James weighed the staff in his hands. The balance was surprisingly good; though the weapon looked slapdash and barbaric, it was balanced well, and the magical aspect of it was stronger than anything else he’d seen up to this point.

  His axe growled a mixture of jealousy and resentment.

  James chuckled. “Green’s a good color on you,” he said. But as much as he loved his fireball skill, James had to admit that he fought with his axe more often, and the higher his Infernal Affinity climbed, the more damage he seemed to do with every strike. It was like he and the axe were communicating on a deeper level, so even though he’d never fought with an axe before, he was listening and acting accordingly.

  Which was, you know, creepy, but also maybe worth it? Without the axe, he’d probably be dead, so it would be the height of foolishness to throw that away.

  James liked to think he wasn’t that foolish.

  He added the staff to his inventory. It disappeared in a flash, easily transforming into a cartoonish version of itself in one of the five boxes at the bottom of his screen.

  That gave him an idea. James pulled the staff back to his hand with a thought and sent the axe to his inventory in its stead. He practiced that for a minute until he felt he could smoothly transfer between the two weapons.

  He grinned. Thanks to his inventory, he could use the staff for all his long-distance spell-casting, and then switch to his axe when he got closer.

  When he finished, Desiree held out the earth-magic notebook. She still towered over him, and the book looked more like a postage stamp in her hand. “Here you go,” she said. “Looks like this is the only valuable thing in this place.”

  James eyed her. “How are you feeling?”

  She shrugged. “Fine? I kinda like it. Maybe we can get me some giant armor, and I can stay this way.”

  James smiled at her positivity. The potion probably would wear off. It made sense that it might last longer on her, since she, a small human child, had downed a dose meant for an adult male goblin. Hopefully it didn’t wear off mid-combat. Then again, she was adaptable enough that she might be able to make that work, too.

  “Hey, Virgil!” James waved the book at the scholar, who was staring off into space, looking vaguely distressed. “Can you help me out?”

  Virgil shook himself, then walked over. “I can open the book to one spell,” he said. “Do you want an introduction to earth magic, or would you prefer to advance your fire?”

  James looked closer. “Hey man, are you okay?”

  Virgil looked back at him with eyes that said, very clearly, he was not okay at all. “I’m fine,” he said. “Which spell would you prefer?”

  James swallowed back a follow-up, kicking himself for asking that way instead of saying something more direct, like “what’s wrong?” But if Virgil didn’t want to open up, James didn’t want to pry.

  “A Hero should have access to all four elements,” Inara said.

  James glanced at her in surprise. “Really? That matters?”

  “That’s what everyone says!” Desiree agreed. Her chipper voice, now fueled by extra-large lungs, felt too loud in the small room. “It’s supposed to be important somehow against the Demon King.”

  James considered that. He did like the idea of becoming a sort of Avatar: the Last Airbender in a world full of people who specialized.

  He grinned. “Alright,” he said. “Let’s do the earth spell.”

  Virgil whispered a word of power. James strained his ears to try and hear it, but all he could make out was the scraping of stone on stone.

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  The little book glowed with green light. The silver lock crumbled into dust, the cover flew open, and the pages fluttered rapidly into a fan, like someone was reading the book too quickly to see. The green glow from the book continued to expand, too quickly and too completely for anyone to shield their eyes.

  And then it was over.

  James pressed his hands against his temples and blinked watery eyes. “I’m never getting used to that.”

  James stood in a vast cavern. Stalagmites speared up from the ground, varying in size from the width of a pinky to the height of a tree. Stalactites, too, hung from the ceiling like petrified fangs, each dripping condensed water with soft little plops at irregular intervals.

  James shuddered from a sudden chill. The air was cold, and it had a wispy quality that made him breathe deep, and he still felt like he wasn’t quite getting enough.

  Between him and his instructor was a body of water that was far too shallow to call a pool and too spread out to call a puddle. The water was so still that it perfectly reflected the stalactites above, and even the occasional ripple from a falling droplet was not enough to shake the illusion.

  “Hey! What are you doing here?” the man across the cave said just loud enough to be heard, his voice easily reverberating across the water.

  James looked at the person he assumed was supposed to be his earth magic instructor. The man was short and squat. He wore only the smallest pair of shorts James had ever seen, and he was bursting out of them. Even his muscles had muscles.

  “Are you deaf? The hell are you doing here?” The man cracked his knuckles.

  “I’m here to learn earth magic,” James said, far too loud. He was too far away to clearly see his instructor’s face, but the man leaned forward like he was squinting and trying to get a better look at James.

  “I haven’t had a student in centuries,” the instructor griped. “You don’t even have Earth affinity; don’t waste my time.” He made a dismissive gesture and turned away.

  “I was hoping you could help me with that,” James said, doing his best to keep his tone reasonable.

  “Ha! Ever since that damn System made everything so easy, you youngsters can’t be bothered learning magic the old-fashioned way. Just go back home and buy a skill like all your friends do.”

  There was a pouting tone in the instructor’s voice that made James smile. Like as grouchy as the man was, he wanted to be proven wrong.

  “You might be right about the people of Grimora,” James said. “I’ve only met one man who know how to cast magic the old way, and even he relies on Skills most of the time, regardless. But I’m not from here. I’m actually from a different world entirely.” With a sly smile, he added, “And my planet is actually named Earth, so I would really appreciate gaining this affinity.”

  The instructor turned slowly, suspicion in his ever movement. “That can’t be true,” he said. “Another world? Named Earth? You’re just trying to butter me up.”

  James shrugged. “Believe me or don’t, it’s still true. And it shouldn’t be too hard to believe, considering you’re in your own sort of—” he waved generally at the cave “—pocket dimension.”

  The short man snorted. He chuckled. He guffawed. Fat tears rolled down his cheeks, and he flicked them away with his meaty hands.

  “Alright, kid,” he said. “You’ve convinced me. Pocket dimension? Ha! You’re definitely out of this world.”

  “So you’ll teach me?” James didn’t bother hiding the eagerness in his voice.

  Still chuckling, the instructor sank into a deep squat. “We’ll see. Copy my movements.”

  James copied the squat. Back on Earth, the position would have quickly become uncomfortable, but that was before he’d started leveling up and pouring his stats into his strength. Instead, as the seconds turned into minutes and the minutes ticked on, his greatest obstacle was sheer boredom. He didn’t dare question his instructor, not when the man was already willing to dismiss him. And he kept a close eye on the man, in case there were any other movements for him to copy (desperately hoping, in fact, for other movements to copy) but the instructor remained still. As still as a stone.

  Once James made that realization, the exercise became a lot easier. The focus, then, was on maintaining the position. It was difficult because he was holding his body in a balanced position, but the more he thought about it the more sense it made. If he just sat, or leaned his back against the wall, what would he learn? He would relax his shoulders, slump forward without realizing it. He wouldn’t maintain the same stillness and alignment that he held in this squat, with the exercise keeping him keenly aware of his entire body.

  Eventually, James stopped watching the instructor. He closed his eyes, trusting that they wouldn’t be moving from this position. This was the position, the thing that would help him unlock his affinity.

  So he closed his eyes, and he tried to feel like the earth. He stretched his awareness out to include the cave. He took in the soft plop of the condensation, and the cool wispiness of the air. The earth was solid and stable beneath him, but it was also breathing and growing around him.

  James allowed himself to breathe more fully, once he realized. He, too, should breathe deeply and allow the air and the water to flow through him and help him grow.

  A resounding laugh made him open his eyes at last. His instructor rose to his feet and stretched his legs. James copied the motion.

  “There’s hope for you yet, kid,” the man said.

  James bowed. “Thank you, Master.”