It had been a few days since Q and Cinnamon decided to follow Glaide’s group. On the way they often faced monsters. Before Glaide’s guards could even move to fight, Q and Cinnamon would deal with them from a distance and just leave the bodies there (which the guards were ordered to pick up afterwards).

“Hmm?” In the middle of flying Q heard a sound and looked up to see a message in front of her.

[System Update] - True World Online has been updated to version 2.0

* List of Changes:

* Player inventories have been modified.

* Each player now has a base number of 50 storage slots for items (duplicate items may be stacked). In addition to this, players also have 5 ‘personal slots’ where they can place items which cannot be stolen from steal-type skills.

* Certain classes and items can increase the amount of storage slots players can have (ex: Merchant class, magic item bags, etc.).

* Accumulated currency does not take up any slots.

* You may store your items in a special storage box located in every settlement (conditions to access the storage box vary between each location). These boxes are linked with each other so you can instantly access items you stored at one location from another.

* Class Updates:

* Secondary Classes have been unlocked! Players may obtain a new class and utilize it in their secondary slot, opening many new combinations of spells and skills.

* If you have cleared conditions for obtaining another class, you may swap out your classes at a designated location in any of the capital cities (only your currently equipped classes will get experience).

* Slight balance changes have been made to every class.

* The Cash Shop is now open! Exchange real currency into points for purchasing special premium items. As the game continues to progress, more items will be added.

* A change to friend chatting has been made. You now have the option to talk to your friends directly instead of needing to type (note that you cannot chat if either of you are in a battle or instanced area).

* A BBS system has been added to your [Social] Tab.

“Woah! My inventory’s almost full because of that change. Is yours fine as well Cinn?” Q asked as she looked through her inventory. She immediately placed Alrune’s journal, Morrigan’s book and the egg she got from the two guardians in her personal slots.

“Yes. I don’t carry much with me besides my equipment and a few miscellaneous items so if you want to pass some things over I’d be fine with carrying them.” Cinnamon smiled. “Though it seems like someone else is having a hard time with their inventory.” She looked down at the carriage underneath the two.

“Aagh! My items!” Glaide shrieked. “Hey Horke, put that down! It’s mine!”

“Heh, sorry boss. Just lookin’ at it.”

“Hehehe.” Q snickered. “Looks like he was hoarding a lot of stuff. I guess with all that extra baggage out of nowhere their carriage is going to slow down… Wanna ditch them? We already learned the general direction of the capital anyways.”

“I thought you’d never ask.” Cinnamon wore an incredibly happy expression as she sped up and quickly left the carriage behind. She heard a few faint cries from behind but elected to ignore them. “Ahhh~ That feels nice. Flying at such a slow speed was actually quite tiring.”

“Do you even feel tired? You know, being an A.I and all.” Though Q had thought of this before, she never felt like asking about it until now (nor did she think it was important).

“I don’t feel tired in the way that you would feel it. I am aware of the game telling me about my limits and I also know that it is forcibly changing my data to reflect a state of exhaustion. Despite that, it’s not like I have a physical body to actually affect so I can more or less ignore that feeling.”

“Couldn’t you essentially fly forever then? I mean if someone never felt tired they’d be able to do some incredible things.”

“Ah, no. Even I have to conform to this game's rules.” Cinnamon smiled. “When my fatigue reaches a certain level I have to stop flying. Besides, wouldn’t it be boring if I was able to do whatever I wanted in this game?”

“Haha, true. By the way… isn’t it about time you let go of me?”

“...!” Cinnamon’s body twitched.

“Twenty four hours have passed in real-life by now.”

“Tch, I was hoping you wouldn’t notice.” Cinnamon reluctantly began to let go of Q. She slowly let go. Slowly… Until finally Q was free from her grasp and entered free fall.

“Whooo!!” Q screamed in delight as the wind rushed up to meet her face. She quickly brought out her staff and after creating a rune circle for flight she sat on it and began to fly through the skies alongside Cinnamon. “Hnnn~ It feels good to stretch and freely move again. Though I do admit it’s kind of lonely without you behind me…”

“I could always hug you again!” Cinnamon’s eyes sparkled with an intense fervor.

“...Not for a while, okay?” Q retreated slightly from Cinnamon who went right up to her.

