“First thing, Dirk. You rely too much on your heightened Perception and Fate energy. You rushed through that sewer convinced that you had spotted every trap. Athena, when the gate closed, you panicked, forcing Dirk to waste precious seconds calming you down before…”

I took my dressing down with about as much poise as I was capable of. It galled me that Lacy was right and not pulling any punches as she laid into us. But more than that, what really pissed me off was that I had let my arrogance blind me again.

Dismissing Lacy like that? What the fuck was I thinking?

The lesson was painful and not one I was likely to forget soon.

“Couple more points,” she continued after pointing out all our specific errors. “The scenario is randomized after every failure, so that trap might be different this go around. Might not even be a sewer. But some things are constant. For example, sewer access is always a trap. Even if you find a manhole fifty feet from the castle walls—trap. Escape route inside the castle that leads back to the moat—trap. Sewer equals trap.”

“We got it,” Athena grumbled at my side.

“You got it?” Lacy asked with a biting tone. “Because that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Unless you want to drown a couple more times, keep the sass out of your voice and open your ears.”

Athena’s eyes went wide at her scolding remarks and even I was taken aback. We looked at each other in surprise and I wondered if the girl would fire back at Lacy.

But after a moment of awkward silence, we heard Lacy sigh in our ears.

“Listen guys, I’m sorry if I sound harsh. I’ve done this scenario dozens of times today—and failed miserably every single time. And that was with a full team of seven with an ideal party composition that followed my every command. The three of us are fighting an uphill battle and it’s important that we don’t waste time arguing.” Another deep breath sounded through the comms. “And I’ll try not to snap at you two anymore. Deal?”

Athena and I shared a shrug, then I flashed a thumbs up to Lacy high up on her platform.

“You’re the boss!”

“Yep, let’s hear it boss-lady,” Athena added.

“Cool, so here’s what I’ve learned. Best ingress points are over the walls themselves. The guards always operate on a set patrol pattern, so we can time that reliably. Main entrance into the castle always has two guards posted inside, one of them standing right next to a rope that will trigger the alarm. Killing them before he pulls it is almost impossible. Think we managed it one of out ten times. Even with your diskslinger and improved speed, I’d give us a four out of ten success rate.”

“Okay…” I replied hesitantly. “What’s our best course, then?”

“Can’t see them from here,” she replied. “But there’s second-story windows big enough for you two. They either lead to hallways or rooms, but it’s random. The hallways are patrolled but the rooms are usually empty.”

“Got it. And the roof?” I asked.

“Tried it once, but my players weren’t capable of reaching it as a team and didn’t have any rope. Sent the one player capable of making the climb, but he got spotted from the ground.” She hesitated and I could tell she was conflicted on that option. “It’s one of the few possibilities I didn’t get to really explore, but I’d suggest we start with the window access first. The vault is in the basement, so making the trek from the roof would take forever. And if you did all that work only to die at the vault…”

I nodded to Athena and she returned the nod.

“Let’s put that in our back pocket then?” I suggested.

“Agreed. Once you infiltrate the second story, I’ll know more as my view of the board improves.”

Athena pumped her fist in the air.

“Let’s do this!”

I smiled, holding my hand out for a high-five. From the wary look on her face, I could tell she was wondering if I was setting her up for a too-slow type of play. But I nodded to indicate I was serious and held my hand closer. Tentatively, she reached her hand up, then suddenly slapped her palm to mine with a crack. We shared a chuckle and turned to get into a ready stance.

“Starting the scenario…now!”

Scenario: Immortal Castle

Objective: Retrieve the Immortal’s treasure from within the castle.

Bonus Objective: Retrieve the treasure before the alarm is raised.

As the countdown flashed in my vision, I felt excitement and anxiety rising together. This was a safe zone, but that did little to settle my nerves. Pain was pain. Sure, over enough time and exposure, you acclimated to pain…to a degree. But I knew firsthand that the there were levels to pain and the artificial death of the safe zone was right up there with actual death that I’d experienced over a dozen times. Running headlong into that, knowing that we’d probably fail this attempt—any many more—spiked my heart rate to a staccato beat.

Forcing in deep breaths, I willed myself into that familiar focus state. It wasn’t a cheat code for anxiety, but it was damn close. My racing heart and sweaty palms didn’t subside by much, but my ability to ignore those stressors increased. Panic was a feedback loop—as I’d experienced quite recently with the all too fresh panic attack from earlier. Meaning, panic beget more panic, and the key to fighting it off was to cut the loop before it could spiral out of control. My focus state was perfect for that.

The timer flashed down to one and I was as ready as I could be.

2…

1…

Guards are active. The treasure has been set.

You may proceed…

Lacy’s voice whispered in my ear, giving me comfort as the scenario began.

“Same as last time. I need vision. Do a circuit and then we’ll game plan from there. Pay particular attention to the timing of the guards on the walls.”

“Roger,” I replied softly.

