> Twilight's Life Is A Game
>  by ilbgar
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Tutorial
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight had always been different. She didn't realize it at first, but the game screens that appeared since the day she was born were not normal. Nor was her deep-seated urge to advance and evolve, which was completely unlike the average non-aggressive pony.

She had figured out how to make her status window appear through trial and error after the first few game windows. She soon discovered her Stats were listed there and their explanations could be viewed simply by tapping said Stats. The Stats were, in order:

'Level. A measure of overall power. Levels are obtained through receiving a set amount of Exp. from Quests and killing monsters. Each Level adds 50 HP and MP, grants 5 Stat points to be spent freely, and at every multiple of 5, adds an a additional point of HP/MP Regen.

HP. Hit Points. How much damage you can take without dying. Has a base of 100. Should this reach 0, then you're dead. No second chances, retries or miraculous revivals.

HP Regen. Hit Point Regeneration. You regain 1% of you maximum HP per minute.

MP. Mana Points. Measures how much mana, chakra, KI, Spiral Power, etc. you possess. It is required to use many abilities.

MP Regen. Mana Point Regeneration. You regain 1% of your maximum MP per minute, though this can be changed with  Wis.

Str. Strength. Your physical strength. Determines your physical attack damage.

Int. Intelligence. Determines cognitive abilities, memorization, magical attack, and adds 10 MP per point.

Agi. Agility. Your speed and flexibility, as well as your overall dexterity with your physical body.

Vit. Vitaliy. Your overall health and physical toughness. Adds 10 HP per point.

Wis. Wisdom. Your logic and problem-solving abilities. Every 10 points adds 1% to your MP Regen and increases your Magic Resistance by 1%.

Lck. Luck. Your overall luckiness in life. Affects everything to some degree, but has the most influence in things in which chance has a large role, such as monster drops and actions such as flipping a coin.'

After she had finished reading through each of the Stats, another window appeared.

'It is important to note that Stats can be raised manually in various ways, and that this will grow more difficult as they increase. At each multiple of 10, it will become significantly harder to earn more Stats. By 50, it will be very difficult to do so manually. Good luck!'

After briefly wondering about the sentience of the windows, Twilight set to work experimenting to try and raise her Stats. Her labor soon bore fruit. Strength rose from lifting weights, Int rose from studying, Agi rose from pushing herself to her maximum speed, Vit increased from exercising for a long period, Wis increased from intelligent decisions and solving puzzles, and Lck increased by winning at games of chance.

Since she was a unicorn, she focused on Int and Wis for their boost to her magic, but worked on the Str, Agi, Vit, and to a lesser degree, Lck since it was harder to train and a less certain thing, because she might be a caster, but that was useless if she got taken out before she could do anything.

Str meant a close-combat situation was not unsalvageable. Agi let her dodge more easily. Vit allowed her to take what hits she couldn't dodge without dying. Lck... well, she was sure it had benefits. She certainly had fewer accidents happen to her after raising it.

Of course, she was immediately pegged as different by the other children, who didn't so much bully her as shun her. She didn't mind. She was making ever less progress with her Stats as it was as her parents tried harder to make her come out of her shell and gave her more responsibility around the house. She needed as much free time a possible.

She would start to feel caged if she was not allowed to try and better herself for an extended period and her ability, as she called it, even had a Status Effect permanently on her because of it.

'Spiral Life-form. As a member of the Spiral Races, you instinctively seek evolution as the only way to be successful. This is a genetic and psychological effect, so it can be weakened but never completely removed.'

By the time she was 6, her Level was 3, but her Stats were more than 30 Levels above that. Just over 37 in fact.

'Name: Twilight Sparkle
Age: 6.
Class: Gamer/Caster.
Title: None.
Level: 3. 70% to next.
HP:  590/590.
HP Regen: 5.9/min.
MP: 630/630.
MP Regen: 31.5/min.
Str: 32.
Int: 48.
Agi: 35.
Vit: 34.
Wis: 40.
Lck: 27.
15 Stat points unspent.
207 Bits.'

It seemed that each Level required that she obtain the Level number multiplied by 1000 in Exp. to reach the next. Other than that, everything was as she'd understood from the explanation provided by her ability.

Knowing the names, Classes, and Levels of others at a glance was also useful. They simply floated over their owner's head. Although she hadn't been able to see all but the first in the case of Princess Celestia. According to the windows, she couldn't because the princess was more than 50 Levels above her own.

It was at this point that she was presented an acceptance letter to Princess Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns by her parents. The things she could learn there! She thanked her parents enthusiastically, but then found out there was a catch. First she'd have to pass an entrance exam.

As she usually did when faced with he prospect of a test, she panicked for about 10 minutes, before studying like the fate of the universe depended on it. She even got a Quest for it.

'Quest Alert!
Pass the Entrance Exam.
Success: 10000 Exp. 1000 Bits. ??? and ???.
Failure: None.'

The massive rewards, as well as the ones she didn't have named, only pushed her to study harder. Although she was curious what the other two were. She had no way of knowing without completing the Quest though.

She passed the theoretical part of the exam easily. The questions weren't even that hard. The reserves test was a laugh as there was some consternation over a girl of 6 having just over 5 times the average adult's reserves. They actually checked the machine to make sure it wasn't broken.

Things went a bit downhill at the final test though. She didn't have the MP to hatch a dragon's egg, and no mater how hard she tried, it wasn't working. She was on the verge of panicking when a rainbow-colored shock wave of magic rushed past. At that point, she got a notification.

'Magical Overload. Your MP is more than twice your maximum. You run serious risk of losing control over it.'

She hatched the dragon egg in hopes of both passing the exam and draining enough magic to prevent losing control, but it was more like opening flood gates. Her magic went completely haywire and she found herself a spectator as her parents were turned into plants, the proctors for the exam were stuck 10 feet off he ground, and the baby dragon was instantly grown to adult size, roughly that of a three-story building.

'Magic Surge. Your magic is no longer under your control and will cause random effects until and outside force stops you or your MP hits 0.'

She  was stuck like this for maybe 30 seconds before Princess Celestia herself appeared  in a burst of teleportation and gently removed the excess magic from her system. Twilight started to apologize profusely, but was interrupted when Celestia spoke. "Twilight Sparkle. I've never seen a unicorn with your raw talent, but you need to learn more control. Would you like to become my student?" she asked.

Twilight was too dumbfounded to speak for a moment, she looked over to her parents, who had returned to normal along with everything else when the magic surge stopped. They nodded eagerly.

Twilight answered with an enthusiastic, "YEEESS!!" before getting a hold of herself and saying it again more quietly and with more than little embarrassment. "Ahem, yes I'd love to be your student." she said.

'Quest Complete!
+10000 Exp. +1000 Bits. Obtained the Title Celestia's Student: Boosts MP by 100 when equipped. Obtained cutie mark. +10 Stat points.
Titles are achievements that can be equipped like items and apply various bonuses after you receive them.
You have leveled up 3 times!'

She followed the adults to a waiting room where she was supposed to wait while they discussed the arrangements for Twilight studying magic under the Princess. Since Int would boost her efficiency at studying, her maximum output, and slightly increase her MP Regen she ought to increase it now. Besides which, she wouldn't be able to raise Int manually very easily anymore. With this line of reasoning, she dumped her 40 Stat points into Int. She also equipped her new Title.

This caused her first new Skill to appear.

'The Skill 'Mana Affinity has been generated due to raising Int above 50.
Mana Affinity. Passive. Lv. Max. This technique allows the user to become more sensitive to mana and handle it more easily.
10% increase in total MP Regen.
5% increase in maximum MP.
5% increase in magic attack.
5% increase in magic defense.
30% increase in the effects of Skills related to MP.'

She checked her Stats over and grinned at what she found.

'Name: Twilight Sparkle.
Age: 6
Class: Gamer/Caster.
Title: Celestia's Student.
Level: 6. 3.07%.
HP: 740/740.
HP Regen: 8.4/min.
MP: 1239/1239.
MP Regen: 69.25/min.
Str: 32.
Int: 88.
Agi: 35.
Vit: 34.
Wis: 40.
Lck. 27.
0 Stat points unspent.
1207 Bits.'

She then opened her Inventory to get out a pen and paper to try and decide what types of Skills she ought to create.

Her Inventory was a feature of the windows that could be easily described as a pocket universe only she could access and had an unlimited number of slots to place items in, though it was possible to stack the same item up to 999.

She needed offensive, defensive, and support abilities because as the student of the ruler of Equestria she was going to be the object of a great deal of jealousy at minimum, though that hadn't occurred to her until after she'd accepted. She was currently more than three times as strong, fast, and tough as a normal person and almost that lucky, and this was ignoring her Int and Wis. Still, her actual combat ability left a lot to be desired.

She was stricken with writer's block due to a lack of practical experience in combat shortly after writing this down and was essentially just staring at the paper. After doing so for about a minute, she got another new Skill.

'Through continuous observation, you have created the Skill 'Observe.'
Observe. Active/Passive. Lv 1. 0.00%. Grants detailed information about a target and some information at a glance. This decreases rapidly as your target's Level increases. You will not be able to obtain any information on a target more than 50 Levels above your Level plus Observe's. Leveling up Observe will show more detailed information both in active and passive use. '

Since she didn't have any better ideas, she  began spamming Observe on every object around her. Eventually, it reached Level 12, at which point it passively showed the HP bars of those around her. It had started doing so at Level 10 to be more precise. The HP bar was red when full, but became transparent as it went down. As one might expect, they were full for everyone around her.

Her parents finished discussing things with Princess Celestia before she managed anything else. She was going to live here in the castle so she wouldn't have to walk back and forth between her family's house and the castle every day.

She had, after some internal debate, decided to try to convince her new teacher that she possessed an unusual ability. This was partially because she wanted to be as honest as possible with the princess, and partially because if anyone would know what exactly this was, it was the solar monarch.

Demonstrating her Inventory would probably work, but that could be mistaken for a variant of normal magic, so she'd probably have to use Observe to demonstrate knowledge she should not ordinarily possess.

Right, she'd do that as soon as she could get the princess alone. She jumped as the doors closed behind her as she followed the princess to her first lesson. Apparently 'soon' was now.

She was quite surprised when Celestia raised a hoof and pushed some mana into the air around her, and a barrier of some kind formed. All extraneous sounds vanished. It was as if every living thing had ceased to exist except the two of them. "Princess, what's this? It feels like a barrier of some kind." she asked.

The princess nodded. "It is. This is an illusion barrier. Anyone can make one with proper training. It allows you to unleash destructive 
power without affecting the real world since any damage done inside an illusion barrier disappears upon it's destruction. I will be teaching you more than just theory and it would not be the first time a spell has gone awry if you don't get it quite right on the first try." she explained.

