Tyla slept late, waking only when the hammering became too much to ignore. When she crawled out of her sleeping space, she saw that the warehouse had been transformed into a hive of industry. Women were fussing over a strange machine, or climbing up the metal scaffolding that had been placed against the walls, making modifications to the roof.

Kelsey was trying to be everywhere at once, offering direction and comment on what everyone was doing. She noticed that Tyla was up and came over.

“Sleep well?” she asked brightly. “You had a big night.”

Tyla nodded absently, as she recalled the events of the evening. She brought up her status to remind her of how far she had progressed.

Tyla Greenwalker of the Padascar Tribe (Level 3)

Overall Level: 10

Paths: Padascar Hunter (Broken)/ Doxy (Broken)/Apprentice Dungeon Witch

Strength: 11

Toughness: 7

Agility: 9

Dex: 15

Perception: 16

Will: 11

Charisma: 9

Traits

Persistent Tracking

Silent Shot

Danger Sense

Sense Magic

Her Path would remain forever scarred by her failures, but she was moving forward now. Level Three. Kelsey had convinced her to get Sense Magic instead of Cast Cantrip.

“Sense Magic is going to be broadly useful for a long time, while cantrips are just for show. Make a light in your hand, fill a glass with water, that kind of thing,” she’d said, and Tyla had agreed.

Kelsey had also suggested that Tyla should put her free points in Charisma. That she wasn’t a lone hunter any more and would be dealing more with people as time went on.

“Plus, we don’t want you falling too far behind the other girls,” she muttered, which Tyla didn’t understand. She ended up compromising, putting one point in Charisma and the other in Agility. For an elf, her Agility was shamefully low and was only now getting to respectable levels.

Now, Kelsey looked her up and down, evaluating her with who knew what senses.

“Good,” she said. “Let’s try to keep that momentum going. We don’t have a monster room set up yet, but I want you to try and use your Sense Magic, and see if that gives you any experience.”

“But… there isn’t any magic around for me to sense?” Tyla pointed out.

“What am I, chopped liver?” Kelsey asked with a laugh. Tyla flushed. She’d forgotten. Kelsey seemed so natural sometimes that it was hard to remember that she was a creature entirely composed of magic.

“But,” Kelsey went on, “What I want you to focus on is your own magic. Focus on what’s welling up from that bauble of yours and try to differentiate the types.”

Tyla nodded and looked for an empty corner where she could sit. Before she could go, though, Kelsey caught her by her arm.

“Wait,” she said. “Where’s your gun?”

Tyla blinked in surprise. “Back in my bunk,” she said. Kelsey had made her clean it before she went to sleep.

“Get it, and remember to keep it with you, especially if you’ve got bullets. It’s a dangerous weapon and there are a few here who might see it as a toy.”

Tyla nodded slowly. Kelsey had confiscated her remaining bullets last night, but it would be a good habit to get into. In the wrong hands, it could easily fire when pointed at the wrong thing.

“I will be careful,” she promised and went to collect it. Then she found a spot where she could be out of everyone’s way and concentrated on her new Trait.

There was magic in the room, she realised. Anton was carrying an enchanted weapon, and there was the faintest trace of magic hanging around Zaphar. Some alchemical concoction? Or his new Class? “Fae-touched” certainly sounded like he had some magic to him.

Tyla had expected Kelsey to glow brightly to her new sense, but the magic she sensed from the Numen spirit was muted. She clearly had more magic about her than the average human, but if she hadn’t already known the answer, Tyla wouldn’t have been able to say if it was a natural talent, a spell or something completely different.

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As Kelsey had suggested, the strongest source of magic in the warehouse was Tyla herself. She could feel it being drawn into her at the point where her core touched her skin. It circulated within her and then slowly seeped out of her skin. Once it left her body, it quickly dispersed, like mist on a sunny day, but Kelsey had said that it would leave a tiny bit of extra magic everywhere she went. According to Kelsey, the leftover magic from dungeons, and wizards like her, was what powered the magical traits of higher-Tier individuals.

Tyla focussed on the magic welling up within her. Control of it would come when she acquired a casting Trait, but for now, she tried to identify the different types. Kelsey had gone over them with her last night.

The first thing that she noticed was that there were too few types. Kelsey had told her there were fifteen and she had… counting was hard. As she thought about it, the mana separated itself into different streams that were easier to count.

So I do have some control already, Tyla thought and then got on with her original task. There were eleven types coming from the core. Some were stronger than others, and the obvious conclusion was that some were so weak as to be entirely absent.

Tyla set aside her disappointment at the idea that there would be magic that she couldn’t use and tried to identify the types that were there.

The strongest one felt black to her. There was a sense of absence, of loneliness, of death and loss. That had to be Destruction magic, Tyla felt sure. It was useful in combat, Kelsey had said. Also good at breaking through barriers and cleaning.

The next strongest was a tie between three types. Two of them seemed complex, so Tyla tried identifying the other one first. That one was hot and cold, burning and freezing at the same time. It had to be Fire. Tyla had been surprised that the two opposing concepts were the same, but Kelsey had told her that cold was just the absence of heat.