With a nod, Athena and I took off at a crouched run.

It only took us a few minutes to make a full loop. The castle didn’t have a very large footprint, extending high into the open space rather than extending out horizontally. As we finished back at our starting point, Lacy spoke again.

“East wall has the biggest timing gap from what I saw. Can you confirm?”

“Confirmed. I counted twenty-seven seconds of no coverage,” I replied.

Athena stared at me with narrowed eyes.

“I’m sorry, but what? How the hell did you do that?”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

I smiled and shrugged. “Much as I’d like to take credit, my traits give me a massive stat boost. Once your Intelligence and Perception increase, you’ll get it.”

“Lucky,” she muttered. “I can’t wait till my System unlocks.”

“Stay on task, guys,” Lacy said gently.

“Sorry,” Athena said.

I waved up at Lacy, then turned to face the east.

“Let’s move.”

When we made it to the east side of the castle, we stopped and watched the guards to confirm the timing. At my side, Athena was shaking her head.

“What is it?” I whispered.

She bit her lip, a look of annoyance on her face. “I don’t think I can do it…”

I turned fully to face her, both of us crouched in the tall grass.

“What do you mean?”

She waved toward the wall. “I mean, I can do it. But not in thirty seconds. The swim will take me half that, at least. And that wall climb…” She shook her head in frustration. “You saw me in the obstacle course. I’d never clear it in time.”

Guilt warred inside me. I knew I’d have to tell her eventually—especially if we were going to clear this scenario without dying a million times. But I knew she’d be absolutely fuming when she learned that I helped her in that last run on the course.

“Athena…there’s something I need to tell you.”

Her brow furrowed. “Okay….you’re being weird. What’s up?”

I hesitated, worried she’d blow up on me and reveal our positioning before we’d even started. Before I could build up the courage, Lacy’s voice interrupted.

“Dirk, can it wait? This isn’t exactly the time.”

I shook my head, then realized she couldn’t see me behind the castle walls.

“No, Lace, this is relevant.”

“Okay…” she replied hesitantly.

Might as well rip the band-aid off…

“I had a bit of a breakthrough when I was meditating. I can use my Friction and Mass energy to affect things and people from a pretty good distance.”

She cocked her head. “I kinda already thought you could do that, but okay.” Then her eyes lit up as the information set in. “Oh! You can help me climb the wall with your energies?”

I nodded slowly, waiting for her to get there.

“And that’s making you act all weird because…” She shook her head to indicate she wasn’t making the connection.

Sighing, I quite stalling and just laid it out. “Did you feel anything different? On that last obstacle run, I mean.”

“Not really…I guess I kinda felt lucky that the log didn’t send me to the…” Her eyes went wide, her jaw dropping. “That was you!” she accused loudly.

I spun toward the wall, but we were thankfully within the window where there was no guard within earshot. She clapped a hand over her mouth as Lacy hissed in our ear.

“Guys! You really don’t want to raise the alarm!”

“Sorry, sorry,” Athena said softly. Then her eyes narrowed as her lips pursed. “That was you? You gave me more friction on the parallel walls? Messed with my mass on the balance beam?”

“Actually, I reduced the mass of the swinging log…” She gave me a deadpan stare and I sighed. “But yes, that was me.”

Her expression was inscrutable for a moment and I wondered if she was fighting to hold down her rage or considering stabbing me right then and there with her sword.

Slowly, her lips spread wide and it took me a minute for my brain to catch up with what I was looking at.

Was she smiling?

“I can’t tell if this is your serial killer smile before you gut me and leave me in the grass or if you just imagined how you’re gonna get me back or what…”

She laughed quietly at that and shook her head.

“Neither. I’m excited!”

It was my turn to narrow my eyes skeptically. “You are?”

“Duh! It means we actually have a chance. It means I won’t be holding you back as much.”

Those words hit me and I frowned.

“You’re not holding me back…” I trailed off as she tilted her head skeptically.

“Oh? You mean the ten-year-old, System-locked girl isn’t holding back one of the most athletically gifted people in the world who has two different physics related magical powers in his arsenal?” She snorted. “Quite bullshiting me, ‘kay? I may be ten, but I know when I’m being patronized.”

I chuckled at her frank words. “How the hell do you even know that word?” I asked, trying to bring some levity to the situation.

Her brow raised. “Spelling bee champ, dude. Come on, can you keep up?” She smiled to take the edge off her words.

Laughing quietly, I nodded. “I’ll try.” Turning back to the castle, I pursed my lips in thought. “Okay, this should be much easier now that we’re on the same page.” I looked back at her. “So it’s cool if I use my magic on you at my discretion?”

She nodded. “Yeah, but only if you promise not to mess with me. Pure business until we crack this egg.”

I held out my hand. “Deal.”

She examined it with a wry smile, then shook it with a quick squeeze.

“Deal.”

With a nod, we both turned back to the wall.

