I awoke to screaming, more than a few seconds of terror passing before I realised it was coming from my own throat. The nightmares which tore apart my unconscious sanctuary followed me into the waking world in which I found myself lost and confused, beset by shadows which approached me on all sides. They surrounded me, unabated by walls or furniture as they tracked bloody footprints towards my uncomfortable arrangement within a booth of the café.

“No, no, no,” I moaned, desperate for absolution but unsure whether I deserved it. I knew these silhouettes intimately. Silent, their obscured features hid rage and disgust and envy of the highest degrees. “Please,” I begged, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t want any of this.”

My pitiful weeping continued until the world was nothing but pitch black shadow contaminated with the rank taste of blood. I almost sank into its depths but a vibrancy smote the darkness despite myself. No, some deep part of my soul rejected the patchwork apology outright. “I didn’t want this,” I repeated aloud in the abyss created by my mind. “I didn’t cause this… she did.”

I whirled around, feeling the stare of one who should not be judging me. Two amethyst stars burned with sick luminescence. The light overwhelmed and destroyed the paltry glow of things like the sun, or hope, or a future. Within the dead brilliance lay an intent. Cowardly and irrevocable, the power behind those implacable eyes had foisted upon me its fears. The System was its enemy, not mine. The blood running over my hands and eyes so thick I couldn’t feel or see were set streaming by their impetus.

“It wasn’t my fault!”

The seat below me was ripped from its installation along with the surrounding tables, chairs and portion of wall I had been fitfully sleeping against. Addled and carrying some of the weight from the nightmare, I barely managed to get out of the way as the ceiling conceded a losing battle and began to crumble inwards. The next few seconds were a panicked and frantic scramble which ended with me throwing myself through the café’s once repaired window.

I doubt her Prestidigitation can fix this. My thoughts were clearly becoming my own once more as I made a joke while flying through the air. I landed with surprising grace considering the start to my day, if I said so myself. I would need to, if I wanted to hear praise. The only sounds coming from Naea were half-concealed laughter.

“You alright there, champ?” She asked, snorting as she managed to finish the sentence successfully. I rolled my eyes but gestured that she continue. She clearly had a joke she needed to tell, from the chortles she barely contained. “Now, I’ve heard of morning glory but that was ridiculous.”

Her final word was extended by a fit of laughter and I rolled my eyes. It was a pretty good joke actually, but I wasn’t in the mood to laugh at anything, especially at my own expense. Instead, I stretched and took some meditative, calming breaths. My mana regeneration increased as I activated one of the three more skills I had gained the day prior. I recovered the amount, nearly my full mana pool, quickly.

While I called it a “day,” that would be incorrect for two reasons. First, the sun had barely moved five degrees across the sky since I awoke in the dungeon initially and second, it had definitely taken more than thirty hours to unlock the five skills I gained. After the monotony of running in literal circles and the joy of pummelling the ground for hours, we moved on to my favourite of our games. Doing absolutely nothing for twelve hours. That portion of the training was likely why the nightmare had been so intense. Twelve hours of silence from the thoughts made them return vengeful and cruel.

That task had taken a few tries but one thing I gratefully lacked in the dungeon was an excuse. Naea had proven herself correct about the other skills and this one seemed useful on description while also being something I vaguely knew how to do. It turned out truly clearing one's mind was no simple task. I somehow felt as though I were cheating when I started daydreaming while playing with the mana inside myself.

I pictured the magical core at my centre as a station. The mana bundles were vehicles, each one carrying the passenger of my intent to the destination of my choosing. The pathways these taxis and trains took were known to me but becoming further memorised with each loop until I knew every section of my mana channels like a long-studied map. Except, on inspection, that wasn’t true at all. There was far more mana suffused throughout my body which I had no control over than packets which I could direct. That was without even considering the draconic power which flowed from the Aspect inside the core. My mental image needed to be reworked.

I had been resisting the urge to shake my head when the new skill notification appeared and I collapsed, surprised at the prompt’s appearance and exhausted from the long time in stationary contemplation. Had it really been twelve hours? I wondered at the seeming loss of time as I delved into my own inner workings. However, the time for introspection was over as a very bored Naea forced me into action once more. I had considered asking for a break but felt a little ridiculous. Despite the aches of my muscles, had I not just been resting? With the world outside potentially in the process of being destroyed, slowing my momentum was something I wanted to avoid.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

However, even after gaining two skills at once, the hours of hide-and-seek with an invisible fairy were tiresome enough that I decided I needed to get some sleep. The effect of my raised attributes were enough that I could push away the imperative for a while but I was getting grumpy. Not helped by Naea slapping the back of my head as hard as she could every time she found me in our game, or the fact I could never do the same to her.