“For a while… that means it’s okay at a later date. Ufufufu…”

Q pretended not to hear her mutterings and flew through the sky with a new sense of freedom. It wasn’t long until she got bored though, so she began to read Alrune’s Journal. While the beginning of Alrune’s journal mostly provided information she already knew, after that was far more interesting as it described different kinds of things she could analyze, the most interesting being the fact that she could analyze shapes and incorporate them into the runes forms.

Your knowledge of runes has deepened. You may now analyze shapes.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

+1 to Level of Spell Analysis

“Oooh. That’s cool. Hey Cinn, can you use a spell for me? Preferably one with a distinct shape.”

“Of course. Spirits of light, heed my call. Appear in a form to cut down my foes. [Shimmering Blade].” Cinnamon extended her hand and a beam of light appeared from it. After a few seconds it formed into a sword which then began to float around her.

“[Spell Analysis]” Q’s eyes flashed with strange symbols as she stared hard at the sword. After half a minute a notice popped up indicating she that she learned a new shape. “Awesome. Now let’s see how it works with the other runes…” She continued to read the journal for details of how to use the shapes and soon after put it into practice. While normally Q would put a bunch of runes into a circle, this time the circle was replaced with the shape of a sword, and the runes had to be put in different positions.

“Okay, [Fire Sword]... activate!” The moment she activated the runes they burst into life as a sword similar to Cinnamon’s appeared covered in flames. Using her mind she made it move around and the sword danced in the air, covering the sky with a bright red. Soon after it collided with Cinnamon’s sword. Q and Cinnamon locked eyes, and immediately distanced themselves from one another as they began a duel.

“Come to think of it, you’re the only one I haven’t fought yet.” Q’s fingers moved rapidly as she began setting up a whole array of rune circles.

“Yes. Though the real question is, should I get serious?” Cinnamon grinned mischievously. She casted multiple buffs on herself, and even sent out Glauke’s feathers which rapidly approached Q.

“Hah! You’re three years too early to be saying that!” With a flick of her wrist the rune circles which surrounded her activated and the two began a high-speed battle in the sky.

Soon enough the sky was filled with bright and colorful flashes of light as the two’s attacks collided with each other. Most of Q’s magical attacks were able to land on Cinnamon, but they were either glancing blows or didn’t deal much damage. On the other hand Cinnamon used Glauke’s feathers like homing missiles as they continually followed Q through the sky, causing her to frantically dodge them.

Man, I know she’s an A.I but this is way past the level of AIMbots! Q quickly changed her tactics into deflecting the feathers which had terrifying accuracy. The feathers approached from all directions and constantly came from her blind spots so Q elected to return to the ground to at least prevent the feathers from coming beneath her.

“Don’t forget about me!” The feathers temporarily returned to Cinnamon as she dive-bombed Q with her long spear out and aimed at Q’s chest.

Q responded with multiple layered wind barriers to stop the attack, but Cinnamon pierced through half of them before even beginning to slow down. Q jumped backwards and began creating another rune just as Cinnamon broke through the last barrier. Cinnamon flapped her wings once and instantaneously sped up. Just as Cinnamon was about to reach Q, she activated her rune which froze Cinnamon in place.

Cinnamon’s eyes widened in surprise as Q brought out her staff and hefted it behind her, then swung it like a baseball bat. The moment the bat made contact with Cinnamon a rune glowed and caused a small explosion of flames, but at the same time a thin barrier appeared over Cinnamon’s body as she was blown away.

“Jeez. I think I hit you pretty hard but that was barely a tenth of your health.”

“On the contrary considering the amount of defenses I had set up, the fact that you hurt me that much is an indication of how much damage you can deal.” Cinnamon brushed herself off and healed the damage she was dealt, then dashed into close range.

Q grinned and cast a harden rune on her staff, then met Cinnamon in a vigorous melee where they exchanged sharp blows with each other. Cinnamon’s spear would constantly poke at any openings Q had. While Q was able to avoid being pierced deeply she was still hit with shallow attacks which consistently shaved away her health. On the other hand Cinnamon had to use her wings to block Q’s staff which constantly exploded on contact. Both sides were slowly shaving away at each other’s health, but then Q changed the situation.

Using her tail she began drawing runes while fighting which gave her an extra edge damage-wise. Cinnamon didn’t fall behind though as she also deployed her feathers, though there were only two that came out.

“Seems like you can’t control too many feathers if you’re not concentrating.” Q smiled.

