Demonic Magician

Often, I found that brief interludes of my life spent in peace and contentedness were often just moments where I sat in the eye of the storm. It was important to have these spaces where you could catch your breath and remind yourself what happiness was. What you were struggling and bleeding for. Beyond the storm was a clear sky and warm sun to greet you, if only you could weather the hardship long enough before the next incliment disaster rolled around.

“Max? Hey, Max.”

I opened my eyes and panicked, briefly disorientated as to where I had awoken to. Dark and cold. Muddy. The dirt was uncomfortable, and I rolled onto my back to observe the daylight dimly illuminating the hiding place from one end.

“Wake up, trickster. You like bacon?”

Ren’s voice came from just outside the hole, although I couldn’t see her. “Yeah, sounds amazing, actually.” I worked my jaw, the muscles down my side aching from the terrible sleep. Still, I had definitely needed it, if my oversleeping had been the result.

I relented to awkwardly pushing out of the hiding hole, born once more into this new world and scoured by sunlight. It took my eyes a moment to adjust from the glare, but I now saw the elf just a dozen feet off. She was standing by a miniature grill, pieces of uncooked meat starting to sizzle and pop. The smell hit me and I almost melted on the spot.

“It’s the last of the bacon I had, but I’ve got a couple bread rolls. No butter though.” She tilted her head at me, and her scowl didn’t have as much weight behind it this morning.

“That sounds divine, thank you.” I stretched out and then rubbed my eyes. Never had been much for camping, myself. Picking out a hotel with a nice enough bed had become one of my secret skills over the years. For all the good that did now.

Ren scrunched up her face. “I’m sorry for being so prickly last night. There’s been a few fair-weather friends pass through whose compassion didn’t extend further than their…” she wagged a pair of tongs at me.

“Understandable.” I nodded politely.

She waited for a moment, either expecting for me to elaborate more, or had something herself that she was considering saying. Eventually, she broke the silence. “I’m surprised you have some convictions, given that you look like a Bard’s College reject.”

I looked down and my muddied and blood-stained outfit. The sparkling purple had lost some of its lustre, but I perhaps had to agree that I probably stood out amongst others. And the surroundings. “In truth, I’ve never been too good at the whole relationship thing, anyway.”

The elf raised an eyebrow as she brought out a pair of plates from her Inventory. “Is that so?”

“Too much of a workaholic.” I rubbed at my chin, trying to find a way to skirt past this conversation. “All my time went to that. It’s hard to form connections when most people I met were fans of my persona, rather than the real me.”

She handed me a plate and placed an open bun on it. “A little common ground there for us then, trickster. There’s plenty of elven-princess fetishists that can’t see past that in trying to befriend me.”

I nodded, a smile across my face. “You’re a princess?”

A scowl was leveled my way, but she instead focused on turning the meat over. The smell was making me salivate. “Not in the traditional sense.” She sighed. “More of an heiress…”

“But not of a crown and untold wealth?”

“Inherited responsibility.” She shook her head. “You have a lot of questions this morning, Max.” The elf removed the meat from the small cooker and placed some in my pensive bread, before adding some to her own. The grill then vanished into her Inventory, taking with it the nice glow of warmth.

“You seemed as though you were in a good mood, so thought I’d press my luck.” I smiled and gestured my thanks for the meal with the plate.

She glared at me, but tilted her head. “As if you can tell.”

Even with our brief time spent together I had learned to look past her grouchy demeanor and pick up on the tells for her actual emotions. So I thought, anyway. Wouldn’t be the first time I was wrong, but I liked to think I happened to be a decent judge of a person.

It was part of the job - at least some of it. Not so useful on the big stage, but when you were doing the crowd work at smaller gigs, a little sleight of hand and social awareness could help you along. There was no need to labor her with my supposed qualities, so I just smiled and we ate in silence. It was a little on the dry side, but having not eaten much aside from a cake the day prior - it felt life saving.

“Another thing I feel like I owe you for.” I bowed as I returned the plate back to her.

“Everyone needs to eat.” She rolled her eyes. “You’re no good to me dead. The portable grill you’ll get during a level three quest - do you not have any food of your own?”

I brought up my Inventory to look at the slime and assorted boar parts. “No? Perhaps I should have done some normal butchery.”

She sighed loudly. “You should have received some items during your introduction to the world.”

With an apologetic shrug, I wasn’t sure what else to tell her. My appearance had seemed like something even the System was a little surprised by, given that it had struggled to give me a Class at first. It must have skipped over some of the usual welcoming information while I was busy sleeping on the sharp rock.

“Here.” She held out a dagger withdrawn from her own stash. “I feel like I can trust you enough now. Do not make me regret it.” Her glare painted out the picture of what would happen if I tried anything.

“Thank you.” A [Dagger] was pretty basic, but it at least gave me an option for when I had a large boar trying to crush me to death. I found that I could equip it to my belt, in a leather sheath that I didn’t have before. That was some convenience I could definitely appreciate.

