Max felt Meg’s hot breath on his neck, her hands caressing his skin. He let her fingers wander up and down his arm. The steamy washroom was only going to get steamier, and the boiling pot of washing clothes wasn’t the only thing that was hot in here. Meg was, too, and she was driving Max crazy.
He had always found it easy to be friends with girls back home, but it wasn’t so easy to get intimate with them. The sheepskin rug in front of the crackling fire was soft and inviting, though. Meg’s hands were soft, too, from spending so much time up to her elbows in hot, soapy water.
The rain falling outside was cold, the steamy cottage was hot and almost too comfortable. Max couldn’t stop his mind from wandering.
Who was that old guy anyway? he thought. The Mage was definitely powerful, but he knew nothing about him.
And then there was the Druid Anita—sexy hot, too, with all her tight leather hugging her toned body. Max definitely wanted to spend more time with her. But it was too easy to fall into Meg’s soft embrace, feeling her skin all around him.
A log on the fire crackled, sending a shower of sparks up the chimney on the rising smoke. Max felt Meg’s lips on the back of his neck and her chest pressed against his back, nothing but the thin fabric of her blouse between them. He could still see his stats window in the smoke, still grayed out and covered with the words that demanded his attention.
>
>
> Level up
>
>
Max had always been curious, and it had been that part of him that had first sent him climbing buildings and sneaking inside. No one ever locked upper story windows, never thinking someone would climb a sheer building, but Max had been driven by curiosity to sneak inside. It was how he had discovered his talent for climbing.
And now, curiosity was taking hold of him again, so much so that he couldn’t enjoy the soft caresses of the grateful farmer’s daughter. As much as it pained him, as much as he didn’t want to miss out on a night of pleasure, as much as he tried to convince himself to stay, he could not.
He had to ask Elderon for help. He needed to level up.
Max reluctantly stood up, gently grabbing Megs hands as she placed them gently on his bare chest.
“I wish I could stay, Meg,” he said, “but I cannot.”
Meg looked up at him, biting her lip.
“I need to find my companions. I have to head back to the Dancing Pig; they’ll be wondering where I’ve gotten to.”
Meg looked down at her feet, clearly disappointed. “Thank you for delivering my letter.” She looked up at him suggestively. “Stop by anytime, and we’ll get to know each other better.”
Max swallowed hard and stepped away, moving to where the young woman had discarded his coat, grabbing his shirt on the way. He reluctantly pulled the damp material over his head and put on the coat.
Meg looked at him hopefully while he dressed, but his mind was made up. Some things were more important than a night of passion, though he wasn’t one hundred percent sure this was one of them. With one last look at the gorgeous young lady, he walked to the door and stepped out and back into the rain.
A cold shower was just what he needed after the hot and steamy cottage and the soft touch of Meg.
Max walked between the tightly packed buildings on his way back to the Dancing Pig. The sky was dark, the rain falling heavily. His new boots were keeping his feet dry, and the new coat was keeping him warm, but he could not stay out in this rain for much longer, or he’d be soaked through again. He pressed on, head down, powering through the rain. He followed his instinct for finding the right direction and soon came to the Dancing Pig tavern. Down a side street, he saw a flash of red, as if a red sheet was flapping in the wind before racing away out of sight.
Max shook his head. The steam of Meg’s cottage with all the soap and herbs had gone to it. He took a deep breath of cold night air and stepped into the Dancing Pig.
Elderon and Anita were still at the table, chatting like old friends. Max wondered if either of them had noticed he’d gone.
“You have returned,” Elderon said as Max approached the table.
“I told you he’d be back, old friend,” Anita said. “He has an adventurer’s heart and a good spirit. An honest traveler will always aid his companions.”
“And he wants to know how to level up,” Elderon said.
“How?” Max stammered. “What?”
“You’ve got new boots,” Anita observed.
Max looked down. “Yes, they are not quite a pair of Timberlands, but they are good.”
“A pair of Timberlands?” Anita asked in confusion. “But there is only one Timberland. It is on the border of the Kingdom of Ragewind and the Kingdom of Deepwood. I know it well. That is the one and only Timberland anywhere in Eveirea.”
Max shook his head. Yeah, I’m definitely a long way from home.
Elderon stood up. “I have rented us a room upstairs. We can rest, and you can level up.”
The Mage walked toward the bar and then up the wooden stairs to an upper level.
