Maya stocked up on Pet Food, which seemed to be a generic item which could feed anyone regardless of its type, before leaving the shop. She promptly gave several to Hunter and Snappy, who eagerly devoured them.

While her pets were eating, Maya checked Snappy's sheet in more detail. She was level 12, putting her well ahead of Hunter, but her health was only minimally higher than his, her magical nature making her less tanky than Maya had hoped for from a giant crab. But then, she also wasn't as giant as Maya might have preferred either.

With her main body perhaps a bit longer than Maya's forearm, she was definitely large, but probably better suited as a scout than a tank. Her attacks were slashes and stabs and lunges, all quickness and retreat, so she'd be more a sniper than a main fighter.

Maya supposed it made sense for pets to be support classes rather than primary fighters, but it was still a little annoying not to have anyone who could soak damage better than herself. It would all even out at higher levels, but she had to survive that long first.

"Well, no time like the present. Let's see what we can accomplish before my luck runs out."

They headed back to the Wilds, where Maya resumed her strategy of killing random bandits and the occasional vasp swarm, with noticeable ease at Snappy's inclusion. Hunter survived more often, though Snappy ended up being stabbed to death twice before Maya took a more active hand in directing her actions. She'd gotten so used to Hunter anticipating her commands and basically acting autonomously, it was easy to forget that Snappy had no training in fighting.

It took the rest of the evening and a lot more micromanaging, but by the time her luck dropped back down to -5 she'd begun to get a feel for Snappy's attack set and Snappy herself was starting to understand what Maya wanted from her. She was very smart, very quick, but also a good bit more independent than Hunter.

Snappy was less inclined to follow Maya's instructions blindly, and it took Maya an embarrassingly long time to realize that she had to basically debrief her crab at the end of each fight to explain what she should have done and why Maya believed it was best. Sometimes Snappy agreed, other times she waved her pincers in disagreement. Maya wished they had a better way to communicate than yes or no questions, some of which were too complicated for Snappy to even reply to, but it was better than nothing.

"Enough bandits for today," Maya said, checking her quest log. Today’s trickster quest was... oh yes. Damage her apartment building. Weird. Was vandalism a thing? Why was it a thing?

"Guess we're heading back to Kalyx."

She returned to the area of her apartment building, but stopped a few streets away to change her mask’s identity setting. Twinkle should do, the canary-feathered alternate persona she’d created for going undercover with Sevard. She then spent several minutes casing the place, trying to spot any guards or watchers who might complicate matters or turn the town hostile, but found no one in evidence.

"Snappy, could you pull out some of the bricks?" she asked, gesturing to the wall beside the back door. Snappy regarded her with clear judgment, then began prying bricks free and throwing them into a pile. Maya frowned at the slow progress, and decided that the Trickster wouldn't be pleased with the level of damage possible here.

She didn't want to break the building, though. It was a nice building, and she liked it.

She could take the luck penalty. It was only for a few hours, then she could do the next day's quest and negate it. But, then, did that mean she really would more readily try to kill someone than damage a building?

She'd never seen other buildings with major damage, so surely it would be repaired. It may even generate a random quest. She giggled at the thought of tricksters sabotaging the gazebo or dam to ensure quests restarted. Obviously that wasn't how it worked, but it was still a funny thought.

Well, there was one thing she could do. She checked again to be sure no one was watching, then stepped into Heart of Magma stance, charging up the powerful fire spell. Then she started lobbing the flaming missiles through every window facing the alley where she stood.

She'd imagined that perhaps the building would deflect them, but they shattered as easily as her own window had been destroyed by Standalone when he snuck through her room at the Mage Academy so long ago.

Maya glanced at her trickster quest, but it still hadn't marked itself as done. Her energy wasn't replenishing so long as she held her stance, so she relaxed and watched Snappy chip away at the corner of the building while her energy refilled. It took significantly longer these days, now that she had such a large pool, but before long she was able to fire another barrage. This time, she flung them through the broken windows into the building itself, feeling incredibly guilty as she did so.

"Hey!" shouted someone, coming to the window just in time to catch a magma orb to the face. He toppled back out of sight, and Maya winced.

"Sorry!" she shouted, then gestured for her pets to follow her as she ran.

Once out of sight, she switched her mask from Twinkle back to Mage Stader, belatedly wondering if the mask could also change her pets' appearances. Then wondering if she could change her pets' appearances.

Not important right now. Her quest still hadn't finished, and someone had seen her. She instructed Hunter and Snappy to wait for her there while she tried to figure out her next step.

