Jude was normally an early riser. But after staying up most of the night, he could barely make it out of bed by the time the new trainees gathered in the yard. He groggily exited his room and wished that this universe had coffee or at least coke. Actually, coke sounded much better. Cooooookkkkkee.

Even after a long night, he still hadn’t successfully linked two skills. Though he was really close to doing so. Linking the nodes was the right path, he just had to find the right combination with the right timing.

“Look at you!” Wen said as she saw him exit into the yard. “I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen you sleep in! What the cosh were you thinking? Today is an important day! Can you cosh’ing train some other time, right? You better pull it together.”

At first, her tone was joking, but then it turned harsh. Luckily she kept her tone down so the new recruits wouldn’t hear.

“Alright, today we are going to start our final evaluation. The Heroic Wizard Jude will be making the assessment, so everyone better put up your best effort.” Krinn said. He continued with how each group with perform their skills and briefly on how they would be evaluated.

A small table and 3 chairs were set up. Jude and the Frotgen’s sat there. Each potential recruit then performed their skills in front of everyone.

Jude was slowly waking up, but this evaluation didn’t take much brain power. By this point, everyone was pretty much on the same level with a few exceptional recruits. The exceptional ones were easy to identify; they were a no brainer in recruiting. The rest were all about the same, so it was more of a matter of selecting four to reject.

Krinn and Wen clearly didn’t want to be in that position. They had rejected a lot the day before, but that was based on the rules setup beforehand and usually in mass. Now the rejection process would be more engaging and more defined on a person’s technique. Jude wasn’t sure if he should be impressed with their way of manipulating events like this or enraged at being made the scapegoat.

That was when he came up with an interesting idea. This new idea then turned into a new set of requirements. He needed a flexible mind, willing to try new things. Yet they had to have a good work ethic. Plus, he wanted people who were creative, though that was more of a bonus rather than a requirement.

***

After four hours, everyone had displayed their skills. Jude, Krinn, and Wen went inside to discuss who was to be dropped. Jude had yet to tell them his idea.

Krinn started off, “The first one to drop should be #21, she duels wields two different kinds of weapons. Having two different does not really help and it will only take longer to train someone like that.”

“I agree,” said Wen. “Next I think we need to cut #18, he’s slow, but for some reason, he wants to focus on . But with his body type being so big, it’s not a very good combination.”

Jude interjected, “I don’t know, he was like a battering ram when he did it. It could be a good anti-group tactic.”

“Yes, it ‘could’ be. But there are plenty of others who fit into our standard requirements. So those who don’t should be cut.” Wen replied.

Krinn continued on, “Next is #4, the ranged rogue. Her accuracy was really good, especially since she doesn’t have any bow related skills yet. The problem is…”

“What is the problem?” asked Jude.

“She is too timid,” Wen said.

“What is wrong with that?”

Wen answered again, “Rogues, whether they are ranged or not, are primarily damage dealers. Because of this they can pull aggro off the tank. They need to control their damage so this doesn’t happen. However, at some point, for one reason or another it will happen. A timid rogue will reduce their damage by a large amount to keep this from happening. And if you push them, they typically go well over the damage they should do, pull aggro, then freak out. Our last group was wiped out because of a timid rogue. Only Krinn and I survived. Because of that we won’t work with a timid rogue ever again.”

“I see. It’s too bad she isn’t a healer,” Jude said.

Krinn agreed, “Yeah, she would make a great healer. But it would be too expensive to get her the class.”

“Let’s continue,” Wen said. “The last one I think should be #13. 13 is always an unlucky number and she is no exception. This rogue seems good at first, but the way she wields her daggers is strange.”

Krinn joined in, “Backhand hold might look cool, but a dagger rogue needs to be more flexible. Even backstabbing she still held the daggers backward.

“Alright, I think we have our four we are going to cut. Numbers 4, 13, 18 and 21. Boss, you are in charge. How do you want to proceed?”

