January 17, 2019, 8:04 am. Time to face the music.

"So, I kind of chose my class," I start, causing Beth's smile to crumble, her brow crinkling.

Josh has the opposite reaction, immediately holding his hand up over the table for a fist bump while he says, "awesome Lex, congrats."

Obliging him, I return the fist bump, getting excited myself. I'm about to continue when Beth beats me to it, "well, at least you slept on it kid. Did you take the temporary class then?"

"No. I didn't -" I start but Beth interrupts me.

"Why not? What could you have unlocked that you felt was worth giving up an epic class for, kid?"

"First off. I'm not a kid. Bethany," I start, feeling my pulse suddenly spike while my vision becomes slightly blurry.

"Second. The class' power is around the epic grade tier!" I continue while pushing my chair back as my heart beats a mile a minute.

"And third, be careful of how you interact with your avatars during class selection, or you might end up ACCIDENTALLY choosing your class," I finish, smacking the table right as I yell the word 'accidentally'.

Beth and Josh just sit there, silent, looking at me as if I grew a third head. This wasn't how I planned it, dammit.

We're all just looking at each other when I hear Tipan say from the stairway, "Good morning everyone."

Then she walks towards us, her staff tapping on the floor as she asks, "What do you mean, avatars during class selection?"

Instead of immediately answering Tipan's question, I just look at Beth. I’ve never had outbursts like that before unless I was dealing with mom.

As I stare, Beth answers for me, "the k-Alexis has a large number of unique quirks to her interface."

What? Oh, of course. I'm the only one who has mirror images of themselves popping up during class selection. I should've known. It’s a problem they don’t even have to deal with.

"Really? I've never heard of such a thing," Tipan says as she moves to join us.

"Most users can't see class avatars. But mum mentioned outlanders who’ve seen them before," Rufka calls from within the stairwell, not yet visible. Okay. So at least I’m not totally alone. Tipan sits herself next to me while a pair of plates float out, setting themselves in front of Beth and Josh. But no one moves to eat.

"Look ki-Alexis, I'm sorry. Didn't mean to get on your case. But these are critical decisions. I thought we were going to talk about it," Beth says, looking me in the eye.

"Yeah, well. Like I said, it was an accident. Kind of. There weren't any system prompts or anything," I reply, then, still feeling the need to continue, "but I'm happy I chose my class. One of its first abilities is going to help with not hitting friendlies."

"I am still surprised you were not already an Elementalist. Your ability to control the elements as you do is highly unusual. Most people would never chance it. Not without the protections afforded by our classes. And your speed is astounding. I would have thought you were copper rank if I hadn't seen your resources myself," Tipan says, seeking to ignore the tension. Or maybe she doesn't notice it.

Completely changing the subject, Josh asks, "Lex, you want to go for a walk after breakfast? Raz told me there’s a huge garden," waving at the stairs. Then he takes a piece of bacon, loudly munching on it.

"Uhm sure?" I reply, feeling my shoulders relax when no one makes a big deal out of my outburst. I’m left unbalanced. I’m used to a yelling match following an outburst like that.

"Cool," he says, continuing to eat.

As Rufka gets closer, I step away from the table, making room. I'm not in the mood to continue talking anyway. Smoulder kicks me gently, mentally complaining that I need to stop moving abruptly. I reach for her, drawing comfort from her presence.

She sends an image of her carefully carrying a delicate vegetable back to share with her sister. It would have crumbled if she'd been as careless as I was being. While snickering at Smoulder comparing herself to a delicate vegetable, Smoulder continues to scold me for being a bumpy ride until she realizes how upset I am. Then she starts nuzzling up against my hand offering me support. I have to go all the way to the corner by the billiards table before the others’ conversation is little more than a murmur.

Smoulder's attention reminds me that I was going to get Smoulder's resource unlocked. I send my thoughts to Smoulder, asking if she’d like to. She responds with an impression that if it's important to me, she doesn't see why not, followed by an impression that now that I'm feeling better she's going to have a nap.

"Your partner Smoulder has deigned to allow you to examine her Ignis resource. Would you like to know more? Obtain the full codex for 21.8 focus and 14.2 facet.

At this rate, I'm going to be able to get these for next to nothing. They're already getting pretty cheap. Ignoring the text about her 'deigning to allow me’, I purchase the codex.

“Codex obtained: Resource - Ignis.

Iron grade higher concept resource.

