It felt strange, wandering around on my own after spending so long in the constant company of my three companions, but after Brick left me at the edge of the university grounds I was on my own again.

No time limit, plenty of cinnamon rolls and gold in my satchel, and a map and prospectus to help me navigate my way. I would return to The Postman’s Keg when ready, but Brick had informed me of what was to be expected and that I was welcome to stay in the student accommodation if I preferred.

I couldn’t imagine wanting to sleep in a strange place all on my own, though. This world was strange enough without adding anything else into the mix.

I got a few curious looks as I wandered about, but expected that was due to my long, curly horns more than anything else. Succubi were rare in the world since the Necromancer Wars, but Brick promised me my species were more desirable than orcs so I shouldn’t have any problems with exclusion.

I could do without the leering, though.

I found the enrolment office, but I hadn’t decided on my courses of choice yet, so kept walking until I found a picturesque garden courtyard. The garden beyond seemed to be like one of those elaborate labyrinths made from low hedges, but when I got closer, I realized it was made of stone that was painted green.

This world was filled with odd things like this. I wondered if it was one of those random little plot holes I kept coming across, like the regenerating dire-wolf quests and the peasant women who seemed to have no life outside of their homes and spent their existence perpetually sweeping. Maybe the hedges in this world were artificial because they had to stay tidy, but James hadn’t bothered to write in any gardeners.

And yet, he’d taken the time to write in racism. If I ever found him again, I was going to seriously hit him.

I took a seat on a stone bench and placed my prospectus on my knees, ready to pick out a major for my degree. It sounded a lot less laborious than studying in the real world. Pay your fees, go to a few classes, read a few books and master a few skills and then BAM! Intelligence increase! It should take me a few weeks to max out my stats.

I retrieved my Adorkable Glasses from my satchel and put them on, feeling the subtle shift as they increased my intelligence by two points and reduced my charisma by one. At 5/20 intelligence I couldn’t even read. At 7/20 I could only just understand the basics and learn a single spell. I’d chosen the ability to put people to sleep, but I would think carefully before selecting my next one when my next spell slot was unlocked. There was a whole library here to choose from, after all.

“Hey good-looking, I haven’t seen you here before.”

I looked up at the human who had approached me, realizing with a start that I’d spent so long in this world I’d identified him as a human. Ugh, even if I did get back to my original world one day, I don’t think I’d be able to adjust back after spending so much time with other fantasy races. Green skin or extra fur had become totally normal to me.

The man in front of me was tall and lean with long dark hair and a sultry look on his face. He was an attractive enough guy, but his swagger was a bit over pronounced. If I’d met him back before I started dating James, I might have gone out with him for a drink at the very least.

“I’m new,” I said, quirking my eyebrow.

“I bet you are,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows at me suggestively. “Want some help? Or better yet, want to come back to my room and we can get to know each other better?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “No thanks.”

“What?” he said, sounding surprised. “That should have worked.”

“Not today,” I said, unimpressed.

“This thing must not be on properly,” the man muttered, raising his hands to his head to adjust a circlet-style crown that was nestled in his shaggy hair. “What about now?”

“Um, still no,” I said, stifling a laugh. He looked ridiculous.

“You’re only embarrassing yourself,” another voice drawled behind me, sounding bored. “Even with all your accessories, a succubus’ base charisma would be far superior to your own. You’ll never be able to seduce her.”

The man in front of me cursed and kicked the ground sullenly.

“Is that what he was trying to do?” I couldn’t help but laugh then. I mean, I couldn’t deride him too much when my own pick-up lines were also super corny, but he didn’t know that. And it hardly mattered in this world where statistics seemed to matter more than smooth words.

I turned to look at the new person who had joined me in the courtyard, but when I saw him, he took my breath away.

I felt my jaw drop at his intense beauty. He looked almost too perfect to exist, like some kind of airbrushed cover model for an emo band. He looked like the kind of guy you’d buy a cardboard cut-out of and practice kissing when the curtains were shut.

His silky black hair framed a long alabaster face that was too pale to be natural. His lips were thin and downturned, and his features were slightly slanted in line with his pointed ears, but without that pinched look that the wood elves had.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

He must be an elf. A dark elf.

“Besides, can’t you tell this is the one Bonaparte sent us message of? I am correct, aren’t I?” He looked over me with an intensely curious but haughty stare. “Or is there another succubus running about campus?”

“You’re Nightfall,” I whispered. “Aren’t you?”

I suddenly understood why Brick and Bruiser felt it necessary to give me permission to jump into bed with him. If I wasn’t already seeing two other guys and had less self-control, I might be dragging him behind the concrete bushes already.

If I hadn’t gained control of my pheromones, I might not even have a choice about it. At my lowest levels I’d tended to burst out pheromone puffs when turned on whether I wanted to or not. It was exactly the reason I’d gotten into trouble with Bruiser when I’d met him, although that was exacerbated by the bear-shifter’s sensitive nose.

“Correct,” Nightfall said, his eyes lingering on me for a moment. “And this is Jackal.”

My dreams of meeting a human ranger like Aragorn fell apart in front of me. Jackal was sulky and angry looking, and intensely bad at flirting. Thinking about Nightfall’s comment regarding accessories I noticed he was wearing several rings, and a bangle in addition to the golden circlet on his head. I guessed they were stat boosting accessories like my Adorkable Glasses but targeting charisma.

