“Whoa…” Without hesitation, Fi had kicked open the doors, blinding me with the light that spilled out from the Adventurer’s Guild, and what I saw was unbelievable. “...This place is a total dumpster, isn’t it?”

Inside the large wooden building that was the Adventurer’s Guild was a large empty foyer, dust covered dining tables, and a cobweb cloaked ceiling. I’d imagined a bustling building with rows upon rows of people dining, recruiting and doing their own stuff, but instead I got the barren wasteland that was Shelter’s Adventurer’s Guild.

“What the heck is up with this? For such a huge and intricately designed space, there sure is a whole lot of nothing going on in it.” The place was well decorated, just not well maintained. Clearly, it was created by an architect who’d been overly ambitious about the building’s looks compared to its actual demand.

“Sure is. Some diehard adventurer who’d failed the dungeon set this place up expecting that people would congregate and take it on once more. Or at least, that’s what I’ve been told. That all happened before my time in this world.” Fi took the opportunity to explain the guild’s state to me as she scanned the room with her own disappointed look. “...As you can tell, things didn’t exactly turn out how he’d planned.”

“That’s kinda sad…” I felt bad for the guy. I could sympathize with wanting something so bad that you’d do even the most foolish, naive acts to achieve it.

“Meh, it doesn’t really matter. The dudes dead. What can he do about it now?” Fi spoke these harsh words with a shrug before striding up to the guild’s counter.

“That only makes it even more tragic! Poor guy…” I hung back for a second, thinking about the poor soul who had poured his heart and soul into making this place, before catching up with Fi.

When I reached her, she slid her way over the counter and motioned for me to follow, so I crawled over after her. Then Fi kept moving. Behind the counter was a hall. At the end of the hall, a door. Behind the door, I encountered a downwards leading staircase. And at the end of the staircase, yet another door.

We stopped in front of the door, and I’d finally decided to ask what we were even doing. “Hey, you haven’t told me much of anything. What are we doing here? I figured you just had something to do real quick.”

“I asked the local bookworm about your situation.” Fi sat down on a nearby stool.

“And… what is my “situation,” again? I have a lot of situations, right now.” I squatted down into a more comfortable position to prepare for the conversation at hand.

“About how you couldn’t have a blank dream, you dolt. What else? I thought there was something weird about it all. After all, you’ve had a number of near death experiences, most people would’ve had one, already.” Fi’s words carried the annoyance she must’ve been feeling thinking through the situation, but it did my heart well to know she was actually thinking through everything. Despite all her flaws, she always tended to do what she thought was best for people.

“Aww… Fi, you were worried about me! C’mon! Bring it in!” Overwhelmed with a warm fuzziness, I lunged at Fi for a hug only to be pushed back down to the ground.

“Gushy feelings aren’t going to help you conquer the spire. You need to be able to protect yourself.” Fi shot down my enthusiasm. Thinking on it a bit, it was likely in her nature as a guard to worry about people… until they pissed her off that is.

“Alright, I get it. So, why are you bringing this up? Wait, don’t tell me. Did you find something out?” My heart skipped a beat. I more than anything, wanted to beat the dungeon and go on adventures. I’d do this with or without cool abilities. But, if I could have cool abilities while doing those things, it would totally make it like three times better, minimum.

“Who knows… All I got from him was a bunch of nonsense about legends. It was like a history lesson. I sat there for a solid hour of hypothesizing, so allow me to spare you. To sum up what he said, it was “Meh, just go for it, and see what happens.”” Fi’s face remained a screwed up mess as she tried to decipher through what she’d been told.

“Okie dokie! Sure, why not?” Seeing Fi giving it a shot with me encouraged me to get excited at the possibility as well. Then we both got up and entered the door in front of us.

