Returning to the Old Mage’s Quarter, Wyn can’t help but grimace outside the bakery that she stole from not too long ago. She’d eaten the last of the bread long ago, and while being very delicious, she still regretted stealing it. If she had any coin, she’d march back into that bakery and pay for the bread she stole, and take some for the road. But for now, she must continue onward toward Lothran.

  Entering the old building, Lothran sits exactly where Wyn left him; sitting at his desk working away at his stack of papers.

  “Ah, you lived. Good.” Lothran says, nodding his head.

  Wyn suppresses a chuckle. Each movement of the man’s head sends his massive afro of hair bouncing, kept aloft by his constant use of electrical magic.

  “Yes, I lived. But it didn’t go… great.”

  “Oh? Is that so?” Lothran asks, turning his focus to Wyn.

  “Yeah. So it turns out there’s a bigger problem.” Wyn sits down across from Lothran, reclining as best she can in the stiff wooden chair. “You see, there are these goblins, and there’s this crazy necromancer lady calling herself the dead queen. I went in with some adventurers, and we barely escaped.

  Lothran’s eyes go wide. “Well, that explains your attire.”

  Wyn smirks, looking down at her basic mage robes. They have been torn and burned dozens of times over. They still cover her, but anymore brushes with danger and Psai’s bright light might not be the only thing flashing the enemy.

  “I didn’t exactly have time to get new clothes. And I’m broke.”

  Lothran sighs and pulls a pouch out of his inventory. “When we’re done here, get yourself some decent clothing. You’ll be hard-pressed to find passable mage gear in Lethisburg but will certainly be better than… this.” He gestures to Wyn’s current attire, looking as though he may vomit at the mere sight of it.

  Wyn grabs the small sack of coins, and a notification dings. She dismisses it, wanting to stay focused on her conversation with Lothran. “Thanks. Will be worth getting some actually decent gear.”

  “Indeed. Now, back to the topic at hand. You mentioned undead creatures? Goblins using magic?”

  Wyn nods. “Yeah. It was… difficult. If I hadn’t had some new friends helping me out, I couldn’t have possibly gotten out alive.”

  “Tell me everything.”

  Wyn takes the next ten or so minutes regaling Lothran with the events of the past week and a half. From her encounter with the annoying Ironmaw Bovle, to meeting Froggy, to the Elder Boomfrog, and finally her time with the adventuring party led by Elara. Lothran listens carefully, occasionally scribbling down some notes.

  “Wait,” Lothran interrupts. “You said this girl used an experience siphon on you?”

  Wyn shrugs. “Yeah, it’s not my favorite. But she’s very helpful and extremely talented. Way stronger than the rest of our group. She’s the leader. Nobody else had any problems with it, so I accepted.”

  Lothran’s frown deepens into a scowl. “You need to get rid of that as soon as possible.”

  Something buried deep in Wyn’s mind snaps awake, and her next words tumble out less like a sentence and more like a sputtering flood of frustration.

  “Well, she’s very talented and I think she’s doing a great job leading this group and so I don’t think you have any right to criticize her because she’s the best leader I’ve ever gotten to work with and until this quest is finished, there is absolutely no reason for me to even think about leaving her party.”

  Lothran’s eyes narrow, deep in thought. Wyn blushes, embarrassed by the flood of words and, despite their utterance not being a fully conscious choice on her part, she stands by them fully. No matter what, despite any evidence that Elara might not be the most trustworthy leader, Wyn has no intention of leaving her side until further notice.

  “Fine. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Lothran says with a sigh, recognizing that this is a lesson Wyn will have to learn the hard way. “I will send a missive to the other local hall masters about this. A full region quest will need our full focus.”

  Lothran’s eyes twinkle with excitement, glad that his tiny and unimportant corner of the Arcane Consortium will get the focus for the first time since he was appointed Hall Master.

  “That aside, we need to finish up your quest. You did the right thing, returning to Lethisburg and informing me. If you went in there and died, we’d have no idea about the threat that’s lying in the mountains. Well done.”

  Quest Complete!

  Quest: Invasive Boomfrogs - Completed

  Rewards: Junior Membership to the Arcane Consortium

  “In return for your efforts, the Arcane Consortium recognizes you as a mage of significant talent and welcomes you as an Initiate Mage of the Lethisburg Chapter. Continue growing your skills, and you’ll increase your rank. In the meantime, you are welcome to occupy any room you’d like as well as peruse the library I keep on hand. Do stay out of my personal quarters and library, though otherwise the resources of this hall are available to you. As an Initiate, you’ll be expected to help around the Hall, and take on quests appropriate for your rank.”

