Kat and Alicia kissed, then Kat moved back to her spectator’s spot for the real training to begin. With Tabitha now finished showing off, she began walking Alicia through the basics of melee combat. They talked about foot positioning, how to hold a weapon, and how to shift weight to stay on balance. They walked through a series of basic maneuvers, all for different purposes: defending, repositioning, advancing, and dozens more.
After the first few minutes, Katrina grabbed her guitar and a chair from inside, then returned to watch the training. She settled in, double checked the tuning just to be safe, and began to give both fighters some stamina regen. She had to remind herself that, as much as she wanted to conserve mana for the Dungeon, she also would be significantly more helpful if she could reach Level 3. It also looked like the other girls appreciated the extra energy; they weren’t actually fighting, so HP Regen would have been wasted, and neither was using any mana.
She also took the opportunity to extensively study Tabitha’s movement. With her Bardic Knowledge, she was able to commit things to memory much faster than most, and she knew it would be just as helpful for her to familiarize herself with the Mage Knight’s movements.
Alicia, for her part, was putting in a solid effort. Despite her obvious lack of fighting experience, she was doing everything in her power to improve. Over the first hour, her footwork grew more reliable, her ability to read Tabitha’s movement began to develop, and she seemed more comfortable with her weapon. She even scored a hit on Tabitha at one point, who put up a good show in pretending like she hadn’t let it happen.
Eventually, they decided to take a rest, and Kat quickly got everyone a glass of water. They all collapsed on the front lawn, one of them significantly more out of breath than the other.
“Keep it up, Alicia! You’re taking to this like a natural,” Tabitha said.
“We both know that’s not true, but I appreciate you making the effort.” Alicia laughed, holding her fingers in the water to absorb it through her roots. “Why am I learning to fight again? My class is all about barriers, but I haven’t even touched them yet.”
“We’ll get to those in a second, especially since we need you to Level Up, but you need to start thinking in terms of resource allocation,” Tabitha said, setting her water down. “If a monster tries to hit you, and you block it with a barrier, how is that any different than taking the hit yourself? Now, imagine you block the attack with a club, or a shield. The damage is blocked entirely, and you don’t lose any HP. Your stamina is a resource too, and it would be foolish not to use it.”
Alicia paused for a moment. “That does make sense. I don’t follow delvers like Kat does, so I’ve never thought about that stuff.”
“After the break, we’ll practice with your barriers. I want to see how fast you can make them, how flexible you can be with their shapes. Normally Bulwarks can spawn them in midair, but it doesn’t seem like you can do that.”
“I can’t, it’s a weird quirk of my Race and Class combination. I’m not sure if there are any benefits, though, since I’ve never explored it.”
“Hey, unrelated question,” Tabitha started, “but is there anything I could snack on?”
Katrina and Alicia looked at each other awkwardly, both probably thinking the same thing.
Shoot, she actually needs to eat.
“Um, I could check my cabinets? But anything in the house would be four years old, minimum.” Alicia started to get up but stopped when Tabitha started laughing.
“Don’t bother, I was pulling your leg. I’ve got some food for myself, I just wanted to see the look on your faces.” Tabitha continued laughing, falling back on the lawn before stretching her arms over her head. “Long term, though, I’m going to have to fill your pantry. Something to bring down into the Dungeon with us would be nice.”
Everyone continued resting for nearly half an hour. Tabitha didn’t need the rest as much, but seemed to be enjoying the quiet atmosphere and the cherry blossoms floating on the wind. Alicia was still holding her practice club, moving it back and forth to try and get more comfortable with it. Katrina’s music had never stopped, the soft sounds of her classical guitar giving everyone a healthy helping of stamina. Alicia clearly needed it more, but when Katrina asked Tabitha, she said it was also a big help. The Foxgirl hadn’t used much stamina during the training, but apparently she’d had a cam show earlier in the night that had kept her pretty busy.
Katrina was just about to suggest that they get back to practicing when a System notification went off in her head, causing her to flinch in surprise.
*PING*
She stopped playing, the peaceful guitar melody halting just moments before reaching a satisfying conclusion. Alicia looked down, concerned at the sudden movement. “Kat? What’s wrong?”
“I just hit Level Three!” There was a moment of shock, then Katrina started laughing. After years of staring at her Status, of using it solely to inflict terrible headaches in hopes of distracting her bloodlust, something had finally changed.
Alicia dropped to her knees, showering Katrina’s face with kisses in celebration. “Kat! That’s so exciting!”
“Way to go, Fangs! You said that gives you spellcasting, yeah?” Tabitha said, sitting up again.
“Alright, alright. Let me pull up my Status, and I’ll actually pick my Feature.” Resting her guitar on her leg, Katrina mentally summoned her Status screen, and was greeted by a message she thought she’d never see.
