, understanding what had happened. "Only expert?" she said. "We didn't even know it went above that, before you."

"Why not mastered?" Morgana asked. "No, I suppose it wasn't my best work. But still."

"Are you blushing?" Vesper asked, seeming delighted by that fact. "You're that embarrassed that you didn't do perfectly on your first try?"

"I-It was a hasty assembly," Morgana said. "I just think I could have done better. And I'm not blushing."

Vesper raised both eyebrows at the blatant lie. The grin returned, and she leaned in with a conspiratorial whisper. "It's okay, we won't tell anyone about how the supreme archmage fumbled something as easy as a [Frost Nova]. Your secret is safe with us."

"A-As I said, it was a hasty first attempt," Morgana protested. She knew she was being teased, but couldn't help the response—which was probably why Vesper was finding it so funny. "Here, let me try again."

She closed her eyes as much to escape Vesper's grin as an actual desire to improve upon the design. A handful of minutes passed as she scrutinized her own work, but after making a few changes, slightly improving the balance across the six lines of symmetry, the spell was accepted and did indeed update—but its proficiency rating didn't upgrade.

Morgana supposed she shouldn't be all that surprised. What a spellmaker as skilled as the Architect of the System would consider a 'mastered' design was likely held to quite high standards, and this was Morgana's first time trying to create a [Frost Nova]. She was skilled, yes, but she could hardly turn whatever she touched into gold. Much less spells not within her extensively studied domains.

Nonetheless, she couldn't help but be slightly miffed when she opened her eyes.

"It'll likely take some further experimentation," she mumbled, unable to meet Vesper's eyes. "I don't want to waste our time. I'll handle it tonight."

"You're gonna be up for hours, aren't you?" Vesper asked, laughing. "Seriously, don't lose sleep over it."

For not having known her long, it seemed the [Thief] had a rather accurate read on her.

"Anyway," Morgana said, clearing her throat. "I'm sure an expert-rated skill will be sufficient. It won't matter all that significantly."

"Doubt you'll even be using it much," Flint said. "[Magic Missile] is cheap and purely damage-focused. [Frost Nova] is half a utility spell. Why lock enemies down when you're already killing them before they can react? Unless we fight something much stronger, there's not much use for it."

Vesper's amused attention lingered on Morgana for a second longer, before glancing at Flint and digesting what he said. "Yeah, probably," she said slowly. "But speaking of something stronger…you remember that cave entrance that looked awfully boss-chamber-ish, a few turns back?"

Flint frowned at her.

"I know you think we shouldn't yet," Vesper said, speaking fast, as if sensing his resolve on that subject wavering. "But especially with a spell that can freeze the boss solid? And we both got stronger, leveling up? There's a bunch of juicy loot waiting for us, you know."

"It's risky."

"The whole dungeon is risky. That's the point."

"This is our second delve. It'd be smart to keep familiarizing ourselves. All it takes is one thing to go bad." Despite his words, Flint had frowned and looked down at the floor, as if deeply considering Vesper's suggestion, the usual conviction in his voice not present. His eyes locked back to Vesper. "What'd you get, anyway? Your level two skill. You didn't answer."

"Ah." She glanced at Morgana, hesitating for only a second before responding. "[Sidestep]. Gives me a short burst of speed and makes my next attack hit harder. Gonna need to play around with it. Also," she said, looking at Morgana. "My other skills are [Inconspicuous] and [Dexterous]. From level one. They do what they sound like. Guess it's only fair to share, since you told me yours. Meant to earlier, actually."

"Oh," Morgana said. "Thanks." She was vaguely aware that sharing skills was a show of trust, a fairly significant one even, though she lacked the societal upbringing to appreciate Vesper's gesture. Nonetheless, she had been curious what the [Thief]'s skills were. "[Sidestep] doesn't sound especially…thief-y, though? At least not as much as the first two."

Vesper shrugged. "It's a dexterity-based attack skill. Guess you're technically right, but being down in the dungeon probably influenced it. Skills tend to take shape in the way you need them, based on what you've been doing. Eventually, my whole class might change, remember? Through an evolution."

Interesting. She pondered that for a second, then an adjacent, if not directly related idea suddenly popped into her head.

"Wait," she said. "Does it have a proficiency?"

"[Sidestep]? Yeah."

"Clumsy?"

"Of course. That's where they all start. Have to work your way up."

"Does it have an associated spell formula?"

Vesper paused at the question, clearly finding it odd. "Seeing how it's not a spell…no?"

"It is a spell," Morgana disagreed. "All of this is clearly magic, not natural phenomena. But never mind that. Can you try, at least?"

"Try what?"

"Pull the design up in your head. It was easy for me. Intuitive, as the rest."

She grew excited at the possibility. If Vesper could access her skill designs like Morgana had, then Morgana would not only have extra material to study, but she could also provide designs to her, thus vastly upgrading her class as well.

She waited with anticipation as Vesper obliged her request, clearly thinking it odd. She furrowed her brow, giving it her best despite her skepticism.

"Nope," Vesper finally said, eyes opening. "Nothing."

Morgana deflated.

She guessed it made sense. While the skill was governed by the System, and thus magical in origin, it wasn't classified as a spell, not as far as the System cared. It didn't undergo invocation, and thus perhaps the skill's design was inaccessible. Only mages could modify a skill's formula. Or perhaps only Morgana herself.

Though, only for now. She would figure out how to access and even manipulate this System, every nook and cranny. It just might take some time. Perhaps a lot.

"Hm," Morgana said. "Oh well."

Vesper looked back at Flint. "So, what d'you think?"

The dark-haired boy had kept his frown the entire way through Morgana's brief digression, probably not even paying attention.

"We can scout the area," he finally said. "But if I don't like the look of it, we're not going deeper. And we need to let you and Morgana test your new skills first."

A grin broke across Vesper's face; she clearly considered the concession a victory.

"Shiny loot, here we come," the girl said.