(Narrated by Penelope Kenney)
I fled through the trees.
[Wiki!]
I fled past the soccer field, where the pair of bathorns searching it didn't seem to notice me.
[Wiki Maiden!]
I fled until I reached the wire fence that marked the end of where I was allowed to go, marking where the ancient oaks gave way to some pasture.
[Penelope!] The familiar flew around me and landed on a fence-post. [I must caution you against continuing your current course of action.]
"I'm not going back," I declared.
[Fine.] He flicked his tail a few times. [But you were charging into an Enemy hotspot with no plan, no backup and missing a third of your mana.]
I squinted past him, into the rolling grass. While there were no monsters nearby, the shapes on the opposite hill were moving more like Lancers than cattle, scattered bathorns were wandering the valley in the middle and there was a large zebra-striped lump in the valley that horrified me when I scanned it.
{{infobox monster |name=Carnivore Tent |class=Spawner |image=carni_tent.jpg |caption=Front view of active Carnivore Tent |factions=[[Marauder (faction)|Pirate]], [[Bug Warlord]], [[Safari]] |capacity= 3 per minute |first_seen={{date|2029-12-12}} }}
"The Carnivore Tent is a common first tier monster-summoning spawner that uses animal sacrifices to help power the summons…"
My first thought was that I had to kill it if I could. Then I twigged to the familiar's last remark and checked my own status. I'd leveled up again, apparently from the Lancer trio.
{{status|name=Magical Girl Wiki Maiden|team=unaffiliated|level=4|xp=28/50|color=f02080
|hp=31/31|mp=47/68|strength=8|agility=11|will=8|spirit=10
|spells={{blist |[[Basic Beam]] |[[Basic Blast]] |[[Basic Blessing]] |[[Basic Heal]]
|[[Empower Weapon]] |[[Magic Fist]] |[[Panic Button]] |[[Transform Costume]]}}
|credit=5|equips=Breeze disc}}
In short, I had a problem. I could expect more bruisers like the ones that my two top spells failed to kill. I hadn't gained anything except for more mana - and one point of Spirit, whatever that did - since I was cracking eggs at level one. And I'd had help with the Lancers before, but I was alone now.
I made eye contact with my familiar. "How do I get better spells?"
[Better in what respect?]
"Something that can kill a Lancer."
My familiar dangled his legs off the fence post. [A full power Basic Beam can kill a Lancer if you can keep your beam on it for seven seconds or so.] He cocked his head. [Or you could obtain a weapon, either conjured or by emergency resupply, empower it, and potentially kill it in a single blow to the head or upper spine. Or you could simply kill it over several casting cycles; your mana pool is now deep enough to afford them. However, the by-the-book answer at your level is teamwork. Facing a Lancer alone would be extremely dangerous no matter how you went about it.]
As he mentioned weapons, I glanced at the frisbee that I'd barely put down since becoming a magical girl. If I chose a weapon, it'd need to be something I could use one-handed. And I wouldn't be used to it. As the familiar said, I didn't like my odds against a Lancer even without one hand occupied.
[To answer your original question, though, you will grow stronger with your level. Obtaining additional will units would let you cast higher powered spells, and more spirit units would let you put more punch into the ones you already have. Finally, you can improve our magic in every respect by tying it more closely to your casting authority.]
"Huh"?
[You're Magical Girl Wiki Maiden. You've only been using the Magical Girl part. If you really want to improve your spells, find ways to make them use or resemble a wiki.]
"About that…" My gaze dropped further to the hem of my skirt. "how do I get a name or authority or whatever it is that's," I swallowed, "more useful and less dorky?"
[You can first evolve your title at level thirty, though you aren't required to.] He swung his hind legs a few times. [I don't understand why you're complaining, given how passionate you were about it during the pre-contract interview.] He cocked his head. [You considered wikis to be an inherently cooperative endeavor, but you're alone now, so I suppose the more appealing aspects of your title might be less applicable to your current situation. Still, I firmly believe that even if you could exchange your title for another right away, you'd regret it later.]
As I pondered my familiar's words, the Carnivore Tent spat out another monster, which I quickly identified as a bathorn. But what I thought would be a quick scan caused me to double take, not because of its content but because I registered for the first time that the information came formatted as the raw source code for a wiki infobox. And my status panel was an instance of a wiki template.
While I was still trying to come to terms with that, some more text appeared on a new... page?… near my status, because of course I had a discussion page.
