Astrid stared at the spot where the god of Deception had just been before he disappeared, leaving no trace behind. Letting out a sigh of relief, she looked at the new quest he had given her and noticed that the timer had already begun counting down.

Quest update

Read the Devine Book of Deception

Reward: a divine quarterstaff

Time left: 71 h 58 m

Three days was a short time to finish the rest of the book, especially considering everything else she had going on, and she still felt reluctant about unlocking the skills it taught. However, a divine quarterstaff would make up for all that, as she would be able to use magic whenever she wanted. It almost seemed too good to be true, so there had to be a catch somewhere other than a vague threat that she would regret it should she fail to complete the task. Those words still rang in her ears, and she swallowed the lump forming in her throat.

Why was he so insistent that she read the book in the first place? What was he planning? It still unsettled her that she had no clue what his long-term intentions for her were. She had no intention of playing a part in some evil plot, but it was impossible to guard herself against it when she had no clue what sinister things he was preparing her for. She refused to believe she was only being used as entertainment for a bored deity. There had to be more to this. Right?

She had no answers to her questions, and time was ticking down. For now, all she could do was comply with his wishes and finish up reading the book.

Pulling the book from her bag, she quickly found the chapter about stealing where she had stopped reading yesterday.

Stealing was going to be another skill she couldn’t let other people know she had. She would never be able to come up with a plausible explanation for why she had it.

Then again, it was not like one more undesirable skill made her situation worse. She had already accepted that she would never be able to get hired for a job that required her to show her skillset, which was basically all of them except those that required no skills at all.

*

The next morning, as she went down for breakfast, she was approached by the innkeeper.

“Good morning, Sigrid,” he said. “Is your sister around? I need to talk to her.”

“No. What do you want to tell her? Maybe I can let her know.”

Astrid had gone down as herself since she would be going to school soon, and she didn’t have time to sneak in and out to change her persona so she could talk to this guy. She had already left her room later than usual, as she had tried to squeeze in as much reading as possible, and now she would be lucky if she got to finish her meal before she had to leave for classes.

“I guess you could,” he said much to Astrid’s relief that she wouldn’t have to find a way to change into her sister after all. “Just tell her that from now on it will cost twenty small coppers per night for the room and the meals.”

“Why?” Astrid asked as she handed over the money. She had no problem affording the increased rent, but it was still a doubling in price overnight.

“Food prices are starting to go up as more people seek refuge here, and it’s questionable how much of the crops will be harvested since most people are reluctant to leave the city.”

That was understandable, as farms were abandoned when people fled from monsters. The crops on her old farm would likely rot in the fields this winter. And if the monsters weren’t dealt with before spring, it was unlikely anyone would be able to sow new crops. That didn’t leave much time to find a solution. She could only hope someone was working on it.

Again, she wondered if there was a way for her to tell the mayor or the monster slayer what she knew about the dungeon without revealing any of her secrets. While eating, she contemplated this, but she couldn’t think of anything that would be taken seriously and wouldn’t lead to questions she didn’t want to answer.

*

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Astrid made it to class earlier than she had expected, so she figured she could spend the time reading in her schoolbooks. She hadn’t had a chance to check them out yet, as Sham had shown up and more or less demanded that she read his book first every time she had tried. However, she couldn’t read his book in the middle of a classroom, so this might be the only chance she got to brush up on the theory she would need for her combat magician classes. She wanted to catch up to the other students as fast as possible, so she pulled the book from her bag and began reading.

Chapter 1

What is a combat magician?

A combat magician is someone trained to fight using magic spells both defensively and offensively.

They are most often hired by individuals, groups, or nations to settle disputes with a duel when diplomacy has failed to find a resolution. The terms of the duels can be set by the involved parts before they begin. In cases involving distributing nations, duels between combat magicians or other types of fighters are usually a last attempt to avoid an all-out war and are often fought to the death as neither party wants to give up.

They can also be hired to work as guards or soldiers.

