Fractals of shimmering mirrors glittered around Alex, piecing themselves into place one by one like a jigsaw puzzle. He floated in their midst, unable to move so much as an eyebrow. His reflection peered back at him from every direction, frozen in horror in a sea of black.
Color washed across the mirrors, splitting the darkness. The mirrors disappeared, melting into the background as a plain stone room took form around Alex. Solid ground formed beneath Alex’s feet. Control returned to him as the last of the mirrors vanished.
Alex glanced over his shoulder. The room had no door. It didn’t even have furniture. Aside from him, it was completely empty.
“Hello?” Alex called.
His voice didn’t even echo. There was no response, and there certainly wasn’t any sign of the promised Class Guide. A harrowing thought struck Alex and he swore under his breath.
I got scammed out of the Class Guide because I’m stuck in the Mirrorlands, didn’t I?
He waited for a few more seconds, the hope that he was wrong and that someone would show up to tell him what in the world was going on dwindling quickly. Finally, he sighed.
Always look on the bright side. Challenge is a good thing.
“Forget it. I’ll just do this myself. It does kind of take the fun out of something when someone tells you how to do it.” Alex rubbed his hands together. “How do I access my Spatial Mirror things? That seems to be what everything for my Class is tied up to.”
Alex tried picturing the messages that the System had been sending him, but nothing happened. He waved his hand in the air, trying to picture a large mirror appearing before him, half expecting that to meet equal success.
To his surprise, his fingers pressed against something cold. Alex latched onto it, pulling a silvery metal box the size of a deck of playing cards out from nothingness. Alex’s reflection looked back at him from it. The harder he focused on it, the less of himself he actually saw.
Tiny letters flashed across the back of the box, nearly making Alex drop it in surprise.
Alex Vaya [Human]
Class: Evoker [Mirrorlands]
Stage: Novice 1
Title Fragments:
[Mirrorlander]
Active Titles:
[Anomaly]
[1/5]
Soul Manifestation:
[Spatial Mirrors] (Novice 1)
Auxiliary Skills:
[Requiem to the King] (Novice 1)
Alex spent a minute looking through the letters on the box.
When he turned his attention to any of the skills, the descriptions expanded to the full ones that he’d seen when he’d first chosen the Class. There wasn’t a single mention of the Singularity Core that had gotten him his Auxiliary Skill anywhere in his status page. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not, but he couldn’t dwell on it.
The only thing that really surprised him in his status page was a lack of any actual stats. He’d been expecting a list of dungeons and dragons style values such as dexterity or constitution, but nothing of the sort seemed to be present.
That stuff doesn’t matter right now. I just need to figure out how to summon my first monster. I can figure out the other things later, assuming I don’t get my throat ripped out the moment I get booted out of this Class Guide thing.
Alex ran his finger along the box, searching for a seam. As if waiting for that very thought, the back of it popped open. He turned the box around, pushing the top up to reveal a single, glittering mirror in its center. A thin trim of purple metal ran around the edge of the mirror, and a swirl of dark energy spun at the mirror’s center, almost as if he were looking through a window into another dimension.
Gotcha.
Alex pulled the mirror free with two fingers and examined it closer. As soon as it was free of the box, letters shimmered to life across its surface.
Spatial Mirror
Stored Energy: System Gift – 1
Bonded Creature: None
“Well,” Alex said to himself, “There’s the free monster. I just need to figure out how to actually get it.”
He turned the mirror left and right, trying to get a better look at the swirling darkness in its center. No matter how he turned the mirror, it always seemed to peer back at him like some emotionless eye.
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Alex grimaced, then brushed his fingers against the surface of the mirror. It rippled in response, sending a faint tingle down his wrist. Alex yanked his hand back. Tiny waves passed over the surface of the mirror like a lake before going still again.
Narrowing his eyes, Alex touched the mirror again. Cool energy pressed back against his hand, gently pulling it in. This time, Alex didn’t resist.
Even though his hand was far too large to fit into the card-sized mirror, it still somehow plunged into it. Ice raced up Alex’s veins and through his shoulder, coiling around his heart. His fist closed around a crackling ball of static electricity.
It bucked, trying to slip free. Alex didn’t let it. He tightened his grip as the freezing sensation intensified.
The energy doesn’t do anything for me when it’s inside the mirror, which means my best bet is to pull it out.
The cold wound deeper into Alex’s body. His fingers felt like they were about to freeze off, but the energy finally stopped fighting against him and he felt it settle comfortably into his palm.
Alex yanked his hand back. For a moment, the mirror resisted him. Then, with a pop, it pulled free. As soon as the energy left the confines of the mirror, the freezing cold was banished.
What took its place was shooting pain. Alex let out a slew of curses and yanked his hand back. A mote of black and purple flame rose into the air, floating at eye level as it pulsated. Faint waves of force rolled off it, pushing Alex back.
It began to shimmer, motes of white light appearing around the energy and orbiting it at increasing speeds. The light intensified and Alex took a step back, raising a hand to cover his eyes and squinting.
