After seeing the four of us in turn in his circle, he had Sam and Voice spar against each other. He sent Daisy to practice against one of the dummies and then took me to face another of them.

  “Solid improvements.” The Weapon Master commented as he adjusted my stance slightly. “This should help with your balance in the lunges. You aren’t here for your quarterstaff, though.”

  “I have a spell, and I’m hoping to learn how to fight with it,” I said.

  “Show me.”

  I nodded, focused and then silently cast [Ice Blade] in its spear form. “It also has Scythe form…” I focused and the foot-long ice blade, which was sticking out of the quarterstaff, seemingly flowed into a two-foot curving blade coming from the side of the end.

  “Interesting…” he said, tilting his head in thought. “How easy is it for you to change that spell on the fly?”

  “Getting easier, the more I understand spell casting,” I acknowledged.

  “I’ve seen others casting spells to change their weapons, but it normally takes a lot of concentration and finger wiggling. Those who don’t seem to need to do that tend to also use overpowering force in their magic… Ok, the spear form is the easiest to adapt the style of quarterstaff for…”

  He showed me how to thrust safely with it and then left me practising with the dummy. Thirty minutes or so later, he came back carrying a spear which resembled my Ice Blade-enhanced quarterstaff and a Battle Scythe, which was pretty close to my Ice Blade’s other form.

  “Good work. Let me show a few more strikes with the spear and how you need to adjust your positioning for this weapon.”

  “Move quicker. Your opponents won’t stand still, so you shouldn’t either. Even in a formation, be ready to shift with the fight.”

  “Strike here. Then here. Practice that combination.”

  “Slashes with spears can be effective tools. Don’t use them excessively, but keep them in mind.”

  “OK, Aenara. I think you have a solid grasp of the basic spear techniques. You need more practice, but you also asked about Scythe attacks. Normally, I would strongly discourage the use of scythes in battle; they have some strengths, but the disadvantages, in the hands of most fighters, make it more of a hindrance than a benefit. But if you can master that ability to swap the weapon type mid-strike… then it could become an incredibly lethal weapon. Suddenly having two feet of blade coming out the side of a weapon, when before it had none…” He nodded as he lifted up the metal weapon built similarly enough to my own.

  “This one is sufficiently different in style that we will take it slower. I want you to think of the strikes as being circular. The tip can pierce, and the edge can slice. Both, though, need a lateral movement to make use of.” He spun his body, brought the scythe around and slashed a line over the front of the dummy. His momentum kept him spinning and on the next pass, the tip cut into the dummy’s head.

  “We can also go vertical.” The old man did the same spin with the weapon and brought the tip down, hitting the top of the dummy. “As you can see, this could allow you to bypass a shield. You could also try a thrust…”

  His hand shot forward, aiming to the left of the dummy with the shaft, which took the blade into the throat of the dummy, spun the blade and thrust forward again, putting the blade behind the dummy, before spinning the blade back around and pulling it back, hitting the back of the dummy’s neck.

  “Which I wouldn’t trust in combat with this weapon, could break the blade, but it might be viable with a magic one. For the first attack with this weapon, move like this.” He brought the weapon around slowly to show me how to hold the shaft, position my feet, and swing it with force.

  “Better. I think you have the basics down. I’ll leave you to practice. My advice would be to mostly use the spear mode of the spell and save this configuration for surprise attacks. In the right hands, a battlescythe is a deadly weapon, but it needs a highly mobile hand to get the most out of it. I’ll look forward to seeing how you integrate it with your fighting style.”

  ‘Your experience in combat with a Battle Staff has made it more comfortable in your hand, Battle Staff skill enhanced.’

  ‘Your experience in combat with a Quarter staff has made it more comfortable in your hand, Quarter Staff skill enhanced.’

  [Skill gained - Melee - Piercing - Spear - 1 rank]

  ‘Your experience with a Quarter staff has allowed you to pick up the spear skill quicker, Spear skill enhanced.’

  [Skill gained - Melee - Slashing - Battle Scythe - 1 rank]

  ‘Your experience in combat and diligent training with a weapon needing finesse has helped you become more attuned with your body, dexterity point gained.’

  “Aenara,” Daisy called out to get my attention. “The other two and I are taking a break for food. We thought we would give it an hour and then go clear some towers. Sound good to you?”

  I looked at the time and realised I had gotten lost in the training again. “Yeah, that sounds good. Here in an hour?” I asked, walking over to where the other three were leaning against a wooden fence.

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  The four of us logged out to get some food.

  I slipped the robe on and headed downstairs.

  “Ava, Velkaria news, please,” I called out as I entered the kitchen and opened the fridge.

  “Top story, the Overloads submitted an official complaint today, after a large group of their players were wiped out by a handful of what they described as clear cheaters. Players showed initial support for the complaint until they released a video of the altercation. Reactions are increasingly mocking them. Would you like to know more?”

  “Sure,” I confirmed, having a feeling I knew where this was going. I pulled the freshly defrosted chicken out of the fridge and considered what I would cook with it… Chicken fried rice. I grabbed a portion of my precooked rice from the freezer and then went hunting for my wok.

