Tales of NeoQuest II: Mipsy the Magnificent Magician

      She arrived at this town right before Zombom the wizard attacked, and while that wasn't that long ago, it sure feels like it to her. Now, she is stuck in this section of White River City with a grand total of three people – her, a blue Kau named Enkarra, who doesn't talk much, and a red Techo named Sildairm, a trader who sells potions, a sword, and a tunic (which neither she nor the Kau can afford).

      She looks around her bare room, glad that she has somewhere to stay until something – anything – happens, but upset that there isn't much to do while she waits. She spends most of her time sitting on her chair, at a desk that only holds the most meagre of meals: water and some apples, both generously received from the pond and the four trees behind Sildairm's shop. When she gets sick of sitting and waiting, she moves the crate around until she gets tired, trying to find more uses than there possibly could be for it – just so that she has something to do. And once night falls, she takes the only release she has from this monotony: sleep. Her bed is comfortable, but that doesn't change the frustration she feels when she lays her head down on her pillow, knowing that tomorrow and the day after that will only be the same.

      Sometimes, when neither Enkarra or Sildairm are around, she'll practice her magic. She's constantly messing up – one time she set her crate on fire – but if nobody's looking, she can concentrate much better. She has improved over the couple of weeks that she's been here because of her training, and as a result found that healing magic was better suited to her. She can't destroy anything with healing magic, now can she? That doesn't stop her from learning how to deal direct damage, though, but she's glad that at least one of her skills is improving.

      She fancies that one day soon she'll be able to go to Sildairm and finally buy something from his shop; she knows that he's tired of her visits, and her questions, while arrogantly welcomed in the beginning, were now a nuisance. The first time she went to visit Sildairm's shop was when she first arrived, heading straight there after Enkarra told her of the bridge. He didn't seem to mind that she had no money – nor did he expect her to, as the bridge was still stuck – but he still bragged about his wares as if he were trying to convince a customer of their worth.

      Sildairm's Iron Shortsword and Iron Chain Tunic caught her eye at first, but after a quick glance at them she knew that they were not the kind of armour for her – she liked her robes just fine. The two healing potions he had, though she didn't quite understand how they worked – it wasn't like they were magic or anything – were something she knew that she would need in the future. His Flare Potion and Blast Potion seemed unnecessary, though, as she knew that she could do more damage than those two combined... one day. He proudly told her about his speed-altering potions when she asked about them, but even though the Speed Potion was supposed to hasten her by 15% and the Slowness Potion was supposed to slow down her enemies by 20%, she didn't find much interest in them. What really caught her attention was the Awakening Potion – oh, that was what she really wanted! She couldn't fathom being resurrected from the bowels of 0 HP with only 10% of her current HP, but it excited her nonetheless; with a potion like that in her inventory, she wouldn't have to worry about the monsters on the outside – she could take them all on with this.

      She doesn't dare to venture outside the city, though. Not alone – not after the stories she heard from Enkarra about the monsters that dwell there. As much as she wants adventure, as much as she wants to leave this lonely city, she doesn't want to risk running into and fighting the Swamp Krawks, the Raging Bearogs, and (most terrifyingly) the Giant Sand Spyders alone.

      She does have her red robes and her wizard's wand – ok, it's a stick, but magicking still works anyway – but whether she fights or stays, it's all the same because she'll still do it alone. She hopes that once the bridge gets unstuck, she'll be able to go to the other side of the city and find what she was waiting for this entire time. Maybe some day that something she was waiting for will come! It better be soon, though, because her multiple meals of water and apples were starting to wear her down.

      As she sits there on her chair, lying with her head on her desk, she hears a noise from outside her room; she doesn't think to get up and investigate, though – she's much too bored to be interested. She fantasizes that a monster has come to challenge her just so that she could show off to her two companions, but with the patience she has now, she knows that she'll only tell it to go away if she were to meet it. After enough time has passed, she even forgets about the sound outside. She doesn't forget for long, though, being surprised by the new sounds she hears: talking. And not Enkarra and Sildairm talking, but others – and lots of them! She lifts her head up from her desk to investigate only to be shocked by a new sight.

      "Oh, you startled me!" she says to a familiar looking white Blumaroo when he entered her room. "I'm sorry, I'm a bit jittery these days, what with all the fuss from the bridge being stuck."

      She can't contain her joy when he tells her about the bridge being unstuck now. Then he asks her about the town, but as she explains to him, she doesn't know anything about it. He seems excited when she tells him that she's a magician – not a very good one, mind you, but a magician all the same – and when he asks her his next question, it is here that she realizes that this is what she was waiting for all this time.

      "Would you like to join me in adventuring?"

      "Me?? You want me to join you?" she exclaims as she all but leaps out of her chair. "Of course! Of course! I've already got my handy wizard's wand and my robes, and that's all I'll really need for a life of adventure, isn't it? Let's get going!"

      And get going they do. Lieutenant Mipsy, the Blue Acara Magician, has finally found what she was waiting for, and with Rohane, the brave leader of their dynamic duo, they head through Central Meridell in search of whatever their adventure calls them towards – and whatever it is, they won't have to do it alone.

The End