Illumisia snorts a laugh. Pearl stifles her own, but I’m not quite as amused as they are. Briony is right that my clearance isn’t that high. And from the ‘fight’ with those masked assholes, I’m not as confident in my abilities as I used to be. Just because I don’t know how strong a clearance level makes you, I can’t be… cocky. Even though I want to.

  “I’m only clearance five. How much stronger is clearance twenty?”

  “A lot. Like, almost not comparable.” Briony pushes the door open with one hand and pulls me into the street. “You have… what, five to seven in each stat? Well, someone with clearance twenty is getting close to forty in their highest stat. Maybe even fifty if they’ve gotten lucky with drops.”

  I nod idly as I look around for threats. “What’s that translate to power-wise?”

  “Hm. Probably… five times as powerful for most spells, and they have access to a lot of stuff that you physically couldn’t use. And that’s not even factoring in how much more mana they have, so they can outlast you, too.” She swallows hard and snaps her neck in every direction looking for danger. “I’m only clearance eighteen right now, so I could put up a good fight, but I’m not strong enough to fight and protect at the same time. Only psychics and defenders have that luxury.”

  Psychics and defenders. Gisela and Dora’s classes. That… that has to be a coincidence, right?

  “You said that before. I get defenders, but why psychics?”

  Briony lets out a pinched laugh. “Because psychics are pretty much the strongest class there is. They can do almost anything the other classes can do, and they can funnel most of their stat points into mind–making them way more efficient than everyone else. Add in the mind-altering thing that no other classes can do… and… well, you can see what I mean.”

  I sort of can, yeah. Except for the fact that Gasp didn’t seem very good at avoiding dying, she was the centerpiece of the Preservation’s plan. Then again, Shout could somehow copy her spells, and he’s not a Worth class-so whatever he is has to be up there in the power rankings as well. Maybe I shouldn’t be thinking about this right now. But then again, they’re freaking out over Illumisia. It’s not like we’re actually about to be attacked.

  Clattering footsteps on slightly slick stone echo out as we jog towards the nearest house. A flash of fur and magic blinks against the corner of my awareness, and Illumisia slinks into a building that looks like some kind of indoor market. The village is a little bigger than I thought it was, with something that looks like a church up on a hill and a schoolhouse off in the distance, but all of it is just too… pristine looking.

  Whatever doubt I had about the system completely repairing this place slowly falls away. Now my thoughts are consumed with questions as to why it bothered remaking the village in the first place, why it left behind a few oddities, and why the houses are so much more obvious than the other buildings. Before I can open my mouth to ask, Vesa kicks open the door to one of the houses and waves Briony in.

  “It’s clear!” He calls from a whole eight feet in front of us. “No thoughts inside at all.”

  I raise an eyebrow in curiosity. “You can hear thoughts?”

  “Kind of. It’s hard to explain. I’ll tell you in a second.” He says as we hurry into the house, then glances around outside for any signs of these ‘clearance twenty’ attackers. Then he slams the door shut, presses his palm half over the door and half over the connected wall, and leaves a magic handprint there. “That should keep them out for at least a few minutes. And yes, I can hear thoughts–but it’s more like a garbled white noise telling me that thinking beings are close. Apparently some really high level psychics can hear perfectly clearly, but I’m not one of them.”

  “Not yet, at least.” Briony corrects him. She makes her way to a chair and falls into it with a sigh. “Okay. Well, if we want you to trust us, then I guess we have to spill some information. Do you want to start with why we’re after Clutter?”

  I let out a short, amused breath. “That’s pretty much all I want to know.”

  Briony tilts her head to the side. “You don’t care what classes we are, or who we are, or how we know Clutter in the first place?”

  “Doesn’t that last one connect to why you’re after Clutter?” I turn to face my still-frozen friend, who Vesa is moving away from the door. “Is he in danger?”

  “We’re all in danger.” Vesa mutters. He carefully makes sure Clutter is up against an inner wall, then walks away with a frown. “There are people out there who don’t care what happens, and there are people out there who really don’t want specific things to happen. Both of those groups want us gone.”

  Briony nods in agreement. “And then there’s HuSt, who are just a bunch of huge jerks that do whatever they want no matter who it hurts or benefits. You… aren’t with HuSt, right?”

  “No, I definitely am not.”

  She sighs in relief. “If you aren’t with them, and you aren’t with Stonestep Solutions, then you’re not with any of our enemies near Palastia. Which makes you perfectly safe to talk to.”

  I hold out a hand to stop her. “How do you know I’m not with anyone else?”

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Because you’re clearance five.” Vesa says like it’s obvious. “Maybe if you were clearance ten, then we'd have to be worried, but five is perfectly safe for a human. You haven’t even gotten access to the rest of the continent yet, nevermind the world.”

  So I really am still in the tutorial. I’d love to think that means this quest should’t be too dangerous, but because the horizonguard who runs Stonestep Solutions is in on it, it’s going to be dangerous.

  “I guess that’s fair.” I walk over to Clutter and plant myself next to him. “So what’s the story? Start with introductions, then go to why you’re trying to kidnap Clutter ‘for his own good’.”

