“What is your biggest weakness?”
Jordan just blinked. Weakness? “Uh, I guess I’m no good at physical confrontation.” she finally replied to the huge dragon lady. She wasn’t a huge video game player, but she had recently become obsessed with a creature collecting game.
What the dragon had explained sounded a lot like when her friends talked the mambo jumbo about advanced strats and training strategies. She wasn’t that into it yet. She was what you might refer to as a noob.
Jordan stood in the darkness of the void, unable to see anything except darkness and the dragon. This was the weirdest thing that had ever happened to her. One thing she was shopping in the mall with her friends, and the next she was standing in the darkness talking to a dragon.
It was in her nature to go with the flow, so she was following along with the instructions of the ginormous dragon. “What now?”
“Now you will choose your class. A class determines what abilities you will gain.”
“OK, so like a type?”
“Comparable.”
Three pedestals rose like modeling platforms from the darkness in front of Jordan. Different versions of her in wildly different outfits and poses appeared on each of the three platforms. “Is this really me?”
The first Jordan standing on her platform was a dazzling version of herself in multicolored robes and a tiara with four elemental jewels. There was a plaque at the bottom. Jordan had no idea what that was.
Elementalist
“What’s this mean?” Jordan pointed at the plaque.
“It’s the name of the class, a representation of your abilities. If you focus on the plaque as you’ve been doing, you’ll see the details for yourself.”
“Why can’t you just tell me everything? It’s waay easier!
No response. Fine!
Jordan stared at the name Elementalist until a box popped up with more details.
Elementalist
Air. Water. Earth. Fire. The four elements are at your disposal. Elementalists have access to multi-element spells and gain resistances to the elements.
That made enough sense. She’d played her game long enough to know that there were certain type advantages she could use to get ahead. Water beats fire. Fire beats plants. Easy peasy, she thought. It reminded her of a cartoon she’d watched growing up where they controlled the elements in epic battles.
The next version of herself was wearing all black, with a ninja-like mask covering half her face, nose, and mouth. She was carrying a longbow. The plaque at the bottom read;
Shadow Ranger
“Uh, no thanks. It’s so… boring. There’s no way I’m going out in public dressed like that.” Jordan moved to the next platform. It was her dressed more like she was now, like she’d just got ready for yoga. There were adorable, small creatures surrounding her.
Summoner
Make pacts with and summon creatures to fight for you and defend you for a negotiable cost of mana and or stamina.
“Wait, I have to like, pay creatures to fight for me? What the heck is that? I can’t just, like, carry them around in balls and they just do everything I want?” It sounded a lot harder than her game.
“These are my only choices?”
“Yes, you must select one of the three to proceeeeed to the next step.”
Jordan paused at the long pronunciation but didn’t say anything. Weird much? She stepped onto the modeling platform with the version of herself decked out in multicolored robes and a tiara with gems representing the basic elements: Air, Water, Earth, and Fire. Her status screen flipped open and she stared at her new stats. She understood the basics.
Jordan Lockhart (Level 1)
Elementalist
Health [10] 2d4 (max at level 1) + POW MOD each level (min 1), + total level)
Mana [20] 2d8 (Magic)
Stamina [15] 2d6 (spirit)
Power +1
Spirit +2
Mind +2
Magic +3
Luck +3
Traits
Force of Nature - When you cast different elemental spells in quick succession (less than 20 seconds apart), the effects are increased by 50%.
Elemental Resistance - You are immune to changes in the air (pressure, temperature, visibility) and water, and take half damage from fire. You are unimpeded by any type of earthen terrain.
Talents
Choose Talent
Choose Talent
Bzzzzt. The crackling electrical sound made Jordan jump away from her thoughts. “J-J-Jordan. You must…”
“What?” She felt a cold sensation around her. A clear translucent bubble that surrounded her began to crack. The dragon was flickering in and out of view like a glitchy video.
It felt like all the warmth was starting to leave her body. The cracks of the protective bubble expanded and shattered and she was embraced by the cold vacuum of the void. It was sucking the life out of her.
“J-J-Jordan, the dragon vanished.
On the right side of her screen there were bars and icons. And words. She could read that she was taking damage from something. The void?
Jordan Lockhart (Level 1)
Elementalist
[ 10 ]
[ 20 ]
[ 15 ]
Jordan takes 4 points of void damage from the void!