Current known users: Smoulder the Incredible Destroyer of Pathio the Vile.

Description: Drawing on very limited knowledge of the system’s understanding of all that burns, Ignis is slightly destructive, but is especially destructive to combustible matter. It can also be passively channelled to stay warm and dry.”

Smoulder's resource seems kind of… lacking compared to our resources.

“Ignis’s primary contributing attributes are Intellect and Spirit, with a lesser contribution from Perception and Resolve and a minor contribution from all other attributes.

Like most iron grade higher concept resources, Ignis may not be fashioned into armour.”

Okay, that's unfortunate. If there's one ally I wish had armour, it's definitely Smoulder. At least the rest of us can find gear.

Now that I’ve calmed down, I feel embarrassed. Way to prove your maturity, Alexis.

Breathing out, I try to be proactive instead of dwelling. I can't count the number of times I ended up cleaning the bathroom or doing the laundry so I didn't have to think about mom.

Now, I don’t have a bathroom to clean, but I have plenty of magic to practice. Since I just discovered I can unlock spell slots by reaching fifty in my skills, I start considering the limits of what I can do with water manipulation. It's nearly at the fifty mark, and I already have a useful spell, Umbrella. Transitioning it would free up one of my four primary slots for… I haven't actually decided yet, but at least this way I can be productive instead of brooding.

As I'm playing with the water, I emulate what Roberts was doing earlier, starting with an orb, moving into a doughnut, then transitioning to a flat plane. But that’s not particularly challenging, so I push my efforts further.

Creating an orb the size of my head, I twist it into not one but three fat, rapidly spinning, doughnuts, all looped within each other. Then I flatten them into spinning disks, maintaining their ring shape while ensuring they don't collide.

Finally, I collapse all three disks into a single turbulent sphere, allowing it to rotate slowly while I consider what to do next.

A slow clap interrupts my thoughts.

"That's an impressive display of control for a user barely four days into the system," Raz says as he ambles his way around several bar stools towards me.

"Thanks," I reply as I reach out, physically tapping my water-ball, urging it to spin faster.

"I heard you chose your class. Congratulations."

"Thanks," I reply while shrugging my shoulders. I've been trying not to think about it. Beth's reaction stole a lot of my excitement. Now it just feels like another of the stupid mistakes I've made since coming here.

"May I ask. Was it a unique class as well?" he inquires, looking at me intensely.

"Yeah. But it's good. I know it is. Probably Epic," I reply with a certainty I don’t really feel. If it’s not, that just proves Beth’s point. Despite what I said to her, I hardly feel like an adult.

"Hmm. Would you like to discover its true strength?" he asks, focusing on me intently.

Meeting his eyes, I just shrug, "Sure. It'd be nice."

"Done," he says, looking at me expectantly. I don't feel any different.

"Thanks," I reply, turning the water orb into vapour, letting it dissipate.

"You're welcome. Tell Wyonna I say hi," Raz says, nodding his head before walking away, disappearing behind his bar while I repeat his message.

Figuring it's as good a distraction as any, I open my notification log. I notice that not only is there a new quest, I also managed to hit fifty in water manipulation.

Double-checking, just to be sure, I can feel my lips tugging up into a smile when I see a new specialized spell slot for a water spell.

Feeling a little better with that small goal achieved, I turn back to my log. Immediately below the skill increase notification is a message from Wyonna. I guess she can add text to any system message now.

“Raz is great, isn't he. I know, I know, I'm biased. Tell him I say hi back. Now let's see.”

“Wyonna says hi back,” I call out to his bar, before turning back to my log.

"Quest received: Not so Unique. Description: Gauging power requires knowledge. Requirements: discover one method for upgrading any common class to an uncommon variant. 0/1 uncommon class upgrades discovered. Rewards: Reveals the rarity of a single unique uncommon class. 1 iron rank integration point."

A single uncommon class. Does that mean if I try to use it on a stronger class it won't say anything? That doesn’t seem great, but it’s okay since I only want to know about my own class anyway. And this will at least confirm if it’s better than uncommon.

Wow, that is, like, the easiest quest ever. You just need to repeat what I say. Wanna be a Voltknight? Stand outside during a lightning storm and let yourself get struck. By lightning of course. Oh, and you need to have lightning manipulation of at least one. I guess I'd recommend having a health of at least 150 too. Technically, the last part is optional.

Doing as Wyonna says, I finish reading her entire comment, getting another notification.

