Freeman was happy with his progress so far. He had stripped the powers from at least two dozen people and turned himself into the character that he always wanted. Freeman checked his stats pool. Because of his exploit, he had 999 out of a possible 800 skill points. While Freeman enjoyed having a supreme fighter/mage character, he realized that his skills imbalance was a potential problem.

Pretzelverse Games security sucks if I can get this far, Freeman thought.

He could address that problem after he drained the powers of that particular Magi; he felt that he was now prepared to defeat her. He respected her skills. She was the only one who had come remotely close to defeating him. He was eager to take her powers. He added her name, “JetaGirl,” to his watch list. Normally, adding players to private lists required the consent of both players to prevent stalking, but Freeman was able to get around that with some exploit code.

Freeman floated in the void between worlds, and he could see several potential targets, but nothing interested him. People with microcosms were wealthy gamers, but sometimes they created the most mundane worlds. Some people decorated their microcosms like their homes, while others were more elaborate. Freeman liked the way the Magi girl’s microcosm was built. He was about to log out of the game, but just as his virtual hand was on the logout button, a message from his HUD caught his attention.

JetaGirl is online.

Ahh, now for some fun!

Freeman opened the developer’s section of his HUD. He added “JetaGirl,” and could see where his prey was. It was another player’s microcosm. Even better!

Freeman floated in space, between various player microcosms. Light shone through the microcosm that contained Jet. He noticed a small crack in it: a peephole. Freeman changed his corporeal form to that of a disgusting creature he had assembled using the developer tools: a form that Freeman was sure resembled nothing else in the Colossal Machine. His new form had large eyeballs, tentacles, and a huge, misshapen mouth. Green slime ran down its face. Freeman looked through the peephole with his new eye, but his vision was distorted. It’s because of the shape of his new eye, Freeman thought. He saw JetaGirl with a newbie mage girl.

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Let’s rock their world!

Using one of his tentacles, Freeman started chipping away at the hold in the microcosm. The newbie mage girl screamed. Freeman smiled at her, and his tongue flopped out inside the room of the microcosm. It was a grotesque sight to behold.

“In-Flam-Mod-Fil,” Jet said as she cast the sear spell. A wall of flame ignited on the creature’s disgusting tongue. She could see bubbles of flesh burn. The creature pulled back. Its tentacles started flapping about in a spasmodic rhythm. Why can’t I cast? Freeman thought as a wave of panic set in. Freeman was having so much fun that he hadn’t seen the warning message that displayed on his HUD:

Warning: I cannot cast spells in current form.

Freeman had created this monstrosity on the fly, and he hadn’t had the time to factor in the balance equations. It had limited him to melee skills, but some of the options were devastating. Let’s try out this! Freeman created and flung out a series of green globes that splattered upon contact. He took 90 percent of April’s health, and almost half of Jet’s. Jet cast her shield spell, pursued by a series of lesser heal spells. She could see additional green globes smashing against the shield, which was weakening. She recast the shield spell and checked her mana pool. It was more than halfway depleted. The globes ripped a larger hole in the microcosm’s side. Jet could see empty space and the entire creature now. She also saw other microcosms floating in the distance.

“In-Cade-For-Dom,” Jet said as she cast the banish spell. A cage formed over the entire creature; a few seconds later, the creature was gone.

“What did you do?” April asked.

“I used the banish spell,” Jet said. She looked at her mana bar; it showed a value of 1/2000.

“And from the looks of it, I barely had enough mana to cast it.”

“Where did you send it?”

“That’s a good question. I think it gets sent to a random location within the Colossal Machine,” Jet said.

“Will it come back?” April said.

“Whoever is behind it is cheating, so that is possible. I think that is enough training for one day,” Jet said.