“She’s not wrong,” Mikachu finally said. “As your shieldwall, I should have signalled earlier when it became clear that we couldn’t hold the fight.”

“Or me,” Ette said morosely. “I was the leader after all.”

Noa just nodded glumly. She was the one Gren had called out since her class suggested a better mastery of tactics than the rest of us.

“Hey, knock it off,” I said. “So we wiped? Big deal. It was going to happen sooner or later, anyway -- it’s a video game after all. And all of us, except maybe Jazmyn, knew within moments that the fight was too hard for us. DVI isn’t a Souls-like, right?”

“Yeah …,” the three nodded and said in unison.

“So, why’d we do it? A little reckless overconfidence, maybe?” I asked. “Maybe for a little bragging rights, shooting for a possible server first?”

The look Ette gave me was nigh inscrutable but Noa’s wasn’t, and I hastily amended the statement, “A good server first, that is. Whatever. We learned from it. We got to see how most of our abilities worked. We got to see how most of each other’s abilities worked, the ones we’ll be relying on down the road, like Mikachu’s statue …”

“Totem,” Mikachu corrected.

“-- totem, which definitely changes the way I work as a healer. And you know, once bitten, twice shy. If we see another Matriarch, we won't fight her until we’re stronger. Maybe two-three levels, maybe even even with her if not overleveled,” I continued.

“More like twenty-five times bitten,” Noa grumbled, but the girls’ expressions were lightening.

“Then twenty-five times shy,” I retorted. “Live and learn. Respawn and learn. It didn’t even hurt that much; I’ve taken more damage out jogging with Mika or trying to play beach volleyball with you all last summer.”

Jazmyn laughed. “That’s because you’re a total klutz, bro.” Then she cocked her head and gave me a funny look. “Or should I say ‘sis,’ now?”

“Please don’t. Yeah, Rie’s a girl, but she’s still just a character I’m playing. Just as Jazmyn’s your character. And a human girl and a fairy aren’t likely to be sisters here in the game. We’re travelling companions, squadmates, allies, whatever term you want to use outside of blood relations.”

“Friends?” Jazmyn asked.

I smiled. “That works, too. Friends.”

Mikachu spread her wings and hovered up into the air near me. “Well said, Rie. We needed to hear that. At least, I did. It’s always hard on a shieldwall when the party wipes, but I know it’s usually harder on the healer. If you can get past it, I can get past it.” Then she looked down at Ette and the others. “Plus, now we have a goal. Vengeance.”

All three nodded.

“But more importantly,” Jazmyn said, “having fun while doing it. Anyway, our much-needed pep speech is over. Let’s go kill some easy rats!”

She was a bit glib, but the smile and thumbs-up gesture she flashed me was sincere.

* * *

Noa and I had reapplied our sustained powers, and it was only a minute or so deeper into the grassland that we spotted the first opponent of our second attempt.

“Big Bad Rat, level 0, Neutral,” Ette reported.

“Make sure there’s no other rat lurking nearby,” Noa said. “Rie, Mikachu, you’ve got better vantage points. Do you see anything?”

“There’s one a bit further north, also level 0,” Mikachu said. “I don’t think it’s in aggro radius, but that’s something we’ll need to learn. I think I can taunt it if it does decide to join in.”

“Even against two of the regular bigger-than-normal rats, I can probably keep enough regen going that we’ll be fine. But we don’t want to get swarmed again. I can’t use the Prayer of Wyld Recovery again today.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“I don’t want to assume too much,” Noa said, “But meeting the zone boss as our first mob was probably a fluke. This is supposed to be an area for newbies to level up in, not for newbies to get slaughtered over and over in, right?”

“It should be,” Ette nodded.

“Then I think we’re not likely to have too many swarms. And I don’t think we’re likely to have too many ambushes. Even that swarm was from summoned adds rather than patrollers,” Noa said.

“So, we’re ready to fight this one?” Mikachu asked.

“Yeah.”

“Alright. ⸢Bellicosity Induction⸥.” She pointed at the near rat as she taunted it, and the fight was on.

And … the fight was anticlimactic. With Jazmyn attacking the rat as it ran toward us and Ette and Daybreak Gleaming joining in when the little monster got within melee range, it was over without even really trying. And without Mikachu’s totemic statue being placed to give the rat a target to hit.