"Your familiar told me you were taking one of my Breeze Discs into combat. I didn't expect anyone to try that when I designed them, but I'm excited to see the result! Don't be afraid to cut loose with it. If you lose it in combat I'll send a replacement tonight. Also, 20 points if you KO a scout with it and send pics. - Magical Girl Summer Breeze (talk) 12:27, July 1 2036"
It seemed my familiar had been gossiping in the background. "What," I hissed, "did you tell her?"
[You mean, Magical Girl Summer Breeze?] I rewarded its deduction with a curt nod. [I told her you were a novice facing your first incursion, and that your only piece of equipment was a borrowed Breeze Disc. I told her that you seemed quite concerned that you wouldn't be able to return it if you lost it. She drew her own inferences from those statements, as is apparent in the response I'm assuming you read.] He flicked his tail, and added, [Liaising with other magical girls is part of my job as your familiar, and Summer Breeze's response addressing one of your major concerns is typical for this sort of situation. By the way, your stealth spell is beginning to fall apart.]
"I didn't…" I set aside my surprise that Summer Breeze of all Magical Girls would pay attention to my plight, and checked my mana pool. Over half of it was missing. "When did that happen?"
[You applied an attention-redirecting effect to yourself via instinctive casting at the conclusion of your conversation with Magical Girl Soaring Sniper. It's the main reason you haven't been detected by any of those scouts. But it's not going to last more than twenty more seconds.]
I looked at the striped Carnivore Tent and the monsters between me and it, then at my remaining MP (30/68), then at the "Trespassers Will Be Shot" sign on the fence. "Say," I asked my familiar, "how far can a Basic Beam reach?"
A few moments later, my pink beam was carving up the Carnivore Tent, causing smoke to billow out of its seams and several new holed. A Lancer tried to interpose its shield, but my aim was wobbling too much and it just got a slash across the forehead for its trouble; it survived, but seemed too dazed for another attempt. A squad of Bathorns had begun their charge too late; by the time they were halfway to me, the tent had melted away completely and my beam had reduced the lump forming within to a pile of steaming meat. I put a bit more of the beam into the legs of the distant Lancer before my aim strayed and it fizzled out.
The first Bathorn to the fence tried to perch on the same post that my familiar had just hastily vacated. I invoked a Magic Fist and punched it right back off, and it broke its back when it landed. The next one hurtled the fence entirely, but I swatted it out of the air. But as soon as I recovered my footing, I heard a chorus of abrasive honks, all too close. While I'd been preoccupied, four more of them had crossed the fence elsewhere and were calling for help, help which evidently included Lancers.
"Basic Beam"
Fortunately, the new spell worked fine when cast from the same hand as an active Magic Fist. One Bathorn popped almost instantly. The other three formed a loose circle around me, keeping just out of reach. As soon as the Magic Fist faded, they all rushed in at once. Fortunately, I had one more attack spell ready.
"Basic Blast!"
One more attacker literally exploded in front of me, then the last two were on top of me and biting and clawing.
"Magic Fist!" was still evidently on cooldown, so when they both hit me at once and sent me sprawling to the ground, I had to make do with my own slightly augmented strength. My left arm protected the frisbee while my right warded off the bathorn snapping at my face. Meanwhile I kicked out blindly at the bathorn that was attacking my feet and eventually connected. Shortly afterwards, a backhand dazed the other bathorn long enough for me to grab its neck and crush it to powder against the hard dirt. I sprung to my feet, hoping that my magic could come up with something random to help, like Theodore Minet Haultain.
It seemed my wiki magic did have access to Special:Random, but that didn't seem nearly as helpful as the smug familiar who was sitting next to a pair of freshly decapitated, rapidly outgassing scouts. [May I offer some advice?]
"Eh?" I checked my HP, which had dipped well below half even though I'd gained a level. "Sure. Basic Heal."
[You missed a prime opportunity to complete your bounty quest.]
I took a moment to review the quest information, which seemed less than helpful.
{{quest|type=Bounty |condition=Knock out a Scout-class monster using a Breeze Disc. |giver=Summer Breeze |verification_mode=Image |reward=20 Points}}
"Right. When the Bathorns jumped on me I was supposed to clobber one of them to death with a flimsy piece of plastic." I tensed and relaxed my right hand. "While photographing it left-handed using a camera I didn't have."