The room Elderon had rented was dark with a low ceiling, but it was warm from the large fire downstairs. The thatch roof of the inn, just a few inches above Max’s head, was dry. The roof sloped down, and at the sides of the room, it was only two feet up from the floorboards. Three small single beds were tucked into the corners. A small window on the low wall at knee height showed Max the rain falling hard outside.
Elderon moved to the far end of the room where a small fire burned in a stone hearth. He leaned his staff against the end wall and unbuckled his sword belt before throwing off his Mage robes. The old Mage wore simple pants and a tight shirt, and Max was surprised at how fit he looked.
Max checked Elderon’s stats in the flickering flames of the small fire.
>
>
> Name: Elderon Whitesilver
>
> Class: Battle Mage
>
> Level: 15
>
> Health: Full
>
> Strength: 12
>
> Stamina: 14
>
> Agility: 12
>
> Intelligence: 18
>
> Wisdom: 14
>
> Charisma: 14
>
>
>
> Abilities: Unknown
>
>
“Come over here, Max,” Elderon said. He put two small chairs beside the fire and pointed Max to one.
“I am going to get some rest,” Anita said and sat on the edge of one of the little beds and took out a small book from the pouch hanging on her hip, then began flipping through the pages.
“I can see you are ready to level up, Max.” the old Mage said. “Once you gain enough experience, you are able to level up and develop your class.”
Max glanced over to far side of the room where Anita had stood up next to her bed and was looking out of the low window, her body silhouetted in the gloomy darkness at the far end of the room. She yawned, stretched, and then she began to disrobe. The thief couldn’t stop himself from staring as she unlaced her forearm defenders, slipped them off, and then she took off her upper body leathers and flung them over the small chair next to her bed. He could see her curves, outlined in the darkness. She unclipped her fighting skirt and dropped it to the floor, kicking it up and onto the seat of the chair. Her knee-high boots were the last to come off, leaving her standing in the dark completely naked, her back to Max, Elderon, and the crackling little fire.
She slipped under the covers in the small bed and appeared to fall instantly into a deep sleep.
“Max,” Elderon said.
Max shook his head then turned his attention back to the old Mage. He guessed Elderon knew he had been momentarily distracted, though the old man had clearly not been. The fact that Anita had not been concerned about stripping for bed in this small attic room indicated it was probably not the first time she had gotten naked in the old Mage’s presence.
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What a world this is!
“Sorry, Elderon,” Max finally said. “I think I drifted off. You were saying something about leveling up.”
The Mage fixed the young man with a knowing stare for a moment. Max looked back into Elderon’s deep, dark eyes, but he knew if he stared too long, he would become terrified by them. There was something about this Mage that was very dark. Max sensed he had known trouble and danger.
“The first thing you need to know is how to analyze yourself and the world around you,” Elderon said. “You can view your personal stats whenever you choose, and they will appear in the world around you.”
Max nodded. “Yeah, I’ve seen them in the branches of trees, the smoke rising from a fire. Whenever I think about them, they appear to me.”
“View them now,” Elderon said.
It wasn’t a friendly suggestion; it was an order, and there was something in that voice that told Max he should immediately comply. It wasn’t a threatening tone, simply a commanding one, and Max looked into the fire. The flames danced and flickered, and then the flames marked out the edge of his stats window. But the writing he had seen there before was hidden behind a gray fog and the gold shimmering words he’d seen before.
“The words ‘Level up’ block my stats window.”
“Good,” Elderon said. “You are ready to make your first level. Before you do, though, you have a decision to make. I checked your stats when we first met. You have some very strong stats in Agility, Charisma, and Intelligence. Use these natural talents to select a class that you will excel in.”
“I have seen Anita’s class,” Max said. “She’s a Druid, right? And you are a Battle Mage, but my stats said my class is currently none.”
“You choose a class when you level up for the first time.”
“What classes can I choose from?”
“There are so many, but it’s not worth looking at them all. Some classes just won’t work for you. It’s no use for someone with low Strength to choose a Warrior class because they will not be able to wield the most powerful Warrior class weaponry.”
“I’m a good climber,” Max said, “I have great Agility, and I also have the Sneak ability. It has proven quite valuable already.” He was about to tell the old Mage about his Pick Pocket ability, and that there was ten gold in his burlap sack that was evidence of that, but Max decided not to admit that to Elderon just yet.
“Sneak?” Elderon nodded. “That is truly a powerful natural ability, gained no doubt thanks to your high Agility, and it is exceptional that you can use it already before leveling up.” The Mage nodded, clearly impressed.