On the other side of the door was a ginormous room filled with tons of little lights, and a single bud-like rock placed within the ground at the center of the room. It was made of some kind of purplish, gray substance and a fluorescent magenta core in its center that illuminated the room. Wisps of all colors were flying around the enclosure, giving it an atmosphere similar to the room I got teleported from in the tunnels.

“So, is this the Crystal Tree? It doesn’t really look like much...” I eyed the rock at the center of the room skeptically.

“It doesn’t, at first, no. It’s only when you make contact with it that it grows.” Fi defended the tree. It was a staple of Creation, so it’d only make sense she’d feel a bit of pride about it.

“Okay then, touch it for me! I’m curious to see what it looks like… You know, so I can be prepared for what happens if it works.” I tacked on the last part in assurance that Fi wouldn’t just write my words off.

“Fine. Stand back a bit, though. It grows quite a lot.” After making sure that I’d moved far enough away from the tree, Fi stepped forward and put her hand on its core. When she did so, it glowed even brighter and the tree began to grow, spindling around and out to form large branches and painting itself in red and orange, crystalline leaves. At the end of those branches were giant gems of differing shapes, some glowing, some pale. On the core appeared the number thirty one, written in bold purple. “That’s what it looks like.”

“Whoa… I wanna do that!” I was awestruck and my heart fluttered. It was a truly incredible sight. It was magical. It was inspiring.

“Trust me, I know.” Fi’s eyes shot daggers at me, telling me to not get my hopes up. Then, she placed her palm on the tree again, and it returned to its original state. “Now go ahead and try. If it works, you’ll fall asleep and have a full dream. If it doesn’t we’re back to the drawing board.”

“Wait, what’s a full dream?”

“It’s like the opposite of a blank dream. It’s super abstract and you’re fully conscious during it. It only ever happens when you first make contact with a Crystal Tree, though. I mean, if you make contact with one after having a blank dream. It lets you choose your starting class out of the four options best suited for you… So, you’ll probably have a lot of Rogue options.” Fi explained my query.

“And what if I have an allergic reaction to something? Like, maybe I’m allergic to vibrant magentas or something.” I was only joking with Fi, but I could tell that my joking around got on her nerves as she pushed me face first into the tree’s core.

“You won’t. Now put your palm on it.” Fi demanded that I do what she told me, so I complied.

“I know! I get how it works. You don’t needa be so mean about it…” I inched my hand towards the core, its glowing light coating my palm in magenta, and then I touched its shockingly warm surface.

✦✧✦

“I’m sorry! I’m so so sorry!” The next thing I knew, I was watching something. No, more precisely, I was watching someone.

She had deep golden blond hair that was tangled and matted. Tattered clothes that were just barely wearable in their state. Pale skin deprived of all nutrients. But most noticeably, she had a yellow fog that surrounded her, hiding the carnage in the plains around her.

I figured that if she cleaned herself up, however, she could be the very image of lust. Beautiful gold hair, a perfect body, an almost divine maturity to her… I could see the men flocking to her from all over the globe. But not in her current state. In her current state she could hardly even pass as a hobo.

Painted on her visage was an unmistakable image of somehow elegant guilt and remorse.

“Please, somebody, be alright!” The girl began to sift through the piles of burning rubble around her. The way she moved was like a broken wind up toy, jerking back and forth in a sporadic, unhinged way.

I couldn’t quite make out where she was, but I could tell it was the site of some major accident.

“This is all my fault, I should’ve known something like this would happen. It always happens!” She started beating herself down even further. I didn’t know what happened or what she could’ve done, but I needed to comfort her. However, I was cut short as somebody else approached her and did the same thing.

Her face was masked by the fog, but I could still hear her voice. A familiar voice. My voice. “Hey, umm… you wouldn’t happen to have a bandage would you? I got kind of roughed up just a second ago.”

It was shaky and inappropriately light, but undoubtedly mine. I was trying to comfort her, play it off as a joke. Then, my figure came into view. It was me, but the me from before I was brought to Creation. The me from Earth.