The familiar cocked its head at me. [Or you could have used Empower Weapon to reinforce it and make its touch burn their flesh, making it a far more effective implement than your bare fist, and trusted your familiar to capture the combat footage. It would have saved you from some chewing compared to your actual decision in addition to serving as a fine substitute for a tutorial quest.] It froze for a moment, then jabbed its tail at a spot past my shoulder. [By the way, it appears that Lancer is still trying to kill you.]
A crash from behind me punctuated his last statement. I spun, and saw a stunned Lancer twist to its feet. The scant low-hanging branches between us did little to conceal the ugly black scar my beam had drawn across its ugly gray face. A trio of thin black lines slashed across its chest, and it took me a moment to realize they were bleeding wounds from running into the barbed wire fence, which was now sagging due to a cracked post.
"Basic Beam."
My MP dipped below half, even as it ticked up from the remnants of the Bathorn kills. The beam scratched at the Lancer's emaciated belly as it leapt sideways, and dissolved into sparkles as it passed behind a tree trunk. If it felt the injury at all, it didn't show. It retaliated by kicking over another fence post, which sent that section of fence to the ground. I sent a Basic Blast at it, which didn't even make it stumble as it picked its way across the barbed wire, it simply braced itself for a moment.
As its rear foot cleared the last strand, I fled again.
I didn't dare look back as I wove between the trees and ducked under branches wherever I could, using occasional glimpses of that fence to make. The splintering sounds behind me said the Lancer was trying to plow through them with brute force, and their cessation in favor of sharp snaps and cracks told me that it had learned its limits. My gloves' drawstrings flapped behind me and I was constantly worried they would catch a twig and slow me. At least my costume's stockings, which I still hadn't actually seen, seemed to be made of a material that was virtually snag-proof.
After a few minutes, the sounds faded into the distance and I had a moment to pause and get my bearings - not to catch my breath, to my surprise, but to figure out how lost I was and what to do next. For the moment, I was alone. I started by checking my infobox as my familiar landed beside me and folded his wings.
{{status|name=Magical Girl Wiki Maiden|team=unaffiliated|level=5|xp=12/70|color=f02080
|hp=36/37|mp=38/82|strength=8|agility=11|will=8|spirit=10
|spells={{blist |[[Basic Beam]] |[[Basic Blast]] |[[Basic Blessing]] |[[Basic Heal]]
|[[Empower Weapon]] |[[Magic Fist]] |[[Panic Button]] |[[Transform Costume]]}}
|points=5|equips=Breeze disc}}
I'd apparently taken a single point of damage during my flight, and regained a little magic power, but still had nothing listed that would deal with a Lancer. Some powers that weren't in the spell list, though. As soon as I thought about other options my mental interface offered up a page on an Ilyushin Il-96 passenger jet. Which wouldn't help even if I had one because, while a Lancer definitely couldn't keep up with it in the air, I wasn't a jet pilot and the oak forest definitely didn't have enough space for it to take off.
I did notice, though, that even checking that cost me a magic point.
While my magical costume was amazingly breathable and I wasn't overheated even after a noontime sprint in summer, my dry mouth kept criticizing me for leaving my water bottle back at the barn even as my stomach complained about missing lunch yet again. My arms and legs lacked the bumps and scrapes I'd usually get from traversing the underbrush without due caution, which made sense since the monster bites hadn't left a mark either. In summary, I was in fit condition to fight or run now, but I'd better get back to civilization, or at least the barn, within the hour or I'd risk heatstroke.
"Where are we?" I asked my familiar. I still had the same old fence in sight, sporting yet another TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT ON SIGHT sign, old wood all around me projecting a dappled pattern on the leaf litter underfoot, and no sign of anything to indicate how far I'd run.
[You are three point two miles southeast of the emergency shelter you departed from, and one point seven miles west of the village of Midway Junction.] In other words, there was a long hike back and no clear path forward, and a pile of monsters in the way in both directions. But at least we had a magical GPS!
And the monsters in the way meant I had an even more important question. "How do I win?"
My familiar froze and cocked his head. [Would you please clarify your question?]
"What ends an Incursion? How many monsters are still out there?" I waved my hand back the way I came. "Does the handful I fought actually mean anything, or will they just hatch more? Can I just fight them as they come, or do I need to hunt down all the spawners?" I crossed my arms, resting my hands on the thin strips of exposed skin between my costume's sleeves and its gloves. "Can I keep avoiding that Lancer, or will it multiply?"
