Despite very little sleep, Saffie was out of the house the next morning before her parents had even finished their breakfast, having given them a brief rundown of a plan to meet Beatrix and her posse for brunch in Barnsbury.
When she arrived at the Mage’s Guild, she found it a lot quieter than it had been the previous day, and realised that since it was now Monday, a lot of players would most likely be at their day jobs.
At the head of the main hall, Saffie could see Grand Mage Keith talking to someone. Saffie’s footsteps echoed as she walked the length of the hall to join them.
“Ah, I was just talking about you, Saffie!” Keith said as she approached. “I had no doubt you’d be here early, so I had everything prepared first thing. This is Ashmi, one of the guild’s finest mages, and your training partner for the day.”
Ashmi thrust out her hand and shook Saffie’s enthusiastically. She was a spritely young woman with a pink, pixie cut hairstyle, and the coolest robes Saffie had seen yet - fitted and embossed with a metallic pattern, they seemed closer in style to a suit of armour and a cape. At first, Saffie hadn’t noticed Ashmi’s panion, but then a mongoose-like creature with little wings scuttled out of her sleeve and sniffed Acorn.
“I won’t waste a moment more of your time,” said Keith. “I know you’re very eager to get started. Good luck.” With that, he strode into his office, leaving them to begin.
Saffie followed Ashmi to a training area in the northernmost corner of the main hall, next to a guy who was practicing the illusion of creating multiple copies of himself, and Ashmi cordoned off the area with a spell that created a thin blue barrier.
“Okay, panions to the side,” Ashmi said. “I’m not going to go easy on you. If you want to learn quickly, the best way is the hard way.” She turned away from Saffie. “Let me know when you’re ready,” she said as she walked.
“I’m read-” said Saffie, but before she could even finish her word, Ashmi spun and cast a fireball. Saffie dived out of the way, feeling her pulse quicken.
“Hmm,” Ashmi said with the hint of a smile. “You are ready. Okay, Saffie, what is the first thing you should always do in an Overworld confrontation?”
“Scan?” said Saffie, getting back to her feet. The now familiar neon blue line scanned Ashmi from head to toe.
Ashmi Varma (player)
Age: 32
Mage’s Guild Master
Panion: Shema
Ashmi clapped, nodding with respect.
“Very good, Saffie. Scanning an opponent is absolutely the first thing you should do, if you have the chance. Throwing random spells at an enemy and hoping for the best without scanning them first is never a good idea. Overworld can be quite vague in comparison to traditional role playing games. We don’t get to see specific stats like health points or levels, BUT - it usually does alert us to any particular strengths or weaknesses an opponent has. If you hurl a fireball at something that is immune to fire, you’ll have wasted precious mana, and if that enemy absorbs fire, you will have just given it extra health. Notice that I don’t have any strengths or weaknesses listed? That’s because I am not currently under any status ailment spells or feeling the effects of any kind of potion. So - now that you know this, you can make your decision on what you’d like to cast. Go ahead, throw something at me.”
With no status ailments affecting Ashmi, Saffie guessed she could pick any elemental spell she wanted, and it would do at least some kind of damage.
“Open spellbook,” she commanded.
“Mistake one,” said Ashmi. “Your spellbook has opened to the middle, am I right?”
Saffie looked at the open book that had appeared in front of her. It was sitting on the Defence Magic section, which looked like it was roughly in the centre.
“That’s… correct,” she said.
“It always does,” said Ashmi. “It defaults to this unless you instruct it to do something different. The last thing you want to be doing in battle is turning pages to find what you’re looking for.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Saffie remembered flicking through the pages during the battle with the growlem. It had cost her so much precious time that she had been pummelled by the growlem’s fist.
“Turn to… Water Magic?” Saffie ventured, and the pages whipped rapidly to the correct section.
A smile crept up one side of Ashmi’s mouth. “Okay, fire away,” she said.
After seeing all the spells listed in the Great Spellbook, Saffie’s personal spellbook looked extremely bare in comparison. There were just three water spells that she currently had access to.
Splash
A small water projectile.
Soak
A large burst of water, spanning a wide area.
Drench
An all encompassing, forceful whirlpool of water.
Saffie’s instinct was to cast a Drench, which she guessed had to be the most powerful of the lot, but she stopped herself before she did. Her blue mana bar was still a little depleted from her battle with the growlem, and she had played enough video games to know that the more powerful a spell was, the more mana it used up. If she cast the most powerful water spell she had access to right away, she would probably be left with very little mana for the rest of the fight. She decided to go for the middle one, and slammed the book shut.