My arm had a pretty wild gash on it, and I was also covered in debris and soot, but it was obvious that I was a bit better off than the girl before me. I just couldn’t get passed it, though, I was watching me. Me… Was this what a full dream was meant to be?

“Wait… if its not a full dream then is this…” A memory. It had to be.

“Oh, somebody is alright, after all! Thank G—” The girl cut off the end of her sentence, as she turned to the me before me.

“Here... This should make it better.” A small yellow light flew from the woman’s hand and landed onto my wounded arm, healing it completely. I had no doubt about it. It had to be some sort of special ability… on Earth.

“Whoa, that’s one crazy cool trick you have there, ma’am. You’re like some sort of superhero… some sort of really dingey superhero.” Hearing myself speak made me reel a bit. I took pride in my uniqueness, but from the view of a spectator, I felt how cringeworthy I probably came off.

“How can you… how can you be so nonchalant? At a moment like this, how are you smiling?!” The lady jumped up and grabbed me by the shoulders, a deadly serious look on her face. However, I evidently couldn’t handle it, and ended up falling backward, hitting my head pretty hard on the ground.

“Oww…” I stayed on the ground, clutching my head. It looked like it hurt a lot. I’d always hated dull pain.

“I am so terribly sorry! Here let me—” The woman got ready to help me out again, but I waved her off.

“Heheh… don’t worry about it. I’m not no peach. I’m not gonna bruise from something like that.” I could tell the other me’s head was throbbing. I was likely only playing it off, because the woman seemed unstable.

“You… You truly have a soul that can persevere through tragedy, don’t you?” The woman, a look of admiration in her eyes, asked me for a personal judgment of my character. I couldn’t quite tell, but it almost looked as though she was crying. The fog was growing even deeper. So deep, that it masked even the words from my response.

And then, there was nothing but fog.

My vision wavered for a second, and then four markers appeared all at different sides of me.

“I guess, this is a full dream… Which means, it worked! I can use cool abilities, and pick a class, and become an awesome adventurer!” I jumped to life in excitement at the unexpected success. It was the fruits of my motto. I took a chance, and it paid off.

“Alrighty then, time to see what options there are to choose from.” I had no idea what classes there were, but I’m sure I’d like at least one out of the four.

I headed towards the marker that was in front of me and investigated it. When I arrived, an icon showed above it, signifying the class options, and a description resided on a stone monument that rose below it:

Category — Swordsman

Class — Adventurer

A class of versatility, which employs both sword fighting and magical abilities alike. Although being in the swordsman category, it is a rounded class that can get abilities for the sword along with nearly any other class’ weapons.

I took note of the description’s contents then ruled it off. While I liked the flexibility of the class, I tended to be too indecisive when given too many options. Being able to use anything would be both a gift and a curse for me. I had to make the mature decision and not pick it.

I then headed around clockwise and viewed the other classes one at a time.

Category — Rogue

Class — Ranger

I didn’t even bother reading the description. Rangers were archers, which implied having to be patient. Not my thing.

Category — Warrior

Class — Barbarian

A class that utilizes large, blunt objects and heavy polearms to assault foes. Attacks and abilities typically knock back or stagger opponents, doing large amounts of crushing damage.

I’d decided I’d feel too guilty choosing a class like barbarian, and that while it was fun to imagine me holding a giant club and whacking people, it wouldn’t be the most practical.

Then, I landed on the type of class I’d been conditioned for, and much like the Ranger, I didn’t even bother reading the description. But this time, it was because I picked it immediately. I knew that if I didn’t, I’d be thinking my choices over all day.

Category — Rogue

Class — Thief

✦✧✦

The next thing I knew, I was awake again on the ground in front of the Crystal Tree. Fi was standing above me with a distraught look on her face. “April, I think you’re allergic to the Crystal Tree.”

“What?! Ow…” I jerked myself up off the ground only to find that my body was hurting all over with dull pain. “What happened?”