[Status]
[Inventory]
[Party Options]
[Quests]
“Hey! Hey!” Jordan fell to her knees. Another 3 points of damage. She could barely breathe. “Come back!”
Jordan takes 3 points of void damage from the void!
Dragonpulse activates Void Warp on Jordan!
You have received a quest!
You have received a quest!
Jordan slumped against the wall of the mall. She was cold. Colder than she’d ever been in her life. It wasn’t a normal cold. She screamed when she looked up. Her two friends were standing as they had been when they were shopping. Now they were frozen statuettes. Their skin glistened blue and icicles hung from their limbs.
Glass, ice, and snow littered the floor of the mall now. Howling winds threatened to tear the building from its very foundation. What happened? Why was she ok? All this snow and ice and she was wearing a sundress. The dream thing?”
Jordan focused, as the dragon has shown her, on bringing up her menu. It worked. She could still see the icons in her vision. It wasn’t a hallucination. She brought up her status and re-read everything. Her eyes flickered over her Elemental Resistance skill. Immune to changes in the air. That meant cold, right? Right.
What was she supposed to do now? “Hey, dragon lady? Are you still here? What does this Choose Talent mean?” Jordan waited before answering herself. “She’d just tell me to focus on it.”
And she did. A prompt appeared in her vision with three boxes.
“Choose a talent from the following list,” she read aloud. “OK.” Three boxes hovered in front of her on the prompt. She focused on each of them in order.
Conjure Elemental, magic, continuous
Create a minor air, water, earth, or fire elemental. Can be cast as if one rank higher if natural resources matching the spell’s type can be found nearby.
Elemental Blast, magic, ranged
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A blast of elemental energy that can be formed of fire, water, earth, or wind. Deals 4 - 11 damage to one target within 15 meters. 3 mana
Element Shield, magic, self
Conjure your mana into a shield of elemental force. When blocking the same type of element with an element shield, durability is doubled.
“Conjure sounds a lot like summon,” she remarked. She took it. Pets! Battle pets? Of all the times she’d made fun of people for their video game nerdiness and now she was the one stuck using video game knowledge to solve her problems.
Element Wall, magic, ranged
Create a wall of air, water, earth, or fire element. Can be cast as if one rank higher if natural resources matching the elementtype can be found nearby. You can create a wall 5 meters long by 2 meters high.
Mana Conversion, magic, self
You can convert stamina to mana at a ratio of 3 stamina to 1 mana. You regain 1 mana per second when active.
Explosion, magic, ranged
Create a magical explosion within 20 meters of air, water, earth, or fire. Creatures within 2 meters of the detonation take 5 - 9 damage. 4 mana
Jordan stared at them. She wasn’t this level of gamer! Ratios and math weren’t her specialities. She sighed. Offensive moves hadn’t steered her wrong yet. She picked Explosion.
Congratulations!
You have completed the tutorial!
Arcanist Tiara added to inventory!
Health Potion added to inventory!
Mana Potion (2) added to inventory!
The prompt took her by surprise. She wasn’t going to get used to that.
“Inventory? Oh yeah, it was one of those app icons in my vision.” Jordan focused on the small bag icon in the lower right hand side of her vision. A translucent list popped up. All three items were in there. She remembered the wise words of the dragon. Focus on it.
The tiara appeared in her hand. The inventory list vanished. It worked! She was getting the hang of this focusing thing. She’d played VR tennis once, but this was on another level from that. No hand controllers to help. Jordan put the thing on and straightened it. Perfect.
The mana bar in the top right of her vision increased by 5 points, from 20 to 25. There was one more window she hadn’t checked out yet. She flipped open her quests and there were two of them. Defeat the Frostmaiden I and Gain your first level!
Defeat the Frostmaiden I
A powerful anomaly known as the Frost Maiden is going to destroy all humanoid life on Earth 669. You must join forces with others to fight back.
To Complete
One ally must join your party.
Rewards
200 experience
“My party? Like, my group of creatures? A person?” Jordan had too many questions, and no one to answer them. OK. Stop. Breathe. “We just do things until something good happens. We have these… talents?”
Jordan sat down at a table at the food court in the mall. She wiped the snow and focused. It was hard. Everywhere she looked there were people standing, frozen to the ground, going about their daily lives.
