“Dani! Wake up!”

  I sat upright suddenly, flailing to get a blanket off of me I didn’t remember covering up with. Breathing hard, I looked around in a mild panic, only to find no one in the room. I sat there, confused and my brain still foggy from sleep.

  There was a knock on my door, “Dani, I’m coming in.”

  The door opened and Paige poked her head in. She looked at me and the messy bed and snorted a laugh, “Did you just wake up?”

  I nodded groggily and looked around, trying to rub sleep out of my eyes, “What time is it?”

  “Midday.” Paige stepped inside and closed the door behind her. “Need a hand?”

  She was dressed in black cloth pants and a blouse that fit well. I shook my head at her and stood up to go get something besides the nightgown on. I noticed the cigarette case still on my desk and determined to get them checked out eventually.

  It took a few minutes to get cleaned up and dressed. I didn’t bother with a shower, just taking a rag and wiping myself off. As I did, I checked myself out in the mirror. I was rather impressed with the changes I noticed. I hadn’t been fat or anything when I’d first come here, but there’d been a noticeable give to my body.

  Now what I saw was an athletic body, lean and with visible muscle. Nothing drastic, my arms weren’t massive and I hadn’t gained visible abs, but noticeable. Even my hair seemed more naturally shiny, and my skin didn’t have any imperfections.

  Staring at the mirror, I felt uncomfortable after a while and got dressed in tan pants and a red shirt. I brushed my hair and bound it up into a tail to keep it out of my face before heading out to face the world, grabbing the cigarette case on the way and storing it into my Spatial Closet.

  Downstairs, Paige was waiting in the foyer. There was a maid with a vegetable and meat wrap and coffee. Her name was… Petunia, and I made sure to use her name when thanking her. It seemed to make her oddly happy and she practically had a skip in her step as she left. Paige was watching as I took the coffee and wrap to go outside and eat.

  I finished my food before addressing her, “So, what made you come wake me up?”

  “Your brother was getting anxious. Deacon said you were just tired and to let you sleep, but he left to go somewhere.” Paige looked at my coffee. “I don’t know how you can drink that stuff without anything in it.”

  I shrugged, “I like bitter flavors.”

  “Weird.” She responded.

  After I finished with the coffee, I asked a guard who was heading inside for a break if he could drop it off. When I asked his name, he got embarrassed but gave it. I filed it away as Tom the guard in my Notes and started to stretch, “So, Paige. Want to join me in my routine?”

  She looked confused, “Routine? Like a performer?”

  I shook my head, “No, I have a workout routine I do when I wake up. I’ll probably skip weapons, but I want to try pushing myself a little today.”

  “Is that how you got so fit?” She asked, starting to mimic my stretches. “I mean, I know you’ve leveled a lot recently, but usually it doesn’t change things that much.”

  I paused and looked up as I considered it. “Probably? I’ve been going pretty hard with it all since I wasn’t allowed to leave the manor grounds until recently.”

  “Yea, I remember you needed an escort. Just like a princess or something.” She giggled, and was practically bouncing with energy, “So, what’s your routine look like?”

  “Well, first, we setup the obstacles. Wheelbarrows, sacks of sand or dirt, and the few hurdles Grimoire managed to order for me.” Originally, it hadn’t even been that complicated. Just spots I’d needed to jump from one marker to another. “If the guards are willing to help out, I’ll even have them try and block the way.”

  “That’s… a lot more intense than I was expecting.” Paige was suddenly looking less confident. “What’s this training?”

  I held up my hand and counted it off. “For skills, it’s Sprinting, Freerunning, and now probably Traction. It also can improve physical stats.” We were outside, and within earshot of other people so I didn’t want to talk too specifically about it. “I’m sure there’s other skills I could train with it, but I just don’t know them yet.”

  As I looked over my sheet for a moment, I almost swore. I’d forgotten to change my class before falling asleep. Looking through my options, I shrugged and went with Sneak. The bonus to improving Movement skills would help, even if I had no intention to train Stealth skills. I still need to get Grimoire to teach me some Perception skill training methods…

  “Okay, so I’ve got Sprinting. What’s Freerunning?” When I explained it, her eyes went wide with excitement. “That sounds awesome! I want it.”

  That made me laugh, “We can try and figure out how to get you the skill. Should just take practice, maybe you can try running up the wall in the training room?”

  “Wait, do you think that’d be enough?” Paige asked curious, “It can’t be that easy.”

  I shrugged, “From what I’ve gathered, getting Tier 0 is just… doing something enough. Not hard, but you do need to do it.”

  “When you say it like that, it sounds easy.” Paige grumbled. “Meanwhile, I keep trying to get it and can’t pick up Throwing. It’s really useful for my class, so I don’t get what the problem was.”

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  I checked the skill.

  Throwing

  You have unlocked the ability to throw an object at another object. The only impressive thing is not having it before you’re a teenager.

  Tier 0: You are able to throw an object in the general direction you are aiming. Aim is better with Perception and Dexterity.

  Tier 1: You can channel mana into an object before throwing it. Different types of mana apply different effects

  What stats did that give? I tried to bring up more information. After trying a few keywords that helped in other places, I managed to find the stats the skill gave. Strength? There doesn’t seem to be a requirement to the skill either.

  “How have you been practicing?” I asked, curious.

  “Throwing rocks at a wall.” She said with a shrug.

  I paused, remembering when we’d first met. “Wait… don’t you have throwing knives? Why pick those up if you don’t have the skill?”