"Quest: Not so Unique. Objective complete: 1/1 uncommon class upgrades discovered. Rewards: Reveals the rarity of a single unique uncommon class. 1 iron rank integration point.

That was officially the easiest quest I've had so far. It was even easier than the translation quest. And I had a cheat for that one. Hmm. I guess having Wyonna is kind of like a cheat too.

“Quest updated: Not so Unique. Description: A single source is only the start, knowledge demands more. Requirements: discover eight additional methods for upgrading any common class to an uncommon variant. 0/8 uncommon class upgrades discovered. Rewards: Reveals the rarity of any unique uncommon class. 1 iron rank integration point. Time: 5/5 minutes."

"Only five minutes, wow," I say even as Wyonna's notifications start.

"Oh, just slap me with a glove why don't you? Fine, challenge accepted."

Is this my quest or Wyonna's? I don't even know.

"Let's do this alphabetically. Aeroknight. Super easy. Just stay suspended in the air without touching the ground for five minutes. Or trees. Or walls. Or clothes. Okay, you need decent manipulation for this one. Or a friend like you."

"Thanks. I think," I mumble to the air after I read her message aloud.

"Alloyknight. Wrap yourself in metal, completely, for five minutes. Piece of cake. Doesn't even have to be airtight."

"Aquaknight. Easier than Aeroknight. Probably more dangerous given your need to breathe and all. Stay completely submerged in water for five minutes."

Yeah, breathing is important, too bad I don't have time to catch my breath while trying to keep up with Wyonna.

"Cragknight. Well, you've probably figured out the pattern for knights by now, stay completely enclosed in stone for five minutes. Not as hard as it might seem since you can trap air in with you. No clothes though or it doesn’t count."

"Cryoknight. This one is a little different. You need to survive five minutes in a temperature below 250 degrees Kelvin, but it’s a little uncomfortable since you have to be naked. That's about - 23 degrees Celsius by the way."

That seems really uncomfortable.

"Pyroknight. This one is opposite of cryo, not so surprising. You need to survive five hours above a temperature 320 degrees Kelvin. That's about 47 degrees Celsius. Needs to be done outside with no clothes, but shade is okay. As long as it stays over 47 degrees."

I’m really glad I didn’t have to go through these upgrades. I guess I’d have my class first, but seriously.

"Shadowknight. Remain in a shadow that is at least 5000 lumens darker than the surrounding 50 meters for five hours. Easy to pull off by, you guessed it, fully encasing yourself. Can easily be done when unlocking other mancer classes."

Yeah, cause no one's ever had problems after spending five hours locked in the dark.

"Terraknight. Have a tea party. Nah, I'm just kidding. Bury yourself in dirt for five minutes. No stone. No clothes. Done."

Huh. No quest update yet. I start to call for Wyonna when another notification appears.

"Oh, and you need one point in the relevant manipulation skill. Obviously."

Repeating this line causes the expected quest notification to appear.

"Quest: Not so Unique. Objective complete: 8/8 uncommon class upgrades discovered. Rewards: Reveal the rarity of any unique uncommon class. 1 iron rank integration point.

I actually feel like I earned this one after all that.

“Quest updated: Not so Unique. Description: The quality of knowledge matters, as much as, if not more than, quantity. Requirements: discover two methods for upgrading any uncommon class to any rare variant. 0/2 rare class upgrades discovered. Rewards: Reveals the rarity of any rare or uncommon unique class. 5 iron rank integration point. Time: unlimited."

"Okay, now this one might actually take some legwork. I do know the easiest method to unlock a rare class. Basically, just do all the above and have all your elemental skills and at least one armour and weapon skill above 25. Oh, and have mana manipulation at 100. That will unlock the Guardian Elementalist. On a completely different topic, if I don’t respond it’s not that I’m ignoring you. After some testing, I’ve discovered that while the restrictions are lighter, I can still only respond for a few minutes after a system notification."

“I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you, Wyonna,” I reply after I'm finished repeating what she tells me. Then I check my quest status which confirms she's correct. I only need to discover one more method. Maybe I'll ask Tipan or Rufka. Or Raz. He seems to know a lot about the system.

Before I track anyone down though, I take the time to concentrate on my class. I'm like 99% sure it's rarity is higher than uncommon, but there's that niggling doubt. One that says I made a huge mistake.

Which is banished when my class' rarity stays unique when I focus on it under my class description. It's surprising how heavy 1% worth of doubt can feel.