Conjure. Conjure. She thought about what she knew about Conjuring. “Circles? Do I need to draw a circle?” The talent didn’t say that. She just focused on it.
Minutes went by and she was no further ahead than when she started. The space between her hands felt emptier than when she’d started. She was starting to feel bloated. If only she could take this feeling and shove it in the empty spot, she thought.
It was a trickle at first, but without realizing it that space was beginning to fill up. Her mana bar dropped 10 points and flames engulfed the entire table she was sitting at. Jordan fell backwards out of her seat. Sitting on the table was a small burning orb the size of a baseball.
“What the fuck was that? Is that magic? That was awesome!” Jordan jumped to her feet. The light the orb was giving off was intense. The dreary mall was illuminated for the first time since she’d awoken. The light pushed the dull gray light away and revealed the splendor beneath the frost. It wasn’t actually that glamorous.
The orb uncurled into a small creature that looked like a miniature version of the dragon she’d met earlier. It was just made of fire.
“Hi there little guy!” Jordan squatted down face to face with the creature. It purred and nuzzled against her cheek. It was a soft warmth that didn’t burn her. “You’re my friend for the next hour, right? Can you fly or something?”
The small dragon soared off the table and into the air. It did three circles around the table before landing with a hiss in a pile of snow.
“Can you look around the mall for anyone who can help us?”
The small fire elemental nodded. It blasted off the table with an explosive launch, sending ice and debris scattering through the air.
She was alone again, sitting at the table staring at all the frozen people. Her mana was recharging incredibly slowly. Ten minutes and she’d gotten 1 back.
Jordan was re-reading her skills for the hundredth time when she heard a crash from the floor below hers. A light shot across the wall and was being chased by a huge cat. The biggest cat she’d seen in her life. It looked like Mr Whiskers, the friendly mall cat.
“Hey! Kick its ass! Use Flamethrower!”
The small elemental skidded across the floor. Its back flames scorched hotter and brighter to stabilize. It opened its mouth and unleashed a long gout of fire that singed the entire left side of the beast. It hissed and shrunk away, tail up, back arched.
“What absolute bat shit crazy shit is that!” Jordan’s heart was racing.
They leapt to her floor in one powerful leap. She would have been impressed if it were friendly. “Bad kitty. You’re being a very naughty kitty!”
Jordan was backing into one of the clothing shops. “Do the flamethrower again!”
The small elemental rocketed towards the cat. The creature swapped the small ball of fire out of the air and ate it.
“Oh no. That’s not good,” Jordan backed up as the cat came closer. She realized she could only do one more summon. What if… she had a source of the right element?
Jordan pulled a lighter from the frost cashier counter and lit one of the nearby racks of clothing on fire. The massive feline was approaching cautiously, eyes flicking between Jordan and the automatic door. It swiped once at the door, catching part of it and ripping it away. It wouldn’t be afraid for much longer.
She lit two more racks ablaze before Mr Whiskers ripped the second door off its automatic rails. No longer threatened, the cat moved in. The smoke assaulted it but it swiped anyway. Two racks were torn away. The fire began to spread.
Jordan clapped her hands together and focused. This was it. She thought about how she’d felt sitting at the table when she’d used her skill first. The feeling of the space between her hands filling up with whatever that odd swirling feeling in her gut was.
The fire coalesced and condensed. Her mana bar dropped from 16 to 6. The flames gathered into a single point between her hands and she threw it at Mr Whiskers.
The cat jumped backwards, dodging the expanding ball of fire. It didn’t look like a dragon this time. It was in the form of a large dog made of pure fire. Its fangs were picks of fire and it’s tail was a swoosh of embers.
“Uh, flamethrower?”
The fire dog opened its mouth and unleashed a swirling blast of fire straight at the cat. It dodged. He came for a swipe, getting a claw full of fire but reducing the size of the flaming dog to medium sized. “Hate to do this, but use Flamethrower again! Just keep doing it! And dodge!”
The dog shot from side to side, unleashing gouts of fire while dodging the cat’s swipes. The cat was equally skilled at dodging, but had substantially less range. Jordan didn’t have enough mana to wait more than an hour to finish this. She needed to save her potions in case there was a stronger boss after this one.