"Well, there's something I needed to talk to you about. I'll start with a demonstration." Twilight said, hoping the direct route was the best choice. She pulled a rock she'd found one day and used to test her Inventory out, let the princess examine it, then put it back.

Princess Celestia raised an eyebrow. "What was that exactly? I can tell you didn't conjure that rock, and you can't simply un-conjure something." she asked.

"I'm a bit... odd. I have this power that calls itself 'The Gamer.' That feature is the Inventory. It's sort of a pocket universe that only I can access. As far as I can tell, the only limitation is that I can't place a living thing inside it. Things that used to be alive don't count. Other than that, I once tried to find an end, and gave up after the 500th page since I'll never actually use that many, so it doesn't matter if it goes on forever." Twilight explained.

The Princess' eyes widened. "It sounds like Gaia is up to her old tricks again if that ability really is sentient." she said.

"...What's Gaia?" Twilight asked, completely confused.

"There is a pseudo-scientific theory that the planet, or, in some cases, the Universe, is a single entity with a will. This is precisely the case. Many of the proponents of the Universe idea believe that Gaia willed itself into existence, causing the Big Bang. This is also entirely correct." the princess explained to a wide-eyed Twilight. "She grants 'The Gamer' to those who earn her favor. Though it has become rather well-known that she has a slightly twisted sense of humor." she half-muttered that last part.

Twilight scratched her head in thought. "I was born like this, how could I have earned the approval of the universe if I wasn't even born yet?" she asked.

"Well, that I can't be sure of. Why don't you explain your ability to me in greater detail for now? That should at least tell us a few things." Princess Celestia suggested.

Twilight nodded and opened her Status in the usual way. She was surprised to find that the top of the window had tabs now. The tab she was currently on was Status, but there was also a Skills tab and an Options tab.

"Is something wrong?" Princess Celestia asked.

Twilight shook her head. "I don't think so. I've just got 2 options here that I've never seen before. Skills and Options. I supposedly finished the Tutorial earlier today, so that might be why." Twilight theorized.

"Start with what you know, then we'll work on what you don't." the princess said.

"Right, first off there's my Stats." Twilight gave the princess the run-down on her Stats, followed by Quests, and then she examined Skills. There were a fair number of them and Twilight read each of them off to the princess.

'Gamer's Mind. Passive. Lv Max. Grants the user the ability to think calmly and logically in dangerous situations and nullifies psychological effects. Note that since the Spiral Life-form Status is genetic, it is only partially nullified.

Gamer's Body. Passive. Lv Max. Grants the user the body of a video game character. Pain and fatigue will rapidly fade, and any injury can be healed by restoring HP.

Levitation. Active. Lv 57. Allows the user to move objects in three dimensions. The Level of the Skill and the user's Int influence the maximum weight the user can move.
MP cost: 5 MP/minute/lb.

Conjuration. Active. Lv 46. Allows the user to create physical objects from mana. The Level of the Skill and the user's Int influence the maximum amount of mass that can be created at once.
MP cost: 6 MP/lb of matter.

Mana Affinity. Passive. Lv Max. Technique which allows the user to become more sensitive to mana and handle it more easily.
10% increase in total MP Regen.
5% increase to maximum MP.
5% increase in magic attack.
5% increase in magic defense.
30% increase in Skills related to MP.

Observe. Active/Passive. Lv 12. 8.95%. Grants detailed information on the target, and some at a glance. This decreases rapidly as the target's Level increases. You will not be able to obtain any information on a target more than 50 Levels above your Level plus Observe's. Leveling up Observe will show more detailed information in both active and passive use. At Level 10 and on, you can see the HP bars of others.'

Another window appeared when she finished reading off the Skills.

'Note, Skills are generally created by doing a special action or repeating certain actions. Some are unlocked as a result of getting your Stats to certain thresholds. A decent number of Skills will evolve into better ones upon reaching their maximum Level, usually 100. This does not apply to all however.'

"That was certainly enlightening." the princess said once she finished. "It seems that it's a late-bloomer ability." she mused.

"Which means what, exactly?" Twilight asked.

"Gaia does grant other abilities, but it's rare. However, enough appeared that a distinction arose between 2 types of abilities. Those which were powerful from the beginning but have slow growth and definite limits, and those that have little power to start with, but grow ridiculously fast without clear limits." the princess explained.

After examining the Options tab and finding nothing of interest, Celestia said, "First I'm going to teach you how to create your own illusion barriers so that you can practice even if I'm busy with the Day Court or other affairs. You saw me doing it earlier already." she said. 

Twilight nodded. "You simply push mana out of your hoof with the desire to create one. Well technically whatever forelimb you have as that was picked so the skill wouldn't be limited to spellcasters." She raised her hoof and the area around them cracked and shattered before revealing an identical real world. "Exiting them is the opposite." Celestia finished. "Now give it a try." she suggested.

Twilight did so, and got a different Skill before succeeding. 

'Through continuous emission of mana from your hoof, you've gained the Skill 'Mana Bolt.'
Mana Bolt. Active. Lv 1. Shoots a ball of mana from your horn at the target. Damage is dependent on Int. Level up to boost the speed of the attack and reduce the cost.  
Cost: 30 MP per use.

Through a special and repeated action, you have created the Skill 'Instance Dungeon Create.' (ID Create.)
ID Create. Active. Lv 1. 0.00%. Allows the user to create pocket dimensions for training purposes, or anything else they may wish. Higher Levels can create more varied IDs.
Current available IDs:
Blank ID - Empty.'

She used the inverse method to escape the ID, creating the ID Escape Skill.

'By reversing a known Skill, you have created 'Instance Dungeon Escape.'
ID Escape. Active. Lv 1. Allows the user to escape IDs. However, IDs above a certain Level cannot be broken out of in this way and IDs can become inescapable under certain circumstances.'

She relayed all of this to the princess, who told her to try and Level her new Skills because she had business she needed to take care of.

Twilight did as she was told. She decided she would create an ID, spam Mana Bolt until her MP ran out, then break out of the ID and create a new one repeatedly until her MP had recovered.

Mana Bolt grew to Level 4 in this way, reducing her MP requirement to 28. It was when her ID Escape leveled up that something odd happened to it. She could now create a Zombie ID according to her Skill window. Resolving to wait for her teacher, she kept going the way she had been for the moment. Of course, if her progress started to slow down a great deal, then she might give in to curiosity and take a peek.
> AHH! Zombies!!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight had gotten ID Create to Level 10, unlocking the Ghost ID, and ID Escape to Level 8, but they were slowing significantly. Perhaps if she created the Zombie ID that ID Create had mentioned they would Level up faster. She thought it over carefully. If she only stayed for a minute, then she should be fine, but she'd wait for her MP to finish recharging first to be safe.

While she waited, she pondered what would happen if she made an ID inside and ID. Would they cancel each other out? Or would the new one overwrite the old one? Was it possible to stack them on top of each other? She made a mental note to give it a try later. 

She had her MP back up to full within ten minutes, and used ID Create to bring the Zombie ID into existence. She simply stared for a moment. There were now a pair of rotting corpses that ought to be unable to walk properly in the room with her now. Just as their attention moved to her, she yelled "ID Escape!" and all but smashed her way out.

That had been disturbing in the extreme. Seriously, what kind of sick, twisted being had designed this ability? That was horrifying! Were it not for a combination of Gamer's Mind reducing the impact and Gamer's Body preventing her from throwing up as easily as she might have, she would have vomited from that sight and smell. ...Now that she thought about it that might be on purpose.

Once she calmed down, a thought occurred. The windows had said she could gain Exp. from killing monsters. Maybe that was what the other IDs she could potentially create were for. She resolved to Level it up more, and show the Princess when she got back from whatever was taking so long.

Celestia POV


The Solar Monarch, Princess Celestia, was currently looking at five stone orbs deep in the Everfree Forest, specifically in the ruins that used to be the castle she and her sister, Luna, had ruled from. The elements had degraded a great deal after one of their bearers turned bitter and dark, and the remaining one had turned them on said bearer. The elements had been reduced to little more than hunks of rock, and the Element of Magic, which also represented bonds in and of themselves, was hit especially hard, disappearing altogether.

She wished she'd been able to talk Luna down, but she hadn't and the Elements weren't an option for her this time. She had little confidence in her ability to best her little sister in combat or seriously try to hurt her, and trying to reason with her hadn't worked when Luna hadn't been stewing for 1000-odd years.

She despised herself for it, but it seemed she had no alternative but to train her new student in hopes of her wielding the elements to break the stranglehold Luna's bitterness had over her. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy her pupil's company, quite the opposite, she was eager, intelligent, and powerful, but not arrogant, something very few of the nobility could claim. It was just that it felt wrong to use someone who clearly trusted her implicitly. The worst part was that if she actually told Twilight then she doomed Equestria as you couldn't force a friendship.

She was well aware of what she would be sending one of her little ponies to face with very little to go on. Luna could trounce even Twilight's current strength with little effort, if her power had remained constant, at this point, and if her ability was correct, then Twilight would be able to beat any normal pony in a fight easily without even using magic.

She sighed and started back. There were wards against teleporting to Canterlot over long distances to prevent an invading army from just appearing in their midst. Probably paranoia on her part, but it was only paranoia until it happened. 

Of course, that plan hinged on Twilight successfully making friends. According to her parents, Twilight was not shy so much as disinterested in social interaction. She simply didn't find any appeal in it. For some reason, all the Gamers throughout history had been similar having few friends or acquaintances they were close to.

Then there was the minor detail of the baby dragon Twilight had hatched. She was clearly not old enough to take care of him, but from what she'd gathered about Twilight from her family and personally meeting her, Twilight would feel responsible for him, especially if she discovered that the egg used in that test was an infertile dragon's egg that was used to see how the newly-accepted student would deal with failure. Twilight had created life and was, to an extent, the little dragon's mother.

She cleared her mind of thoughts over what-ifs and teleported as close to the city as the wards she had placed would allow. It was her student's decision if she was to raise the baby dragon, and she had to have some way of keeping Luna from carrying out her plans for eternal night, or they were all doomed anyway.

 Twilight POV 


Twilight had ducked back inside of another Zombie ID, and used Observe on one of the Zombies. She wrote down what the window had said on a piece of paper, before exiting the ID.

She'd switched to spamming Energy Bolt inside the original type of ID (Blank) and had Leveled it up to 10, but like ID Create, it had slowed down a great deal after reaching Level 10. 

Energy Bolt only cost 25 MP now, greatly increasing the number of times she could use it, but she had yet to see what it would do to something not made of stone, though that was admittedly impressive since it only took 2 to blast through a wall a foot thick and probably magically reinforced. 

