He had expected a shop, but it was more like a room. The walls were covered in shelves, bulging with implements. Metal and glass, some of them looked like compasses or glass rods. There were stacks of books everywhere. It was cramped but ordered, everything in its place.

  The owner sat behind a tiny desk. A frogite, a rather polite-looking and well-dressed frogite, but still. Dee had possibly recently dissolved some of this man’s distant cousins. He smiled and hoped the Class Seer wouldn’t notice how worried he was. The frogite stared at him with his bulging eyes.

  “Welcome to my little surgery.” He stood and bowed over his desk. “May I offer you a drink?”

  “Complimentary?” Tianna asked coolly.

  “But of course.”

  “Then we’ll have some tea, please.”

  The Class Seer took a teapot and placed it atop a flat circular crystal. Red heat ignited from the crystal. Dee felt the warmth from it as the tea began to brew.

  Dee wondered where he should stand. It was awkward being in a tiny room so close to this stranger; they were all basically standing face to face.

  “I am Cornelius Spongfish, Level 2 Class Seer NPC. Non-potentia, but plus-professionale.” He straightened his waist-coat and nodded.

  “I am Tianna, a Level 3 War Priest of the Kingfisher God of Fortune.”

  “I’m Dee.”

  Cornelius stared at him, with his large glassy black eyes. There was an expectant silence.

  “I don’t know what class or level. I think I’ve forgotten.”

  “Aha! Wonderful. Selective Class Art amnesia! Quite rare. Be seated.” He waved his froggy hand at a lower shelf that had been fitted with a wide red leather cushion.

  Dee awkwardly jammed himself into the seat, crouching down to keep his head from hitting a shelf.

  He grabbed a heavy set of glasses, sporting lenses that could be rotated in and out, then took a glass rod and leaned over his desk to place it onto Dee’s tongue. Dee flinched at the sudden cold glass feel of it.

  “Any pain?” Cornelius asked. He slid one of the lenses into position as he peered into Dee’s mouth.

  “Un-unh.”

  Cornelius dropped a different lens into position.

  “Unexpected activations of class arts?”

  “Un-unh.”

  Another lens dropped into place.

  “Terrifying dreams of a deadly battle?”

  “Unnh, hind oh.”

  “What?” Cornelius withdrew the rod.

  “Kind of. Bad dreams about fighting in general.” Dee scratched his arm. He didn’t like talking about this kind of stuff. “Sometimes I have nightmares about being trapped or fighting, you know…”

  “Have you ever participated in the destruction of a kingdom by catastrophic demonic forces?”

  “No.”

  “No PASD, then.”

  “What’s that?” Tianna asked.

  “Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder. We shall do a class reading, then.”

  He took a sheet of paper and smoothed it out onto his desk. Next, he unscrewed a pot of ink and put it gently besides the paper. After waiting for Dee for a few seconds, Cornelius carefully took Dee’s hand, then dipped his index finger into the ink. He pushed Dee’s finger down onto the edge of the paper, and waited.

  Ink spread out from the contact point, creating writing and symbols. When it finished, it looked quite like a character sheet. Dee’s name was at the top, and there was a list of information down the page.

  “That’s your class,” Tianna said.

  “What does this say?” Cornelius held up the paper to Dee.

  Dee was surprised he could read it. He had never seen the symbols but reading them made the meaning appear in his mind.

  “Yeah, I can. It says I’m an NPC, and my class is Games Master. My Passive Art is Rule Sponge but I can’t read my level 1 ability. It’s all corrupted and weird. Most of the sheet had writing that shifted and flickered like a glitch.

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  “Concentrate on your Passive Art. What is it, if you don’t mind?” Cornelius asked with extreme curiosity in his voice.

  Dee stared at the sheet. Meaning unfurled in his mind. “Huh. Rule Sponge: Learn gaming rules at accelerated rate.”

  He stared at his level 1 ability, to see if he could get anything from that, but the symbols shifted and whorled. “Read any, charging, channel. I can’t understand my level 1 ability.”

  Cornelius steepled his fingers and closed his eyes. His throat pouch pulsated as he thought.

  “Games Master. I have never heard of that class. That’s not terribly unusual, I must confess. My speciality is in Potentia Classes. Games Master, with your passive, must be a class linked to chance and competition. So not impossible that one of those skills could involve feedback. But not at level 1. Feedback skills are more usually higher-level abilities. Great power at great risk.”

  He shook his froggy head sadly.

  “I’m afraid I can only suggest you visit a class library, one specialising in NPCs if possible. There is Aven Door on the Clawcrab Sea; then way up North I believe there is an Elven archive in the Steam Jungle Coalition. Or perhaps far East there is the Library of Forgotten Thought.”

  “Those are leagues away!”

  “Yes, well. I can refer you to my cousin in Copperjack Climb, he specialises in NPCs. I doubt he would have your Class Manual, but he may be able to point you in the right direction.”

