Eventually, Sophia broke the brooding silence that had descended upon the pair in the aftermath of their encounter.
“You were in a tutorial with only a few other people, weren’t you Nick?”
“Yes,” he replied, caught off guard by her insight. “Actually. I was alone, although I shared my tutorial with several species of beasts. How could you tell?”
“Partially by how you look,” she ran her gaze across his body, then nodded appreciatively.
“Your level and attributes are clearly above average, judging from my own experiences. Not to mention all the modified gear. But the main reason I could tell was how you reacted to that rank bit of bullshit. Your indecision made it obvious that you hadn’t been forced to deal with that kind of scum before.”
“So, in your tutorial, robbery was common?” Nick asked gently, intuiting that this was a delicate subject from the tone of her voice.
“Robbery, assault, and… worse. There was fierce competition for reward chests, food, and other resources. A lot of people got hurt, some died…”
“I’m sorry.” Nick let the matter rest, changing the topic to something happier instead. “Thank you for saving me from that situation. I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I froze up when I realized that they weren’t going to back down. By the way, what was that wasp? It looked just like the ones we fought in the arena, and it seemed to obey your commands.”
“It was,” Sophia nodded. “At least in form. It’s the ability that came with my new class. The System let me trade in those bodies I harvested to acquire a summoning-based class along with this dagger.”
She unsheathed a finger-long black stinger mounted to a burnished bronze handle, then handed it over so that Nick could take a closer look. “It produces the same freezing venom as the wasps, although it takes a while to regenerate if I use it all. And you’re welcome. It’s nice to see a friendly face.”
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He gave the weapon an experimental heft, then gave it back to her.
Nick was intensely curious about Sophia’s summoning ability, along with her new class in general. But he sensed that she wasn’t ready to say anything more just yet, and he didn’t want to jettison the goodwill between them by asking too many probing questions too soon. Instead, he decided to share a bit about himself to help establish trust and improve their teamwork going forward.
“My new class is called a Kineticist. It’s a hybrid of melee and magic with a focus on swords and mid-ranged spells. My new trait is Force Adept. It provides a substantial power up to those mana darts you saw in the arena, although there are some significant tradeoffs as well. Going forward, all my spells will either use force mana, or something called pure mana, which is what my darts are made of. My new spell is piercing ray. It packs a punch but takes a while to cast and is a bit of a mana hog.”
Nick went on to explain how many of each spell he could cast how often, as well as his fledgling efforts to sense his mana pool and adjust the mana he put into each spell. He didn’t mention his new elixir or explain the ins and outs of his wand just yet, keeping a few of his cards hidden until they knew one another better, which he was sure Sophia was doing as well.
“Oh neat. You have another spell now. I can’t wait to see it.” Sophia looked genuinely excited by the prospect.
“I haven’t got to observe many yet. Everyone still had a basic class during my tutorial. I got separated from the others after climbing down into the bog when the blackmist first hit us. Which was fine by me, as I never want to see several of them again.” She frowned, then returned to the topic of Nick’s spell.
“Since we were kidnapped and dragged into this crazy, magic-drenched multiverse, I want to enjoy the special effects.” She laughed, the musical sound bringing a smile to his face.
“Thanks for letting me know about your powers. How about we pick up the pace and save the rest of this conversation until we make camp? Come Nick, Darkstone Tower awaits!”
Side-by-side, they continued their trek across the marsh. Comforted by the fact that, no matter what fate had in store for them next, they no longer had to face it alone.