She wasn't sure if the spells used to strengthen the walls carried over to the IDs. Something else to ask the princess when she got back. She exited the ID and discovered the princess waiting for her.

"Oh, sorry! Did I keep you waiting for long?" Twilight asked sheepishly.

"No, only about a minute. How did it go?" the princess asked.

"Well, I can confirm 2 things. Skills start slowing down their leveling once you reach Level 10, and Energy Bolt costs 1 less MP every 2 Levels. Currently it's Level 10, so it costs 25 MP per use instead of 30.

I've also gained access to a new type of Dungeon called the Zombie ID, which, as you might expect, has Zombies in it. I stayed just long enough to use Observe on one and write down what I found, then exited the ID." Twilight said with a degree of professionalism that was only slightly ruined by her physical age. She handed her teacher what she'd written.

'Zombie. Lv 8.
HP: 1600.
A vengeful spirit that has taken form as a walking corpse and hates the living. It will attack any living thing it comes across, and is twice as strong as it was in life. Luckily it is easily outrun as it's speed is half of what it was in life.'

Celestia looked the notes and Zombie sketch over. "Well, that's somewhat unsettling. On a lighter note, your drawing is surprisingly good." she commented.

Twilight nodded. "Agi affects your dexterity too. That includes drawing and other art forms. I was hoping you could come with me into the Zombie ID since I can't really Level up without fighting monsters, and if I don't have backup, then I could be in real trouble if I get surrounded since letting them get close is a bad idea according to Observe." Twilight pleaded.

"I don't have any problems with that as long as we're back in a two hour interval or so and you're careful not to let them get close." Celestia said after a moment's thought.

Twilight created the Dungeon and sent a Mana Bolt at one of the Zombies as it immediately turned towards her and started to limp it's way over. The sphere of concentrated mana was larger than her own head, and the Zombie died almost instantly, turning into black smoke which quickly vanished. She marveled at this for a moment, then turned to find the princess examining the Zombie as it tried and failed to bite into her. It's teeth kept meeting resistance as they chomped down beyond what normal fur and skin ought to offer.

"Hm, they aren't very strong are they?" she asked.

"How are you even doing that?" Twilight asked in a mixture of awe and worry as the Zombie continued to try to bite her.

"Alicorns are tougher than the other types of ponies and I'm using a tiny bit of magic to protect myself by toughening my skin further." a bit of discomfort crept across her face. "Could you take care of this one as well? It's not painful, but it isn't exactly comfortable either." Celestia asked. Twilight used Mana Bolt again, destroying this one as well. 

Each Zombie left behind 150 Exp and a little purple crystal.

"That's odd, they shouldn't actually have physical forms so it shouldn't be possible for the Zombies to leave anything behind." Celestia noted.

"Maybe it has to do with my power?" Twilight asked.

"Hm, probably. Although that would break the law of energy conservation regardless." Celestia said, marveling slightly at the implications of that. Twilight was breaking the laws of physics without even trying. What could she accomplish with effort?

"Let's see what it is. Observe." Twilight said.

'Soul Stone. A crystallized soul fragment. It can be used as a catalyst in certain spells. Restores 30 MP when used.'

"Huh, ...so that's a thing." Twilight said eventually. She wasn't sure she wanted to keep these.

"If they're far enough gone that they'll attack any living thing, they can't really be called people anymore. I wouldn't worry about those crystals too much." Celestia reassured her. 

With that encouragement, Twilight placed the Soul Stones in her Inventory. They'd be great for restoring her MP between skirmishes. They hunted down more Zombies, and Twilight reached Level 13 before 500 had been felled. She had kept track so she could be sure of how much Exp. it took to Level up. Since she was one-shotting them anyway, Twilight left her Stat points alone for the moment.

Energy Bolt reached Level 14, reducing the MP cost to 23, and thanks to her high MP and how often Soul Stones dropped, she was able to 
kill off the Zombies pretty much non-stop. She ended up with a surplus of Soul Stones actually. She reluctantly collected the teeth and ribs they also left behind, but drew the line at the skins.

'Zombie Tooth. A tooth filled with the resentment of the dead that have been felled again. It has alchemical and crafting uses.

Zombie Rib. Lighter and stronger than it's counterpart in a living thing, this rib has alchemical and crafting value.'

They were in the ballroom when they passed the 500 mark, and Twilight was almost 80% of the way to Level 14. This made it somewhat less terrifying when a large group of Zombies melded together into a single enormous Zombie which lacked distinguishing gender features, clothing, hair, and had a full height of roughly 3 stories.

They stared for a good 5 seconds, then Twilight used Observe on it.

'Legion Zombie. Lv 34.
HP: 15200. MP: 1200.
An assembly of Zombies full of resentment. When a large number of Zombies feel threatened by mass-hunting, they merge together in order to combat the threat. Similar to it's smaller counterparts, it is very strong and has great stamina, but is very slow. Luckily, it possess no magical abilities. Avoid close combat if at all possible.'

"..." Twilight relayed the gist of this.

"Right. I think it's time we left." Celestia said as the usual variety of Zombies started to pour in from the doors to either side of the ballroom. Twilight nodded. 7 Levels wasn't a bad place to quit at all.

Unfortunately, when Twilight tried to use ID Escape, she got a red window.

'ID Escape cannot be used while a Boss mob is present. Try not to die until it's gone.'

The princess was unable to break down the ID as well. "It seems we have no choice but to fight it." the princess said. "I'll handle the small ones, I need you to take care of the big one." she said.

Twilight nodded nervously. She didn't think she could take care of the Legion Zombie with Mana Bolt, and that was the only Skill she currently had that could be used as an attack. She took a deep breath to calm down. 

The princess was counting on her. If Mana Bolt wasn't going to be enough, then she'd have to use something else. First, she'd send a few Mana Bolts at it to make it target her specifically and determine how much damage it did, then see how much MP she had left and try making a new, stronger attack while she dodged any attacks directed her way.

She fired 2 Mana Bolts at the Legion Zombie, taking off about 1% of it's HP with each. She checked how much MP she currently had and how quickly it regenerated now.

'MP: 1563/1607.
MP Regen: 90.57/min.'

Yeah, at this rate, she wouldn't get that last quarter of it's HP down before she ran out of MP. She added her Stat points to Int while dodging swipes and stomps.

MP: 1934/1974.
MP Regen: 110.56/min.'

She fired another pair of Mana Bolts, but still did just over 1% of the Legion Zombie's HP in terms of damage with each. She was trying to come up with an idea, when she realized that each Mana Bolt made a small explosion, which was where most of the damage came from.

Logically, a bigger Mana Bolt would make a bigger explosion and do more damage. However, that would just use a bunch of MP at once and be the equivalent of several Mana Bolts, leading to much the same end result of a Legion Zombie with about a tenth of it's HP left. She only had 10 Soul Sones extra, which would let her take out another 14% of it's HP, but she could not wait long enough to spam Mana Bolt. She couldn't expect the princess to fend off the Zombies forever. 

Therefore, she had to add something extra to further increase the damage. Spinning it would give it piercing ability and probably boost the power. It was certainly her best bet.

She gathered as much mana as she could control into a sphere as the Boss approached again. Then, just as it threatened to burst free of her control, she made it spin in a clockwise spiral. Then she launched it straight at the Legion Zombie. 

It tore right through the Boss and left it at less than 10%. She hurriedly prepped another with her remaining MP. She'd lost most of her MP making the first one, so she'd had about 300 left after firing it. It was probably overkill at this point, but she wanted to be sure it was dead because she wouldn't be able to manage another shot like that first one.

The Legion Zombie's HP hit 0, and it faded into black smoke. The Zombies Celestia was fighting retreated, and she received 41290 Exp, pushing her to level 17.

She sat down in relief. That had been nerve-wracking. Several windows appeared, and she dealt with them in order.

'You have created a brand new Skill. Would you like to name it?'

Since this probably referred to the Skill she'd used mid-fight, she named it 'Spiral Mana Bolt.'

'Spiral Mana Bolt. Active. Lv 2. 5.06%. 
A technique which gathers and spins an immense amount of mana in a spiral to greatly enhance it's power and piercing ability. The Skill's power is further boosted by the sheer amount of mana used in it. MP cost varies according to how much MP the user puts into it.
Takes 10 seconds to charge.
Ignores 20% of target's Defense.
600% attack damage
4 second spin time. This can be increased to 10 seconds according to the user's desire and increases it's power with spin time.'

She stared at the window. "What was that?" Celestia asked, the first surprised look Twilight had ever seen on her face showing up. "You seem a lot more powerful now." she noted.

Twilight relayed the Skill window to her mentor. "I don't exactly have much to compare it to, but it seems extremely overpowered. Then again, 2 shots completely drained my MP." she commented. "I should probably have a look at my... other... windows." she trailed off as she scanned the contents of the three windows in front of her.

'Due to raising Int above 100, a random Skill has been generated relating to your memorization abilities 'Encyclopedic Memory.'
Encyclopedic Memory. Passive. Lv Max. This Skill allows you to remember facts and events as if your Int were double it's actual value.

Due to raising your Int above 100, you have gained the 'Mana Regeneration' and 'Medium Mana Capacity.'
Mana Regeneration. Passive. Lv Max. An ability given only to those of special heritage that accelerates the recovery of mana.
Doubles MP Regen.

Medium Mana Capacity. Passive. Lv Max. An ability given to a small number of mana users with an exceptional ability to handle mana.
Boosts mana-based attacks by 15%.
Lowers MP costs by 10%.'

She checked her Stats to confirm what she suspected.

'Level 17.
HP: 1190.
HP Regen: 14.9/min.
MP: 2184.
MP Regen: 232.32/min.
Str: 32.
Int: 123.
Agi: 35.
Vit: 34.
Wis: 40.
Lck: 27.
20 Stat points to spend.'

She told the princess her new Stats with undisguised glee as well as the new Skills she had gained. Once she calmed down a little, she wondered why the Skills hadn't shown up when she raised her Int. Perhaps they only showed up when she wasn't actively fighting?

Meanwhile the Princess was caught rather off guard. "Isn't this kind of cheating?" she wondered aloud.

"It's not cheating if you earn it and I spent the first 6 years of my life either studying, solving puzzles, or doing activities that would raise Str, Agi, Vit, and/or Lck. It's not the game's fault I exploited 43 points of Int and 35 of Wis, not to mention what I got for the other four.

Since my other Stats were so high already, I didn't spend any from my Levels on them and instead focused on Int. It might be exploiting the system, but it isn't cheating. I'm fairly sure that I can't break the rules because there aren't rules so much as formulas. 'X Int will give you 10X MP.' for example." Twilight explained with complete seriousness. 