Before I'm done basking in my relief, Josh calls out, "Hey Lex, ready to roll?"

"Oh yeah. Of course," I reply, turning to join him. Totally forgot that we were going for a walk. He leads me to the door across from the change room, which I had kind of assumed was the men's change room.

I guess we all share the other one?

Once inside, we follow a short hall, no more than four meters long. We cross the small space swiftly, reaching a dark green door with raised brown moulding and an ornate handle. When Josh pulls it open, a massive garden is revealed before us.

"Wowza," Josh murmurs. Honestly, I can't help but agree with him.

We're at the foot of a small hill. All around us are cultivated trees, shrubs and vines. At least I think they’re shrubs and vines.

They're all very pretty. We're standing at the head of a footpath that circles a small pond. From the pond, four other paths lead away. There's definitely some space or illusion shenanigans going on because the hill we emerged from is way too small to fit the building we were just inside of.

Josh starts moving towards the rightmost path, but I remain standing at the entrance, taking it all in. I've never been to the VanDusen Botanical Gardens in Vancouver, but I imagine this must be what they're like.

"This is better than I pictured," Josh says, smiling when I finally step forward to join him.

"Yeah," I reply, noticing a small creature that reminds me of Smoulder. Thinking of whom, I reach into my pocket, giving her scritches. Which she takes as a signal to come out, a moment later poking her head from my pocket, sniffing around.

I smile at Smoulder as she bounds out of my pocket to inspect the garden more closely.

"I'd love a garden like this," Josh says, gesturing, "a home where life blooms, taking my worries away."

"Oh yeah? What would you grow? Roses?" I ask with a smirk, watching Smoulder chase after the other rabbit creature. I'm certain she's playing, but I don't think the other bunny knows that.

"Among other things, yeah," he replies, smiling back as we watch the other bunny squeeze through a bush that Smoulder decides is more interesting than her quarry.

"Speaking of roses. What's with your robe?" I ask. His face tightens at my initial question, so I continue as if it was simply a prelude to my next comment, "it's as pristine as the moment we woke in the circle?" I ask instead, which is something I was curious about anyway.

"Ah. It's part of my leet skills yo. I'm able to clean and repair anything involving plants. My robe counts," he says, shrugging.

Well, that figures. He's good at the one thing I've tried and found nearly impossible. Given his special resources, it doesn't surprise me.

"I don't suppose you could patch up my onesie? I'd like to have it again, even though it's not really travel-wear. Actually, at the moment, it's not really any-wear," I say as we stop beneath a massive tree wrapped within a flowering vine which coils around it. The vine is a veritable riot of colours, all manner of blues, reds and yellows against a backdrop of green. It's practically reflexive when I focus on it to bring up a notification. I step closer to the Eolanis Bloomer, famous for its soothing colours and amazing perfumes. According to Wyonna, it's roots are also great in chili.

"I don't know if anyone has magic that strong," he replies to which I answer with a less than polite gesture, before motioning him forwards.

"Har Har. Apparently, these smell amazing," I say, gently running a hand against a blossom, feeling its smooth texture. When Josh does the same, the blossom noticeably reaches towards his hand, as if it were a certain bunny looking for scritches.

We take our time smelling the vaguely fruity-smelling flowers until I catch a whiff of something strange. Smoke. Turning, I find a nearby bush is on fire. I don't hesitate, conjuring water mana forth to douse the bush. Beneath which I find Smoulder, sitting proudly amongst the ashes, dry despite the water I just dropped on her head.

She shares what happened through our mental link. I can't help but laugh. Smoulder had been investigating the nearby bush when she got a thorn in her paw. Naturally, her reaction was to incinerate the whole bush. Luckily, I noticed before it spread, but I need to remember that my little ball o'doom is a bit of a pyro. And I don't mean mancer.

"But seriously? My onesie?" I ask, looking over to Josh as I try to get the thorn out of her paw while we move away from the scene of Smoulder's latest crime. I hope Raz isn’t too upset.

"I can try. But no promises," Josh replies as we pass beneath an arch covered in the same beautiful vine. I'm able to squeeze the Thorn out using tiny magical tweezers. When I burn the thorn to ash, my fire magic doesn't feel nearly as hot as it used to. A side effect of my new class resistances, I imagine.

"Deal," I proclaim, sticking my free hand out to him once we step clear of the flowery arch.

With her paw recovered, Smoulder decides to lead the way. We continue through the garden, inspecting random plants while Josh tells me about how much feedback he gets from his skill.