“Your chosen class must match your attributes and abilities if you want to get the most from them. See Anita there.” Elderon pointed at the sleeping Druid. He summoned her stats, and they appeared in the dark, shadowy folds of her bedcovers. “Anita has very high Wisdom. That is the most important attribute for a Druid. It lets her understand the natural world in an intuitive manner. She has other high attributes, too, and it makes her a very powerful Druid. She is already highly respected, and she will one day lead the Druid order once she has reached the highest levels of her class.”
Max studied her stats but couldn’t help looking beyond them to the sleeping Druid beauty. She stirred under her bedcovers, rolling onto her back and stretching her arms above her head. The covers clinging to her body but threatening to fall aside and reveal her nakedness at the slightest movement.
Elderon dismissed the stats table with a slight wave of his hand. A second wave of his hand moved the blanket upward over Anita’s body, tucking her in under the covers.
Max spotted the telltale shimmering heat haze around Elderon’s hands that told him the old Mage was using magic to move Anita’s blanket.
“And Anita is strong,” Elderon went on with hardly a pause. “Strong enough that she can use any weapon that her class will allow, though I know she favors the staff and sling. Her Wisdom and Charisma attributes are her greatest strengths, though, as a Druid. She can understand the world thanks to her high Wisdom, but she can also charm it and bend it to her will with her Charisma.”
Max certainly understood how charismatic Anita was. He knew he couldn’t stop thinking about her.
“You must choose wisely, Max,” Elderon said. “You have high Charisma.”
“Like Anita,” Max said. “Does that mean I should be a Druid?”
Elderon shook his head. “Your Wisdom is too low, my young friend.”
Max felt embarrassed and foolish having this old Mage tell him his Wisdom was low.
“A Druid and the other divine classes like Cleric and Monk—and Paladin to an extent—need high Wisdom for their divine spells to work. Anita draws her power from nature. Her Charisma and Wisdom mean she can draw much power from the world, and the world is happy to give to her as she has the interests of nature and the natural order in mind.”
“Divine spells?” Max said.
“There are two sources of magic in Eveirea,” Elderon said. “Divine, where Clerics and Druids draw their magic abilities. And then there is the arcane magic. Your high Intelligence means you could learn arcane spells. It takes a strong mind to hold the spells. And with your high Agility, you would be able to perform the intricate hand gestures required to bring forth the arcane spells, to bring them into the world and cast them with accuracy and speed.”
“Spells?” Max nodded thoughtfully. “Like when you move things?”
“That’s not very powerful magic.” Elderon smiled. “That’s a little party trick. I don’t need to memorize any spells or channel any magic to perform those little tricks. It’s an ability I’ve gained as I advanced in levels, like your ability to Sneak, but mine only came when I reached a high enough level. I can use it at will with only a short cooldown between uses.”
“Could you move yourself?” Max said. “Make yourself fly or make someone else fly?”
Elderon smiled. He took a small pipe out of his leather bag and packed it with a dark and pungent weed. He summoned a small flame between his finger and thumb and lit the pipe, puffing to get it burning brightly before letting the flame vanish.
“Another party trick,” the Mage said, continuing to smile. He smoked the pipe for a few moments before answering Max’s question. “No, I can’t fly. I can only move small things like a small rock or a blanket. I can use it to cause a distraction or to make life a little easier by bringing an object just out of reach a little closer. It’s handy, but it’s hardly going to win any battles.”
“Could you teach me how to do it?”
“Maybe, if you choose to be a Mage. Then I could help you discover a natural ability to move small inanimate objects.”
Max thought about how good it would be to levitate a stack of cash from behind a bank counter, stealing without anyone knowing, as the cash floated right to his open bag.
“You would make a good Mage,” Elderon said. “You would have access to some early spells like Disguise and Hide which would work well with your current abilities, as well as a simple magical shield to keep you safe from missile weapons, deflecting arrows or bullets.”
Max didn’t like the thought of anyone shooting arrows at him, shield or not.
“You can also learn to cast the Shimmer spell which creates flickering copies of yourself to confuse enemies. You can cast Know Item, letting you instantly analyze a new, mysterious item when you find treasure in a dark dungeon somewhere. I still use the Know Item spell a lot as there are many mysterious items hidden across Eveirea.”
Max thought it all sounded pretty boring.
“And Magic Missile, a powerful pulse of magic. It’s a basic Mage spell, one of the first available to Level One Mages.”
Max perked up, suddenly more interested in magic. “Magic Missile, you say. That sounds interesting.”