Astrid shuddered. A duel to the death was not something she would want to partake in. She just wanted to learn magic because it seemed cool, and having a ranged attack option when fighting monsters was a bonus as well.

The rest of the chapter was just examples of famous duels and illustrations of the events, so she skipped to the next chapter.

Chapter 2

The physique and mentality of a combat magician

A combat magician has to have a specific physique in order to do the tasks assigned to them (see Ch. 1).

High-level duels can last for hours, so they need to have the stats for drawn-out battles. Health, stamina, mana, focus, and spirit are all in use during intense duels and must therefore be improved upon during training.

They need to be strong to hold the quarterstaff and continuously cast spells, and they need to be fast and agile to dodge spells and have good balance and coordination, as the slightest misstep can mean defeat.

They must be able to maintain concentration for long periods of time or under pressure and have the courage to persevere even while injured.

All this was something Astrid already knew or at least would have guessed if asked, but it made her more determined to raise her stats as high as possible before leveling up skills that increased them. Her stamina had been nowhere near a hundred points when her running skill leveled up. That meant that even after her bonus, it was now thirty points when it should have been over two hundred instead. That would put her at a disadvantage, and it would only be exacerbated at higher levels unless she found a way to catch up.

The next chapter described the tools used by combat magicians, which were mostly different types of quarterstaffs and defensive clothing. She could read that more closely when she needed to buy her own gear one day.

The chapter on dueling etiquette was skipped for now, as she already knew the rules this academy used. And it sounded boring.

The next chapter covered the thing she wanted to read about. Spells. All level one spells were blasts or shields but based on different elements. There were a lot of them, and it would take a long time to learn to cast all of them and even longer to learn when to cast what in a fight. So, she decided to just read about one of each today. The first on the list after the basic blast was the wind blast.

Wind blast is cast by spinning your staff in front of you while you load it with the desired mana. When you are ready to fire, you push the staff forward while saying the name of the spell.

Wind blasts don’t do damage to your opponent directly but can knock them over if sufficiently powerful.

As more people entered the classroom, it became harder for Astrid to focus on reading. She heard Villads and Brigitta talking and went over to talk to them.

“Hi,” she said as she approached.

"Hi,” the others responded.

“What do you think is the best way to level up?” Brigitta said. “We are having a discussion.”

“Uhm. I don’t know.”

“Come on,” Brigitta said. “You already got a skill in level two.”

“Yeah, but I got that when I had to run for my life, but I’m not sure that’s the best way to do it. Sure, real-life or death situations are effective at pushing you past the limit, but they’re also dangerous. If you fail, you’ll die.”

“So, you think safe grinding is the best way then?” Brigitta said.

“That would be too slow, especially near the end. There could be days, if not weeks, between experience points.”

“Then what do you think is the best way?”

“I guess it would be somewhere in between.” It was weird being asked about this when she was the new girl in the class.

“How would that look?”

“I’m not sure what skill are we talking about?”

“My combat magic skills. So, my attack spells and my shields. I’m so close to the next level, but even my duel with Brigitta isn’t doing much for me anymore. I only need four points for my attacks and six points for my shields, but as you said, that could take months at my current rate.

“You could duel someone stronger,” Astrid suggested.

“There isn’t anyone stronger in class,” Villads complained.

“What about dueling the teacher?”

“I already asked him the other day, but he said no.”

Astrid wrecked her brain for more suggestions.

“Could you duel more than once a day?”

“There isn’t enough time in class for that.”

“And what about after class? Teacher Birk said a lot of people stayed to study in the afternoon.”

“I guess that could be arranged. We just need a small area with no other people, but would one extra duel really do that much, and who would I duel?”

Astrid looked over at Brigitta.

"No, that won’t be an option,” she said, shaking her head. “I will likely have lost health points during the duels, and so would half of the other students.”

“We have to finish this conversation later.” Villads said as the teacher arrived, ready to start the first class of the day.