Jude said, “Bring them here.”

Luckily these were the four Jude wanted. Sometimes rejects were the perfect product to work with. If he was correct, he could remold these 4 into something new.

***

Jude sat in his office, it was plain with bare minimum furniture and no decorations. It had a single window that let in just enough light to keep things from being uncomfortable. He didn’t sit behind the desk, but rather straight in front of #21.

She was a lithe girl that could easily pass for a rogue if her gear wasn’t that of a warrior. She had a large axe strapped to her back and two short swords on her waist. She had been a freelance for a while now and had adapted by using this combination of weapons. For quick opponents, she used the swords, for devastating blows she used the axe.

This kind of free thinking and creativity was exactly what Jude was looking for. Hopefully, she would be open to what he was about to say.

She had straight black hair and olive skin. Her dark eyes were well framed by her long eyelashes. Her hardened leather armor was studded with metal bolts and she wore the same kind of leather as a skirt. Her feet were clad in a sandal that repeatedly laced over her feet, up her calf and ended at her knee.

Here name was Cairfray Landell.

“I will be open and honest with you.” Jude started out.

Cairfray gulped, clearly nervous. She was skilled but knew that duel weapon training was looked down on.

“My companions want me to reject you,” Jude continued. “As you know, we only have room for 20 Warriors and Rogues combined. This means that four people will not be joining them. Unfortunately, you did not make it into the group for Warriors and Rogues.”

Jude paused for effect.

Then he asked, “So how would you like to be a Wizard?”

“…” she didn’t know how to answer.

“I can’t guarantee that I can make you a Wizard as I’ve never done it before. But I have an idea that I’m pretty sure will most definitely work.” Jude said.

“…” she wasn’t usually one to be tongue tied, but this whole line of thought was completely foreign to her.

Jude wondered if it was going to be this hard to get a response out of all of them, “It may sound impossible, but I have access to unique skills that may just allow me to do this. But first I need your permission.”

“I could be a Wizard?” she finally said.

“It’s possible, you would be the first I’ve tried this on, though.”

“Will it hurt? No that doesn’t matter, even if it kills me it would be worth trying. Besides, you are the Heroic Wizard! If anyone can do it, then it would be you.” Cairfay said with a fanatical look in her eyes.

Perhaps this wouldn’t be as bad as he first thought.

“First we need to move closer,” Jude said moving his chair. “Then I will need to touch your head. When I do you need to free your thoughts. When you feel a sensation inside you, focus on it.”

“What will the sensation feel like?” She asked.

Jude smiled, “You will know when you feel it.”

Cairfray blushed!

Jude smacked his head, “Don’t worry, all I’m going to do is touch your head. Nothing else!”

Ignoring the clear embarrassment that he felt, he touched her head and closed his eyes. Jude then activated . The Rank Up from the night before was really showing its worth now. Before, when he did this to Krinn, it was hard to see the others Modicuit. But now at Rank IV, it was much clearer. Now he could see the undeveloped lines of Cairfray’s Modicuit.

It still wasn’t as clear as looking at his own Modicuit, but it was clear enough to find the Wizard portion of it. Like he expected the entire area was completely dark. He even had a sigh of relief. In his own Modicuit, he had found sealed areas. He was pretty sure that those were the advanced classes and skills that he didn’t have a level for yet. But that didn’t mean other things could and would be sealed.

Jude had been betting that all the starting classes to be unsealed and would only need some sort of catalyst to make them available. Warrior and Rouge were easy to catalyze, Healer was somewhat harder, but still possible. Wizard was the only one that people didn’t know how to activate.

He had won the first half of his bet, now was the time to test out the second. Like with Krinn, Jude used his to start powering them up. To conserve his mana and to ensure Cairfray’s safety, he used his new virtual mana to accomplish this whole process. That way if something did go wrong, it would at least not be explosive!