“Soak,” she commanded, thrusting her arm out. A burst of water shot from her palm, heading straight for Ashmi’s chest.
“Lightning Strike,” Ashmi said, and wafted her hand in font of her with the casual ease of someone swatting away a fly. A yellow bolt struck the water projectile before it could hit her and frazzled it into a few tiny droplets that spattered across her grinning face.
“Did you notice how I used an offensive spell instead of a defensive spell?” she said. “I could have cast a Barrier, which would have protected me against all projectiles, but that would have only nullified around eighty percent of the damage. By using an offensive spell from water’s rival element, I was able to destroy the projectile and prevent any damage at all. It’s all about thinking outside of the box. And with that in mind, think fast.” Ashmi suddenly began swirling her arms, her hands catching fire. It was just like Saffie had done in Kensington Gardens. Ashmi was going to cast a Scorch.
Saffie assumed she needed an ice spell to counteract a fire spell.
“Open spellbook to Ice Magic!” she said hurriedly.
She scanned what was available as quickly as she could, but there were only two ice spells, and neither of them mentioned covering a wide area. Saffie’s Scorch had swallowed the entire growlem with fire, and he had been three times the size of her.
The base of Ashmi’s palms slammed together.
“Scorch!”
There was no time for Saffie to look at any more spells. She slammed the spellbook shut. She had to do something. Anything.
“Reflect!” Saffie squealed, thrusting her right arm out and covering her eyes with her left arm. She had no idea if that was the name of a spell, and if it was, if she even had access to it, never mind if she had to perform some kind of specific arm movement for it to work.
There was a deep whoomph and a pale mirror-like oval formed in front of her a split second before impact. The flames smacked into it and rebounded back at Ashmi.
Ashmi’s eyes widened as her own flames engulfed her and sent her stumbling backwards, crashing to the floor.
After a split second of disbelief that her desperate plan had worked, Saffie ran to Ashmi.
“I’m so sorry!” she gasped.
“Sorry?” Ashmi chuckled as the flames fizzled out. She sat up excitedly. “That was brilliant! You did just as I said and thought outside of the box. You’re an intelligent and intuitive girl, Saffie, you know that?”
When Ashmi had extinguished a rogue flame that had refused to go out on her left boot, they continued training for another three hours. During it, Saffie learned how to perform an Overworld Locator, which revealed everything that was in-game in a 100 yard radius, a Shield Breaker, which shattered any magical barrier, and an Absorb, which temporarily allowed her to flip the effects of an offensive projectile and make it replenish her health rather than deplete it. By the end of the session she was physically and mentally exhausted.
“Okay, one more bout,” said Ashmi, who was panting almost as much as Saffie was.
Saffie raised her sore right arm, readying to defend against whatever Ashmi was about to throw her way, but before Ashmi could even cast anything, Saffie felt a horrible churn in her stomach. It was a sensation she had only felt once before; as though something were being sucked out of her.
Saffie’s instinct was to glance upwards, but there was no-one up in the structure of the guild this time. She tried to ignore it, and turned back to Ashmi.
And then Saffie saw her.
Hidden in the shadows of the northwestern corner of the main hall was the girl who had been perched in the rafters the day before. Dressed head to toe in the same mysterious looking purple robe, her hood concealed her face, and an eerie violet glow was emanating from underneath it. Her arm was outstretched, pointing in Saffie’s direction, and her hand was locked in the the pose of a claw. With a sharp twist of the girl’s wrist, Saffie felt the suction in her stomach increase, wrenching her insides.
“Do you see h-” Saffie started, but she was hit by a Pulse spell from Ashmi that knocked her back, winding her.
“Never get distracted during a battle!” Ashmi warned.
Saffie ignored Ashmi, groaning and pointing in the direction of the strange figure, but once again, all that was left of her was a wisp of purple smoke.
“Someone was doing something to me,” Saffie said. “It has to be a player, it has to be.”
“George!” Ashmi snapped. “What have I told you about recklessness? Keep your spells to your own corner, we’re trying to train over here!”
“No… it wasn’t him,” said Saffie. “It was a girl in purple robes. She was standing right there and then she… vanished. The same happened yesterday.”
Ashmi raised an eyebrow.
“Purple robes?” she said. “I don’t know who that was, but I know every member of the Mage’s Guild, and none of them wear purple. Come on, I think it’s about time we head to the potions store to heal up.”
Saffie was so winded, all she could do was nod in agreement.