"Wait, so you're a swordsman and an earth mage?" asked John.

"Correct." XPhaxX nodded.

"Any this isn't an ability you can usually use?" asked John.

"Duh... is this skill was in the game the economy would be screwed," he replied.

"So... you can really do that?! Even though you couldn't in game?!" asked John.

XPhaX scratched his head, he picked a clump of dirt off the ground and clenched it in his fist.

"Transmute, copper!" he thought and when he opened his hand he found a lump of rough, jagged copper.

"Woah!" John looked at the lump in his hand.

"Do gold, do gold!" instructed the Thief excitedly.

He picked more dirt off the ground.

"Transmute, gold!" when he opened his hand he held a small gold nugget, he tossed her the nuggat which upon contact with her, dissolved into dirt.

"Aww..."

"Yeah, they dissolve if someone else touches them..." XPhaxX explained.

"Mana consumption aside, the fancier the metal the more dirt I need, I also can't use any regular material... it has to be dirt, when it comes to mud a ration of 2:1 of dirt to water is the least I can work with," he elaborated.

"So... what you're telling me... is that you invented this spell?" asked John.

Again, XPhaxX scratched his head.

"I'm not sure... it happened when I trapped myself in a mine with enough food and water for a month, I was desperate to power-level my blacksmithing, but couldn't find any more..."

"Then it happened, suddenly I felt an urge to tightly squeeze some dirt, and as if by instinct I knew how to use the transmute skill," he explained.

"I maxed out blacksmithing and left the mine after a week or so."

"So that's how he got to such a high level!" thought John.

"The metal I make is useless as a raw product, it'll turn back to dirt, but when I make it into something it's exactly the same as the real deal," he explained.

"So when you were desperate you gained a new, relatively-balanced ability?" asked John.

"That's right... I'm wondering if it's exclusive to me or if it's specific to mining... if only there was another earth-mage..." he sighed.

"Sorry man, we're both dagger-users, so..." John shrugged.

XPhaxX looked up to him.

"Wait, that's it! I just need you two to try and discover the same unique ability!" XPhaxX instructed.

"I mean... I'm not exactly feeling desperate right now..." John explained.

XPhaxX looked at the two.

"I can fix that..."

Fifteen minutes later, XPhaxX had John and the Thief standing in a field outside of Levelgreen.

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"Alright, I'll fight you, and I won't hold back!" XPhaxX warned.

John remembered he said his level was pretty low.

"Whatever, dude!" John exclaimed grabbing his two daggers.

XPhaxX grabbed a wooden sword.

John's expression changed to a confused one.

"Who does this guy think he is?! Fighting me with a wooden sword?! Or is this supposed to be another crappy joke?!"

JohnWillStab let him make the first move.

XPhaxX charged at John, he was faster than John expected but that was not a problem, he manoeuvred behind XPhaxX, daggers ready.

What John didn't expect was for XPhaxX to already be in the middle of swinging his blade backwards.

John took the hit to the face, he was smacked across the field and into the grass, tearing it up and leaving a small trail of mud.

"What the hell was that!?" thought John.

XPhaxX yawned, resting his weight on the sword he placed on the ground.

John immediately used manoeuvre to appear behind him, again, what John didn't expect was for XPhaxX to perform a leg sweep behind him and trip him up.

XPhaxX planted the end of his wooden sword in John's gut causing John to cough up some booze, (the only thing in his stomach aside from a bit of egg.)

"Hey, don't go overboard!" exclaimed the Thief.

"Overboard?! I'm already holding back, I didn't expect JohnWillStab to be such a boring enemy..." XPhaxX replied.

John immediately appeared behind XPhaxX, ready to kill him and apologise right after.

XPhaxX let out a sigh as John was again swatted away with the sword, land beside his previous landing spot.

XPhaxX swung his sword behind him and without needing to look he saw John was already airborne and on his way to gouge more of the nice fields around Levelgreen.

Before hitting the ground, John appeared behind XPhaxX who simply stepped to the side, John fell down and planted his daggers in the ground before having his back broken with a single sword swing, rendering John immobile.

XPhaxX raised his blade above John.

"This might be as good a time as ever!" he exclaimed, when he moved his sword close enough to draw blood he looked at John's face, his face looked shocked, a little angry, but in no way sad or afraid.

He stopped the blade before he damaged too much of JohnWillStab.

"Damn, it didn't work..." he remarked.

"I mean, I can always respawn..." John replied.