Virtual mana started coursing through Cairfray’s Modicuit and she started fidgeting from the strange sensation. Jude knew the feeling. Virtual mana felt almost identical to the real thing, but to him, it had an odd airiness to it, unlike normal mana. Cairfray, however, never felt mana run through this region of her Modicuit, so the sensation was completely different.

If Jude had used normal mana, the process would have been somewhat painful. These circuits had never been used before and had never been reinforced with mana running through it like well-developed skills. The virtual mana, however, was like cool water running through her head instead of painful fire. The virtual mana also started to reinforce her Wizard circuitry much like normal mana would, albeit at a slower rate.

Jude was able to easily compensate for this by pouring massive amounts of virtual mana through the circuitry. The amount would be unsustainable with normal mana, but virtual mana requires a fraction of Jude’s mana and he could continue this process for quite a while.

The amount of mana flowing through Caifray made her head want to burst. But she didn’t say a word and to her surprise, notification after notification kept popping up.

Wizard Class unlocked!

Spectral Magic unlocked!

Spectral Weapons Ranked Up! Rank I

Spectral Weapons Ranked Up! Rank II

Spectral Weapons Ranked Up! Rank III

Spectral Objects Ranked Up! Rank I

Spectral Objects Ranked Up! Rank II

Spectral Objects Ranked Up! Rank III

Spectral Eye Ranked Up! Rank I

Spectral Eye Ranked Up! Rank II

Spectral Eye Ranked Up! Rank III

She wasn’t even a Level 1 Wizard yet and she already had 3 Rank III skills! This was completely amazing!

“Hold on a second,” Jude said releasing her head. “Pull out your sword and hold it in your hands. Then focus on the sword.”

“Okay,” she replied.

Jude folded his arms and closed his eyes. He now focused inwardly to his new title, Skill Master. When he did a strange phrase popped into his mind. This phrase had no meaning in any language that he knew but somehow knew that it would activate the title skill.

Jude tried it, “Ibxirfy mhann ar msyfdtin pijaf: !”

Then he felt the searing pain. It was exactly the same as when he advanced from Rank III to Rank IV. When he connected a circuit directly to the sword. Obviously, he couldn’t create circuits with , but if he could do it with this new Title, then it would be worth it. But then, even more, pain flared up. It was like a sliver of that circuit that connected to the weapon was sliced off alone the whole circuit. That slice was then placed into Cairfray. That slice now made up the circuit connection required for advancing from Rank III to Rank IV.

Now Jude understood the cost for a skill trainer to rank someone up. Losing part of the circuit wouldn’t affect the effectiveness of the skill, but it would require time to build back up. Luckily for Jude, he had skills that could greatly increase this. But even for him, his limit would be once a day. And this wasn’t even mentioning the incredible pain he had to go through to share the skill.

His only real regret, however, was that he had no way to share his . At least, not yet! But for the time being, that would have to wait.

He then placed his hand back onto Cairfray’s head and using advanced her to Rank V. Rank IV gave her access to 100% of the weapons damage. Rank V gave her access to multiplying it up to 8 times.

Jude sighed but was happy. He said, “All done, how does it feel to be a Wizard now?”

“Really good!” Cairfray said with a fanatical look in her eyes.

Jude didn’t understand this look and only saw it as a look of excitement.

He then called Krinn and Wen in.

“I would like you to meet our first new Wizard recruit,” Jude said.

“Our what?” Krinn asked.

“What? You didn’t? YOU DID!” Wen said. “But you were supposed to cosh’ing work on my skills next!”

“Don’t worry, I will help you with your skills too,” Jude said. “But for now I still need to make 2 more Wizards. After that, I will see if I can make the timid one a healer.”

Krinn laughed, “Welcome to Heroes Retributions #21!”

Krinn hadn’t remembered her name since they weren’t going to train her. But she didn’t mind.

She was a Wizard now after all!

“Thanks!” She said.