Having found one of the elements, Tyla decided to look for the others. She found Water, cool and refreshing, slipping through her mental grasp. It was about half as strong as Fire. Air and Earth, though, she couldn’t find. Two of the missing ones, perhaps.

There were three streams of mana that reminded her of water, so she started examining them. They reminded her of home, of health and vigour. Reviewing what Kelsey had told her, she realised that these must be the three types that covered living things. Plants, Animals and People. Her Animal-type mana was the strongest of the three, about halfway between Water and Fire. The other two were about as strong as Water.

So far, I can destroy Fire, Water, People, Animals and Plants, Tyla thought. An impressive list in some ways but she hoped there would be more variety in what she could do. With that thought in mind, she returned her attention to the complicated mana types she had skipped over.

The first one was… rigid, yet moving. It’s like Fire, Tyla realised. Immobility is the absence of motion, so the two are… actually the same?

If so, then this was… Motion? That wasn’t a type that Kelsey had described. What type is associated with motion? It wasn’t any of the object types. Motion was a verb and the verb was… Control.

This is Control Mana, Tyla thought. It controls the motion.

Now she knew that the other complicated one had to be a Verb-type. Comparing it with the three remaining verbs let her quickly guess that it was Sense. The way it seemed almost transparent didn’t seem to suit Creation or Change.

Tyla had almost finished, but she was distracted from her meditation by the growl of her stomach as she smelled food. She looked around. Everyone seemed to have finished for the day, and despite the lack of a kitchen, Kelsey was handing out delicious-smelling meals. Tyla quickly headed over to claim a seat. She had woken up after lunch and this would be her first meal of the day.

The meal was full of excited chatter as everyone had new Classes or skills to talk about. Tyla didn’t want to talk about her own Class, but she was drawn into the discussions with the girls who had become her friends during captivity. She smiled to see some of the fear fade from their faces, and they smiled to see it gone from hers.

The fear wasn’t gone completely, though.

“Do you think we can get away?” Morwyn asked her. “I know they—you— got us out, but there’s so much— so far to go.”

“That’s why you should have taken a combat Class,” Syrena interjected. “That way, if they come for us, you can fight back.” Her hand went to the rapier by her side.

“I think we will make it home,” Tyla assured Morwyn. “Anton is a Hero.”

“And a Lord!” Elysia put in.

“And handsome!” Lyra added.

“Shh! Don’t let Aris hear you!” Syrena whispered urgently to Lyra. “You’re not from Kirido, you don’t know how she can be. And she’s married to him now, so she’s probably even worse.”

“She is a fearsome opponent,” Tyla agreed, and meant it. Though Aris was only at her second Tier, she wore her weapons with an ease that Tyla had not managed. And second Tier was a Tier above the rest of the girls here.

“But the raiders…” Morwyn said nervously. “They were all third Tier, weren’t they? And that courl they were worried about, he was Tier Four!”

“The guns are a great equalizer both against numbers and up Tiers,” Tyla told her. “I have… seen them in action, and they make killing terrifyingly easy. The odds are still stacked against us, but not as much as you might think.”

She looked over at Kelsey, still producing the last dishes.

“And Kelsey…” Tyla said. “She is magic personified. I don’t believe there is anything she cannot do.”

“She is something,” Syrena said quietly. “She made all that stuff, summoned monsters… I don’t get how she can be a dungeon.”

“It is a mystery,” Tyla agreed. “And she is coming this way.”

Several of the girls who were going to say something quickly closed their mouths as Kelsey approached.

“How’s my favourite elf?” she said, giving Tyla a hug.

“Wow, you’re really close?” Morwyn commented. “Didn’t you only meet, two days ago?”

“I’ve got hugs for anyone that wants them,” Kelsey said, giving Tyla another squeeze before letting her go. She looked at Morwyn.

“No thanks, I’m good,” Morwyn said.

“Suit yourself,” Kelsey said. “I just wanted to let you know that Anton, Aris, Zaphar and I are going to post that ransom note of Soraya’s.”

“Can I come?” Tyla asked. “I’ve been sitting down in here all day.”

“Or sleeping,” Kelsey teased. “How’s it been going?”

“I think that I have eleven types of mana available to me,” Tyla said. “I’ve identified nine of them.”

“Well, that’s great,” Kelsey said, “but I was asking if you got any experience for looking.”

“Oh!” Tyla exclaimed. She’d gotten so focused that she had forgotten about that part. She concentrated on the sensation of levelling. She hadn’t gained a level, she would have noticed that, but…

“I think I gained some,” she reported. “Not much, compared to last night, but some.”

“Great!” Kelsey said. “In that case, you should keep working on it. We’ll be back soon."

“Oh,” Tyla sighed. Kelsey giggled and gave her another hug.

“Don’t sulk!” she admonished. “The whole point of this outing is to not attract attention— and that’s hard enough when you look like me, without taking you along!”

“I suppose that’s true,” Tyla admitted. She was quite distinctive. Kelsey was too, but her ears didn’t give her away once she was wrapped up.

“That’s the spirit,” Kelsey said. “From how into it you were before, I reckon we’ll get back before you notice we’re gone.”