Following Aeros, we walk along different paths and hallways until we reach an outdoor training yard built into the boughs of the tree around the guildhall. Upon exiting the doors to the training yard, Aeros turns to me and says, “Before I begin introductions I need you and Ivy to make a decision. World Guides are extremely rare among those that aren’t Traversers. You can choose now to hide it and make her take the form of a familiar or summon of some sort, or you can be open about being a Traverser. The choice is up to you.”
“I’m not really sure we should be playing our cards out in the open like that,” I say cautiously towards Ivy.
“I agree. I don’t want you being influenced to political machinations or getting attacked for no reason. Would you prefer a summoned elemental or an animal spirit of some kind?” she agrees while asking me for clarification.
“Probably an animal spirit. Show me whatcha got!” I say excitedly.
She flies up above me and slowly turns translucent and glows a lively green. Her form becomes encompassed by the light and shifts into the form of a small frog. She slowly descends and lands on my shoulder with a wet slap. Looking at her closer, she has small colorful spirals along her back and a vibrant, green skin color.
“Awww, you’re adorable!” I say gleefully.
“Aren’t I always?” she says with a smug grin.
“Well, without further ado, let’s get the introductions underway,” Aeros interrupts. He pulls me along towards a floating, light blue, elongated, diamond shaped crystal that has a band of obsidian around it in the middle and floats above a volcanic looking pile of the same obsidian. The crystal itself lights up slightly as we approach and starts slowly spinning around.
“This here is a Casm Krystal. It will let you look into the classes offered to you and help you with skill choices and such. Get used to it, because if our training is successful then you will be able to upgrade at least a few different skills and get your class choices upgraded. You can look at your classes now if you’d like, but I would hold off on selecting one to see if you can have Instructor Neves get you a few upgrades on the basic choices.” He explains while gesturing at the light blue crystal.
“Speak of the devil and he shall appear!” he exclaims while looking towards a dwarven man approaching. The man has long, braided black hair and a braided black beard to match. Both the hair and beard are braided in a viking style with bone charms that have runes carved into their faces.
“This the new trainee Aeros?” instructor Neves says with a gravelly voice and a slight accent.
“Indeed it is, old friend. This is Alaina Glace and she is currently classless so if you could give her instruction on what works with her strengths and hopefully upgrade the base choice then that would be fantastic. Do you have others that are scheduled to be joining in this semester or are you freed up?” he asks while introducing me.
“Aye. There’s two others that’ll be along for the ride. First will be a trainee from one of the church clergies that was dropped for not being ‘pure enough’,” he replies while making air quotations.
“The other is a half elf from one of the forest tribes. He’s got a bit of potential on him, so that’ll be interesting to say the least. I’ll let them decide what they wanna share, but the factor tying you all together is at least one of your affinities is part of the Death Table. I usually end up being the trainer for these affinity types anyway so that I can teach you to use them correctly and follow the societal laws for those affinities. They ain’t illegal or anything like that, just frowned upon since they can be turned cult-like very quickly,” he adds while looking over towards the yard entrance.
I follow his eyes over and see a half elf in white robes. The elf is skinny, even for an elf, and has pale skin, long light brown hair with silver highlights, and dark goat horns that go outwards from his head at an upward angle. The horns are twisted a bit, but they don’t spiral as long as Aeros’ rams horns.
“This one is the priest drop, his name’s Faroth,” Neves says while motioning for Faroth to come join us around the Casm Krystal.
“Looks like you have everything under control Instructor Neves, as always. I’ll leave you all to it. After your first session, feel free to head on down to your room and rest for the remainder of the day Alaina. Training is just after sunrise starting tomorrow. After that lesson, I’ll have you head down to the internal job boards. If I had to guess, I would say they’ll probably put you on board requests, but who knows for certain?” He explains my itinerary and turns toward Instructor Neves and gives him a firm grasp on the forearm, like old friends would handshake, and heads off past Faroth out of the training yard.