Maya took the long way around to re-enter the area, and found a group of players and NPCs standing around staring up at the damaged building, while the angry person in the window shouted about refunds and terrible service.

Still not enough? Ugh. Why was the Trickster so weird with his quests? She headed inside instead, went to the end of the second story hall closest to her own room, and started charging Heart of Magma again. If anyone showed up, she'd quickly slip inside and be just one more innocent caught in the crossfire. Hopefully.

This felt so wrong. Why was she still doing this? But she’d come too far to back out now. She could do it. Then she saw Snappy peek around the corner.

"Snappy, I told you to wait."

Snappy skittered closer.

"Fine, go in the room and stay out of trouble." Maya relaxed her stance long enough to push the door open. Snappy stared at her uncertainly, until Maya switched to the companion menu and turned the order into a direct command. Snappy moved to the designated location and stayed there, though Maya could feel her judging.

"Hey, I told you to wait outside, don’t blame me that I had to switch to extreme measures." She closed the door and recharged Heart of Magma. Another moment’s hesitation, then she started throwing the fiery globes against the walls, the grubby floor, and the doors of other rooms. The moment she'd expended her eleven seconds of damage, she rushed into her room and closed the door behind her.

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She then peeked out to view the damage, which was considerably less dramatic than one would expect when throwing magma orbs around inside a wooden structure. Scorch marks, a few cracks in the doors, but nothing particularity dramatic.

"What am I supposed to be doing?" Maya asked no one. "I don't know how to wreck a building!"

Snappy clicked her pincers and tapped on the wall.

Maya stared at her. "You think I should blast a hole in my own room?" she asked, incredulous.

Snappy bobbed in agreement.

"Alright, worth a try, I suppose." Her energy had recovered, so she took her stance one more time, then slammed one flaming orb after another into the outer wall. It cracked, then smoldered, then splintered, then finally exploded outward in a shower of burning wood fragments as her fifth orb slammed into it. She followed up with two more, one on either side, expanding the hole into a gaping opening with small flames slowly dying around the edges.

Mission complete: Trickster Day 19

+10 reputation with the Trickster, Badge of Intellect

The Badge of Intellect was a misc item, adding 14 to int, and she just happened to have an open slot for it. Well, that was good. She just hoped the repairs would be finished soon. Maya took a step toward the opening to look out through her new window, but then the air glitched around her and she found herself standing on the ground outside, her stored possessions scattered around her in a wide pile.

Due to blatantly disregarding the comportment expected of our guests, your rental agreement has been terminated and authorization revoked. You may return upon receipt of repair fees of 20 gold, with an additional deposit of 5 gold to cover any future incidents of this nature.

Maya facepalmed. Of course there were negative repercussions. It wouldn’t be a trickster quest without ‘em.

She considered loading, but hadn’t saved since the morning and didn’t want to lose her new level. Or risk losing Snappy. They’d made too much progress to rewind now. Ugh. She made a mental note, and then a journal reminder, not to try any low-luck trickster quests until after she’d saved the day’s progress.

But on the bright side, her luck was boosted again, so she was up to +15 again for the next few hours.

Snappy and Hunter helped gather up Maya’s scattered possessions, and she found herself grateful that she’d stored her last batch of junk in the mage academy instead of here. Otherwise, she’d have had a much harder time of it putting things back together.

Once her belongings were back where they belonged, Maya considered her next move. She had a few hours of decent luck, and she was on a roll with the leveling. Maybe she could get another level for Snappy before the day was out. She was making good progress between the luck bonus and grinding monsters all day. And maybe now she could try the vasp swarms again, she was certainly tired of raiding bandit camps.

She and Hunter had struggled against the vasps, but with Snappy too now, they might stand a better chance. She could take them all out easily enough with repeat casts of Magestrike. But without a party to pull and hold aggro, they could swarm her before she got off enough damage to finish them. Which led to more than a few deaths.

The addition of Snappy wasn’t enough to completely offet the vasps’ inherent advantages of swarming and flying, but the endeavor still succeeded in the end. Snappy reached level 13, and it was with a feeling of satisfaction that Maya rolled for her new day immediately after midnight.

And came up at +64.

New mission: Trickster Day 20. Defeat a dungeon boss.

Maya felt herself grinning. Now that was a quest. It was going to be a good day, she could tell already.

+59 luck, almost 60 - and she’d have over 60 once the initial penalty for rolling at all wore off - and a whole day to use it in. It felt unbelievably luxurious, after so long playing around the edges of misfortune. Even her one evening working on Runestrike paled in comparison to the power and unstoppable thrill that she felt now.

She could do anything. Anything was open to her. Over 50 luck, nothing would go wrong. And if it did, it would still turn out for the best.