"Hmmm... that's right..." XPhaxX sighed.

"I doubt he'd let me bring his XP penalty high enough to get some real fear going..." XPhaxX thought.

"What if...-" XPhaxX's sentence trailed off as he began walking up to the Thief.

"Where are you going?" he asked following his path.

"Your type of people always get sad when others are in danger, right?" XPhaxX asked before pulling his blade back and aiming it at the Thief.

"Oh, you wanna go!? I'll fight you!" he exclaimed grabbing a dagger from her hip and getting into an exaggerated fighting stance.

"Wait, hold on!" John exclaimed, he could feel his back slowly snapping into place.

"How can I be desperate when I could delete his soul out of existence!?" John thought.

The thief lunged at him, he stepped to the side but she retaliated by planting the dagger to his side.

Luckily for XPhaxX he pivoted to face her before having his kidney punctured, he swung his sword at her neck.

Moments before he did, he kicked her out of the sword's way and continued his sword's trajectory behind him, where the crippled John stood wide-eyed before, again, being sent flying over the fields.

"That idiot..." XPhaxX sighed pinching the bridge of his nose.

"That was a bit of a dick move..." remarked the Thief.

"Meh... you think he knows he could manoeuvre here or do you think he'll walk?" asked XPhaxX.

"..."

"..."

"No point betting if we're both voting on the same answer..." XPhaxX replied.

Twenty minutes later, John returned, dirty but fully healed.

"Well, any new abilities?" asked XPhaxX.

"Yeah, I unlocked the level one-hundred trust-issues ability..." John sighed.

"Are you alright?" asked the Thief.

"Yeah, physically I'm fully intact," John assured her.

"This is pointless... I can't force you to be desperate... at last in a humane way..." XPhaxX sighed.

"Stunning discovery..." John sighed.

"Hey! I figured out how to teleport!" exclaimed the Thief performing what looked like the Shadowstep.

"Nice!" John exclaimed.

John tried using Shadowstep but couldn't because it was too bright.

"Wait, how are you using it in the middle of the day?!" asked John.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Shadowstep is a dagger-class ability that lets the user recreate the ability 'tactical blink' without the mana cost..." XPhaxX remarked.

"Well, I saw John teleporting around and since we're both dagger-classes I wanted to see if I could do it... and I can!" she exclaimed.

"Also, it's allegedly called 'Shiningstep'" she explained.

"Not sure how I know that... but I do..." she added.

"..."

"..."

John and XPhaxX looked at each other before XPhaxX spoke up.

"Alright, John! Try it!" he instructed.

JohnWillStab closed his eyes and tried to concentrate.

"Shiningstep!" he thought, nothing happened.

"Shining-step!"

"Shining~step"

"S~h~i~n~i~n~g s~t~e~p!"

Nothing worked, John tried various poses to see if it'd work, but it looked like he was unable to use Shiningstep.

They continued their experimentation for a while until XPhaxX got another idea.

He lead them into the basement of the inn, it was pitch black.

"Alright, Thief use Shiningstep!" he instructed.

"Ok..."

"Shiningstep!" she thought, but unlike before, nothing happened.

"Nope... I can somehow tell I need light for it to work," she explained.

"Alright... try using Shadowstep!" XPhaxX instructed.

"Shadowstep!" she thought nothing happened.

"Shadow-step!"

"Shadow~step!"

"S~h~a~d~o~w s~t~e~p!"

"Nope!"

"So you didn't learn a new ability... a previous ability was overwritten..." XPhaxX remarked.

XPhaxX looked down to his hands.

"That means I lost some ability!"

"What ability did I lose?" he thought.

He started going over all of his abilities in his head and they all resonated mentally, like when you think of a dish and you know if you like it or not without any more thought, all he did was think about a spell name and he knew if he had it or not.

"It doesn't make sense..." he thought.

"It does!" John exclaimed.

XPhaxX turned to face him beckoning him to continue.

"Blank spells!" said.

"I remember hearing about them a while back from Bonifacius, they're blanks that serve no purpose!"

"I know you can refine a spell by practising it in a certain way, like the fist class... what if one of your blank slots evolved into a transmute spell... but for the Thief, it was the Shadowstep ability that evolved into the Shiningstep?" John suggested.

XPhaxX's eyes lit up.

"That does make sense!" he exclaimed.

A while of silence occurred in the basement.

"Wait, you know Bonifacius?" he asked.