At any rate, the Legion Zombie dropped a large purple crystal, a quartet of red potions, ...and actual money. "That... That makes no sense! Why would it be carrying money around?" Twilight wondered aloud.

'Greater Soul Stone. A crystal formed from a large number of souls. Restores 90 MP. 

Health Potion. A potion made to restore one's vitality and heal minor injuries. Resores 200 HP.'

"Hm, Potions like this are supposed to be exceedingly rare and very hard to make. Could I have it tested?"Celestia asked.

Twilight agreed to let the princess take samples of the Potion and Soul Stones in order to determine their exact properties. She went to her new room and set up her few possessions. Then she went to sleep for the night, mentally exhausted.
> Congratulations! Your Twilight Has Learned A New Move!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The next day, Twilight was going over her weaknesses. First, she needed some more variety to her attacks since all she had right now was Mana Bolt and it's Spiral counterpart, which meant she was sunk if those didn't work. Second, she needed something to slow her opponents down with. Otherwise she'd be in trouble the next time she fought with the Zombie Legion because of the lesser Zombies it brought along. Third, some kind of protection spell so she wouldn't have to spend all her time jumping around the battlefield. Fourth, a detection ability in order to know where the next group of enemies was and avoid anything she couldn't handle.

She'd mostly been training her Stats, playing with her foalsitter, and learning theory, so she didn't actually know that many spells. She was hoping to remedy that starting today. The princess was sure to know an utterly ridiculous number of spells. Surely there were some that she could use for her purposes.

She waited at the spot they had agreed upon. Deciding to try and do it herself while she waited, Twilight created a Blank ID and began to manipulate mana from her horn, silently thanking her newer Skills for giving her a greater ability to handle mana how she wanted. 

A different attack Skill would probably be a projectile of some sort. An arrow or spear perhaps? Then again, she needed a close-up Skill just in case. She might as well work on both. For the long-distance attack, she picked an arrow because that implied multiple firings at once and the spear was more intended to be used as a medium-range weapon and on a single target.

She concentrated her mana into a sphere that was not quite a Mana Bolt, then she molded it into a longer and narrower shape and made it pointed on the forward end. Finally, she gave it a spin and launched it at the nearest wall. It was weaker than Mana Bolt, but then she got the Skill windows.

'Mana Arrow. Active. Lv 1.
This Skill fires arrows composed of mana at the target. Damage is dependent on the user's Int. Level up the Skill to increase the number of arrow fired and reduce the costs.
Current number of arrows: 2. 
MP cost: 20.

Spiral Mana Arrow. Active. Lv 1.
This Skill fires arrows composed of mana at the target. They have been given a spin to increase their piercing power. Damage is dependent on the user's Int. Level up this Skill to increase the number of arrows and reduce the costs.
Current number of arrows: 2. 
MP cost: 25.'

With two arrows and a cost of only 25 total, this already beat Mana Bolt, though Spiral Mana Bolt was a different story. However, since she didn't have to charge this one, she could use it a lot more easily than a SMB. She practiced with it until it hit Lv 4. From what she could tell, every three Levels increased the number of arrows, while reducing the cost by 1MP. Each Level also slightly boosted the speed and accuracy of each arrow, though that could just be her individual skill.

It was only 8:30 a.m. and the princess had agreed to come here at noon. That gave her more than enough time to get to Level 10 with this Skill and develop others. By Level 10, Spiral Mana Arrow fired 5 arrows for 22 MP. She also discovered something. When she hit Level 5 with SMA, Mana Arrow Leveled up. It appeared that Skills that were built on top of other Skills also earned a small amount of Exp. for their originals.

She decided to switch to a binding or slowing ability. Perhaps she could make a rope to tie enemies up, or a net? Maybe she could make a sticky net. In any case, she had to make rope or thread out of mana first. It was not that hard to make threads, the hard part was keeping them from congealing into a uniform mass once she connected them. She eventually created a rope that was 10 feet long and held it in proper form. This created a new Skill.

'Mana Rope. Active. Lv 1.
A rope formed out of mana. It can be used to bind things, or to climb tall objects. Since it is made of spiritual energy, it can be used effectively on incorporeal beings. Since it is made of mana, it begins to decay the moment the creator is no longer controlling it directly. Level this Skill up to increase the length of time this takes.
Cost: 30 MP.
Current duration: 10 minutes.
Note: If the target struggles, the rope's durability will fall much more rapidly, and greater strength will drain it faster.'

She nodded. That made sense. If someone was trying to break out, then of course the construct would fail more quickly. Still, that wasn't the original intention of this particular Skill. It was just supposed to be a building block for an actual binding Skill.

She used Mana Rope 8 times, noting how much easier it was now that she had a Skill for it, and tied each of them into a grid of four squares. With this, she had created a rudimentary net. As she had hoped, this created a Skill.

'You have created a brand new Skill. Would you like to name it? Y/N.'

"Yes, of course. I have to say it to use it anyway." she said as she selected Yes.

'Would you like to name the Skill 'I have to say it anyway.'? Y/N.'

She stared at it with a deadpan expression for a few seconds, before selecting 'N' and naming it 'Mana Net.'

'Mana Net. Active. Lv 1.
Using an octet of Mana Ropes, the user creates a net made of mana. Reinforced by each other, the net's ropes are very hard to break free of, even by those of great strength. Level this Skill up to increase the strength and duration of the net.
Effect: Halves target's movement.
Duration: 1 hour.
Cost: 100 MP.'  

Kind of costly, but Leveling it up should help with that. 24 uses of Mana Net later saw it to Level 5. It's duration had increased to 70 minutes, or 1 hour and ten minutes, and the cost had dropped to 95 MP. Seeing as it was bottoming out her MP, she switched to the third item on her list. 

She was stumped for a minute as to how to protect herself, then decided to simply form a shield out of mana. She would give it a spin as well, since that seemed to be working out quite well with all the other Skills. The shield was quite easy, so she decided to create a bubble around her person, then spin it around her. That ought to deflect some of any attacks that landed by sending the force off to the side. It did indeed.

'Mana Shield. Active. Lv 1.
A basic Skill that blocks attacks. A shield of mana completely surrounds the user, and stops incoming damage. 
Effect: Blocks up to a certain level of damage. 
Effect: The Shield's strength increases per level. 
Effect: The Shield grows denser per level. 
Effect: The Shield's duration increases per level. 
Effect: The Shield's strength, density and duration increases based on the user's INT.
Cost: 50 MP. Additional 30 MP/min.

Spiral Mana Shield. Active. Lv 1.
A Skill that blocks attacks built on over the original. A shield of mana completely surrounds the user, and stops incoming damage. The shield rotates in a clockwise direction and partially redirects or even deflects most attacks. 
Effect: Blocks up to a certain level of damage. 
Effect: The Shield's rotation speed increases per level.
Effect: The Shield's strength increases per level. 
Effect: The Shield grows denser per level. 
Effect: The Shield's duration increases per level. 
Effect: The Shield's rotation speed, strength, density and duration increases based on the user's INT.
Cost: 60 MP. Additional 40 MP/min.'

She was very pleased with these results, and her MP had mostly recovered from the drain she'd subjected it to. She had a great idea to train the Spiral Mana Shield. She believed she could maintain 5 indefinitely, though she double-checked just to be safe.

'Level 17.
HP: 1190.
HP Regen: 14.9/min.
MP: 2184.
MP Regen: 232.32/min.
Str: 32.
Int: 123.
Agi: 35.
Vit: 34.
Wis: 40.
Lck: 27.
20 Stat points to spend.'

She thought it over, and left her Stats for now. an extra 200 MP and 2 MP Regen or an extra 2% MP Regen sounded nice but she wanted to see how her current Stats would perform. She used the three shields on top of each other, then sent a thread of mana through the shield to see if it stopped her attacks.

Ah good, it passed right through, likely because they both used her mana. She was probably pretty safe like this since if anything could punch through a barrier with 5 layers like this she was probably dead anyway. Especially with an Int over 100.

Now for the final item on the list. A detection Skill. She was fairly sure she could use mana in place of sound as a form of echolocation. She emitted mana densely enough to form a fog and let it spread out. She was pumping her remaining 32.32 MP Regen into it, almost a third of the average person's entire pool. After a few minutes of this, the entire room was filled and she was aware of every object's exact placement relative to everything else. She was confident she could make her way in and out with her eyes closed.

'Mana Sense. Active/Passive. Lv 1.
Using mana, the user is able to passively sense the locations of objects around them. Active use increases the range and detail. Higher Levels have greater range and detail.
Passive Range: 5 feet.
Active Range: 10 feet.
Cost: 30 MP/min.'

Well, that solved that problem, and Spiral Mana Shield had Leveled up twice while she'd been working on that, freeing up 2 MP of drain per minute per shield, for a total of 10 MP/min. She started to use Mana Net again. By the time she sensed Princess Celestia entering the Blank ID, her Mana Net was Level 10 and lasted 80 minutes with a cost of 90 MP and Spiral Mana Shield had reached Level 15 and dropped from an initial cost of 60 MP and an additional 40/min. to an initial cost of 30 MP and 25 additional MP/min. Finally, Mana Sense reached Level 6, each Level adding a foot to the passive range and 2 to the active range, for a total of 10 feet passively and 20 feet actively for 28 MP.

"Hello Twilight. You seem to have been working hard." Celestia said, having noticed Twilight's mana saturating the ID.

"Yep, I thought I should make myself more versatile, so I made some new Skills, you're looking at one actually." she gestured to her shields.

"That looks like it should be quite draining." the princess said slightly concerned. 

"It was at first, but since it only costs 25 MP/min to use now, I can keep 9 going indefinitely, though that leaves me with only 7.32 MP Regen/min left, effectively crippling my offensive capabilities. They get stronger based on their Level and my Int. too. I was actually hoping to test it out with your help." Twilight said, hoping for a positive answer.

"Are you asking me to attack you?" Celestia said in disbelief.

"Unlike a Zombie, I can trust you not to try and kill me. Besides, I have five layers and I'm not asking you to go all out." Twilight rationalized.

"Well, Is suppose it's better than the alternative." the princess sighed. She fired a fairly weak beam of magic and other than some slight redness at the spot that got hit, the shield was more or less untouched.

"Wow. I was expecting at least some damage, even if you were holding back a lot." Twilight said, understandably stunned. This was without adding those Stat points, what would it be like if she were to do so? 

"I used roughly twice as much power as in a regular Beam shot, but it barely made a dent in it. That's quite impressive. It would take dozens of shots just to bring down one layer, and you could replace them easily. You could win simply by outlasting your opponent in most cases if you were fighting a spell-caster." Celestai said. Inwardly, she was pondering this. Gamers were supposed to advance quickly given the proper tools and motivation, but to essentially become invincible to conventional mages in a matter of hours was terrifying growth. Of course that was assuming a one-on-one fight was happening.