59.

Okay, prioritize. If she did today's quest - kill a dungeon boss - that 59 would go up to 79, then 84 after the six hours was up. With that, she could probably do another spell-checking day, or analyze Heart of Magma, or... or anything.

She'd need more magic soon, she would start running through it at an alarming rate if she actually undertook to analyze and replicate the high level spells. It would only go so far, after all.

But no point in not monopolizing on what she had. When was she ever going to get another chance at +80 again?

She had to find a dungeon, and she had to find a dungeon soon.

Maya sprinted for the academy, Hunter and Snappy scurrying along in her wake. She ran from classroom to classroom, but it was just after midnight and very few people were around. She needed a group, and needed a group fast.

Okay. What were her options?

Andy wasn't lurking around at the moment, probably still finishing his trial. Xaneta? But Maya's luck nudged her away from that thought, and she decided that the Trickster would probably not count it as a proper kill for her if she relied on a level 49 to fight her battles for her. She had to do this herself, with on-level assistance if any.

She only knew of one dungeon currently available that she could hope to tackle: the minotaur's master one that no one in zone two seemed capable of beating. It would mean confronting the quest-giver she'd tried to assassinate, but today she could do that without fear. It would all work out. She just needed a group. She may be able to solo the overland critters, but dungeons weren't intended for individual players to take on alone - or even with pets.

She almost wished she hadn't spent so much of her money on soulbinding Snappy, since she could hire mercenaries to fill the slots without having to deal with other players, but that wasn't in the dice for today.

Fine. This was fine.

Maya found the Fire room occupied by Ben and Star, two of her fellow mages she knew the least well. Ben glowered at her, and Star just looked grumpy all the time regardless of what was going on.

"I need a team," Maya said without preamble. "I'm going for the minotaur dungeon in zone two. Want to come?"

"Why should I?" Ben asked. "You'll steal the kill credit just like you stole my spell."

"I didn't steal your spell. And, if you want, I'll correct any spell you have for you, today only, free of charge, and not tell anyone else that I've done it. You can have all the credit you want."

Ben stared, dislike warring with desire. In the end, desire won out. He was a mage, after all. "Fine, but it had better work. You have no idea how long I spent working on Sparkburst."

"I do," Maya said, then waved a hand. "We don't have time. Star, you coming?"

The albino lizardine grumbled, but stood. "Will you look over my project spell too?"

"Yes, of course. Anyone who we can recruit, I need a team right now, and I'll look over any spells you like after." She paused. "I will need you to provide the magic for them, though. I'm not going to have enough for everyone."

"If we're going to the minotaur's master dungeon, that won't be a problem," Star said. "It's one of the best places to harvest raw magic in the zone."

How fortunate! Maya grinned. "Perfect. Do we need more than three people?"

"Yes, we definitely need at least one more," Star grumbled.

"Then let's see who's around."

The earth classroom was occupied by a high-level sprite Maya had seen around but never spoken to, a high level elf who Maya hadn't seen before... and Runescale, who was emphatically arguing with the elf.

"...you promised I could, and now I've done it. So you have to let me in!"

"I fail to see the value in this spell you have created."

"Are you kidding? It's awesome! Isn't that what Storm is all about?"

"Storm is about mastering the subtleties of lightning, wind, and rain, and there is nothing subtle about... that display."

"And you still haven't graduated from Earth," put in the sprite.

"Come ooooon," Runescale whined. "I did what you asked. Please, I'm begging you." He fell dramatically to his knees, holding out his clasped hands. "Let me join Storm. Please."

Then the sprite noticed Maya standing in the door, and frowned between her and Runescale. "You hired the fire harpy, didn't you?"

"What? No, of course not--" Runescale cut off as he saw Maya, then scowled and jumped to his feet. "Hey, what are you doing here? I thought you left!"

"I did. I came back because I need a party for a dungeon." She couldn't believe she was saying this, but the longer they waited the more they lost precious seconds of high luck. The day would be wasted if she couldn't get a move on. "Want to join us?"

Runescale's mood shifted from annoyance to excitement in an instant, grinning back and forth between Maya and the two strangers. "Yes! Yes, see? See! I'll prove it. You'll tell them, won't you? If I help you good enough, you'll tell them my new spell is good enough to join Storm. Deal? Deal?"

"I make no promises," the elf from Storm said.

"I'll say whatever you want me to if you help me finish this dungeon boss," Maya said. "But we have to go now. I don't have time for your arguing."

"Deal!" Runescale shouted, and ran for the door, Maya and the others close behind him.

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