Even after all that, it was only upon levelling the Meditate skill to level two that I fell asleep. I shook my head free of the cobwebs of doubt. For a moment I had considered trying to find a way not to sleep. There was probably a skill if I stayed awake for long enough, spending mana every so often. However, that was both cowardice and foolishness. These demons of mine needed to be faced by my subconscious as much as my waking mind. In the light of the never-ending day, it was tempting to forget how healing sleep was for the human psyche.

I would just have to deal with the shadows by shining brighter than they cast gloom.

I opened my Skill Window and grunted in contentment.

Skills

Mana Bolt (Level 2)

Common

Manasight (Level 1)

Common

Heavy Blow (Level 1)

Common

Sprint (Level 1)

Common

Meditate (Level 2)

Common

Stealth (Level 1)

Common

Tracking (Level 1)

Common

Skill - Meditate (Common)

This skill can take myriad expressions, and lead to varying effects because of it. The restful nature of your meditation leads to increased mana regeneration.

Skill - Stealth (Common)

A common tool for most beings in creation, but slowly refined in your hands. Unlike a one-time crook, you have begun to see stealth for the art form it is.

Skill - Tracking (Common)

A hunter is nothing without prey, and the game is not simple. Your eyes have begun to see the signs of your quarry when you know what to look for.

“Are you done?” I asked a still giggling Naea. The sound of my voice set her off again, so I just walked over to a flat area in the grass and had a breakfast of vending machine snacks and a can of soda. It wasn’t great nutritionally but I figured I had been healthy enough that I could cut a few corners. After a few more playful jabs, she calmed down, still tittering to herself quietly as I ate. It was hard to be genuinely upset with her after she had helped me so much. The fact she reminded me of family was a boon in that regard.

“Feeling ready to take on the world?” Naea asked, to which I nodded while making it clear I wasn’t certain. “Good! Good, aren’t you so brave?” The fairy vanished, her invisibility activating. I tracked the subtle movement of mana instinctively and followed her movement, slapping her backwards as she rushed at me. “Very good!”

Sensing an angle, I frowned. “What’s going on?” I didn’t like where this was going.

“Easy! If you want to leave this grassland and go hunting those beasties in the dungeon, you’re going to have to go through me!” Naea floated proudly in the air before me, fists on her hips in a pose which could be considered heroic in some lights. To me, she looked like a defiant plastic doll, but I said nothing. Instead, I got into a running stance. Naea smiled, but laughed no more.

Testing the waters of this challenge, I activated Sprint at its lowest level and took off. I was partially testing the rules of Naea’s game but I was also confident she couldn’t actually stop me if I went all out. That notion was quickly disavowed as I found myself flying through the air with a pebble sized bruise already forming from her zooming tackle. Caught in the chest while mid-stride, I couldn’t even change my centre of gravity before getting launched.

I landed and coughed up blood. A shaky look at my health total said she had ripped away five points with that blow. “Fucking ouch,” I complained. In my eyes, the impetus for this task was on me, so when the second attack came my way I was even less prepared than the first. Like a bullet and a speeding car all in one, Naea crashed into the spot I had just been laying from above. “Hey! Are you trying to kill me?”

Poking her head out of the small crater she had created, Naea just smiled at me. Then she disappeared again, except none of this was magical. It was pure speed, and my eyes simply couldn’t keep up. A fearful instinct screamed at me to move, so I did, jumping to my left in a panic. Somewhere deeper, both from my magical core and my own soul, another instinct demanded retaliation.

Manasight. Tracking. Sprint. Heavy Blow.

The cost of using multiple skills at once was prohibitive but valuable if used right. The first pair were combined to find the impossibly fast fairy’s trajectory. I didn’t actually believe she was trying to end my life, but she must have had a lot of faith that I would avoid her attack. She was moving so fast I wouldn’t be surprised if she actually ripped through me completely. Except it was almost all in a straight line, which meant I could read it.

There was a surprised look on her face as I matched speed for a single instant by overcharging Sprint, leaping backwards as she passed by me. My fist was already moving through the air by the time she looked forward again and I could have sworn I heard her sigh before it landed. The impact was shocking, though not enough to break any bones this time. I flinched, worried I had hurt Naea more than I meant to. I just wanted to stun her a little and complete the task.

“That’s more like it!” A cheerful irish voice called out from the dust cloud her impact had kicked up. “Alright, maybe you can survive this place. Fair warning, Grant. It’s going to be a lot harder to hit me next time.”

This, I thought to myself unhappily, is going to be a long day.