"Like this flower here? Its roots are so deep it's drawing water from over five meters down," he says as I look back at the small bush that's less than a meter tall. Seems disproportionate.

"That's one heck of a root system," I reply as we walk past, approaching the entrance again. The path we were on has led us in a smooth loop around the hill. There were several offshoots we could have explored but we decided to keep the hill in sight, just in case.

"Speaking of drawing water," I say when I notice Smoulder approaching the pond. Instead of standing around, watching her drink, I draw an orb from the pond to sate my own thirst as well. As I sip, I see a rose-thorn mug bloom into existence in Josh's hand.

"Think it's safe to drink directly like that?" he asks, gesturing to my orb of water.

"I kind of filter it. When I use my power to create drinkable water, it tastes exactly as I imagine tasty water should. The rest I deposit into little piles," I reply, demonstrating by dumping the filtered contents into one hand before depositing enough water in his mug to fill it to the brim.

"That's cool. Cheers," Josh says, raising his mug to my floating globe, spilling a little of his over the side.

Chuckling quietly, I match him, "cheers."

"So, have you thought about your class?" I ask Josh as I glance at the hall leading back inside.

"Ya. I'm probably going to take the temporary class, Sapling. The rest are all so combat-focused, ya know?"

"Well, they are combat classes," I reply with a smirk.

"Yeah, but I mean, I don't really want to be an Eviscerator or a BlightLord. Where's the old fashioned Druid class when you need it?" he asks with a rueful smile.

"Those sound nasty alright. My class name has them beat though. What's your manipulation skill called?" I ask as we sit on a bench near the pond instead of returning to the common room.

"I have three. Plant and chemical manipulation from my class, plus mana from your lessons. What’s your class’ name."

"My class is called Cataclysm Seed. Chemical sounds scary."

"Yeah. That's the one that unlocked BlightLord. Cataclysm Seed sounds wicked cool."

"Thanks. What are your manipulation skills at?" I ask, picking up one of the flat rocks that are stacked nearby. Almost as if they're meant for throwing. They’re definitely not part of the path or bench.

"Plant is at 24. Chemical is five. Why?"

"You'll probably unlock more class options once they're both 25. That's what happened with mine. Plus any other skills you might want to get a class from," I answer as I toss my first rock, skipping it twice.

"Huh. Well, I'm actually close to 25 in both spear and shield."

"Seriously? How’d that happen? I thought you were basically unconscious the last couple days," which I kinda feel bad about. Especially because as I watch the rock skip I'm suddenly thinking of all sorts of ways I could have got there faster. In the end, I didn't even rescue them. Well, from the K'tharn anyway.

"I was. But they were both close to 25 when we arrived. I had a girlfriend in the SCA a few years ago. She made me practice with her. It was actually pretty fun. Good exercise too."

"Uhh. That's the people who go around like knights of old right?" I ask while wondering if I can make myself wings of metal while manipulating wind to propel me.

"Kind of. There's a lot more to it than that though,” he answers as my brain circles back to his skills.

"Wait. Let me get this straight. Like most guys, you learned how to use a spear and protection from an old girlfriend?" I ask with an exaggerated eyebrow and an elbow nudge.

Josh gets that faint pink to his cheeks.

Then I wiggle my eyebrows at him. He starts laughing hard enough he starts wheezing.

"Jeez Lex, I didn't see that coming," he says, leaning back against the bench when he finally recovers.

"What? I can be funny," I reply, slightly nonplussed.

"That's not what I mean. You just always seemed so, I don't know. Innocent?"

"Wow. Eight years across the hall from each other and I guess we really don't know each other at all, do we?" I say.

"Yeah. I guess not. Good thing we got abducted and sent to another world. Otherwise, I never would have known you had a dark side." he says, bumping me with his elbow.

"And I never would have known you had a pink side. But yeah, it's still hard to absorb, you know?" I say as I look up at the massive garden that is somehow inside the pub we're staying in. Because magic.

"Yeah. It's all kind of crazy. You think that academy will help us get home?" he asks.

"I wish I knew. For all we know it's going to take us half a year just to get there," I answer as I watch Smoulder chase my stone across the water, hopping fast enough she doesn’t sink. She does end up charging off the far side when my stone sinks beneath the surface though.

Even if the academy does offer a way home, I doubt getting home will be as simple as getting there.

I think the real adventures are only just beginning.