He was kind of cute, but nothing like the competent, manly, and sensitive Aragorn.

“What’s your charisma?” Jackal demanded, confirming my guess.

“Don’t answer that,” Nightfall advised me. “He’ll only go waste his money and come back to try again. If you need assistance with your application, I can help. Jackal, you’re no longer needed. I will conclude my research at another time.”

Jackal swore, gave Nightfall a rude gesture and stormed off without another look at me.

“You’ll have to forgive him,” Nightfall began, then thought better of it. “Well, you don’t really, but you’ll have to put up with him. He’s particularly bad with women, but that doesn’t stop him trying. The accessories have been the best attempt yet, but those only really work on humans and wood elves, for the most part. I’m sure they would work on an orc as well, of course, but I don’t think he’s quite that desperate yet.”

“What research are you doing with him?” I asked, trying not to let his snide comment about orcs get to me, but he snorted – or made the prettiest approximation of a snort I’d ever heard – in derision.

“I’m not doing any research with him. He is my test subject.”

I paused at that. Brick and Bruiser had trusted these two. They were on a team together, had gone through thick and thin and had proved their characters to each other… but that didn’t really vouch for how they were to act with me. Brick hadn’t expected Bruiser to attack me when I first met him either, and I doubted he would have expected the exchange I’d just had with Jackal, or he would have warned me.

Which posed the question about Nightfall: Could I trust him?

“Come with me,” he gestured for me to follow. “We will be less exposed in the library. You can ask me any questions about your courses of interest.”

“Have you done many?” I asked, following him out of the courtyard cautiously and back down one of the many hallways. This place was like a beautiful maze, but it was going to be a total headache to navigate.

“I’ve dabbled in some, although I’ve not completed them,” Nightfall said. “The answers I seek are not in the confines of a course or known knowledge.”

“So, you’re… a drop out? Like Bastion?”

He gave me a sour look that told me I’d greatly insulted him.

“I am nothing like that drunken wood-elf,” he seethed. “And if you would like my assistance, I would kindly ask that you do not insinuate such reprehensible thoughts again. I’m only doing this to repay a debt to Bruiser. Believe me, there’s about a thousand other things I could be doing.”

“Sorry,” I held my hands up to show I’d play nice.

“Now, you are a Healer, correct? Is that the path of study you would like to pursue?”

“Actually, I’d like to max out my intelligence, so easiest courses first!” I grinned at him. “Then I can get rid of these dumb glasses. Or actually, if I was 20/20 and wore these, would I get to 22/20? Can you go past your max stat?”

Nightfall’s expression shifted to one of deep confusion. “You want to what?”

“Well, I’d kind of like to do something like potion making eventually, but it doesn’t have to be the first thing I do. What’s the easiest course here?”

He grasped my hand and I inhaled sharply at the icy feeling of his skin. There were cold hands, and then there were Nightfall’s hands. It felt like he was sucking the very warmth out of me through his skin.

He pulled me into the library, finding a quiet alcove and indicated a chair for me to sit in. I sat, rubbing my hands to stimulate blood-flow and make them warm up again, and he crossed his arms and stared at me appraisingly.

“People don’t do that. They come here, achieve their degrees and then they… go,” Nightfall said slowly, like he was stating a universal truth. He looked at me as thought I’d said something utterly ridiculous.

“It’s not like I’m saying the moon is made of cheese,” I rolled my eyes at him. “Besides, there’s no maximum number of courses you can undertake right? There’s nothing really stopping you enrolling in all the courses, other than having to pay the gold to do them.”

“No,” Nightfall said thoughtfully. “There’s nothing to stop you achieving that, technically speaking.”

“Then it seems like a pretty obvious loophole to exploit. Free max stats. Yay.”

“Why have I never thought of that?” Nightfall muttered, his frown deepening.

“Bruiser and Brick say I have a natural talent at finding the absurdities of this world,” I shrugged. It was probably too early to dump the truth bomb on him that he was a fictional character in a world my old-world boyfriend made up. And that James was an average writer at best.

“I’ve been so blinded by my own ambitions, my own goals, that I never saw the truth in front of me,” he said under his breath. I couldn’t be sure unless I checked my experience log, but I was pretty sure I just got some points for my Persuasion ability.

“You’re welcome,” I said, despite the fact he hadn’t actually thanked me.

He snatched my prospectus and flipped through it, his eyes rapidly looking over the courses. “I’ve already partially completed many of these. If I prioritized this, when I complete it, my research would go so much faster, I might even make that breakthrough I’ve been needing.”

“Here,” he slammed the prospectus down in front of me. “Do your major in Healing, and your minor in Potion Making. Your natural abilities will help you succeed quickly. We will be classmates and move on to the next course together when we are done.”

“You want to study Healing too?” I asked.

“I completed the first part of the course, but I was only interested in anatomy. It will not take me much extra time to repeat. The actual healing components were beyond the scope of my research.”

“What are you researching?” I asked.

“When the time is right, I will tell you,” Nightfall said, his gaze lingering on me a little too intently for my liking. “As a succubus, you might be particularly useful, if you are willing.”

“What, are you want me to make out with you or something?” I asked suspiciously. “If that’s the case, your pickup lines are as bad as Jackal’s.”

Nightfall smirked at me. “I had your life magic in mind, not your body.”

“Oh. Right.”

I wasn’t sure if that was much better, considering where my slime was produced.