“Hey there! Pleasure to meet you all. I’m assuming they told you who I am, but regardless, I’m Faroth. Freshly gained my cleric class as a slight upgrade upon my healer class and then got kicked out of the clergy for possessing natural talent towards an affinity in the Death Table. What are we sharing today Instructor?” he asks after introducing himself.
“You’re welcome to keep whatever you want to yourself, but it’ll make training as a team better if you know the affinities of one another. I’d wait for our final guest first,” he answers while looking towards the door to the outdoor area.
“Already here Instructor Neves,” says a black, furred elf from behind one of the training dummies. I look at him as he exits his waiting spot and see a lithe, tall elf with night, black fur and hair along his body. He has cat-like ears on the top of his head, pronounced fangs, a flatter nose, and a long prehensile, black tail. The fur on the top of his head is sleek and covers the ears and top of his head and then accents the jaw as it goes down the area where sideburns would be and joins down his neck. The lithe elf is wearing black leather armor and has two hand crossbows holstered on his hips and a bandolier sitting from one shoulder to the opposite hip that’s filled with throwing knives. I can barely see the hilts of two longer daggers sticking out of their sheathes at the base of his spine.
“Name’s Raffa,” he says with stilted, short words.
“As you can see, he’s going for a basic ranger class with his skillset, but he’s holding off on accepting the class to see what I can do for him. I’m friends with the tribe he’s from. Good kid, just quiet,” he banters while smiling at the half elf, half pantherkin.
“My name is Alaina and so far, I haven’t even looked into my classes yet, but I’m probably going to go for a melee fighter of some sort. My skillset falls under close quarters combat better than using a greatsword or anything like that.” I introduce myself.
“Would you guys want to share affinities or are you not looking for a party after we finish the training semester?” I ask openly.
“I’ll follow along with whatever Instructor Neves says or whatever you guys decide,” Raffa answers.
“I’d like to share mine, if that’s okay with Instructor Neves,” Faroth replies with a welcoming smile.
“Go right ahead lads and lass. It’ll help with training you all more openly,” Neves instructs.
“I’ll go first then. My primaries are Frost and Nature with my secondary being Lightning. I also have the foundations for the Corruption affinity. Hence, why I was kicked out by those pompous tools at the clergy,” Faroth seethes.
“I’ve got primaries of Blood and Bone with a secondary of Air,” Raffa says concisely.
“Mine are Blood and Nature as primaries and Water as a secondary,” I answer while trying to memorize their information.
“Last but definitely not least is me! I’ve got Blood and Earth with a secondary of Lightning. I’m a fighter with some decent ranged skills as well. I’m versed in all forms of combat and have the credentials to train Death Tables, or DTs, for short,” says Neves with a gruff laugh.
“Faroth, go ahead and start meditating while I go over class options with Alaina and Raffa. Get your mana up and moving and practice with control if we take longer than you need to meditate,” Neves says while motioning for us to follow over to the Casm Krystal.
“Go ahead and look at your options you two, and let me know if you’ve seen any changes Raffa,” he says while waiting for us.
“No changes here,” Raffa responds curtly.
I place my hand on the crystal, while Ivy steadies herself on my shoulder, and I see a screen appear in front of my eyes.
*Class choice available*
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Please choose one of the following
Heavy Fighter (Common): Skilled with full plate armor and a tower shield with a one-handed weapon or a large two-handed weapon, these fighters focus on taking hits and dishing out strong retribution. Low mobility, but immense strength.
Medium Fighter (Common): Skilled with chain mail armor and buckler with a one-handed weapon, these fighters are faster with lighter armor than the Heavy Fighter, but can’t take hits nearly as well. Average mobility and strength.
Light Fighter (Common): Skilled with leather armor and two one-handed weapons, these fighters are agile and focus on dodging hits and replying with quick attacks of their own. High mobility, but low strength.
Ranger (Common): Skilled with leather armor and a ranged weapon, these fighters are agile and focus on keeping their enemies at range, but are able to dodge and use a dagger if necessary. High mobility, but no strength gain.