  “I’m trying to get it it, that’s why I got them. I thought they’d help.” She sighed and slumped, “But the sewer rats stole them when I missed.”

  I blinked a few times, trying to parse that. “Have you tried… a target?”

  “No?” She said, confused, “Why would that matter?”

  I shrugged, “Couldn’t hurt.”

  As we’d been talking, we’d been setting up the little obstacle course. Some parts were left in place, like the large stacks of sand bags, but for the smaller stuff it took a bit of work. By the time we were ready, Paige was already a little winded, but was committed to at least trying. Meanwhile, I was just getting started.

  We went to where the ‘starting line’ was, near the entrance gate to the manor grounds, and I counted us down. I didn’t really take a stance or anything, just running in place to get ready. When I got to zero, we took off. Immediately, I noticed a difference between the two of us.

  Paige, while not having a lot of endurance or strength, clearly had agility to spare. She kept up pretty easily as we started the first lap. She started lagging behind at the obstacles, but was staying behind me and trying to mimic my actions. I had to pause when she tripped over the wheelbarrow, though. “You okay?”

  She waved me off, standing up. When she started limping, I jogged over and patted her shoulder as I cast Heal. Her limp went away, and I motioned for her to follow as I picked up my pace.

  The first lap ended with Paige panting, but willing to give the second lap a try. I stayed at a slower speed to make sure I could help if Paige stumbled again. She appreciated it when the next time she tried to hurdle the pile of sandbags, she fell over and landed wrong. I healed her again, and said if she wanted to just run alongside she didn’t have to use the obstacles. We finished lap two with her running alongside me.

  The panting Paige stopped at the start, leaning over and panting, “That, was hard. You do this every morning?”

  I was jogging in place, “I try to do five laps. Usually I have some weights with me too.”

  “Monster.” Paige complained, taking a seat. “Mind if I sit the rest out?”

  I shrugged, “Go for it.” I really wanted to push myself today anyway, and her sitting out would be one less distraction.

  Once she’d found a place to recover, I went back to the start and got ready all over again. I counted myself down. Full effort. Don’t hold back. I thought right before I took off.

  While Paige was fast, she hadn’t gotten used to the obstacles. I was. And I suspected I had a higher agility, even if she was at a higher Tier of class. Even if she did have comparable stats, I was actively using my skills.

  Needless to say, I moved fast. Some of the stories I’d been reading had talked about things moving so quick the eye could barely track them, but I wasn’t there yet. It was comparable to the striders we’d ridden, though. The fence next to me blurred as I ran, the obstacles coming up fast enough a person not prepared would have issue. I vaulted and jumped over them.

  The first two laps had taken around ten minutes each, since Paige was getting used to things and had started to slow on the second lap. This third one took five. The fourth and fifth took four minutes to complete. I then started a sixth and reached deep to try and increase my speed. I wasn’t going to use mana, but I did finally trigger the active portion of my Sprint skill.

  Now, the math from the skill didn’t make it sound like a lot. It was my Agility, which was 35 after swapping to Sneak, divided by four and multiplied by ten percent. It came out to a little under 90% and because of my endurance it would last for a little over tend seconds.

  When I activated the skill, I hadn’t been ready for just how sudden the increase was. After almost tripping over the same wheelbarrow Paige had, I moved away from the obstacles and just ran. What had been a blur before was now almost impossible to keep track of. I was moving so fast the air itself was starting to become an issue, pushing back against me as I ran.

  I was trying to figure out a solution when the skill ended and I did trip this time. I rolled with it on reflex, but still managed to crash into the iron fence in a way that caused a sickening crack from one of my shoulders.

  Groaning, I stood back up and looked at my arm hanging loosely from my shoulder. I could still move my fingers, but even standing up had nearly caused me to pass out. Fuuuuuck that hurts. I thought as I started to walk back to the front. I cast Heal to fix it.

  I felt… something happen, but the arm was still loose and it still hurt if I moved it too much. I stared at it, and got a grip on the panic that had started to rise up. “That’s not good…” I made my way back to the front, holding my arm in a position that wouldn’t move it too much.

  Paige was talking to one of the guards who stayed at the gate. It was the guard who noticed something wrong first, and he rushed over to me. “Lady Danielle! Are you okay? What happened?!”

  “Tripped. Think I may need to go to a clinic. Heal isn’t fixing this.” Something in my expression was keeping them from getting too close, and I honestly wasn’t in the mood to work on that. I was irritated more than I was hurt. The guard, wisely, ran into the house while Paige had gone pale. She looked like she wanted to ask something, and I rolled my eyes, “What?”

  “What happened?” Paige asked, cautiously.

  “You have Sprinting?” I asked. When she nodded. “Did you know it had an active component?” She nodded, “I hadn’t been keeping count.”

  Her brow furrowed, “But it only lasts a couple seconds…”

  Her endurance is lower than I thought. “It lasts for ten for me.”

  “Okay, that’s not fair in the slightest!” She said, exasperated. “Why does yours last longer?!”

  I leaned in closer, “It lasts longer the higher one of your stats are. More Endurance, longer skill.”

  Paige blinked. “Huh…” She seemed to consider that.

  It was around then that I heard the door open and Grimoire came out. He took one look at me and tsk’d, “Come on in, we’ll get this taken care of.”

  I looked at Paige with confusion and she shrugged. We followed him inside. Why do I feel like this is going to hurt?