The familiar took more than a moment to ponder his response, the first time I'd seen it actually do so. He flattened his tail behind him, crossed his paws, and yawned. When he did reply, it was from an upright posture with his tail fully curled.
[Unlike your baseline state, as a magical girl you have the inherent ability to harm monsters and make it stick. You have injured at least eighteen of their scouts to the point that they can no longer participate in this Incursion in any capacity. If you were to injure every single monster involved to that extent, the Enemy would have no choice but to call off the Incursion.]
That seemed like a tall order, given that I'd just failed to beat a single Lancer, but my familiar wasn't done.
[However, an Incursion's supply of spawners is typically far more limited than its supply of monsters. This one undoubtedly used most of its single-use spawners in the opening minutes, and is relying on vulnerable fixtures like that Carnivore Tent to send reinforcements. Every spawner that dies, whatever the cause, reduces the rate at which you would need to kill them to achieve victory by attrition, and if you were to kill all of them it'd just be a matter of cleaning up a few left-behinds, a task which even mundane soldiers could handle.]
He paused to let me absorb the implications of that telepathic transmission, but continued just before I was ready to respond.
[However, it doesn't usually come to that with the Safari faction. They're easily spooked. Well before they run out of monsters or spawners entirely, they'll retrieve anything valuable and stop sending more. Moreso than any other faction, they're opportunists who won't choose anything resembling an even fight.]
I clenched my fists. I wasn't fighting some grand Enemy army, I was fighting a gang of bullies, and suffering for it. But the familiar wasn't done.
[The wording of your question indicates that you expect to fight the entire Incursion by yourself. That's not the case, nor is it typical. You know Magical Girl Soaring Sniper has been fighting it from the beginning,] I winced at the reminder, [and Cactus Company of the local guard has deployed to keep monsters out of the village. Moreover, Incursions may seem to come out of nowhere if you're only fighting in three dimensions, but they require expensive equipment in the superspace, and those requirements are particularly onerous for rapid-onset incursions like this one. Humanity's extra-dimensional allies can destroy the invader's transportation, or threaten it into fleeing, and we have a destroyer squadron fighting to dislodge this one as we speak.]
He stretched to his full height, roughly thigh level, and flared his tail to deliver his final remark.
[Speaking of which, lest you think all your help is too distant, I've been fighting alongside you this entire time!]
Shame flooded me as I recalled the familiar pouncing on a Bathorn five times his size to finish it off, but I couldn't apologize because… actually, nobody from my class was nearby. "I'm sorry."
[Apology accepted. I'm doing my job here. Speaking of which,] he jabbed his tail to my right, deeper into the forest, [I just noticed that the injured Lancer is still stalking you and has circled around.]
It took me a few tense seconds to spot the Lancer's head. It looked like it had grown a black skullcap as the bruise on its forehead blackened and spread, and its nostrils were smoothed down at their corners instead of the dramatic flaring I'd seen before. It was about a soccer-field away, creeping along a dry stream bed that was shrouded by underbrush yet itself clear of large vegetation, and it avoided looking directly at me. But it still pounced as soon as I raised a hand to cast. I spared a bare thought to wonder how something so large could move so quietly, and my mental interface answered with a wiki subsection speculating that the paws on its otherwise equine legs were an adaptation to allow it to tiptoe.
I might have been out-muscled like normal, but for once I could go all out without being punished for fighting back. "Basic Blast. Basic Beam."
The ball from my left hand zipped straight for its face. The Lancer intercepted it with its shield-arm and the blast flung the shield's rim into its nose. Meanwhile, with the shield out of the way, my beam stabbed into its crotch. I had just enough time to wonder why the Lancer didn't so much as flinch before it was on me.
The pain as its spike plunged into my belly was strangely muted, a burning ache rather than sharp agony. I glanced down even as it pulled away, as my blouse closed behind it without so much as a drop of red. Then its hind leg clipped me and I rolled away. Fortunately, my beam had done something to its legs on the way past, because it spent vital seconds stumbling to a stop.
That let me think. I had fifteen hp and twenty-four mp remaining. I was holding a flimsy plastic excuse for a weapon. My best spells were used up, but I had a few options left - a healing spell that wouldn't even undo the previous blow, a Panic Button that I'd been warned not to rely on in this situation, a Basic Bless that I'd never used, a Magic Fist that would require trading blows with a monster that could finish me in one, the ability to dismiss my costume, Empower Weapon for the Breeze Disc, and the Marianas Practical Shooting Association. As the monster wheeled around, as it displayed both a black-steaming wound on its thigh and a complete lack of those sensitive bits my previous plan relied on hurting, I chose the last of those options.