Mage (Common): Skilled with magical robes that offer low physical resistance and no melee weapons, these spellcasters focus on battlefield control and dishing out strong ranged hits with their magic. Low mobility and no strength, but increased mana regeneration.
Healer (Common): Skilled with magical robes and chain mail, these spellcasters focus on healing, buffing, and cleansing their allies while remaining strong enough to stay in the fight. Low mobility and damage potential, but increased strength and mana regeneration.
Pugilist (Rare): Skilled with physical hand-to-hand combat and hardened leather armor, these fighters focus on hitting opponents with their martial arts prowess and dodging hits. High mobility and strength, but can’t use any physical weapons besides their own bodies.
“Looks like I have a choice between six common classes and one rare. The rare one is a Pugilist,” I say after scanning over my options.
“Rare doesn’t necessarily mean better, but if it fits with your skills and your current stats, then I would say go for it,” Neves replies while running a hand through his thick beard.
“Agreed. Knowing your skills I would say go for it,” says Ivy with a light ribbit.
“Sounds good to me!” I say while accepting the Pugilist option.
*Pugilist chosen*
*Stats increased*
*Free points available to spend*
I pull up my status to see what’s changed.
Alaina Glace
Race: Devourer Tier I
Class: Pugilist (+3 Strength, Dexterity, and Endurance, +2 Constitution, and Charisma, +4 Free Points)
Level: 3
Status
Health Points: 50/50
Stamina Points: 60/60
Magic Points: 20/20
Attributes
Strength: 12
Dexterity: 13
Endurance: 12
Constitution: 12
Wisdom: 6
Intelligence: 8
Charisma: 10
Luck: 10
Skills:
Survivalist Basics I, Shelter Building I, Assessing Eyes I, Instinctual Understanding (Basic) I, Energy Control II, Hunger I [Unique], Armored Hide I
Titles & Achievements:
Ancestral Progenitor (Be the first of a race of your design. Congrats! Plus five percent effectiveness of all charming skills or spells)
Revenant (How are you even alive?! Lived through a fight with an elite type enemy with 1 HP or less. +5% to Constitution and Endurance and gain the Iron Will or Steelskin skill)
Traverser (You got yourself Isekai’d… Cool, I guess. Want a cookie? Gain Instinctual Understanding Skill)
Racial Traits & Bonuses:
+5% Constitution
+5% Endurance
+Hunger [Unique] Skill
Consumption:
Roller Bear: Armored Hide
Forms:
Roller Bear I
“What’s the normal stat additions from the common classes?” I ask Neves.
“Most give two to their primary two stats and one to a few secondary stats with two free points to spend,” he replies sagaciously.
“Wow. Pugilist is much better then, on pure stats,” I respond immediately.
“I’m assuming that whatever my primary stats are is what I should spend free points into then?” I ask while distractedly reading through my status sheet again.
“There’s a few different methods that are broadly accepted. The first one is what you described, but it really only works for dedicated casters in elite parties that can utilize their stats. If you mess up at all and get hit, then it usually is lights out pretty quickly,” he responds with a small frown.
“The better methods, in my opinion, are to either shore up weaknesses that your given stats end up showing, or doing a well rounded approach with a one-to-two split on your primary stats. To better explain it, since your stats are most likely suited for physical stats, with either a swap off of endurance or constitution, then you would want to have them be twice as high as your lower stats with a small difference to whatever is more used,” he explains concisely.
“What stats does your class give you?” he asks pointedly.
“Plus three to strength, dexterity, and endurance with a plus two to constitution and charisma,” I respond quickly.
“You’ll want to shore up, then, on intelligence and wisdom. They’ll help you with processing situations faster and regaining your spent mana. Just because you aren’t a spellcaster doesn’t mean you don’t need good mental stats. You’ll be throwing skills around far more than you realize,” he tells us wisely.
“As for you Raffa, let’s see what skills you’ve gotten for yourself so far if you have any,” Neves says with a slightly manic grin.
“I have basic level stealth and marksmanship so far. I’ve been working on shadow manipulation, but haven’t gotten an official skill for it yet,” he responds with no show of emotion.
