Lucas’s Meddling Minds went off half a second after the enemy sorcerer’s spell, and this time he aimed it at the caster. The archer, unable to create any distance between himself and the guard, swapped his bow out for a pair of daggers and engaged in melee combat.

But the caster turned to him and cursed. “Your filthy, thieving hands shall not touch my gear!” he shouted. He then slammed his staff onto the ground and began channeling.

“What?! What are you doing?! We’re a team!” the archer yelled back. But by then it was too late. Ice grew around his feet and slowly began creeping its way up his body, preventing him from moving. It caught the guard within its limited range, but it was clearly centered around the archer.

“Stop this madness!” the Healer bellowed. He turned and threw a Force Shield up between himself and the Mage, but that allowed the second remaining guard to turn and gore the man with his halberd. Then, as if to celebrate the victory, the guard lifted the corpse above his head and slammed it back on the ground as if for good measure.

“The item will be mine!” the deranged magician shouted again. He cast Earth Spike at the last remaining party member, the Fighter, and a large sprout of rock shot up from the floor and impaled the man through his stomach. He flailed back and forth for a moment, wobbling around like a flag at half-mast.

“MINE!” the caster shouted, unleashing a blast of fire to finish off the last remaining guard.

“Not today,” the last guard said, having barely escaped the scorching attack. He struck out with his halberd and lopped the caster’s head clean off.

“Much better,” Dickus said as Lucas re-entered the main game, once more standing in front of Xun Guan and the three educators. “You don’t have to say much, but simple ideas when planted can blossom into traitorous thoughts. If you do not have enough time to seduce them, then you must think on your feet. I’ve taught you all that you need to know for now, so enjoy your new gear. Come back when you have truly proven yourself, and I shall teach you more in the ways of enchanting.”

“It will suffice,” Xun Guan said, shrugging slightly. “At least it’s an improvement. Are you going to try for round three?”

Lucas nodded, brought up the menu, and hit the button without any further prompting. He kept his previous speech and made a mental note to improve it in the future if anything happened to come to him.

The prompt faded, and the enemies appeared. This time, however, there were an additional four enemies that hadn’t been there before. They were all demi-Humans like the ones that Lucas had met in the bar when he had managed to generate the first part of his quest to kill Kegan.