My feet kicked up dust as I wandered along the near-forgotten path through the woods. The area was beginning to transition from woodland into full blown forest, and I was a little on edge. Bandits liked to hang out around here, so I had to be on guard, even if I was fairly confident in all my new abilities.

I’d waited until I was level ten before I approached the boss I needed to kill for my anvil. During that time, I put my level eight attribute points into strength again, but levels nine and ten went into Dex and Stam respectively. Nothing, save for those three stats, was going to help me during this fight.

On the much more interesting side of progression, I gained an ability point for every level. One was spent on the Fae Feedback passive, but the rest were carefully hoarded until I hit level ten. From there, I had a great many options.

Most were passives that did various things I wasn’t going to need for this fight, but a few were downright screaming to be used in the coming battle. Stuff like Ribbon Roll, which was basically exactly the skill I needed to get through the coming fight. I was going to be crutching off it so hard. I could also upgrade some old abilities too, increasing their power or giving them new traits.

Taking a moment to rest before I continued my walk towards the boss, I brought up my choices to go over them again.

Ribbon Roll
You perform a small dash or roll, your form briefly becoming shrouded in a swirl of ribbons that obfuscate your movements and provide a brief moment of incorporeality.

Named Mark
You pull a veil over your sight, allowing you to see a glimpse of a creature's soul. Striking the weak point that is highlighted will deal a guaranteed critical hit and temporarily decrease their Athleticism stat by one point.

Imbue Strike (Level 2)
Charge your blade with fae energy, allowing it to pierce tougher materials than the weapon would otherwise allow. This effect is increased to level two.

Ascendant Cut
Slice through the air with supernatural speed, dealing massive damage to any in the path of your blade.

The last one was an anime samurai staple, and the damage numbers on it were impressive. I figured I’d need a good execution ability or something, so I’d chosen it.

Last, but by far not least, I had upgraded my wings to Juvenile Wings, which allowed me to double jump or hover in midair for a brief period of time. I’d already begun playing with them, and they were super fun. Not as fun as Elena’s reaction to seeing them, though. She’d squealed like a six year old girl seeing her favourite Disney princess.

Naturally, she’d then had me bouncing around our apartment, flapping my wings and generally rushing around like a big chonkin’ butterfly. I wonder when I’d be able to shrink myself? That was something I’d figure out later though, because I was coming up on the boss arena.

In the middle of the forest, an old, ancient city stood, overgrown and weathered down to just its foundations. At the center of this city, a large open space paved in broken stone cobbles lay, all that remained of the city center. From what I had read, this had been a city of humans, part of a kingdom that had ruled central Porin long before the ancestors of the current kingdom had arrived. Nobody knew what had happened to them, either, which was a pretty fascinating mystery.

The boss stood in the center of this overgrown city square at almost twelve feet tall, and appeared to be a sort of glowing mushroom, if mushrooms were bipedal and built like a gorilla with a huge mace. Its pallid white flesh was shot through with a dark green glow that told me I was in the right place. Dark green with a bluish tint was this game’s way of indicating something undead, which apparently included mushrooms now.

All along the body of the huge creature, parts of the mushroom flesh had hardened into carapace-like chunks that acted as armour. The cap of the mushroom was huge, almost taking up half as much mass as the rest of its body, but it nevertheless moved with a sort of flowing grace. It clearly wasn’t going anywhere fast, but it had a rather intriguing amount of control over its huge bulk.

Right now, it stood stock still save for a gentle swaying, as though it was in a trance. I knew better, though. When I wasn't busy with other shit, I’d been watching a few streams of the fight, and that boss was one vicious motherfucker.

When it noticed me, it would begin with a fast, zig-zagging charge that made hitting it with initial taunts difficult. Which, of course, began as soon as I set foot on a cobblestone of the square.

Thankfully, I didn’t need to hit it with any ranged taunts, and instead I dashed quickly to my right, drawing my sword in the process. I barely had time to get my sword up and imbued with my parry skill before the mace slapped me sideways. I didn’t die instantly, but the follow up blow from his fist finished the job.

I respawned on my back in the camp I had set up nearby with a laugh and a shake of my head. Oh dear, this was going to be a tough fight to master.

My second attempt went slightly better. Rather than try and dodge the initial attack, I used my Imbue Parry ability to strengthen my stance and deflect the mace. Then I dodged out of the way of mushroom boy’s fist. Okay. Progress!

Quickly, I lunged forward and scored a cut along the punching arm of the mushroom. With a satisfied little mental dance, I saw the Fae Feedback buff pop up with a stack of one. Then, it blinked off, because he smacked me sideways like a bug and I was respawning again.

Still, fighting and dying to this thing wasn’t even that bad. Death was instant, which was more than you could say for some other content in this game.