“Great. Faroth! Come join us so I can walk you all through your basic training regiment. We’ll keep this schedule for the first month straight with evaluations weekly to assess if harsher conditions need to be added to push you to the absolute limit of what you’ve got,” he laughs wickedly while leading us over to an area with workout equipment of all shapes, sizes, and uses.
Instructor Neves slowly goes through every single workout for all of us individually to help us target muscle groups correctly. After hours of intensive work and a massive puddle of perspiration underneath all of us, we finally get the approval that we have our set instructions for arms and shoulders done. Then he proceeds to show us how to work out our backs and chest in excruciating detail.
“Alrighty, that should about do it for today. Tomorrow I’ll teach you how to do your abdominal and leg muscle groups with your daily cardio. The day after, we’ll slowly start introducing combat training with basic hand to hand for everyone, strategizing and positioning for Faroth, stealth and ranged for Raffa, and full body combat for Alaina. That’ll probably take us through the rest of the week. We’ll take Sunday off as a rest and recuperate day since you won’t have work that day as well. Then you’ll all be starting your personalized training regiments that I’ve listed on these handouts for you. We’ll all be targeting the same muscle groups to add in a bit of competition to help you push each other harder, but not all three of you will do so at the same time. We’ll do thirds rotations. Meaning two will workout a third of the way through that days targeted groupings while one is getting combat training from me, then we’ll rotate and have one of you swap and do their combat training and so on and so forth. To start and end each day, we’ll be doing swimming, running, and climbing warmups to help you all get used to any climate you might find yourselves in. Welcome to hell ladies and gentlemen,” he rants while handing out a sheet of lists of what we will be doing after we’re finished with the first week of training.
We all stumble our way out of the training yard towards the stairs and down into our separate rooms. I take a look around my new home for the start of my new life as Ivy and I enter. There’s a large living room with a few couches and soft chairs setup around a couple of tables with a shelf of books to one side. Connected on the far side of the room is a small kitchen with a bigger dining area next to it. The long table seats at least eight people even though I barely know four currently. To the left of the entryway is a guest bathroom and on the opposite side is the bedroom with a small attached bathroom.
“This place is nicer than my apartment back home,” I say with amazement while staring at the lavish living space.
Ivy flits off my shoulder and flies to the kitchen.
“Looks like it’s fully stocked too! I’ll get started on dinner if you wanna go quickly clean up,” she says while opening a big metal cabinet that’s radiating cold.
“Sure thing, thanks Ivy!” I say as I rush off toward the bathroom in my new bedroom.
The room has a giant armoire made of some kind of dark wood, a massive bed that could easily fit five of me, a plush reading chair, a shelf full of even more books, a nightstand with a blue glass orb mounted to a metal arm in the wall, and soft carpet covering the floor. I open up the armoire and find clothing that look to be about my size with slightly smaller and bigger just in case. I pick out a simple green tunic, and some brown, woolen trousers and head over to the bathroom.
The inside has a massive, full-body mirror near the entryway, something that resembles a normal toilet without a tank on the back, a medicine cabinet with a smaller mirror to do my makeup if I ever decide to, and a sink with counters to both sides. The shower itself is a walk-in room that’s separated by a glass wall with a sliding door. I walk up to it and notice that there’s a drain, but I don’t see any nozzles or anything besides small crystals embedded into the ceiling of the tiled room.
I undress from my sweaty, stinky clothes and go to open the shower door only to find magic sigils come to life on the glass. One side has the symbol for ice and fire with a bar in between. I start messing with it and immediately water starts appearing out of the crystals in the shower ceiling. I tap to a little bit onto the fire side of the almost progress bar-esque symbol and see steam lightly coming off the floor of the shower. I look to another part of the door and notice that I can change the pressure of the water coming out of the crystals to anything from a slight trickle to a hard stream like the best water pressure in my old life would produce.
I set the tempo of the water to slightly harder than a normal rainstorm, mess with the water temperature while reaching a hand into the water to test it to get it perfect, and then step into the shower to scrub away my exhaustion and worries.