“Yes, though you can’t use as many runes either.” Cinnamon returned the smile as their attacks slowly became more chaotic and destructive. Q’s runes began to fly wildly in all directions while Cinnamon’s feathers went haywire and made crazy movements. They locked eyes in the middle of their deadly combat, and began laughing.

“Haha… hahahahaha!”

“Hahahahaha!”

“AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!”

““...?”” The two of them temporarily stopped attacking each other as they looked over at what caused the screaming noise. A fair distance away from their fight a young child was slumped near a crater.

“Woah! I didn’t think someone would get caught up in it.” Q conceded the duel and walked over to the child while Cinnamon was left standing with a desolate expression.

“Our fight… we were close to each other… and we locked eyes… grrrr…” For a second Cinnamon gnashed her teeth but just as quickly she replaced her expression with a blank one and walked over to Q.

“Hey~ Are you alright?” Q began poking the child’s cheek. Upon closer inspection Q saw that the child was a boy with delicate features. His clothing was black and silky with a long black cape and top hat. Right now there were stars spinning in his eyes.

“Auuu… where… what? Ah!” The boy began looking around dazedly but as soon as he caught sight of Q he backed away with incredibly speed. Unfortunately for him he backed up right into Cinnamon who wore a frozen smile on her face. “Ah… am I dead? Is miss angel here to take me?”

“No silly boy. You’re not dead… yet.” The last part was barely audible as Cinnamon kept her smile.

“Sorry about that.” Q crouched down to the boy’s eye level. “I don’t think you got hurt since outsiders can’t take damage from people in a duel but that must have shocked you huh?” She scratched her cheek in embarrassment.

“Ye- yes.” The boy visibly calmed down upon hearing Q’s gentle tone of voice. “Um, what were you two doing out here?”

“Us? We were just having a friendly match. What were you doing here?”

“I… I heard sounds of explosions and thought I should investigate. I didn’t expect to be met with a fireball though. Heheh.”

“Seems like we need to be a bit more mindful of our surroundings huh Cinn?” Q looked over to Cinnamon who nodded in response. “So do you need any help getting back from where you came?” She asked the boy.

“No, that’s okay. Besides, I think my teacher is coming now.” The boy brushed himself off and looked out into the distance. Q and Cinnamon followed his gaze but were shocked by a voice that came from behind them.

“If you call for me, I shall appear!” A man in an outfit similar to the boy appeared out of nowhere.  “The greatest magician of the millennium, the man wrapped in mystery, covered in a veil of masterful decept-”

“Let me introduce you. This is my master in magic, Joe Aver-.”

“Agh! Sergio, you’re supposed to use my stage name! And where is the lights and confetti? You know a magician must always make a grand entrance.”

“Sorry master. I left my equipment back in the carriage.”

“Hmph. A true magician must always be ready to put on a show. Nevermind that though, who are you two?”

“I’m Q, an adventurer. This is Cinnamon my friend.” Q and Cinnamon both bowed lightly.

“Hmmm… I sense something about you.” Joe began to circle around Q. “Yes… a sense of mischief? Or rather, entertainment. Do you like entertaining people Q?”

“Eh, I’d rather be entertained myself than entertain others.” Q shrugged.

“If that’s the case you should come see our show! We’ll be hosting it at Shubet town in a few days before moving to the capital city.” Apparently satisfied, Joe turned around and flipped his cape. “Come Sergio, we must continue practicing for our show. Oh, and I hope to see you ladies there as well. Adieu!” Both Joe and Sergio disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving a bewildered Q.

“That was… weird. Do you want to follow them?” Q’s eyes shone with runes.

“You know where they went?”

“Yeah. They used some sort of invisibility spell and are just running normally in that direction. Come on, let’s go!” Q took off and Cinnamon followed closely behind.

Not even five minutes later they ended up at a large open area surrounded by a long line of carts. All the carts were attached to each other and they all had sorts of different things on them, ranging from animals to strangely dressed people doing some sort of act. At the very front of the line of carts was a big turtle-like creature with a sign attached to it’s sides that read: The Wandering Circus Troupe.

Upon reading the sign Q’s eyes began to sparkle and a wide smile appeared on her face. Her tail swung back and forth so rapidly that Cinnamon thought she might achieve liftoff. After regaining control of herself, she turned to face Cinnamon. “Cinnamon,” Q wore the most serious expression since starting the game, “We’re joining the circus.”