If she were to fight a platoon, her shields would be brought down by sheer weight of numbers, and a dragon of even middling age would be able to punch through one with ease with their breath or sheer strength. Then again, she had the option of increasing her Int by one-sixth, and boosting all of her Skills that used magic by a significant amount. Besides, she wasn't even in the double digits in terms of age.

"I think I should train my attack Skills on Zombies while I have several of these up. That way I can Level up this Skill, and the Spiral Mana Arrow/Bolt. Plus, I've got a Skill that lets me sense my surroundings now too, so my situational awareness has improved and I can tell if someone is trying to sneak up on me. Right now it only lets me 'see' up to 10 feet, but if someone can punch through my shield without me realizing from that distance I'm probably doomed anyway." she said sheepishly.

"I won't let that happen." the princess said sternly. She was well-aware Twilight had no idea she was being used and they were doomed if Nightmare Moon had her way, but that didn't make her just a pawn on the chessboard. She was going to protect her student as best she could. Of course, a slightly bitter note entered her thoughts, that hadn't been enough far too many times.

"Right. What's first on the agenda?" Twilight asked dutifully.

"Let's start with history. You can always learn from your own mistakes, but learning from someone else's is another matter." the princess said. She began with an overview, glossing over some of the more unpleasant details. Twilight did a test on the Zombies, and her new Skills were quite effective against them. Although she left before testing them on the Legion Zombie, she was confident that she could slow it with Mana Net long enough to Spiral Mana Bolt it into oblivion.

She went to sleep looking forward to tomorrow.
> Hey! I'm A Summoner!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight had come up with a plan to grind and study at the same time. She would spam Spiral Mana Arrow and Spiral Mana Bolt until her MP dropped below 500, then apply her maximum of 9 Spiral Mana Shields and study while she waited for her MP to recharge. Spiral Mana Shield's Level skyrocketed in a matter of days. However, the initial cost and MP/min cost never fell below 5 MP after hitting them and it got a little harder to Level up each time. Even when it got to Level 80, the cost didn't go down. At this point she could layer them over 20 times, but even then the Level still grew very slowly.

She switched to spamming Mana Net, Spiral Mana Arrow, and Spiral Mana Bolt on Zombies and the Zombie Legion reaching Level 25 before it became unfeasible. The formula for Exp changed completely and she suddenly needed at least 2.5 times the level times 1000 Exp. In the process, she discovered that Spiral Mana Bolt Leveled faster if she used a lot of MP at once. Plus, a single 1000 MP blast could reduce a three-story building to a hole in the ground, though she could only do 3 blasts in a short period of time, and that was assuming she was not using anything else.

After some debate between Int and Wis, she dumped her Stat points into Int to boost her Skills' power, her MP, and her MP Regen. She had plenty of MP Regen at the moment, and if her maximum output wasn't enough to overwhelm her opponent, then more MP Regen would make little difference.

'Level 25.
HP: 1690.
HP Regen: 21.9/min.
MP: 3339. 
MP Regen: 360.95/min.
Str: 32.
Int: 183.
Agi: 35.
Vit: 34.
Wis: 40.
Lck: 27.
0 Stat poins unspent.
322007 Bits.'

Odd that she hadn't gotten another new Skill, but maybe it only happened at every 100 points once you hit triple digits. Ah well, her Skills should have gotten a massive boost. Her MP certainly had.

She was also learning a great deal about history, magical theory, and practical application of magic from the Princess. All of it very interesting. One of the top ten subjects that interested her was summoning Elementals.

She was intrigued by the idea of communicating with nature and having it as an ally. The idea of a sentient being being under her control was a bit off-putting, but it wasn't like she would enslave him/her.

Of course, she couldn't summon an Elemental without first learning about her elemental alignment. The elemental alignment of a pony, or any other being for that matter, was a mix of genetics, personality, and sheer random chance. Without knowing and learning about your alignment, you would have no idea what Elemental you'd end up with.  You would also have little to no influence over the Elemental itself.

Eventually, she asked the princess about it. "Um, princess Celestia? Is there a way to test what my elemental alignment is?" Twilight asked.

"Let me guess, you want to summon an Elemental?" the princess said with a raised eye-brow.

"Was it that obvious?" Twilight asked sheepishly.

"You are profoundly poor at hiding your interest in something. There aren't many other reasons why you'd want to know you elemental alignment either. To answer your question, yes. It's rather expensive, but there is a type of paper produced in Zebrica that can do so for you." the princess explained.

"Oh, I've got 300000-odd Bits. Will that cover it?" Twilight asked with some worry that she was asking too much.

"...It only costs 3000 Bits, so yes, you have enough." Celestia said with an odd look on her face.

Roughly three days later, a few pieces of the paper arrived, and Twilight tested her alignment. It was Fire according to the test.

"Hm, I suspected as much. As for summoning an Elemental, I have a book for that. It only teaches you the basics, but that's usually enough for anyone with above-average reserves or who is talented with magic to summon a low-tier Elemental. Normally I'd wait on letting you have this since Fire is easily the most temperamental element, but you should be fine given your ludicrously high Int and the simple fact that it's almost certainly going to become a Skill and should work with you." the princess said, briefly leaving to get it.

Twilight had gotten a Skill out of learning her affinity, which she took the time to examine now that she was alone.

'Fire Element Affinity. Passive. Lv 1.
Fire is one of the four elements of nature, and the strongest offensively, though it is one of the shortest-ranged. Your affinity for fire and fire-related magics. It boosts your abilities with anything tied to fire in any way.
Effect: 1% boost to damage with fire-related abilities.
Effect: 1% boost to fire resistance.
Effect: 1% reduction to MP costs of fire-related abilities.'

Hm, this would boost her summon's powers, and simply using the summon would train the affinity. You didn't get much more closely tied to an element than an Elemental.

When the princess came back, Twilight got a pop-up window upon receiving the book.

'You have acquired the Skill Book for 'Summon Elemental.' Would you like to learn the Skill? Warning! If you choose to learn the Skill, the book will disappear. It is possible to learn Skills by reading the book the normal way.'

Twilight being the bibliophile she was, avoided destroying a perfectly good book and just read it, getting the Skill from it upon finishing the book.

'Basic Summon Elemental. Active. Lv 1.
Summons the most basic Elemental, usually of the user's affinity. A very long time ago, sentient beings realized nature's power and have attempted to wield these powers for their own purposes. Eventually they were able to communicate with Elementals and could summon them at will. The Elemental's attributes will change as the caster's INT, skill level and Element Affinity grows. It will also allow them to summon stronger Elementals. 
Cost: 50 MP/min.
Current maximum number of Elementals: 1.
It should be noted that upon Leveling this Skill and gaining more possible summons at once, you can simply stack the same elemental on itself, multiplying the individual Elemental's power.' 

"Right, let's give it a try." Twilight said, conjuring a piece of chalk, since chalk imbued with magic would take much too long to get the normal way. She drew a pentagram on the floor, surrounded by a circle. A basic summoning circle.

"It's been quite some time since I saw one of these." Celestia remarked. She had already informed Twilight of that little secret. She was hiding enough as it was.

"The Skill implied that this sort of thing has been around since the beginning of sentient life here. I have to wonder if calling on an Elemental isn't calling on a tiny fraction of Gaia itself. Elementals are formed from the elements of the world around us, so it only makes sense." Twilight mused. "At any rate, apparently you need to say a specific speech to get one of the Elementals to join you." she cleared her throat and stood at the edge of the circle.

"I, Twilight Sparkle, call upon the ancient contract of past ages to summon thee. I pray you hear my call. Come Fire Elemental!" she felt a little embarrassed saying melodramatic stuff like this, but it was necessary. 

A ball of fire about a foot wide appeared, fading to reveal a little figure that stood on two feet and had a red dress and hat on. There was a red gem shaped like a classic flame symbol on her chest (it was clearly a she) and she had a conical hat. Her hair was red, as were her eyes, and her ears were positioned on either side of her head, but were triangle-shaped just like a ponies. In fact, they were actually proper triangles instead of rounded at the top.

'"Ah, a summons. What do you want?"' she asked with the tone of one speaking to a stranger. Polite, but neutral. Not friendly or unfriendly. It took a second to register that her voice had been telepathic rather than spoken.

"I would like you to form a contract with me. My real name is Twilight Sparkle. Would you tell me yours?" Twilight asked, following the Skill's information on how the initial meeting should be handled to the letter.

The Elemental seemed to gauge her strength for a moment, then nodded. Elementals tended not to obey anyone weaker than them in any capacity unless it suited them, so the relative strength of those they formed contracts with was quite important. '"Alright. My true name is Ember."' she said.

'"From this moment on, we are of one soul, until the day one of us ceases to be."' They said in unison.

Twilight was quite surprised when she saw images of fire and extreme heat. From forest fires and lava, to the stars themselves. She was soon able to figure out she was seeing the memories of Fire itself. Through them, she came to understand it better. 

Fire left nothing but destruction in it's wake if it grew too great, but in small amounts, in it's wake, or from a distance, it encouraged life to flourish. The memories faded as they finalized the contract, and Ember promptly vanished.

Contracts were very simple. The two beings would tell each other their names and agree to fight together. That was all. However, it was almost ludicrously easy to use a true name against an Elemental one was contracted to. Due to this, Elementals did not tell just anyone their names. It implied a great deal of trust.

Twilight immediately tested the Skill. This time a larger ball of flame appeared, some 5 feet in diameter. Luckily, this flame was merely warm, rather than hot like the first. Despite being mere inches away from the fire this time, she was not burned. Ember formed from the flame, three feet tall this time.

"Alright, and I can keep you summoned indefinitely since I regain mana faster than what you need to stay summoned drains it away!" Twilight said happily.

'"Hm, a Gamer huh? One doesn't meet too many of those."' Ember mused.

"Well, that's not something you see everyday." Celestia said, less surprised than curious. Apparently she hadn't seen an Elemental in some time.

"We should probably see how much power you can put into your attacks. What say we test your abilities in an ID?" Twilight asked.

"I'm certain it won't be a challenge." Ember remarked, as if offended that Twilight would even suggest otherwise.

"Uh, sorry. Anyway, let's do the Zombie ID first." Twilight said, creating the ID.
> Super Zombies, Summoning, And Spike
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The Zombies stood little chance of survival against Flare's attacks, and Twilight had yet to feel the drain since the two of them were one-shotting the Zombies. Elementals required their summoners to give them Mana in order to attack on their own. Otherwise, they'd need direct orders to fight. 

