The following morning, Saffie was so eager to get back to the guild to continue her training that she didn’t feel hungry for breakfast at all, but her mum insisted that she eat something before meeting Beatrix, and made her a bowl of granola.

“Holly, look at this!” Peter said through a mouthful of marmalade toast. “There’s a quadcopter on sale at John Lewis!”

He slid the brochure he had been reading across the kitchen table, and Holly glared at it.

“We are NOT getting a bloody helicopter!” she snapped.

“A quadcopter, dear,” Peter corrected. “They’re all the rage in the aviation community these days. It fits two people, and with the right license, I could fly it around the city!”

Saffie’s dad had been an aviation enthusiast ever since Saffie could remember, and she had noticed that he’d been getting gradually more excited over the past few years about the increasingly viable prospect of actually flying something himself one day. Holly, on the other hand, had been getting gradually more frustrated with his hobby, and grimaced any time he mentioned it.

“You will NEVER get ME in one of those damned things,” Holly said, placing her index finger on the brochure and pushing it back to Peter with a sharp movement.

Peter’s eyes glinted at Saffie.

“How about a father-daughter flight around Hampstead Heath, hey Saffie? Oh come on, you don’t have to look so mortified.”

Saffie’s expression had nothing to do with her dad’s proposition. It was because a bizarre looking creature had just crawled out from behind his left ear and was now sitting on top of his bald head. Like an oversized caterpillar, it was green with bright blue spots, and was covered with little warts that looked fit to burst. Saffie had never seen anything like it in the real world, and her dad seemed utterly unaware of its presence.

It had to be in Overworld.

“Scan,” Saffie blurted out.

Peter narrowed his eyes.

“Excuse me, dear?” he said. “Scan what?”

It had come out like a reflex.

“Um…” said Saffie. She tried to think of something to explain it. Anything. “Scan… you know? As in… Saffie… can.”

“Saffie… can,” her dad repeated, his expression blank.

“If anyone can, Saffie can! SCAN! Wooo!” She knew it didn’t make any sense, but she hoped it was enough to put her parents off the scent that she was playing a video game.

She read the text that had appeared next to the creature.

Globbergrub

A poisonous pest that can cause severe vomiting if accidentally eaten.

Saffie guessed that defeating it would probably only provide her with a minuscule amount of general experience, but it was there for the taking. Could she really afford to waste the opportunity when she was so desperate to reach the experience levels she needed to be able to perform the counterspell on Dax?

“Saffie, stop staring at your father like that,” said Holly. “It’s rude.”

“Stay still, dad,” said Saffie, ignoring her mum and trying to think how she could kill the globbergrub. She couldn’t exactly use magic. If she said the word ‘fire’ or ‘ice,’ her parents would know without a doubt that she was playing a game.

She glanced around her, looking for a physical object she could use to crush the creature, and her eyes settled on her own feet.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

With a swift movement, she whipped off her left slipper and approached her dad.

“Honey, wh-what are you doing?” Peter stammered.

“Just stay still, dad,” said Saffie, raising the slipper slowly.

“Honey!” her dad said louder, his eyes criss-crossing as they focused on the slipper.

With a swoosh and a slap, Saffie thwacked the globbergrub, which squelched and spattered a load of green goo all over the walls.

“Aaaaagh!” her dad wailed, cradling his scalp in his palms. “What the blighters are you doing?!”

“Sorry dad!” said Saffie. “There was a… mosquito on your head!”

“A mosquito?!” Peter cried. “We’re in Hampstead, not Honolulu!”

Saffie didn’t hang around to be questioned. She slurped the dregs of milk from her cereal bowl and ran up to her room to get dressed, leaving her parents staring after her in stunned silence.

Whatever experience she had gained, it had to be better than nothing.

When Saffie arrived at the guild, she saw Grand Mage Keith helping a young boy to grow flowers out of his hands, but she couldn’t see any sign of Ashmi. As a lily sprouted from one of the boy’s upturned palms, Keith patted him on the back and walked to meet Saffie halfway down the hall.