  Wyn grins wide. “Fantastic, what’s first?”

  Lothran looks around, his eyes lazily searching for a task. “The upstairs hallway outside the library is quite dusty; would you mind sweeping?”

  Wyn freezes, speechless. She didn’t join Eden to do chores and look after an old building. She came to Eden for the thrill of adventure and the challenge of fighting incredible beasts! Wyn has no interest in sweeping up after this strange electrified man’s dusty floors.

  Thinking on her feet, Wyn rises. “You know, I will absolutely do that. But I have to log out, so I’ll get to it later.”

  Wyn is glad to finally be logging out of Eden. As amazing as Eden is, Wyn has stayed in the game too long, and she needs to get back to her family before they start to worry she’s unwell. Knowing them, Rohn has been longing to ask her seven thousand questions about Eden, and Mom is ready with her usual scolding-Mom glare.

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  Despite the inevitable challenges of family, Wyn can’t help but smile. Family is family, and Wyn is happy to have hers.

  While she travels, Wyn uses the opportunity to train her use of flickerstep so she gets more comfortable with the ability. In her experience, movement abilities can make or break combat. If you aren’t used to the ability, you can just as easily teleport yourself inside of a wall as get out of danger. Back in Elysius, Wyn’s go-to move had been her air dash, letting her veer around mid-air. By the time she joined Eden, she’d perfected the ability. Which was impressive, considering she mastered it by repeatedly smashing into the same tree for weeks. Her nose still twinges with pain at the memory.

  Looking ahead, Wyn activates flickerstep, exploring how the ability functions. As expected, she juts forward, illusory versions of herself fading away behind her. That was simple enough, but what about moving upwards like she did before? She activates flickerstep while staring upwards, but goes nowhere.

  Frowning, she turns to Psai. “What happened there?”

  “Hold please. Examining data.”

  Psai’s face vanishes, replaced by a loading circle as he processes the data. Wyn shrugs and moves forward, Psai following her at a short distance even while he processes.

  After a minute of walking, and reaching the edge of the Mage’s Quarter, Psai alights, his face returning. “Ah! Your flickerstep failed as you did not have a valid destination point. The system determined you would’ve fallen straight down after flickerstepping straight upwards. As such, the ability failed.”

  Wyn smiles. “Thank you, Psai.”

  Psai’s grin widens. “I am always happy to assist you, Wyn!”

  Now that she understands the limitation, Wyn gives flickerstep another shot, just like she did on her way to Lothran. She pins her focus to a nearby roof, making sure she’s looking at the surface and not the edge, and triggers the spell. Her body jerks forward in a blink, depositing her neatly on the tiles.

  “Yes!” Wyn cheers with a celebratory fist bump to the air.

  Wyn activates flickerstep over and over, launching from rooftop to rooftop with ease. Despite only using the ability less than a dozen times, it already feels natural to her. Turning around, panting, Wyn sees dozens of illusory versions of herself floating through the air as multicolored ghostlike versions of herself; a rainbow of Wyns flying through the air. Wyn grins wide as the versions of her fade out of existence. She can’t wait to find clever ways to use this ability in combat.

  Looking toward the horizon, Wyn notices the sun sinking and storm clouds gathering. A wince pulls at her face; the last thing she wants is to be caught in the rain after dark. One last time she triggers flickerstep, but it sputters out almost immediately. Wyn shoots forward barely two feet before the spell collapses, knocking the breath from her, and she drops to her knees, panting.

  “What the hell?!”

  Her answer comes in the form of a system notification.

  Status Acquired: Exhausted

  You have overexerted yourself, and become exhausted. Until you rest, you will regenerate stamina at a reduced rate and use any stamina abilities at a greater stamina cost.

  Wyn groans, lying flat on the roof to let the stamina regenerate.

  “Psai, maybe warn me next time I’m running low on stamina?”

  “Affirmative! I will give regular updates on your stamina levels!”

  Wyn nods, “Thanks, buddy.”

  Unlike Essentia, which gave a chilling sensation whenever running low, exhaustion hit her like a sudden wall she didn’t expect. She will have to be careful about using flickerstep repeatedly in the future.