  “Okay. I’m Briony, which you already know, and I’m a transmuter. Do you know what class that is? I’m just going to assume you don’t.” She holds out a hand, and her armor shimmers with magic. “I can change the properties of things I touch, and my spells let that happen to other things too. Like what I did to your body–I took all the waste products and exhaustion and turned them into energy. Then I amplified it a little with another spell, and now you feel like you just had a perfect sleep and are freakishly alert while also being calm at the same time.”

  I blink slowly and glance down at my hand. “That sounds unbelievably useful.”

  Briony twitches and sits up straighter. “It’s… not that much. Most people want scouts, warriors, defenders, mages, psychics… pretty much all the straightforward classes. Mine is too complicated to be really useful.”

  “Too complicated? You take something and alter it. That’s not complicated.” I hold up my hand with a ring on it and tap the piece of jewelry. “Could you turn this into a different metal or stone if you had enough mana?”

  “If I had enough mana, I–wait, you already said that.” She laughs in embarrassment and lowers her hands into her lap. “It takes a lot of mana to change something powerful, no matter what end of the change it’s on. But turning… say… water into blood isn’t that hard. Unless it’s inside of someone, because their will fights me every step of the way.”

  I cross my arms and hum in thought. “What about a health potion? How hard would it be to turn water into one of those?”

  Before Briony can say anything, Vesa coughs and slightly shakes his head. She stops and stares at him for a second, then seems to realize that she’d just been spilling what I assume are secrets freely.

  “C-can you pretend I didn’t say anything?” She asks meekly.

  I cock a smile and zip my lips. “Didn’t hear anything after you said ‘Transmuter’. Are you a full-class or a partial one?”

  Briony thinks for a second, then nods slowly. “I’m a full class. Anyone over Clearance ten will be, but they’ll usually for the specialize spells and skills they’ve worked with. But you humans always get full classes from the start, right?”

  I nod. Vesa glances away.

  “Lucky.” He grumbles, and I pretend I didn’t hear him.

  “Cool. I already know Vesa’s a psychic, and that’s enough for me for now. So why Clutter? Is he some kind of royalty back where you’re from?”

  “Clutter? Royalty?” Briony giggles at the thought and waves her hand dismissively. “No way. Clutter’s not one of those jerks. He’s a super skilled full scout, who mastered an insanely powerful movement spell that most people can’t even imagine.”

  Ah, the starway. It did seem like a little more than anything else I’ve seen a normal person in this world use. “Is that it?”

  She shakes her head. “Nope. Clutter was working for the people we’re working for, but then he just kind of disappeared one day. We had to track him for months just to find a single hint of his existence, and then it led us here–well, it led us to the alley we found him in yesterday, but you get the point. He was emotional and it looked like he was running from someone, so Vesa did something stupid.”

  Vesa whips around with a look of utter hurt. “You didn’t think it was stupid yesterday.”

  “No, but with hindsight, you have to admit it was kind of stupid. Getting rid of all his memories involving us just so we could talk to him as strangers, and then he still ran away afterwards before you could undo it?” She raises her palms ever so slightly. “It was pretty stupid.”

  “Mrrgh. It wasn’t stupid. Rushed, maybe, but not stupid.” Vesa grumbles and turns to stare Clutter in the eyes. “We didn’t know he was fine. Our last piece of info said Stonestep Solutions had killed him, so we acted…”

  Briony tilts her chin up a little, and I can imagine her smiling. “Stupid?”

  Vesa frowns and completely looks away grumbling. It sounds something like begrudging agreement, but it could just as easily be a childish insult. Either way, it puts a perfect bow of an explanation on almost everything. Except for the one giant hole in the excuse.

  I lean forward and discreetly ready two shield coins. “Sounds horrible. So when was the last time you saw Clutter before this?”

  “Oh, it must've been… a long time.” Briony sighs and leans back in her chair. “I haven’t seen him since he left our squad.”

  “Really?” I say in monotone. “What about the time you lost your eye because he was a coward?”

  Both Vesa and Briony freeze. She stays stark still, like a statue for a dozen heartbeats. Then like a coiled spring releasing all of its energy, she launches herself at me and Clutter. I raise an arm to defend myself, pulling up a shield in preparation that coats me and the mind-numbed Clutter in protection.

  A surge of horrible magic batters up against it. Briony screams in agony and falls to the ground clutching her head, her limbs curling up into the fetal position as Vesa carefully steps around her to make his way to Clutter’s side.

  “Who are you?” He asks fearfully. “What did you do with Briony? And… when did you do it?!”’

  “AAAAGH! MAKE IT STOOOP!” Briony wails in agony. “I… I… it was… I was…”

  Magic washes over her once more, and with a pinched gasp, the screaming stops. I watch in disgust as she gathers herself, pulls herself to her feet, and wraps her hands around her own neck.

  Vesa swallows hard. “Don’t worry, Shelby, I’ve got her under control. Whoever she is, she won’t get Clutter on my watch. But we need to get back to Palastia right now.”

  Sick, vitriolic disgust swims in my gut as magic batters at my shield. I close one fist and summon a projectile into it, then place a purification directly under my foot. Right now, there’s only one person here who can mess with minds.

  “How do you know my name?”