  Sweet smelling vapour came from the teapot. Cornelius took it and poured out three cups of tea as carefully and precisely as he had studied Dee. Three perfect sloshes of green tea swirled into dainty rose-coloured cups. With a gentle clink the teapot went back into its place on the shelf, and Cornelius handed cups to Tianna and Dee.

  Dee took his tea and smelled it. It was a fine green tea. His stomach growled. He was quite hungry after the stress of the market. Finding out he had a class was reassuring, although disappointing to be an NPC.

  He looked at the sheet, but still it was infuriatingly unclear. “Can we keep the sheet?”

  “Of course,” Cornelius said.

  He went to pick it up, but at that moment it started to curl at the edges. It crumpled itself, and then very suddenly and silently, it dissolved into a puff of potentia.

  “That should not happen.” Cornelius said. He grasped his cup of tea to steady his hands, and sipped with his wide froggy lips.

  The three of them drank their tea, and stared at the desk where the class sheet had been. The tiny cloud of potentia settled, creating tiny thorns where it hit the wooden desk.

  “Well then, we’d better pay,” Tianna said presently. She stared at Dee.

  He realised that she meant he should pay. He took the crystal out and handed it over to Cornelius.

  “Well then, a simple class reading. Twenty gold in total.”

  “But you didn’t really tell us what his condition is. Why not make it fifteen?” Tianna said with a sweet smile.

  “I included the examination in my usual class reading price, so you’re already getting a deal. And any class reading would have the same result. His predicament is outside the realm of a regular class reading. Which is information itself that could only be revealed by my performing of an accurate and professional service.” Cornelius took a long, loud slurp from his tea. “Especially considering the unusual and quite unexpected disintegration of the class sheet.”

  “You’re right, it was highly competent and professional. Eighteen?”

  “Certainly!” Cornelius said. He handed over a pile of gold coins as change for Dee.

  “Well then, what did we learn?” Tianna said when they were outside.

  “That I’m a Games Master.” Dee said. It sounded kind of cool and nerdy at the same time.

  “No! About haggling. Pay attention.”

  “Um, lowball them?”

  “Ugh. You are impossible. Not a man like that. He’s a proud professional; he takes his craft seriously. A hawker, you can offer them fifty percent easy, but don’t lowball a guy like that. He would be seriously upset. Seventy-five, maybe sixty percent you can offer. Then when he refuses— which he will —you can still up your offer and get a nice discount.” She smiled up at him with glee. “I just saved you two gold pieces.”

  “Thanks. Very good bargaining.”

  “And?” She stared up at him expectantly. She was expecting a particular answer, and he had no idea what that should be.

  “And… thanks be to the Kingfisher?”

  She groaned and rolled her eyes. “Don’t patronise me, little egg-boy. What are you going to do with that two gold? Think, man!” She poked him in the thigh. “What’s the point of saving gold if you don’t have an investment plan? You might as well spend it on frivolities.”

  “Probably save it for a better expert, an NPC specialised Class Seer.”

  She smiled, a truly charming and gloriously happy smile. “A sound financial choice!”

  “Thanks. I really appreciate it, Tianna.” It was reassuring to get some advice about something normal like spending money. He could relate to that. “If there is anything I can do to repay you.”

  “Oh no! Don’t try to give me any of your special… human favours!” She glared at him, and edged away.

  Well, it had been going well. Still, he felt better knowing that he did have a class. Games Master. The market was still crowded, but ideas about levelling up and what his powers might be were rolling around his mind, distracting him from his anxiety. And despite Tianna’s suspicion that he was trying to seduce her somehow, he couldn’t ask for a more reliable shopping companion.

  They bought clothes for him, along with food rations and a rucksack. All things he had seen on lists in RPG books. But for real. Thick travelling socks of wool, and proper boots, a cloak for the chill winds and a sleeping bag and blanket. He could feel the winds of adventure in the air, he would be travelling with these heroes, sleeping in the wild, seeing more sights like giant bees and strange gods. It was really happening, after years of dreaming about something like this.

  Even though they still didn’t know if he could use a weapon, she bought him a short-sword, a honeymetal blade. A simple and golden thing, incredibly light. He put it in its scabbard carefully, worried about what he might do to himself by accident.

  All this for the low, low price of forty gold total. Tianna was very careful to stress that a good deal was not the cheapest deal. All the equipment they bought had to be sturdy and good value for money. No use buying a leaky sleeping bag just because it was cheap.

  “Thanks again for helping me with this,” Dee said, when they had finished.

  “My pleasure. The marketplace is a battleground as deadly as any dungeon.” Tianna looked over the bustling crowd with a smug expression, like a hunter surveying its defeated prey. “Many of these poor fools today will suffer terrible deals, may the Kingfisher pity them.” She shook her head sadly.

  “Oh! Arjelica must have bonded with her crest by now!” She clapped her hands together like a birthday kid. “We should go find them at the tavern.”