***
Gain: Bardic Spellcasting (Lesser)
Choose one:
Bonus Spells
Barbed Tongue
Secondary Method
Extended Inspiration
***
“You want us to look anything up for you?” Tabitha asked.
“No need, I’ve been dreaming of this moment for years. I’m getting Bonus Spells, it’s too good to pass up.” With a quick mental command, the Status screen disappeared, and Katrina looked around again.
“Well, how do you feel?” Alicia asked. “What spells did you get?”
“Bards are a little weird, we don’t pick our spells from a list or have them randomly assigned. We have to develop our spells ourselves, come up with ideas and then iterate on them until they coalesce in our Status.” Katrina squeezed her girlfriend’s hand in excitement. “I guess this gives me something to do while you two get back to sparring practice.”Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Aww but I want to see you make spells!” Alicia moaned.
“I’m not going anywhere, and the process is honestly going to be pretty boring. If I manage to figure out any spells tonight, I’ll make sure you see them.”
Tabitha jumped to her feet, grabbed her practice stick, and pointed it at Alicia. “Alright, you heard the lady, Cherry Blossom. Back to work!”
With another loud grumble, Alicia grabbed her weapon and moved back to the middle of the street. “Ugh, fine. You said you wanted to practice with my barriers next, right? So, are you just going to—”
“En garde!” Tabitha shouted, cutting Alicia off. She ran at the Dryad, clearly taking a leisurely pace, and started testing Alicia on the maneuvers they’d been practicing earlier. As they fell back into a familiar pattern of attacking and defending, they started incorporating Alicia’s barriers into the equation. Their discussion, and whatever progress they made, was of secondary interest to Katrina at the moment.
She’d just unlocked Bardic Spellcasting, after years of dreaming up possible spells for herself. Thankfully, she’d just formatted everything for her phone, so it was easy to scroll through her list of options. Every Bard forum she’d ever found claimed that Bardic Spellcasting, along with the Bonus Spells, would give her a total of eight spells. Although her list of ideas had significantly more than eight spells on it, she had separated them by presumed strength, as well as flexibility.
Whenever she imagined being a delver, Katrina always assumed she would work best as a jane-of-all-trades caster. Someone that could adapt to any situation, while also providing helpful supporting magic so that other casters didn’t have to give up valuable spell slots for basic spells.
It was almost overwhelming, having to choose a single spell to start with, but she had to start somewhere. With an idea in mind, she started practicing.
The music came easily. After all, she’d done nothing but improve her musical expertise for years now. The tricky part was readjusting how she interacted with her magic. With her Regeneration Buffs, she only had to make a simple selection on her Status screen, and then let the magic do its thing. Now that she had the tools to interact more directly with her magic, she struggled to figure out exactly how to control it. She could feel an impressive amount of magical energy inside her, waiting to be unleashed, but every time she reached for it, she couldn’t pull it free.
Eventually, Katrina decided to go back to the basics. Instead of elaborate flourishes and dramatic arpeggios, she started playing simple musical scales. She examined how the music interacted with the magic, how the energy reacted to different expressions of melody.
With a solid understanding of the basics, she added a tiny bit of complexity. She played a consecutive series of simple chords, up and down the register, again examining how they resonated with the magic. After this, she tried more complex chords, playing around with minor diminished progressions. This iteration continued for nearly another hour, during which Katrina was completely oblivious to whatever Alicia and Tabitha were doing.
At the end of the second hour of sparring practice, Katrina finally felt she was ready to attempt a spell.
“Alright you two, want to take a quick break?” Katrina asked.
“Yes! Please!” Alicia said, perhaps a little too eagerly. She was clearly exhausted, panting and gasping for air as she walked back towards her lawn. Her face winced with pain as she moved, and Katrina was fairly sure she could see the beginnings of several bruises. Tabitha also moved closer, but Katrina held up a hand to stop her.
“Actually, Tabitha, could you help me test a spell?”
“Depends, you gonna throw a lightning bolt at me and hope I can dodge it?” the Foxgirl asked, crossing her arms suspiciously.
“Nothing like that, it won’t do any damage. It’s just something that might disorient you for a couple seconds. I don’t want to get into the specifics, or it might skew your reaction.”
“I’ll volunteer if you want, Tabitha,” Alicia said, her voice still panting from all the training.
Tabitha paused, tapping her fingers on her arm as she thought about it. “No, I got this. Just remember, I’m here out of the goodness of my heart, not to be your little Dungeon guinea pig. Where do you want me?”
Katrina pointed to the road. “Could you start there, and just jog past us?”