People popped into existence in front of me, a tall, gray-haired guy in khaki shorts and a tank top, a lady in a peacoat with black pants and her hair in a tight bun, and a young man in shorts and an orange t-shirt. They all had headphones on, they all looked surprised, and they all had holstered pistols.
The woman drew first, set her feet and shot twice, the second pinging off its shield. The old man shuffled a couple of steps sideways first, then took careful aim and knocked a puff of black vapor loose from its shoulder. The young man backpedaled for a moment and tripped over me.
"Sorry, ma'am."
I looked up just in time to see the Lancer impale the old man. As the spike emerged from his back, he simply popped like a balloon full of pink glitter. The woman put shot after shot into its hindquarters, each leaving a dark spot, but soon stopped her barrage and hit a switch that dropped a piece of the gun to the ground. As she pulled a replacement from her belt, the Lancer slammed into her and knocked her to the ground. Even as I sent another Basic Beam at it, it stomped on her and reduced her to pink powder, and the jerk moved it away from my beam long enough for it to fizzle.
As it turned on me, I started to ready a full power Basic Blast, only for my mental interface to get an error message that I didn't have the resources for that. Instead, as I rose to my feet and the Lancer trotted forwards, I decided to spend everything that remained on the toy I'd been carrying the whole time.
"Empower Weapon!"
I flung the now pink-edged plastic disc towards the Lancer's neck. It braced its hind legs and simply raised its shield to just below its eyes. But the disc responded to my will and plunged for the ground, intersecting with the knee of its injured leg and transmuting everything below the wound into black powder. It toppled forward and caught itself on its elbows.
Just then, a gunshot sounded off to my right. The man with the orange shirt, now standing about twenty feet away, adjusted his aim and put another shot into the Lancer's rib cage. Slowly and deliberately, the Lancer looked at me, then looked at orange shirt guy, then closed its eyes and collapsed in on itself leaving only a few wisps behind.
I approached the last gunman, unsure exactly which of my many questions I wanted to lead with, but he spoke first. "I'm sorry for the delay. I had to get far enough around that neither of us was downrange of the other."
I frowned for just an instant, then smiled. "Thank you."
"It was my honor, ma'am." And with that, he vanished in a flash of pink.
I looked around and quickly spotted my familiar fifteen feet up an oak tree. "Is it really dead now? For good?"
[No, it merely departed from this world, but you have so gravely injured it that it poses no further threat to you,] he replied, which was as good as permission to slump against the tree trunk and pant for a bit.
I was alive. The monster was gone. I'd just gotten two or maybe three other people killed in my place.
"What in the name of…" I took a deep breath, "what did I just do?"
[I assume you're speaking of the summoning spell?]
I nodded.
[You routed your main casting authority through my freeform conjuration ability in order to make temporary copies of a few allies.] His telepathic message came drenched in vicarious pride. [While I could not fully analyze the effect, it was definitely a developing signature ability.]
It seemed content to leave me to process that in silence. As my heart calmed down, I took the opportunity to shuffle my skirts out of the way and actually examine my costume's footwear. The shoes were a pastel pink, but shaped more like slippers than the stained tennis shoes I'd been wearing when I transformed - they had no heel to speak of, the soles were a good half-inch thinner than I was used to, and the toes had reinforcing ribs faintly visible on the outside while the inside felt like some sort of foam touching my toetips. They looked similar in contour to ballet shoes, but felt far more rigid. My stockings were largely white, and barely stretched when I pinched them, but featured a pink V over each shin. They held their shape remarkably well even when I tried to stretch and deform them.
Having exhausted that distraction, and calmed my body down, my thoughts drifted back to the heavy topic I had been avoiding. "Are they okay?"
[Who?]
"The people I summoned?"
My familiar nodded. [The summoning was so unstable that it would always fail before they could experience any permanent harm, barring a particularly sadistic enemy that would actively stabilize it just to hurt them.] Given the connotations it sent with "fail" and "harm", it didn't consider their explosive disappearances to be harmful in any way. And with that concern addressed it was time to take stock again.