“We’ll get water from a stream that is on the way.” She slung her bow over her shoulder. “Can’t spend the morning drying out our tongues with inane chatter.”

We most definitely could, but I nodded and tapped at my STAR. The glow of an arrow to point us in the direction of the treasure turned slightly to notify us it was to the left, through the forest. Ren knew the way already, of course, but it was probably a good idea I got used to using the System for all the benefits it had.

“It’ll be quicker to circle back via the road, unless you have a desire to kill all the wildlife we come across?” Despite the tone used in saying this, she seemed open to the possibility.

“Road.” I nodded, and we set off. As much as the idea of getting more practice with my skills and looting some basic items sounded like an otherwise pleasant day, the sooner I could get these Quests done to level up to Ren’s level, the sooner we could kill the bad guys and progress.

I use the term ‘bad guys’ to help smooth other the fact that we would be committing murder. It was nicer to believe that we were in the right, and whatever ire they had invoked from the elf was worthy of such harsh punishment. She didn’t seem like a particularly bad person, and had shown me enough niceties to convince me of her nature.

Sleeping in a hole in the ground was a bit of a red flag, but if you were potentially hiding from a large group of people that wanted you dead then it seemed pragmatic enough. I would perhaps kill for a decent bed, so our goals aligned perfectly.

“A lot on your mind, trickster?”

She roused me from my thoughts and I realized we had already been walking down the road for a few handfuls of minutes. The day was beautiful, with hardly a cloud in the sky to prevent the sun from warming and illuminating all the vibrant greens, earthy browns, and light grays of our surroundings. It made my brush with death seem like a distant memory.

“Yeah.” I worked my jaw in trying to think of how to best sum up everything that was whirling about in my mind without it becoming a constant stream of word salad.

“I was the same. It takes a few days to really accept and get used to.” She looked out into the woods to our left. “Can’t say it gets much easier… but it becomes normal.”

I grunted an acknowledgement. The world was nice enough, even if bizarre in ways. Heartbreaking and bone-crushing in others. There wasn’t a succinct way to sum up how I felt, nor did I wish to babble on with complete nonsense. I took everything in stride, after all, as the show continued to go on.

“How long have you been here?” Rather than falsely flaunt how much I was enjoying my time, I deflected with a question.

“A while. There’s been one or two new Players every few days. It's been slower lately, not so many. A lot I don’t get to meet. Most I choose not to meet.”

“Some you wish you hadn’t met, and some you wished never left.”

She turned to me with a scowl on her face, but some of the fire was gone from her bright eyes. “You should stay in your own head, trickster.” With that, she began to walk slightly ahead of me. A nerve struck, perhaps.

After another ten minutes or so, the arrow illuminating the direction to my Quest told me to turn into the forest - almost at a ninety-degree to us.

Ren held up a hand for us to stop and scoured our surroundings. I followed her gaze around, assuming four eyes were better than two, even if her eyesight was potentially better than mine. Probably checking for the shadows of those we were intending to erase from existence. I wasn’t too sure how things worked around here, but it was safe to assume Red and Green’s disappearance would have been noticed by now. Whatever conclusion the rest would come to was far beyond me.

“Alright, it’s a little way through here.” She pointed a finger in the same direction as the STAR arrow was directing me. “I’m going to be shadowing you, but you’ll mostly be on your own.”

“More tough love?” I grimaced and peered into the depths of the trees.

She exhaled through her nose. “You need to learn aggro range and threat management. It’s your choice to clear the camp or just take out the groups of bandits that you need to. But if you fuck up, then you’ll pull half the encounter.”

I nodded, understanding most of it. The System-created seemed pretty dense and short-sighted most of the time, but I’d need to be cautious and not so flagrant with my attacks. Hellhound probably wasn’t the best to lead the charge - perhaps picking small gatherings off with range would be a little more sensible.

Ren stepped up beside a tree and pulled a leaf off. She held it between her hands and after a brief whisper, a radiant glow bloomed briefly in her grasp. Extending the leaf towards me, I could now see that she had inscribed some manner of rune upon it. Gingerly I took it from her, enthralled by the shifting golds of what magic she had emblazoned it with.

“Crush it for a 25% Heal. It’s the only way I can assist without drawing aggro myself.” She turned to lead into the forest, before pausing and looking back at me. “I’ll be watching, and I’ll pull your dumb ass from the fire if I can, but don’t rely on it.”

She stepped aside and gestured for me to go first.

Somehow, I managed a brief smile, and headed inwards beneath the canopy. It was cooling after being in the morning’s sun for so long, but made me apprehensive. As if every darkened trunk or thick bush could be holding any manner of danger ready and willing to leap out and tear my throat out.

Without realizing it, I had begun creeping and placing my feet carefully amongst the light vegetation and fallen sticks - as if to avoid the cliches on my approach.

And then, after a few minutes of tiring tension, I heard the murmur of voices and saw movement up ahead. For a few seconds, I stopped to check my arrow, and it told me I was in the right place.

Carefully withdrawing my deck, I tilted my gaze back to see that I had been walking alone.