With a mock salute, Tabitha took her spot. She looked at Katrina, the two girls nodded, and she took off at a leisurely pace. After the first couple of steps, Katrina started playing. She let the music flow through her fingers, reaching for the music and using the melody to form a bridge. The magic bound itself to the song, catching a ride out into the night sky, and Katrina directed the spell at Tabitha.
When the spell hit, the Foxgirl immediately tripped over her own feet. She hit the ground, her hands reaching for stability as a stream of profanity erupted from her mouth. The effects of the magic only lasted a few seconds, and when Tabitha returned to her senses, she glared at Katrina. “What on earth was that?”
“I gave you vertigo. At least, I tried to. What did it feel like?”
“It felt like vertigo! It was awful! My head was spinning, I couldn’t see straight, and I’m pretty sure I almost threw up. Wow, that was nasty.”
Katrina jumped to her feet, running over to Tabitha and extending a hand to help her up. “I hope it wasn’t too bad, truly. If you want to take creative revenge on me, I totally get it. Honestly, I think Alicia and I should feel what that spell is like anyways, just in case.”
With a smirk, Tabitha grabbed Katrina’s hand and pulled, standing to meet her. “That’s not a terrible idea. The two of you trying it, I mean. There’s no telling when a monster might reflect one of these spells at us, or something like that. As for creative revenge… well, you already wrote me a blank check for a favor. Let’s just say I’ll factor this little escapade in when I think of something. I’ve already got some ideas, truthfully, but all in good time, Fangs.”
“I do appreciate this, Tabitha. It means a lot. Just let me know if this ever gets to be too much for you.”
“Hey, I’m a grown woman, I can take care of myself. Besides, I just spent the last two hours beating up your girlfriend, a little payback is more than warranted.” The two girls smiled at each other before rejoining Alicia on her lawn. “How you feeling, Cherry Blossom?”
In lieu of a proper answer, Alicia instead let out a prolonged groan of misery. She was currently on the ground, unmoving, and Katrina was fairly sure she saw a series of roots extending from her back. “I’m gonna be so sore tomorrow, ugh. I want to just pass out in a sunbeam for like, a week. That won’t be a problem, right?”
Katrina sat down next to Alicia, softly brushing her hair from her face. “You can soak up all the sun you want tomorrow, hun.” The Dryad nuzzled into Katrina’s hand, humming with appreciation. She seemed like she was on the verge of passing out, and Katrina had to tap her cheek to make sure she didn’t fall asleep on her front lawn.
“In all seriousness, Alicia?” Tabitha said, clearing her throat. “You did really great today. For someone with no combat experience, I’d say you’re picking things up pretty quickly. We’re all finished for tonight, if you two want to retire to more private affairs.”
“How did the second training session go, anyways? I was too busy with my spells to pay attention,” Katrina asked.
Alicia slowly sat up, the roots on her back detaching, her bones cracking in a manner reminiscent of an ancient, lumbering tree. “I definitely noticed the lack of stamina regen, for one thing. Otherwise, I agree with Tabitha. The movements feel a bit more natural, and I think I’ve got the beginnings of an understanding of how to protect myself. Plus, I used Class Features! That’s gotta count for something right?”
“How close are you to leveling up?”
“I guess I should check, shouldn’t I? Status!” Alicia was now leaning against Katrina, her eyes fighting to stay open as she started reading through her Status. Barely a second passed before her eyes snapped wide open, and she leaned forward in surprise. “Wait! I leveled up too!”
“Dang, look at you two! We’re on a roll!” Tabitha said. She was in the middle of slowly removing her delving gear but paused to slowly applaud Alicia.
“This is Level Two, right? What stats are you going to take?” Katrina asked.
“Um, it says my only options are Health or Endurance. I should take the Health, right? The more HP I have the better?”
“You’re our tank, that seems like the right call to me.” Katrina squeezed Alicia’s hand, nodding enthusiastically. “Anything that keeps you alive is a win in my book.”
“Alright, two points in Health, and… done!”
As Katrina watched, she swore Alicia’s skin grew more vibrant. She’d always had a bit of a glow to her, though it was hard to say how literal that was, and now she seemed just a bit more alive. They smiled at each other, quickly kissing as they celebrated their respective level gains today. Eventually, the intense physical activity began to catch up with Alicia, and everyone decided to call it a night.
Tabitha left her delving essentials in Alicia’s living room, then walked home to get some sleep. Katrina eagerly walked upstairs, taking a few minutes to brush her teeth and put on her pajamas, then joined Alicia in her bedroom. The Dryad had already buried herself in the pile of blankets, and Katrina kneeled down to figure out how they might be able to cuddle. As soon as she laid down, however, Alicia tackled her with excitement, showering her with kisses. She wrapped her hands around Katrina’s waist, nuzzled her face into Katrina’s shoulder, and was asleep within minutes.