“Well, normally when you do this, you remain standing during your dream. But you fell over and hit your head on the tree, and your back flat on the hard ground. Basically, you failed even at something as simple as standing.” Fi snickered a bit as she said the last bit of her explanation. The way she teased me wasn’t that mean, though. It was more like how you’d tease a colleague or a friend. It made me feel a little warm on the inside.

“Yeah, yeah, well it worked. The whole full dream thing, I had one… and rather strange one at that. I still don’t know how I had one, though. Unless…” I thought back to everything weird that happened in the full dream. That whole incident... was that the adversity I’d overcome?

“Unless what?” Fi peered into my soul looking for answers.

“Nevermind, I was being stupid…” Normally I was fine with sharing everything I knew, but I didn’t even know what I knew or what I learned…

“Well, let’s get started then. Hurry up, and put your hand back on the Crystal Tree.” Fi pushed for me to get everything over with already.

“I must’ve been out for a good bit, huh? But are you really not even curious what I chose? I thought that’d be the first question.” I was a bit upset that I couldn’t fawn about my amazing class choice.

“You chose Thief. No doubt in my mind. Now, hurry up already! We’ve got other stuff to do today.” I was also upset that I was so predictable.

“Okay…” Defeated, I put my hand on the tree, expecting it to spring to life, but instead of the amazing mess of spiralling and growing it’d done for Fi, all it grew for me was a couple feet, spreading out to have only one branch with a gem on it. The number zero was lit on the core.

“Welp, I guess I have to explain how this works now, huh? My bad if I get anything wrong, I’m not the best at this type of stuff.”

“It’ll be no problem! I have pretty alright memory, if I do say so myself, just explain it and I’ll remember.” I tried to reassure Fi.

“That’s not the issue. You’re not the best at putting two and two together, that’s all. I have no doubt you can remember what I’ll say.” Fi shrugged off my kind, yet boastful words.

“Anyways, how this whole system works, is that on the tree’s core there a number will display. This is your rank.” Fi pointed to the zero illuminated on the core.

“I don’t even start at rank one?! What’s up with that?”

Ignoring me, Fi continued. It was a rather lengthy explanation. I tried my best to remember what she was saying without getting distracted and when all was said and done, I had a rudimentary understanding of the world’s ranking system.

Pretty much, the Crystal Tree was a literal skill tree. It’d grow a limited number of “fruit”—those funnily shaped gems I’d seen—at the start of each rank. These fruit, when picked, provide the user with special abilities, and a person’s class and experiences determined what type of fruit would grow. Each split in one of four ability types. Magic, rituals, skills, and passives. I wasn’t told the difference, nor did I really think I needed to know.

Experience would be needed to pick these fruit, and you could tell if you had enough for a fruit if it was “ripe,” or easier put, glowing. According to Fi, experience was accrued through… experiences, both physical experiences like training and stuff like mental growth. Basically, it was really obscure. From what Fi told me, the world didn’t have a system of stats or anything, so a person’s skill and ability to use their skills and abilities was typically the main deciding factor in bouts.

Lastly, I was told that the tree went up to a maximum rank of fifty, and that once every ten ranks a person would obtain a purely unique skill tailored to them, a Special. These skills would be just unique, not overpowered ultimate moves or anything like that. They were, as Fi stated, “A testament to the adventurer’s soul.” As long as an adventurer was alive with a certain Special, nobody else could get that exact Special.

“Urgh… so much information. Can I pick a fruit yet?” My mind was nearing its breaking point as I turned to Fi with pleading, puppy-dog eyes.

“Every person starts with zero experience, but luckily Special’s don’t require experience, and rank zero’s only fruit is a…” Fi led me on to put fuel back in my engines.

“It’s a Special?! Which means that glowing fruit right there is…?” I looked on at the gem in elation.