By mutual assent, Mikachu pulled the other rat with a taunt -- and the fight was just as lopsided. Five-versus-one, when everyone was equal in level, shouldn't have been a challenge, and it wasn’t.

Especially with the amount of damage that Jazmyn was doing. Even considering the boost she was receiving from Noa’s ranged damage buff, she was still doing more than a third of the rat’s health with each Silver Shot. That seemed a bit high, even if a damage-dealing caster was the primary source of damage for a group.

So, with a few successes to buoy our spirits, we became a roving, rat-exterminator squad.

We did come across a level 1 rat, but it was still a trivial fight. It took a little longer -- Jazmyn’s spell was only doing more than a quarter of the rat’s health instead of more than a third -- but not appreciably longer.

“I never thought I’d say magic is boring,” Jazmyn said, “but using the same spell over and over with no challenge is, well, kinda boring.” She frowned. “A bit like volleyball drill, practicing the same moves over and over without getting a chance at a skirmish or actual match.”

Ette nodded. “The theory is a bit the same, Jazmyn. Partly it is practicing and developing abilities, becoming familiar with something that is completely new. And partly it is a bit like exercise, building muscles. Once we get a bit stronger, and have more diverse or more powerful abilities, we’ll be able to hold our own against more challenging encounters, like that stupid Matriarch, or who knows what else.”

“And sooner or later,” Noa said, “we’ll be fighting monsters in different places, too, like in caves. That’ll make things more interesting, since positioning will matter much more.”

“I suppose,” Jazmyn said, though she sounded a bit unconvinced.

“You do have three spells, don’t you?” I asked. “Try using the others and see how they work. I bet that other, Silver Slash was it, is probably a closer-range spell. You might want to practice it, too. You should normally be at a distance from the monsters, but as you saw earlier, that’s not always the case.”

“Okay, I’ll do that. Oh, look, there’s another level 1 one over there. “You want to do your statue for this one, Mikachu? That way I can try the other spells and Rie can cast her spells, too? You two haven’t been doing that much on the weak ones.”

“Alright, let’s do it.”

When the rat was well and truly fixated on the Rage Lure Totem, and was taking trivial damage from its application of my Bramble Shield, Jazmyn stepped a little closer to it, keeping her staff at the ready to hopefully block or divert any attacks of opportunity the rat made against her. Then ….

“Light of the moon, strength of steel, argent crescent, power made real: ⸢Silver Slash⸥! Strike down my foe!”

Throughout the activation chant, the orb at the end of her staff glowed brighter and brighter, until a silver crescent of light like a scythe’s blade extended from it. When she called out the spell’s name, Jazmyn swung her staff in a diagonal arc and … cut the little monster clean in two, knocking it from nearly full health to completely dead in one clean swipe.

“Whoa!” Ette’s gasp of surprise was the loudest, reverberating from her crystalline form, but I think the rest of us echoed her.

“Ugh, that’s tiring,” Jazmyn said. “Wait!? It already died? And, geez! That took all my remaining mana, exactly. I’m completely out!” She sat down and then sprawled out on the grass. “Ugh, I need a break.”

“Mana exhaustion?” Noa wondered aloud.

Ette shrugged. “If so, it’s not something that’s made it to publicly available information. DVI censors things too heavily, but I bet now that we’re in the game, there’s probably some internal forums we can access.”

“Maybe later,” Mikachu said. “And a break might not be a bad idea. This is a lot more physical activity than some of us are used to.” She shot a glance at me and then Noa.

I shrugged, still hovering effortlessly. “Different physiques, different physical capabilities. I don’t think there’s even an endurance or stamina stat, is there?”

But since we were paused, I pulled open my character sheet and reviewed it. “Nope. Attack Power, Spell Power, Agility, Defenses, and Resistances. Unless it is a derived stat or a hidden one, it’s probably rolled into resistances, I guess?”

“Resisting getting tired?” Ette asked.

“Or part of health, or just a stand-alone debuff. Well, we can ask her. Jazmyn, did you get a debuff when you got tired just now?”

She sat up and shook her head, “No. No little new icon up by the health bar, anyway, not like your regeneration or Noa’s stuff. Those are buffs, right? So debuffs should be there, too, I would think?”