They figured out fairly quickly that Flare had three main abilities in terms of combat. There was the obvious conjuring fire balls ability, but she could set things on fire from a distance if they were combustible, dry wood for example, and she was able to cause explosions by super-heating any containers such as water barrels or well-sealed rooms. Less inherently destructive, she could absorb and control flames.

She could also sense what was happening with any fire in the area. The other types of Elementals could do much the same thing with their Elements, though the usefulness varied according to Flare. An Earth Elemental could locate tunnels or anything ground-bound. A Water Elemental could sense everything in or around any amount of water, though this was dulled with ice or water vapor. A Wind Elemental could sense everything flying and detect the weather from miles away. 

At any rate, her Elemental Summon and Fire Affinity Skills leveled up a few times by the time they fought and killed a Legion Zombie. Elemental Summon had been in constant use for the past hour, so it rapidly climbed to Level 12. This boosted Flare's power, and reduced the cost of summoning her by 6. Now she only cost 44/min. to maintain. It also granted her 2 extra summons at once, which she gave to Flare to increase her power by 200%.

Fire Affinity had also, technically at least, been used extensively since Flare used her MP simply to be summoned and was using Twilight's MP to attack too. It reached Level 15, granting a 16% boost to Fire-related abilities, reducing any damage fire dealt to her by 16%, and reducing the costs of fire-based attacks by 16%. This boosted Flare significantly as well.

Considering how much of a help Flare was being, she should look into getting the other types of Elementals. There were the obvious Water, Earth, and Wind Elementals, but Ice, Metal, Electricity, Light, and Darkness, probably existed too. The book had at least implied as much.

Since 150 per Zombie times 500 made 75000, plus the 41900 from the Legion Zombie, she had gotten 116900 Exp from this run, more than enough to Level up. Since it was so much quicker with Flare, she did four more runs, reaching Level 31 and getting the Elemental Summon and Fire Affinity Skills to Level 27. Mana Sense had reached Level 16.

'Level 31.
HP: 1940.
HP Regen: 25.4/min.
MP: 3663.
MP Regen: 381.46/min.
Str: 32.
Int: 183.
Agi: 35.
Vit: 34.
Wis: 40.
Lck: 27.
30 Stat points unspent.
322007 Bits.'

Elemental Summon only cost 37/min for each summon so she could have a total of ten out though the Skill only allowed 6 for now. This still made Flare a lot stronger than originally. Fire Affinity  granted a 28% boost to Fire-related abilities, reducing any damage fire dealt to her by 28%, and reducing the costs of fire-based attacks by 28%. 

Mana Sense could sense 20 feet around her passively, and 40 feet actively. She had very good situational awareness now too. At first, an object had to be at least fishbowl-sized to be sensed accurately, but now it only needed to tennis ball-sized to be sensed, and she could determine the intent of living things, or pseudo-living like Zombies.

However, instead of a Legion Zombie appearing, something else appeared. First, instead of one Legion Zombie showing up, FIVE formed, and joined together to create a single mammoth Zombie that towered over the castle.

"What. Is. That?" Flare asked. 

'Well that's a problem... Oh Creator, we're all going to d- Calm.' As if reacting to the situation, she felt Gamer's Mind forcibly calm her far more quickly than with the Legion Zombie, and used Observe on the creature. 

'Apocalypse Zombie. This entity was formed from thousands of individual Zombies in the form of five Legion Zombies. It possesses even greater strength and stamina than it's smaller counterpart the Legion Zombie. At it's current size, simply being stepped on could kill you. It can also fire a beam of life-draining magic from it's mouth.'

Since the Zombie was such a high Level, that was all she got. Even the other Zombies had fled in terror, so they wouldn't be harassed at least. She was aware that being this calm in the face of a hostile skyscraper was not normal to the point of being unhealthy, but that could wait.

"Do you have a plan?" the princess asked, more serious than Twilight had ever seen her, which made complete sense considering what they were facing.

"I was thinking of letting Flare use all of my MP at once to blow the Apocalypse Zombie's head off, then dumping my 30 Stat points into Wis to boost my recovery rate and having her pepper it with attacks while you keep it distracted." Twilight responded.

She nodded her agreement, then took flight and began attacking the left side of the monstrous Zombie to distract it. Flare glowed as she absorbed over 3000 MP, then launched an attack that was so hot, it turned the air around it into plasma, and took out the right side of the Apocalypse Zombie's head, draining one third of it's HP. Less than she'd hoped, but workable.

Twilight hurriedly dumped her 30 Stat points into Wis, boosting her MP Regen to 525.64/min, though since she had Flare summoned 6 times over that left her with 303.64. Then she ran the heck away from a giant hoof crashing down on where she'd been 10 seconds ago.

She recovered about 5 and seven tenths MP per second, so she had Flare spam 5 single MP attacks every second, while she saved the remaining seven tenths to place a well-aimed Spiral Mana Bolt in the way of a swing at the princess. Of course, with less than 60 MP behind it, the attack barely turned aside the swing enough to keep it from hitting the princess. 

The Apocalypse Zombie's HP finally dipped below 50%, then things went south very quickly. The Zombie opened it's mouth, and red energy began to gather in a swirling fashion. Remembering the description, Twilight ran as far from the spot it was aiming for as she could, but she still got caught on the edge of the attack's influence, she lost 500 HP just from being that near. She would have died from a direct hit. Worse, it began to charge again. It took about a minute after that first time, so she had enough time to dodge the attack completely, but only a five-second interval between each charge and firing cycle. 

She didn't get exhausted as easily as a normal person, nor did she recover as slowly, due to a combination of her high 30's Vit and Gamer's Body. However, she was not incapable of becoming exhausted and the princess would also get tired or take a lucky hit eventually.

She needed to do something quickly. Flare wasn't doing enough damage to more than chip away at it's health, and she was barely keeping it from hitting the princess with the meager amount of MP she was saving for herself. She inwardly swore she was never doing this again if they made it out of here alive.

She inwardly slapped herself, she had 38 of the smaller Soul Stones and 4 larger ones from the Legion Zombies. That was enough to give her 1500 MP, more than enough for a Spiral Mana Bolt large enough to take out a leg. Without a leg, it would lose a great deal of mobility, and might even fall over if she were lucky. 

She withdrew the Soul Stones one at a time and used them carefully so as to avoid losing any. Every point counted right now. By the time she had finished, she had 1525 because it took so long to take 42 Soul Stones out of her Inventory individually and use them, also individually.

She used Spiral Mana Bolt with 1500 MP, aiming at the nearest knee. Since 1000 MP had caused a massive explosion with a much lower Int, she was confident she could damage the leg in front of her to the point it was effectively useless.

When she fired it, the right front leg was damaged to the point where the moment the Zombie tried to put weight on it that it gave and caused the Zombie to collapse, it's own weight damaging it and... separating it's damaged leg from the rest of it. The Zombie's HP fell below one quarter. 

Flare blasted it with fire fueled by her summoner's MP while it was down. Princess Celestia also took advantage of the Zombie's predicament to fire on it's head, which did more damage than any other place, but Twilight usually couldn't reach before a leg rose to block it. The Zombie struggled to rise, but it's sense of balance was thrown too far off for it to readjust easily.

The Zombie managed to stand when it's HP fell to one-tenth, but it couldn't attack or block with it's limbs anymore, so it only had it's life-draining beam attack. It rapidly lost HP since it could no longer defend itself with it's limbs and it took a lot longer to charge the life-drain attack now. Maybe it couldn't channel energy properly with a large amount of it's body M.I.A.

Even so, Twilight got caught on the edge of another attack that she'd timed dodging wrong and lost another 500 HP. She was still over 1000 HP since she'd had a little while to regenerate after the first time, but it drove home the fact that even on three legs it was lethal. Still, it didn't last for very long afterward before expiring.

She gained 250000 Exp, a pile of 10000 Bits, three Potions and a book from it, Leveling up twice. She sighed in relief, and destroyed the ID.

"Okay, let's never do that again." Twilight said.

"I think that's a good idea." the princess agreed. "As long as you're talking about the Apocalypse Zombie rather than IDs in general, of course." Celestia added.

"Well, I think I'll take a break from the Zombie ID for a while, but yes." Twilight answered.

"You know, I was starting to think we were going to die for a minute there, but we lived, so I'm too happy about that to be mad at you right now." Flare said, sounding more than a little relieved.

"In fact, I'm going to stick with the Blank ID for a while and work purely on Skills. I might have been freaked out a bit by all that." Twilight continued.

"Well, that's probably all for today then. There's something we'll have to talk about tomorrow once you've recovered." Celestia said. "Are you alright?" she asked, concerned.

Twilight thought for a moment. "I think so. Gamer's Mind is keeping me from freaking out over it too much, and my higher Wis is helping me think logically. Speaking of which, my Wis went over 50, so I should be getting a Skill for that any sec-" a window finally showed up. "Oh, there it is."

'Enriched Soul. Passive. Lv. Max. 
Having reached a new level of wisdom, you have begun to see things in a new light. Everything is less disconnected than you originally thought.
Reduces the interval of MP Regen from 60 seconds to 45 seconds.
Increases MP Regen by 25.'

"Well, that should really boost my Skill use. My MP Regen is effectively 734/min right now." Twilight said, after relating the details of the Skill to the princess. "Since it's so high, I could, theoretically, summon ten Elementals and still be combat-effective myself. Of course I don't intend to summon that many since I can only think of nine possible Elementals in the first place including Flare, but the point stands." Twilight mused aloud.

"Alright, I suggest you start with Earth and Wind, since they'll likely take the longest as they are quite different from Fire. If you manage those, you should have a much easier time with Water and the Elementals that aren't part of the main four. I'm certain Light and Darkness are there, but what were the others you were thinking of?" the princess asked.

"Ice, Metal, and Electricity." Twilight listed. "Ice is commonly regarded as a different substance than liquid water, but it's actually meant to represent cold, so it's Fire's opposite. Metal's not the same as soil, it's Water's counterpart, Metal is unyielding while Water adapts to it's container. Electricity symbolizes energy in general." she justified.

"That makes sense. I'm afraid that I have some political issues to take care of... and a small mountain of paperwork." the princess said, the faintest hint of distaste in her tone. The princess had a small amount of the almost universal dislike for paperwork among anyone who did paperwork. 

Twilight didn't particularly mind paperwork, but she didn't exactly like it either. She hadn't had much paperwork, but it hadn't been that bad. She found politics unpleasant though. She had rapidly lost any respect for the nobility that had survived up to this point.

Twilight conjured a pot full of earth and began practicing with it to adjust her magic to the essence of the earth inside it. Normally this would be impossible or at very least suicidally stupid as one's affinity was almost as fundamental a part of you as your heart or soul, but between the nature of her power in general and Gamer's Body, she could do it without real risk.