  “...So it’s official then? The overnoobs outed themselves as being out of touch?” one of the big streamers’ voices came out over the speaker as my kitchen projector filled up with a still from Velkaria, it looked like the scene of our fight, taken from someone just inside the Central Services building.

  “Certainly seems that way.” His female cohost said. “Their argument is that no one should be able to cast that quickly…” The video started playing, showing the redhead say something to her armoured companion, an angry expression on her face, then she turned and unleashed a fireball onto the crowd of people as the tank collided with the closest to them.

  “Lip readers are saying she asked ‘First Blood?’” a third person on the stream said.

  “That checks out. Despite where the video starts, you can see that their archer has taken an arrow. She looks kind of young as well, which might explain why the mage and pistol guy look angry,” the host commented.

  “Tank looks like he is pissed as well,” The female voice said. “Look at that, he isn’t even flinching from that second fireball! Total badass. Is this our first time seeing someone using guns?”

  “Err, I think it is. We knew they were in the game; players have reported seeing them in shops.”

  The host rewinded the video again and focused on Sam drawing and shooting his pistols with his off hand while he fenced through several of the Overlords.

  I got my wok on the hob and pulled out the rest of the ingredients while it heated up.

  The camera was seen moving towards the fight; it must have been one of the players who joined the fight near the end.

  “Damn!” the male cohost said. “That Archer’s arrows are tight! She is so fast as well.”

  “So is this the cheating they are complaining about?” the host asked. “We know the game rewards actual skill and everything I have seen so far matches up with what we are seeing from real-world experts…”

  “Their complaint is about the Mage and the Healer. The Mage dropped those Fireballs faster than most people can get off their first spell and there is no way that's a Fire Bolt,” she said.

  “Where have I seen her before?” the cohost asked.

  A screen was then dragged on top of the other video; it showed a video of a mage casting a spell at the Mage school’s shooting range. The same redheaded mage, casting the same Fireball spell. “She is the one who revealed that everyone had the wrong idea about magic…”

  “Any news on the other factions?” I asked Ava, I knew where that stream was going, and while watching the fight from a different angle was interesting, I'd leave it for a post-mortem with Voice and the others. I started tossing the diced chicken into the oil.

  “Lost Dryad has a video of their first day as a Felge.”

  “Sounds good.”

  The video started with a bubbly voice talking excitedly about their chance to be a dryad. The clip didn’t show any of the other statues; she literally just walked in the room and walked right up to the female dryad and selected it. The female player started tweaking the appearance options and playing around with what she could do.

  “Skip to when she finishes designing her avatar,” I say as I drop the rice and peas into the wok and start stirring.

  The video skipped forward to the point where the player has finished tweaking her golden-leafed-haired treelady, based on an aspen tree. Her skin shimmered with the pale grain of solid pale hardwood, almost glowing as the light hit it. The hair was actually fine leaves seemingly twisted with each other like incredibly fine dreadlocks. She had large, wide amber eyes.

  She entered Aurelia Aspen-Singer as her name. No randomised name for this player, she knew who she wanted play. She selected the complete button, the ground shimmered and shook as a huge tree burst out of the ground in front of her. One branch of the tree stuck out just before the player, and in the nook where it joined the trunk, the player's avatar was lying down like it was using it for a bed.

  As I poured my dinner into a bowl and sat down at my kitchen island, the player stepped up and merged with her avatar to enter the game. The whole time, talking about how excited she was to get to play a Dryad as the screen faded to black.

  “Wake up! Young one. Today is the day!” a wizened voice said. The new dryad blinked her eyes. She was lying on the branch of a humongous tree. Melting snow dripped from the higher branches, her eyes spreading out over a forest which stretched as far as she could see. The branch seemed to bend down, creating a slide which the player slid down to the ground below, a path leading from where she was depositing towards the roots of another tree reaching into the skies above, where a glow was being emitted.

  “It’s your turn, Aurelia!” one of the male Felge said from beside her and pointed her towards the roots.

  “Good luck, Sister!” another dryad said with a grin and gave her a pat on the back.

  This continued as she was directed into the chamber below the great tree. The path led to a series of spinning circles, seemingly rotating through each other.

  “Good Luck, Pioneer! Remember your lessons and do the mother trees proud! We will see you on the otherside.”

  “You go, little sister!” Another dryad cheered and then gave her a push.

  She fell into the circles and it seemed to go bright, but then it was like she was in a tunnel and rushing through space. A speck of darkness grew and then she found herself being spat out into the space below another large tree.

  “Welcome to Velkaria, little Sister.” An imposing swamp-thing-like, Felge said from nearby. If you will come this way we will start helping you to adapt to this new world.

  Aurelia followed the large being out into the sun and gave her her first look at the game world. The tree had grown on the top of a huge mountain, giving her a view down into the swamplands on one side, a jungle on another and a stretch of coast on the third.

  Well…that is certainly a different start to the one I experienced, I thought.