She could still help. “Get ready,” She looked eye to eye with her summon. “Max power flamethrower on my mark.”
Jordan focused her mana, activating her Explosion skill for the first time. She was focusing on the spot behind the counter of the phone store, where the cat was hiding. She’d force him out of hiding for her best boy flame doggo.
The glass exploded outward. Papers were instantly ignited and blown away, the walls cracked, and Mr Whiskers leapt out into the open with his butt on fire. This was it!
Flames engulfed the startled cat. A stream of swirling flames poured from the conjured elemental’s mouth. It created a tornado of flames that reached up and burned the third floor of the mall.
You have defeated Giant Mr Whiskers! You have received 400 (base 200 + 50% difficulty modifier) experience points!
You have gained level 2 in Elementalist! Open your Status to select a new skill!
You have earned Rank 2 in the Conjure Elemental skill! Your conjured elementals are stronger.
You have an unused Talent Point!
Jordan was sure that message meant the poor kitty was toast. The translucent script of battle text that she could see on the right side of her vision confirmed it. He’d taken a critical hit from the fire damage. She knew what that was! Epic!
“Who’s a good boy?” Jordan scratched his ear. The fire raged in the clothing store and there was nothing she was going to do about it. What could she do? Her mana… she realized had gone back up. She brought up her status to find another prompt awaiting her attention.
Congratulations on attaining level 2 in Arcanist!
Your health has increased by by 10 (2d4 + Power + Level)
Your mana has increased by 17 (2d8 + Magic + Level)
Your stamina has increased by 11 (2d6 + Spirit + Level)
Please choose a new skill from the following list!
Monster Lore
Arcana
Survival
The three were pretty straightforward. Monster Lore would allow her to see information about the creatures she encountered. Arcana would grant her the knowledge of magic and how it all worked. Survival would help her navigate hostile landscapes.
“Maybe if I knew what I was doing, I wouldn’t be in this mess.” She chose Arcana. It was instant. She didn’t have to think about it or focus on the selection at all. It gave her confidence. Getting the hand of this focusing thing!
A cool feeling overtook her mind, like chewing mint gum. Everything swirled around her like a blast of refreshing mountain spring water. Suddenly everything made sense. Her mana was a credit card, and spells were what she was spending it on. She could increase her credit via magical equipment and leveling up.
Magic was just cocktails. Mix the right juice in the right way, with the proper container and you’d have yourself a spell. Or a cocktail. Whatever. It made sense to her.
Next she focused on her Conjure Elemental talent. It was lit up and indicated she had something she could do with it. When she focused on it, a diagram of multiple intertwined triangles appeared. She had two choices to pick from: Increased duration of summons or increased strength. Jordan chose strength. She closed her menus and took stock of her situation.
The clothing store was at the peak of its blaze. Her Elemental Resistance skill was preventing the smoke from polluting the air she breathed. She could barely smell it unless she really wanted to.
Now that she had a better grasp on magic theory, she knew what to do. Cast a small elemental spell, chained with a different element for more power. Jordan would use the blaze to empower her conjuring spell. If she fine-tuned her fire mana with a little wind. Just a little, Then she could create a flying fire-element creature. She didn’t really know how she knew that.
She created a wind explosion in the center of the fire, then began to channel her next spell: Conjure Elemental. With the blaze, it would be increased from rank 2 to 3. With her talent point in Conjure Elemental, its strength would be increased by 50%, then 50% again with her Force of Nature skill.
Jordan lifted her arms, channeling her mana around the blaze. Her summons could have been stronger if she’d known sooner how this worked. She began to harness the blaze. The flames condensed. Jordan focused. The flames coalesced into a small ball between her fingertips.
She raised the ball above her head. It erupted into an outpour of flames around her. Soaring above was a much larger version of the dragon she’d originally summoned. It was the size of a small horse now.
With her new knowledge of how magic worked via her Arcana skill, Jordan crafted a small magic compass. It was the same as a regular compass, but the needle had to be magically charged. She knew how to do that now, so yeah.
She was going to find this magical anomaly and fuck it’s day up for messing with her life. The compass would lead her to powerful surges in magic, she just hoped she’d have enough mana to find somebody.
“Let’s go, Tinder.”The dragon bowed its head and she climbed aboard the flaming beast and blasted off, soaring into the night sky. She was headed east.