She'd asked Flare about it beforehand, and while becoming very slightly possessive, she'd merely required that Twilight still summon her. Twilight had reassured her summon and kind of friend that since she could summon more than the number of summons she expected to have indefinitely with hundreds of MP Regen to spare, she had no reason to dismiss her summons unless they wanted to leave or she was asleep and would be extremely poor company, and she never slept anymore anyway. Plus when her Elemental Summon leveled up it would cost less and less MP per summon, so there was absolutely no reason not to keep her summons around.

It took a few minutes to get the hang of the process of creating an artificial affinity. It even created a new Skill.

'Soulforge. Lv 1. Active. 
Allows the user to alter their very soul to some degree. This has some risk of damage if you take it too fast, but the maximum safe speed and degree of alteration increases with each Skill Level. The risk of damage is also reduced. Note, since you have Gamer's Mind/Gamer's Body, the degree of alteration is nearly limitless and the risk is small to begin with, but the speed is more or less the same as would be normal.
Speed and degree of alteration is determined by Int and Wis.
Vit and Wis determines the risk of damage to yourself.'

That was... convenient. She wasn't going to refuse a gift though.

Simply trying to create her new affinity was leveling her new Skill, increasing the speed of her affinity creation. She had carefully probed the limits of her new Skill, and based on when it had started to cause strain, she had pulled back to comfortable levels.

It took an hour to create her Earth Affinity, and a few minutes to summon her new Earth Elemental, Gnome. She had a yellow dress and a yellow hat resembling an artist's beret, a diamond-shaped piece of dirt set in her collar, short brown hair, chocolate-colored eyes, and no shoes.

She felt the flows of air in the room to create her Wind Affinity. It only took 45 minutes to create a Wind affinity since her Soulforge had leveled up so much.  Her Wind Elemental was called Ventus. Her hair was light green, a white witch's hat rested on her head, and her eyes were a pale yellow. Her clothes were off-white and somewhat baggy, apparently to let them breathe. Her collar had a small tornado badge set in it.

She used a bucket of water to create her Water Affinity. Her Water Elemental was named Aqua. She had waist-length blue hair, ocean-blue eyes, a blue dress that stopped at the knees, and a pair of sandals. She didn't have a hat because it would get in the way while swimming. Her collar had a teardrop symbol set in it.

Finally, she switched to the Elements besides the main four. For Metal, she used a large lump of conjured iron. The Elemental that appeared had platinum blonde hair, silver eyes, a tinfoil hat (the Elemental had immediately been defensive, so she'd dropped the issue,) and effeminate full-body armor. The armor was made of steel, and had a circular piece of metal set in it. Her name was Ferrum, Latin for iron.

Ice was somewhat tricky since she had to forge a connection to a melting bucket of ice, but it worked in the end. The new Elemental called herself Zero. Her dress was white and rather tight, with a snowflake set in the collar. Her hair was white with streaks of dark blue and reached down to her knees. She wore glass slippers and had pale blue eyes.

Electricity didn't work with just a battery or her own bio-electricity, so she'd have to wait for a thunderstorm or something similar. 

She switched to Light instead. It was easy enough to figure out from the sunlight and her nearness to the sun's master. Light was not as much like Fire as one might think. It radiated warmly in all directions, but it could be hyper-focused, unlike Fire, which spread indiscriminately. Light was also capable of healing, unlike Fire.

The Elemental in this case was a girl with golden-yellow hair, a sunhat, blue eyes, and a short-skirted orange dress with a sunstone that closely resembled the princess' cutie mark set in it's collar. She had no shoes because she liked running through grass barefoot, and shoes frankly felt uncomfortable. Her name was Flash.

She worked on her Spiral Mana Bolt until nightfall, combining it with the powers of her Elementals to create a new Skill. Since this was technically using Spiral Mana Bolt while adding a layer of Elemental energy, Spiral Mana Bolt leveled up too.

'Elemental Spiral Mana Bolt. Active. Lv 24.
The user prepares a Spiral Mana Bolt, then has an Elemental imbue it with their Element. Of course, this means only the Elementals that are summoned can contribute their Element to the attack. Also, an Elemental who imbues their Element into this attack can't do anything else at the same time. Power depends on Skill Level, Int, Elemental Affinity Level, and Skill Level of Spiral Mana Bolt. 
MP cost: 100.
20% boost to Spiral Mana Bolt statistics.
50% Elemental damage.'

Unlike Spiral Mana Bolt, she couldn't just dump all of her MP into the Elemental version. She suspected it was because it was so much more difficult to control Elemental energy and your own.

At any rate, she used the darkness of night to create her Darkness Affinity. Umbra was the name of her Darkness Elemental. She had black hair. When she said black, she meant a dark inky black that seemed to absorb all light and snuff it out. Her eyes were yellow like a wolf's and she had a tight black dress on, along with gloves and high heels that were slightly lighter, so very very dark grey.

She and Flash were apparently in a sibling-like relationship. They weren't really related, but any attempts to say otherwise got vigorous denials and spheres of light and darkness to the face.

Besides the bond with Flash, Umbra was something of a loner. The others would play with each other or experiment with their powers as they were unused to having as much MP to draw on as they did. Umbra would sit down against a wall and draw in a notebook.

She barely even interacted with anyone besides Flash. Frankly, Twilight was worried that Umbra had some kind of trauma in her past. She was hardly one to talk, but a person shouldn't be this anti-social. She'd give Umbra a few days in case she was just shy around new people, then Twilight would ask her if something was wrong.

She didn't know why she seemed so knowledgeable on the subject of people's feelings all of a sudden. Perhaps it was her massive Wis Stat. Int hadn't seemed to really affect her social interactions, even when given a massive boost. After a 75% increase in Wis on the other hand, she was noticing a much greater level of emotional awareness.

At any rate, she ought to take a look at the book she'd gotten off the Apocalypse Zombie.

'You have discovered a Life Drain Skill Book.
Life Drain. Active. Lv 1.
The ability to drain lifeforce from the target. Heals the user with he stolen energy. Higher levels will allow MP to be drained as well, and will make it possible to transfer the energy to others instead. Drain depends on Int and Skill level. 
MP Cost: 30.
Would you like to learn the Skill? Y/N.'

She read the book instead. If she learned this, she could damage the enemy while healing herself, and heal her allies without having to use her Summons as a crutch. Though she was going to avoid the Zombies and Ghosts since they weren't actually alive in the first place.

She checked her Stats just to be safe. She might still be unnerved by the Apocalypse Zombie fiasco.

'Level 33.
HP: 2040.
HP Regen: 26.4/min.
MP: 3828.
MP Regen: 580.32/0.75 min.
Str: 32.
Int: 183.
Agi: 35.
Vit: 34.
Wis: 70.
Lck: 27.
10 Stat points unspent.
350691 Bits.'

She inwardly debated what to put points in, then decided that she was going to switch things up a little. She conjured up a plain broadsword, then dumped her points into Agi, bringing it up to 45. She had been almost helpless while her MP was low, and she hadn't been able to dodge all of those attacks the Apocalypse Zombie sent at her despite it's relative sluggishness. She'd be adding some sword-fighting into her repertoire so she wasn't so helpless without her magic. 

She was using a sword for several reasons besides the reasoning behind her change in fighting style. First, her bare hooves would only do blunt damage. Second, she didn't want to be quite that close to her opponent. Third, of all the weapons she could think of, a sword was the simplest to use. Though she would admit anything fancy like cutting a substance of equal strength would require actual skill, a sword could be used like a fork if necessary, for stabbing. She would also get a Skill for it in all likelihood.

Right, now, to head into a new ID she'd gotten access to recently. The Mook ID which apparently had various cannon fodder enemies. What made this ID different was that the Level of the creatures generated could be set however she wanted and their gear could be customized. Of course, artificially strengthening or weakening them affected how much Exp, money, and the quality/rarity of items that they dropped.

She gave all of the Mooks a sword and made them Level 15 for this run. She'd noticed that Skills leveled up faster in combat than just practicing, so it stood to reason that if she fought people who were using something similar it would level up even faster.

She decided to let her summons run amok elsewhere while she fought the Mooks with her new sword, then destroy the ID in ten minutes before whatever this ID's equivalent to the Apocalypse Zombie showed up. She was confident that she could break out of the ID even with a first-tier Boss there, as she called the Bosses that showed up before the Apocalypse Zombie and it's equivalents in the other IDs.

The Mooks varied widely in appearance, and general form for that matter. They all carried some kind of blade though. She fought her way through the Mooks, gripping the sword with her teeth. She didn't want to stretch her MP with even Levitation. 

Her Elemental Summon had Leveled up like crazy from having different types of Elementals summoned at the same time, probably because it wouldn't be possible for a normal person to do more than one type, but the cost hadn't dropped below 5 MP per summon, despite the fact that the Skill was in the 90's now.

That meant that she drained 80 MP per minute since each summon had been double-summoned to boost their power, leaving about 690 MP regenerated per minute. Divided amongst her 8 Elementals, that was about 85 MP per minute, although that was a lot more than it sounded with her Affinities. Though with a buffer of 3800, she could afford it if they got a little flashy.

At any rate, she had some trouble with the Mooks at first simply because holding her sword like this was awkward. Her strength and speed were easily superior to theirs, but her swings were somewhat clumsy until she got used to it. Within moments of defeating the third Mook, she got a trio of Skill windows.

'Through continuous use of a sword, the Skill Sword Mastery has been created!
Sword Mastery. Lv 1. Passive.
One's Skill with a sword. All swords are affected by this, from short swords to the mountain-sized swords used by True Gods in battle. Note that this Skill does not affect knives.
5% boost to damage with a sword.
5% boost to attack speed with a sword.
5% boost to chance to block with a sword.
5% boost to chance to parry with a sword.
5% boost to overall skill with a sword.

Through continuous dodging (yes, this is a thing) the Skill Dodge has been created!
Dodge. Lv 1. Passive.
One's ability to dodge attacks and projectiles.
5% boost to ability to dodge.
5% boost to chance of partial dodge. Remember that partial dodges only stop some of the damage.

Through continuous taking of damage from physical attacks, the Skill Toughness has been created!
Toughness. Lv 1. Passive.
Reduces the damage you take from physical attacks as well as the pain you feel and how long it takes to recover. This does not apply to magical attacks in any way.
1% reduction to physical damage and related pain.'

Huh, those other two must not have shown up before because she didn't take a lot of physical damage or dodge many attacks before. She'd usually wiped out anything that attacked, or avoided the attacks entirely. She'd never had to dodge a lot of attacks in quick succession before either.