“A Special ability only you can use. Now, go ahead and pick it.” Fi seemed happy for me as she pushed me to take hold of the forbidden fruit, and I wasted no time in grabbing it.

It was big, bigger than a lot of the fruit I saw on Fi’s tree, but it dissipated into a flurry of sparkles in an instant when I held it in my palms.

“Wha— What happened? How can I tell what Special I got?! Did I break it?” My heartbeat skyrocketed as I stressed that I might’ve flubbed my only shot at getting a cool special ability.

“Nah, you’re fine. Look at the core, it should tell you what you got. You can also look there before getting an ability. If you just touch the fruit, it’ll display the description. Heh, it’s oddly entertaining to see someone go through this for the first time.” Fi’s words passed through my head as I was already laser focused on the tree’s core, reading my newly acquired Special.

Break — Spirit of Adventure I

Your ambition leads the way to new horizons.

When making contact with paper using ink, Spirit of Adventure will map the current area, showing all visible rooms, terrain, and paths. These maps can only be used by the creator, transference of the map will clear the paper.

“What the crap?! That’s totally lame! I was hoping for a mega cool fireball or something...!” I was someone who liked to take dumb, dangerous chances, so I was hoping for some glass cannon final effort type attack. Not an attack that’d help with… planning. “Hey, Fi what the heck is up with that?! I thought you said that the abilities I get are meant to reflect me and my class!”

“Heh, they are meant to. It probably just gave you what it thinks you need.” Fi had the dumbest look on her face as she basked in my distress.

“It’s not funny…! I don’t need a map! That kills the thrill of the adventure.” If there was anything I hated more than being told what to do, it was having my plans mapped out in advance. “Then again… I guess it makes sense. Since getting here, I’ve been nothing but lost.”

“Mhm…” Fi just nodded along with what I was saying. She obviously didn’t care.

“By the way, what’s up with the one at the end and the “Break” at the beginning?” I’d remained eyeing the Spirit of Adventure ability I’d gotten and its icon—a picture of someone with a striking similarity to me, looking down at a map and walking—when I took notice of the things inserted before and after it.

“Break is the type of Special it is. Basically it’s the Special equivalent of a Ritual. There’s also Bursts for Magic abilities, Breaches for Skills, and Bounds for Passives.” Fi nodded her head thinking through everything as she explained. She obviously didn’t familiarize herself with the semantics of it all.

“So, it’s just a different name…”

“Pretty stupid, right? But there’s not much more to it. As for the number at the end, that’s its level. As you rank up, you may find the same ability appear on the Crystal Tree over and over. Each time you choose it, it increases in level and becomes better, up to a max of level three.”

“Okay, it’s an upgrade system, got it.” I mimicked Fi and nodded my head reverently.

“And… on that note, I think it’s time we get going and finish our chores for the day, don’tcha think? Now that we know you can use the Crystal Tree, we can get you a fitting weapon that’s not a kitchen knife.” Fi pushed for us to move, drawing my eyes away from the tree.

“Wait, how do I rank up? Or am I gonna be stuck at rank zero?” The core had gone back to say zero and I was fixated on it, expecting it to increase.

“Don’t fret over it. You’ll be rank one next time you activate the tree. You rank up when you get rid of all the Crystal Fruit it has on it. Like I said, you don’t start with any experience, so there’s no need to do that now.” Fi pushed even harder.

“Oh… I see! I was hoping I could get some other abilities, but if there’s nothing else to do, then lets get a move on! I’m excited to get a badass weapon to swing around.” Both sad I couldn’t do more at the tree, currently and looking forward to getting a weapon to start accruing experience, I wasted no time dashing past Fi, now as the one pushing her to get a move on. “C’mon pick up the pace! We needa get a move on. The day is short and the goals many!”

“Grr… don’t just run ahead of me! You don’t even know where you’re going, you brat!” Fi, red at the head from being left in the dust, dashed after me. Our destination, to finish our daily chores.