“Saffie, I’m afraid Ashmi had to attend to a group of guild members who got stuck chasing a loggerlout into a marsh,” he said, “but she tells me you’re quite the trainee.”

Saffie felt her face blush a little.

“In fact,” Keith continued, “she thinks you’re ready to undertake your first errand. I trust Ashmi’s judgement on these things, so if she thinks you’re ready, I believe you are ready.”

Saffie wasn’t sure if she was ready, but she was certainly eager to get out into the wider game and begin gaining some proper experience.

“Come with me,” said Keith, and led Saffie to a wide, ornate board that adorned the leftmost wall of the main hall.

Saffie didn’t know where to look as there was so much text, but Keith mercifully directed her attention to a column on the far left which was labelled:

Apprentice Errands

Underneath were dozens of requests including:

Defeat three ridgedback rotters using ice magic.

Locate five hidden runes using reveal magic.

Make four saplingsoot seeds sprout using grow magic.

Destroy six creepervines using fire magic.

Saffie noticed there was one at the bottom which looked like it had been scribbled on with a biro:

Get ryd of a WicKerwisp from my GARDEN wiv ANY maGic. URGeNTe.

“I don’t usually allow members of the guild to create their own errands,” said Keith, “but Mrs Turtletop threatened to bludgeon me with one of her prize winning turnips if I didn’t help her find someone to get rid of the pest. I’ve never been the biggest fan of turnips.”

Underneath this, there were 3 errands illuminated with a green glow. Each of them had a name next to them:

ACTIVE: Bind four scallyrags using bind magic. (Philip Peters)

ACTIVE: Destroy a loft lurker using physical magic. (Hanh Nguyen)

ACTIVE: Conjure a crate of crab apples using illusion magic. (Sanjeev Singh)

As Saffie scanned them, a tick etched itself next to the bottom one, then the listing disappeared completely.

“Ah, Sanjeev, my boy!” said the Grand Mage, beaming. “Didn’t think he had it in him. The poor lad tried casting that spell over a hundred times last week, and the only thing he managed to do was turn his own feet into kippers. Ah, this one might be of interest to you, Saffie.”

Saffie looked at the one Keith was pointing to:

Calm three yip-yaps using the Placate spell.

“Yip-yaps?” said Saffie. “Are they some kind of dogs?” She was sure she’d heard her neighbour Alison call her chihuahua a yip-yap once when he wouldn’t stop barking at John the cat.

“Dogs!” Keith chuckled. “No, that would be quite the insult to dogs. Yip-yaps are devilish, demonic, and downright irritating little things, I can tell you. We had an infestation of them at the guild last winter. Trashed the potions store and pulled all of our Christmas crackers. By the way, if you’d like more details about the errand, all you need to do is tap it.”

Saffie pressed the tip of her index finger to the text, and a bunch more appeared in a floating box to the right of it.

Three yip-yaps are running amok in Trafalgar Square, causing chaos and dismay for players. If you can stop their reign of chaos by placating them, you will gain experience in the following areas:

General Magic

Mind Magic

“Not bad for an Apprentice Errand,” said Keith, raising his eyebrows. “And it’s exactly the kind of experience you need towards gaining access to Unburdened Mind. But I warn you - yip-yaps can be tricky to catch.”

Saffie didn’t need any time to consider it.

“I want to accept,” she said, feeling adrenaline flood her body at the thought of getting her first proper dose of experience.

“Excellent!” Keith chirped. “Simply place your forefinger to the text and hold it down for three seconds.”

Saffie did so, and watched ‘Attack of the yip-yaps’ change to:

ACTIVE: Attack of the yip-yaps (Sapphire Sparkes)

As the text glowed green and slid downwards to join the other active errands, Keith wished Saffie good luck, and went to help a guy who had trapped his arm in what looked like a block of cement.

Saffie turned to Acorn, who was trembling with excitement on her left shoulder, and she grinned.

It was time to hit Trafalgar Square.