  Not letting Lothran get a word in, Wyn rockets out the door with Flickerstep and beings walking her way towards the logout tavern, the sound of Lothran’s annoyed sigh fading into the distance.

  After a minute of catching her breath, Wyn stands and makes her way to a nearby ladder to descend from the roof. She finds herself in a back alley, then walks out to the main road before shady characters get the chance to attack her.

  Remembering a notification she had ignored during her conversation with Lothran, she checked her notification window to locate it.

  Congratulations. You have received your first Gold Piece!

  As you quest throughout Eden, you will gain Gold Pieces, alongside smaller denominations of currency, which you will be able to spend at vendors throughout the world. Alternatively, as part of the Currency Exchange Program, or CEP, you can transfer your currency into the real-world currency of your choosing in a Progenitis Banking Account.

  You may also access the In-Game Shop whenever you choose, which allows you to spend your hard-earned dollars on in-game benefits such as experience elixirs, gear packs, mounts, and other fantastic bonuses to enhance your experience of Eden!

  At any time, you may now access the Shop or the CEP page through your in-game interface.

  Thank you again for playing Eden.

  The Progenitis Corporation — “Where Tomorrow Becomes Real?”

  Tilly said that you could turn in game currency into real-world money, and here was her option to do so. Opening the CEP window, Wyn can see the current exchange rate of Gold Pieces to Dollars, and can’t help but smile. She has often felt like a burden to her family, unable to keep a job and making her mom work herself to death. It’s tragic, and Wyn has tried many times to change, but something about working a basic job that pays almost nothing never worked for her.

  Yet, Wyn now has an opportunity to assist her family. She selects the transfer button and transforms half of the gold pieces into dollars, and it’s enough to pay for a good quality meal or two. She can’t wait to give her family the gift of good food.

  Refocusing on the world around her, a few passersby give her strange looks. After all, she did stop walking in the middle of the street. Blushing, she swiftly moves to the side of the street and makes her way to the Logout Tavern.

  Wyn slid the CEP window shut and glanced up. The street was far quieter than she would have expected for this time of day. A lone lantern flickers above a crooked doorway, casting long shadows that dance with the restless breeze. Somewhere far off, the faint clatter of a shutter banging in the wind broke the eerie silence.

  She pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders, feeling the cool evening air settle in. For a moment, she thought she caught a flicker of movement just beyond the corner of her eye, but when she turned, there was nothing but empty cobblestones.

  Wyn gets the feeling that she’s being watched. Glancing around, she can’t place any source to the sensation, but the heat of someone’s eyes presses into her back at every turn.

  “Psai,” she whispers. “Am I being followed?”

  Psai looks around. “I cannot convey that information effectively.”

  That’s a strange response. Psai evaded the question entirely; only stating that he couldn’t say whether it was true. Wyn asks again, but changes the question.

  “Is there a player following me?”

  “No. I do not detect a player following you.”

  “Is there a monster following me?”

  “Not at this time.”

  Wracking her brain, Wyn tries to think of any other groups that could be following her. “Is there some sort of living creature following me, neither monster nor player?”

  “I cannot convey that information effectively.”

  Wyn frowns and begins tucking herself through alleys, taking turns left and right as quickly as she can. At each corner, she looks back, trying to catch sight of anyone following her. With Psai not giving a definitive yes or no, she has to double-check. Her sense of unease only grows around each corner, as though someone is working harder and harder to keep their eyes on her.

  A dark cloak flashes for the briefest of moments before vanishing into nothingness.

  “There you are,” Wyn mutters.

  She launches a pair of mage bolts toward the target, only for an error message to appear in front of her eyes.

  Error! Invalid Target! Spell Canceled.

  “Invalid target, my ass. If I can see it, I can hit it.”

  “I would not advise that.” Psai says, whispering in a pained tone. He sounds as though the very words hurt him to say, but he pushes through anyway.

  “What do you mean? I need to get this guy off my trail.”

  Psai’s orb glitches, a muted scream of pain coming out. “I am not able to say more.”

  Wyn frowns, wincing at Psai’s pain. Despite his being no more than a computer program, Wyn can’t stand seeing him in this sort of pain.

  With a sigh, she turns back one last time to where the mysterious cloaked figure was. “Alright, buddy, let’s get out of here.”