“But choosing a class must be done with care,” Elderon cautioned. “As I said before, your Strength is too low to wield heavy melee weapons, so a Warrior class would be a bad choice. You could become a Ranger and specialize as a Beast Master because your high Charisma would allow you to summon animals to come to your aid or even charm wild beasts. At very high levels, some Beast Masters can transform into beasts like a Bear or a wolf. I heard of a Beast Master from the continent of Scarfel, the continent west of Eveirea, who could transform into a Dragon, but that was in the last age of the world when magic was still young.”
Max had no idea what the last age of the world was, but being able to turn into a Dragon and fly would be amazing.
“If you chose the Ranger class, you would be limited in your choice of weapons. You could use a bow, but you’d be restricted to short bows because of your low Strength.”
“But I could turn into a Dragon?”
“Only at the highest level. You’d struggle to turn into a Badger at Level One, and you might never gain the ability to turn into anything fierce. But you would be able to track animals and people, and you would probably gain the special ability Know Herbs that would let you make potions of healing or other useful potions.”
Max didn’t think that sounded very exciting. He wasn’t much of a cook and didn’t like the idea of spending all day picking flowers. It might be fun in a video game, but this was real life. He dismissed the idea of becoming a Ranger.
“Or how about a Bard? You have high Charisma, essential for a Bard. You have good Agility, so you could easily learn to play musical instruments. A party of adventurers can gain a temporary skill boost from a Bard playing a good tune.”
Max thought about it for a moment. Being a Bard might be fun. He could get a gig in the Dancing Pig and then set off on a tour of this world after he saved up some money. He’d be able to claim all the best songs he’d ever heard and bring them to this world. He could be a rock star. All the girls would want him. He would have Meg the farmer’s daughter and her friends following him from one tavern to the next. He’d entertain them and then they would keep him company for the rest of the night. Yeah, Bard definitely sounded cool!
“But in a world where you can be anything, why not be the best you can be?” Elderon said, sensing the young man’s thoughts.
Max thought about his options as Elderon had explained them. He could become a Beast Master. Even if he couldn’t transform into a dragon, he could probably manage an eagle, and he’d be able to fly and see things from high above. Maybe he’d be a Bard if all he wanted was the attention of the girls. But Elderon was impressive with his special ability to move things and create fire at his fingertips. And Magic Missiles sounded cool.
At the end of the day, Max figured he could still get girls if he became a Mage, but he wouldn’t get magic if he became a Bard.
“Alright, I know what I’m going to choose. How do I do this?”
Elderon tapped out his pipe on the stone hearth and tucked it away. He looked at the younger man and spoke with a quiet yet powerful voice that held Max’s absolute attention. “You must focus on the words ‘level up’ and let it move toward you,” Elderon said. “As you have not chosen a class, you will be offered a choice. Remember what you have already decided. Do not let your mind wander to other choices at the last moment. Go ahead, now. Level up.”
Max looked at his stats. He let the gold letters move toward him. They moved slowly, at first, before speeding up, and then they were suddenly on him, surrounding him. Hundreds of words erupted from the golden letters of “level up.” The names of dozens of classes swirled around him, each with a different style of writing. Some were larger than others and shone in gold light. Some were smaller and silver or dull brown. The class names Barbarian and Berserker were the smallest, and their letters were written in dull rust colors. Although he could see them clearly, they were somehow out of reach. Others were closer, shining gold in huge letters. He found Mage and reached out to it with both hands.
>
>
> Max has leveled up.
>
>
>
> Name: Max Lightfoot
>
> Class: Mage
>
> Level: 1
>
> Health: Full
>
> Strength: 9
>
> Stamina: 16
>
> Agility: 18
>
> Intelligence: 17
>
> Wisdom: 12
>
> Charisma: 16
>
>
>
> Abilities:
>
> • Climb
>
> • Pick pocket
>
> • Sneak
>
>
The gold letters melted away, and Max stared at the stats screen flickering in the flames. He had chosen. He was now a Mage.
He noticed that his name had changed, too, and he was no longer Max Freeman. Instead, he was Max Lightfoot, the name Anita had given him. He nodded approvingly.
A feeling of fatigue suddenly washed over him, and he slumped back in the chair, his energy drained from the leveling up process. Or maybe it was just that a very long day was finally taking its toll. Either way, the act of leveling up was as exhilarating as it was exhausting. He felt Elderon guide him toward the bed but didn’t feel himself consciously moving.
“Rest now, Max,” Elderon said. “I will wake you soon. We have more to do before morning.”
Max collapsed onto the small bed, finding it surprisingly soft. He instantly fell into a deep sleep.