Colors flashed at a rapid pace, moving through every color of the rainbow and then some. They grew brighter and brighter as they cycled past before finally snapping to a halt, frozen a dark blue.
A rush of wind swirled past him and buffeted his hair. There was a brilliant flash and a wave of heat slammed into Alex, nearly bowling him over. He managed to keep his footing under him and forced his eyes open, blinking furiously to see past the dots floating in his vision.
Standing before him, in a sea of fading purple and black dots, was a gaunt humanoid. It was just a little over four feet tall, with gangly limbs covered with stretched grey skin and a large maw. Shards of shimmering silver jutted out of it at odd angles, forming rough spikes along its back and claws at its fingertips.
The monster’s teeth, just like its claws, were rows of mismatching shards that had been shoved into a long, lipless mouth. Two motes of yellow light marked its eyes, which had no real shape beyond their glow.
Alex didn’t even dare to move. He’d been promised a monster, but he’d been expecting something like a giant fluffy dog with big teeth or something, not… whatever this demon was. But the longer he looked at it, the more excited Alex got.
Glass ground against itself as the monster worked its jaw, staring expectantly at him. One of its claws hung low enough that it actually touched the ground. It was sharp enough that it cut straight into the stone, passing through it like nothing.
The mirror in Alex’s hand warmed. It took a force of will just to tear his eyes away from the monster and look down. The writing upon its surface had changed.
Spatial Mirror
Stored Energy: None
Bonded Creature: Shardwalker (Novice 1)
That’s interesting. So this ugly little creature is my improved summon? It certainly looks scary. But… does that mean this creepy little guy is stronger than average? He’s just a Novice, same as me. Maybe he’s just rare. Rare is good.
Alex cleared his throat and looked back to the Shardwalker watching him expectantly. “Hello?”
The monster didn’t respond. Its claws twitched slightly, carving through the ground again.
“I’m Alex.”
The monster continued to stare.
Not much of a conversationalist, huh? For that matter, does this thing even have any thoughts?
“Can you do something if you understand me?”
As he was starting to get used to, the monster remained in place. Alex chewed his lower lip, then changed his strategy.
“Raise your hand.”
The monster lifted a hand into the air in a blur. Alex jumped back before he realized that the Shardwalker was just following his orders, not attacking him. He suddenly found himself glad that nobody else was there to see him stumble around.
It follows my orders, then. Doesn’t seem like it’s intelligent. Not yet, at least. That’s honestly a relief. I’m not sure how I’d feel about forcing an intelligent creature to do my bidding.
Alex held the card-sized mirror up and sent it a pointed look. “Can… you get back in this? Or are you just stuck walking around outside?”
No sooner than he had finished speaking did the Shardwalker vanish in a shimmer of light. The surface of the mirror in his hand changed, his reflection disappearing as the monster appeared in its place.
The Shardwalker stared out of the mirror at Alex, then sat down on the nothingness surrounding it. Alex carefully slid the card back into the box and snapped it shut. A loud crack echoed through the still room and Alex spun around, raising his hands defensively.
A gap ran along one of the walls, revealing an endless expanse of darkness outside his room – one that didn’t seem all that dissimilar from the one that the Shardwalker currently sat in. The room was falling apart.
Shit. I’m going to get pulled back to the Mirrorlands really soon. I need to get a hold of the rest of my Class. I’ve got my monster, so I just have to figure out how to summon it.
Alex snapped the box open and pulled the mirror back out of it. He held it before him, flipping the card so that the Shardwalker faced away from him. If the summoning just had the Shardwalker jump out of the card, he didn’t want it cutting him to ribbons on the way out.
“I’m going to call you Glint,” Alex proclaimed. “And I’d like a little help. Can you get out here?”
Not like it’ll actually work that way. I’ll probably have to do something special to summon Glint —
With the sound of shattering glass, a claw carved through the air in front of Alex. Glint pulled itself out from a tear in space, dropping to the ground. Light shimmered across the pieces of glass covering its body.
Despite his situation, a slight grin flickered across Alex’s face. He held the card up.
“I think you’re going to be a dude. Do you mind, Glint?”
Glint turned toward Alex and watched him mutely. He seemed to enjoy doing that, and that was just fine with Alex. Silence was the same as approval, after all.
“Looking forward to working with you then. I think we’re going to have quite a bit of fun together. Can you get back into the card?”
Glint vanished in a flash, reappearing within the Spatial Mirror. Alex studied it for a second, then tightened his grip. Maybe – just maybe – he actually had a chance of surviving this nightmare and making it back to the surface.
Another crack tore through the room, this time above him. Alex looked up at the crack. He stretched his arms above his head, then rolled his neck.
“Okay. Let’s do this, Glint.”
The thing that was watching me might have moved. I need to be ready the moment I get out of here.
Golden letters flashed through the air before Alex.
You have requested to leave the Class Guide. Are you prepared to return to the location you were at before it initiated? [Yes/No]
Alex reached out with his free hand and selected yes, keeping the other tightly wrapped around Glint’s card.
For the second time that day, the world shattered around him.
But, this time, Alex was ready for it.