Still, she wasn't complaining. Her various Affinities were leveling up, albeit mostly the non-Fire ones since they had yet to reach the dropping-off point that was Level 10. Sword Mastery provided a noticeable improvement. With it, her attacks acted like she had 5% more Str and Dex (33.6 and 47.25 respectively.) Her attacks were also more fluid, leaving fewer openings. 

She was only planning on getting the Skill to Level 10 though, as this was supposed to be last resort. She didn't need to be a master swordsman, just decent. After all, who expected a unicorn to pull a blade out of, from their perspective, literally nowhere and start swinging it around with any degree of Skill? Nobody, that's who! 

Most unicorns relied heavily on their magic, often almost exclusively on it. This left them helpless if they ran out of magic though. She'd had the same weakness, but she intended to remedy that. 

At any rate, Sword Mastery gained a 5% boost to each bonus every time it leveled up. By Level 10, it granted a 50% bonus to it's benefits. That is to say, her attack speed with a sword was 50% higher. Her high-speed combat had given her an extra Dex point about an hour in. Apparently combat made those grow faster too. 

She'd also gained a Level, and her Elemental Summon was almost at Level 100. At 99, she could summon 19 summons in theory. Was 20 going to be her maximum? Ah well, she could use the extra summons to help her Electricity Elemental catch up to the others.

At any rate, she would wait on spending her Stat points for later, she'd get her Int up to 200, and then her Dex to 50. She wanted to see if her Stats got her new Skills at the 200 mark, and the extra 170 MP didn't hurt. As for Dex, her magic was well beyond what any normal being could defend adequately against (the Apocalypse Zombie didn't count, for so many reasons) so right now she needed to improve her ability to dodge and tank hits. 

She would put her primary focus on the former, since all the power in the world was meaningless if she didn't get hit by the attack. Of course, if she did get hit, she'd need to be able to handle it, so Vit was also a concern.

They continued to fight the Mooks, when Elemental Summon reached Level 100.

'Elemenal Summon has reached Level 100, and evolved into Weak Elemental Summon!
Weak Elemental Summon. Active. Lv 1.
Long ago, sentient life realized the power of nature, and sought to harness it. A small number of those who were successful in summoning the very lowest Elementals were able to summon stronger Elementals, though still very weak compared to the Elemental Lords. The previous version of Elemental Summon could be considered 'Basic Elemental Summon.'
20% boost to the effects of Elemental Summon.
30 Elementals may be summoned at once.
MP cost: 50/min.'

"... Well darn it, a little warning would have been nice." Twilight said as she recalled her Elementals and desummoned their second summons. That was still more than half her MP Regen just to keep them here.

"What was that? I suddenly feel more important." Ventus asked.

"Apparently, my Elemental Summon evolved to the next stage and you all got promoted a rank in the Elemental hierarchy as a side effect." Twilight deadpanned.

"I- But- That is not how that's supposed to work!" Ferrum complained.

"The Gamer power warps reality around me, it's not entirely my idea when it does something that the rules everyone else follows shouldn't allow." Twilight countered blandly.

"Are you okay? You seem... off." Aqua asked.
"When the Skill evolved, it reset the MP cost so keeping you all here is draining 400 MP per minute instead of 80, even after desummoning your secondary summonings. Even with Gamer's Body, the shock of the sudden involuntary shift is taking a second to recover from. Remind me to put some points into Vit later." Twilight said.

After about a minute, she shook her head and said "Sorry about that, I think I defaulted to Gamer's Mind for a second there." she apologized.

"...Your what?" Zero asked.

"Oh, it's a Skill that keeps me from getting afraid or panicking while in danger. It keeps me calm and able to think logically even in the direst of situations. Like facing a Zombie that's the size of a skyscraper and able to shoot lasers from it's mouth. I was able to perform complex calculations in my head, while dodging attacks that would have been instantly fatal." she paused as she noticed the others staring at her with a mix of pity and horror. "What?"

"Your power deadens your emotions?" Zero asked.

"Well yeah, but only the negative emotions until now. It's not like I'm going to lose all emotion and start killing people in cold blood. Besides, I've had his my whole life, so I'm used to it." Twilight answered.

"Well, if you're sure..." Flare said, uncharacteristically without her usual haughtiness. Flare has become unofficial leader of the Elementals Twilight had summoned as the first one to be summoned. If she was alright with it, then the others would be okay with it too.

"Trust me, I'm fine. Now, you'll have to work harder at being efficient with your magic since there's 405 less MP Regen to draw on." Twilight explained.

"Don't you mean 450?" Gnome asked, confused.
"Nope, I got 5 Level up screens for the Skill while we were talking, so summons only cost 45 MP each again. I guess that it goes down by one with each Level." she answered.
They kept going, trying to Level up her Weak Elemental Summon to the point it wasn't crippling her MP Regen, and just Level up in general. Twilight took the opportunity to train Toughness as well.
She'd let the Mooks pound away at her until her HP entered it's last 100, then wipe them out and keep going at them with her sword to Level up her Sword Mastery. 
She was understandably surprised when her sword got a Title for it.

'Mook Mower. 10% boost to effectiveness against Mooks.'

"Okay, that's useful. Maybe I should do some crafting like some of the Items I got off these guys mentioned." she commented.

She'd gotten mostly pieces of Equipment from the Mooks, but there were also more than a few Items that were for crafting. Namely Iron Bars and Wood Boards.

She would have to look at that later, but for now, training montage!


*** One Night Later ***


Twilight had managed to get her new combat Skills to Level 15 each. Toughness reduced physical damage by 15% now, Dodge had a 19% boost to her success rate, and Sword Mastery now had boosts of 150%. 

She was of the opinion that Sword Mastery was a completely broken Skill, but had a thought. What if it was because of her ties to the Elementals and the sword's function as a force multiplier were having a synergistic effect with her Skill and affecting it's benefits? That would mean that the Skill wasn't normally like this and she had, if you'll pardon the pun, gamed the system.

At any rate, she was correct in her assumption that she accelerated Stat training while in combat. The Zombie Bosses hadn't gotten her points because she'd been mostly spamming magical attacks, and her Int had been stupidly high even then. She'd gotten a total of three of each.

She'd also reached Level 37, and had decided to get to 200 Int, with the three points she had left, she got Dex to 50 and Vit to 38.

'For reaching the heights of 200 Int, the Master Mage Skill has been created!
Master Mage. Passive. Lv Max.
Your skill with the manipulation of mana is surpassed only by your reserves.
1000 MP boost.
25% reduction to MP costs.'

"AAAAAnnnnd... Broken. Let's see what the Dex one is."

'For reaching 50 Dex, the Extremespeed Skiil has been created!
Extremespeed. Active. Lv Max.
You can move at a speed that would only be possible with three times your actual Dex for a few seconds, but this is  extremely hard on your body. Note that the HP cost is before the Vit deduction. 
HP cost: 500.
MP cost: 50.'

"Right... checking my Stats again."

'Level 37.
HP: 2330.
HP Regen: 30.3/min.
MP: 5235.
MP Regen: 783.22/0.75 min.
Str: 32.
Int: 200.
Agi: 50.
Vit: 38.
Wis: 70.
Lck: 27.
687534 Bits.
0 Stat points unspent.'

"Alright, I'd work on this stuff some more, but the princess said she had something important to talk to me about and I don't want to be fighting a Boss again when she arrives." she thought aloud.

She decided to read some of her books while she waited, engaging in conversation with her Elementals at the same time. Her cognitive function was so high at this point that she could do both simultaneously and not lose any efficiency.

Since her Encyclopedic Memory doubled her memorization ability, she could essentially store the books in her mind permanently since her memory was effectively 40 times as good as the average person's.

When Princess Celestia came, she found her student reading a stack of books at lightning speed and, based on the look on her face, fully retaining the information. She was also holding conversation with multiple of her summons at the same time, which should be impossible for a sentient life form as it would require too much processing power. The brain simply couldn't handle that kind of a burden.

Yet, here she was, doing something that shouldn't even be possible without completely rebuilding and restructuring the brain. Based on how The Gamer operated, that wasn't what happened when Int was increased. She shook her head. After breaking a law of physics with no conscious effort, Twilight accomplishing this shouldn't be that surprising.

"Oh, sorry Princess. I was distracted." Twilight apologized, noticing her mentor less than a minute after she arrived.

Celestia was completely willing to forgive not being noticed when Twilight was reading and holding simultaneous conversations, besides which, she didn't particularly like being worshiped or put on a pedestal. She just couldn't do much about it.

"It's fine. I brought someone to see you." the princess said, before bringing a baby dragon forward. Dragons aged quickly for the first three months of their lives, then slowed down immensely. As such, his faculties were developing faster than they would in any other type of being. This was to the point where he could form crude sentences despite being less than a week old.

"Hi!" he waved.

Twilight blinked, then said "Not to be rude or anything, but why would he want to see me? I have literally been your student for less than a week."

"Yes, well, he actually has to do with your Entrance Exam. He's the dragon you hatched." the princess said.

"Ah, so you want to discuss arrangements for my taking care of him. Since I hatched him, that makes him my responsibility, regardless of intent. Cutting into training time is unfortunate, but I'll raise him properly." Twilight said.

'That was even easier than I thought, but we'll have to work some kind of schedule out and-' it finally sunk in that Twilight had 8 Elementals with her.

"Although first I'd like to be introduced to your companions." the princess said.

Once introductions were over, a flexible schedule was drawn up, and Twilight proceeded with her studies and raising 'Spike' as she'd decided to call him. For the moment at least, she had to be in the same room with him or he couldn't sleep soundly and usually couldn't fall asleep at all.

Twilight had virtually no time for training between Spike, lessons with the princess, and the ludicrous number of books she had access to. She might have been able to do a little training if she'd been less busy with the several thousand books on every topic one could think of. Weak Elemental Summon kept Leveling though. 

She only realized how much time had passed when 6 months after becoming the princess' student, her parents all but demanded a family reunion. She threw herself into her studies so they wouldn't be disappointed in her if they tested how much she'd learned. Logic told her that she was overreacting, but since she was in no real danger, Gamer's Mind didn't help much and her lifelong OCD struck full-force. 

She didn't neglect Spike or her Summons, but that was really all. She apparently didn't need to eat either. Her enormous MP reserves should be fine, so knowledge was all she needed to work on.

On the day of the event, she tried, and failed, to stay calm. She'd desummoned her Elementals to avoid freaking her parents out, but would be showing them later after easing them into it. At this point, they were Medium Summons with over 50 Levels in the Skill, and significantly more powerful than their original forms. She knocked, then went in, followed by Spike. 'Well, if things go really south, I am staying at the castle either way.' she thought as she walked towards the living room.