{{status|name=Magical Girl Wiki Maiden|team=unaffiliated|level=6|xp=12/90|color=f02080
|hp=21/43|mp=26/96|strength=8|agility=12|will=8|spirit=10
|spells={{blist |[[Basic Beam]] |[[Basic Blast]] |[[Basic Blessing]] |[[Basic Heal]]
|[[Empower Weapon]] |[[Magic Fist]] |[[Panic Button]] |[[Transform Costume]]}}
|points=5|equips=Breeze disc}}
I'd leveled up yet again, but still only had five points. "Didn't I have a quest to kill something with the Breeze disc?" I held out my hand and the object in question lifted off and came to me, shedding bits of powdered Lancer as it flew.
[Image verification means I need to send her a picture first. Let me do that.] He closed his eyes for a second. [Done.]
And with that, for the first time since gaining my powers, I had nothing urgent to do.
Well, no. I needed a drink. I needed lunch. I needed to not get jumped by monsters, although my familiar was keeping a better lookout than I could. But nothing I could do here would help with any of that, except for more fighting.
"Hey, are there any more monsters nearby?"
[Six Scout-class and a Wagon-class in plain sight about three quarters of a mile that way.] I followed its gesture, but all I saw was vegetation and a few hints of the boundary fence.
"What's a Wagon-class?"
[A low-level logistics monster, strong enough to carry a couple of tons of cargo but not competent at combat. Just take care not to get grabbed or trampled.]
I grimaced. "Who decided on that name?"
[Magical Girl Busiest Beehive, then Beehive Maiden.]
I'd never heard of her before, but it didn't matter. I'd taken on Bathorns with less at level 1. If the big monster wasn't a threat, this was a problem I could solve. "Let's get 'em." I made my way towards the fence as my familiar glided silently behind me. But I caught sight of monsters at the same time as another particularly unwelcome object.
The brown-colored "wagon" had eight legs, thick, plodding, and hairy, the middle pairs somewhat closer to each other than to the front and rear legs. It had what looked like a pair of gorilla arms over its butt, a more human pair emerging just behind its front legs, and numerous short, almost vestigial limbs with oversized pincers lining its forward and rear rib cages. Its back was broad and flat as a board, and it had a pair of bloody cows on it, each held in place by several of those pincers, one of which was clearly still alive and thrashing. It looked like its head directly attached to its shoulders with little to no neck in between. It hovered just out of my Basic Beam range, and although I was angry about the cattle, I couldn't go any closer.
My familiar picked up on my hesitation immediately. [What are you concerned about?] it asked.
I gestured towards the "Trespassers Will Be Shot" sign. As if to emphasize my point, a trio of gunshots sounded in the distance.
The familiar's telepathic response came drenched in amusement. [I sincerely doubt that whoever erected that sign would object if you entered their property to shoot these particular trespassers.]
He flicked his tail a few times, then continued, [Besides, even with only your currently ready hit points, you could take a couple of ordinary bullets without serious consequence.]
I was already hopping over the fence by the time he finished. One Bathorn snapped its head to me as I landed. It screeched like an overblown bugle. As one, the other scouts turned and fled into the distant trees. Their lumbering companion threw its mutilated cargo to the ground and galloped after them, and the screecher followed as a rearguard, easily outpacing me.
My stomach again protested its hunger, even as I fixated on the two heaps of raw beef with disgust and worry. "The town's over that way, right?"
[Yes,] it sent, and then paused as a hail of gunfire erupted from beyond the trees. There was a little "paff" sound as a bullet bounced out of some knee-high grass and came to rest on the stony dirt beside me. [And Cactus Company,] it finished.
I processed that for a long moment, even after the gunshots had died off. "Do you think they would spare a snack?"
[They'd be happy to have you around,] the familiar said. [Just be warned that they're not a traditional military organization, they're an amateur operation with some secondhand military equipment that won't necessarily follow any of the protocols you're used to.]
I wanted to correct him that I'd never worked with the military before, but that would've taken effort. "Let's go," I said instead, and started walking. I made it about five steps before a pair of comments appeared on my discussion page.
"Nice hit. It doesn't count for the quest because it's a bruiser rather than a scout, and it's not the kill, but it's an even better pic than what I wanted. I'll pay out the points and keep the quest open too. Keep up the good work.- Magical Girl Summer Breeze (talk) 13:03, July 1 2036"
That was good news, assuming I ever had the mental energy to actually spend them. The other message, though, was too horrible to comprehend.
"Wow, your mentor let you take a proper shot at a Lancer during the tutorial. I'm officially envious! See you at the party, and your awesome mentor too.-Magical Girl Drilling Rig (talk) 13:03, July 1 2036"