“Right, we’re ready, Lace.”

“Got it. Okay, first leg. Wait for the guard to rotate, then get past the moat and up the wall before he’s back. On my mark…mark!”

We both burst from the grass at a full sprint. I was already cycling my Mass energy, reducing both of our weights to bring our Agility up. We moved so fast that we must have been blurs racing across the field. When we reached the moat, we both took a precious second to slip in rather than dive and make a splash. We swam across without incident, our strokes smooth and soft.

As we reached the base of the wall, Lacy’s voice spoke in our ears.

“Ten seconds down.”

Fuck, that felt slow.

I swapped energies on the fly, bumping the friction of the wall up so high it felt like Velcro. Rather than race up as fast as I could, I matched Athena’s pace. I didn’t have to slow by much as she bear-crawled up the vertical surface without a hint of fear. It was impressive enough that I found myself too preoccupied watching her speed to realize we’d reached the top.

When my hand missed the expected flat surface and went over the top crenalation of the wall, I nearly slipped and fell in surprise. But I recovered in a blink and the two of us levered our bodies over the edge.

Our feet hit the wall walkway and I took a half-beat to study the courtyard below.

“Five seconds,” Lacy’s insistent voice said in our ears.

The main gate was to our left, while the castle entrance was straight ahead. Sure enough, windows ringed the second story and they looked just big enough for me to squeeze through. But first, we needed to hide from the patrolling guard about to hit our section of wall.

“Two seconds!”

I grabbed Athena with Red and leaped off the wall, reducing our mass enough so that the fall was easily absorbed with a crouching of our knees. She followed my lead as we raced along the bottom of the wall now, heading behind a building that looked like stables.

We both breathed heavy—more in anticipation than being winded—while we waited for the alarm to sound. When nothing happened after a half a minute, we relaxed.

“Good job, guys. Looks like you’re clear. My fog cleared enough during your jump to show me an access point. Third window from the left is definitely a bedroom. No promises it’s empty, but they are more often than not. That’s my suggested ingress point.”

“Got it,” I whispered back.

With a look at Athena, we both nodded that we were ready and began slinking around the backside of the stables. As we were about to round a corner, the sound of shuffling feet caught my heightened senses.

Putting out a hand, I signaled for Athena to stop. She looked surprised for a moment, then realized that the only reason I’d stop her is enemy contact.

Rather than waste precious time cycling my Fate energy to peer around the corner, I simply crouched low and leaned out. We were on the backside of the stables, so it would be unusual for someone to be staring right at our position.

Sure enough, a guard’s back greeted me. He was pissing against the castle wall with a relieved groan. Up close, I could see that he was covered in chainmail that shielded most of his body, along with a metal helm that only left his face and neck exposed.

Red began to shift along my body and sent me an image of what she intended. Bumping up my mass to max out my Strength, I sent silent agreement and broke from the cover slowly. My footsteps were heavy in the mud, but the sound of the man’s flying piss distracted him enough that he didn’t notice my approach.

With a thought, Red arced out from my forearm like a lance, spearing the man straight through his neck. His eyes bulged wide in surprise as he gurgled and choked on his blood. Hefting him with my enhanced mass and Red’s rigid shape, I pulled him back toward us.

Before he died, I cast [Analysis] on him. I hadn’t been able to cast it on the patrolling guards because the effect was impossible not to notice. Now that he was bleeding out on the ground behind the stables, I had the time to review his stats.

Name: James (Training Room Nascent — Simulacrum)

Class: Guard (Common)

Level: 75

Body:

Strength: 85

Agility: 40

Endurance: 60

Mind:

Intelligence: 25

Perception: 65

Mastery: 45

Spirit: N/A

Examining his Status Sheet, I was both put at ease and anxious. Though he was the same level as me, his stats weren’t anywhere close to what mine could be while cycling my Mass energy. And he had died in a single blow from Red, which was good for our chances of assassinating any solo guards we came across.

What made me anxious was that while he was easy work for me, Athena was still System-locked. These stats could very well be an insurmountable mountain for her in a fight. Thinking back, I remembered Kurian had normalized our stats when we fought each other. That was our only hope for the girl being able to take one of these things head on.

“Athena,” I whispered. “He’s level 75 with the stats to match. Did Kurian give you a stat boost or anything…” I trailed off, her horrified expression saying it all. Rather than let her give into defeat, I did my best to rally her. “Hey, it’s okay. Stealth is our best friend anyway. If we get into a brawl, we’re screwed, remember?”

She put on a brave face, but I could see the pain in her eyes.

“You’re right,” she replied softly. “Still sucks to feel useless.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but was interrupted by a voice calling out from inside the building we were hiding in.

“James! What’s taking so long? Longest piss of your life! If I come out there and you’re taking a smoke break, Imma have you flogged by the commander…”

Athena and I shared a wide-eyed look, then I burst from our cover to get into position for an ambush.