****

I was on my twelfth death when I finally managed to get the hang of stacking the damage buff while staying alive. The distraction spells turned out to be my best defences, as that would send the boss’ attacks off in a completely different direction.

All I had to do was, gently touch my imbued blade to the mushroom’s mace as it sailed by, which seemed to count as a parry in the game’s book. Then, I’d hit it with a Mind Flutter, causing him to think I was somewhere else, redirecting the reprisal towards some imaginary phantom in the boss’ mind. With that nasty haymaker out of the way, I was free to stab in with a Pinprick Strike to add another stack to the Feedback buff.

Gasping, I pulled myself into a Ribbon Roll and tried to evict my stomach from my throat as a big mushroomy kick sailed straight through me. I’d gotten distracted, and it had almost cost me this attempt.

“I’m going to turn you into a fucking soup when I’m done!” I growled at the massive beast as I beat my wings to pull my dodge into a leap out of its reach. “Maybe something with chicken in it!”

Mentally willing my eyes to unfocus, I took the brief moment before the mushroom closed with me again to activate Named Mark. My vision snapped back into focus with a new quality to it, causing everything to take on a subtle pink backlight. God, if there was one thing I loved about this class, it was all the pink.

I’d always had a soft spot for the colour, but now I was gaining a whole new appreciation for it. Plus, there were so many different shades of pink! I think my favourite was a nice, mellow pastel pink, but I could dig a bit of neon, or even some really pale pink.

Anyway, now I could see some of that neon pink on the mushroom’s skin, like a little target. Putting on a burst of speed, I leapt into the air and activated Scatter Dash and my double jump at the same time, causing me to soar through the air for a brief moment.

My blade bit deep into the flesh of the mushroom’s cap, right where the neon pink glow had been. It popped with a satisfying ethereal snap, and the boss gave a roar of pain. Hell yeah, get wrecked!

Glancing at its health bar, I was surprised and delighted to see that combined with my damage buff, that hit had done about five percent of the things’ total hit points. Fuck yeah! This was totally doable, all I needed to— 

A cheer sounded out from back on the road, causing my head to whip around towards the noise. My vision went dark as the mushroom’s mace swatted me halfway across the arena.

I didn’t, however, respawn back at my camp. No, I came to with my head cradled in someone’s lap. It was a familiar sight, as was the face looking down at me with mild concern. My ex-favourite healer, Ethan.

“What the fuck?” I blurted, bolting upright and away from him. I glanced around, my heart beating rapidly, trying to figure out what had just happened. The boss, I got hit… then…

Surrounding me on the ruined street were twenty members of my old guild, all staring down at me without a clue of who I was. When I looked in the direction of the square, I saw the boss had reset, probably after my death. That was no longer my top priority though.

A smooth, slightly melodic voice was the one to reply. “Sorry, that was totally my fault.”

My head snapped around to stare at the speaker. She was almost as short as I was, with long, pointed ears and an open, friendly face. Her hair was dark and wavy, tumbling down to her shoulders in a riotous wave that made me want to just reach up and run my fingers through it. Her eyes were what caught my attention the most, their brilliant mahogany depths framed by heavy goth style mascara and eyeliner. Last, but not least, was her dark red lipstick, which was the second thing my gaze was drawn to.

“I kinda cheered when you did that cool flip thing through the air,” she told me sheepishly, her beautiful eyes crinkling at the corners as she smiled.

Paisley.

“Why the fuck is a level ten trying to solo that thing, that’s what I want to know,” another voice cut in. A grating, cocky voice. One I had never wanted to hear again.

Marlon was the opposite of Ethan’s slim, almost elfin grace. He stood tall and broad, with a set of shining armour covering most of his body. Only his green eyes and stubbly chin could be seen within the T shaped visor of his helmet.

Cheating scum. That’s what I wanted to say. I didn’t, though, because the last time I’d confronted him about that side boy of his, I’d lost every single friend I had in the world.

“Honey, be nice,” Ethan said, his voice gravelly and soft, all at once. “She’s clearly new.”

“Like hell she is,” Marlon grumbled, but then he just sort of shrugged and turned back to the boss. “She’s Fae, and look at her sword. She’s one of those lucky few who got the new secret classes.”

Alright. Nah. Time for me to get the fuck out of here. My heart was beating harder than a teenage boy who’d just figured out what an orgasm was.

Ethan wasn’t having any of it, and with a frown he looked up at his boyfriend. “And how do you know that she wasn’t just given it when she logged in for the first time? Maybe she just killed a goblin and it dropped? It’s not like there’s been any rhyme or reason to the way they’re dropping.”

Oh god, they were going to have an argument. Crap. Shit. Fuck.

Fuelled by the anxiety, confusion, fear, and anger that was warring within me, I rolled to my feet with ribbons flying in all directions. Then, the world blurred around me as I activated Scatter Dash and disappeared into the overgrown ruins.