Sage and Chance wandered around for about an hour before setting course for an inn. They passed a few of them, but the duo wanted someplace quiet. Eventually, they settled on the WoodWrite Inn.

The inn was spacious and had one room open, the building smelt like freshly grilled meat. "It smells so good in here." Chance mumbled as the various spices hit his nose. Sage placed a hand on her stomach as it rumbled. "We will get a room and a bite." She decided. Chance was in no place to argue.

Chance approached the counter and gave the menu a good eye; he didn't notice the man waving to him until he looked back down. "Oh! Sorry about that. I was checking the menu." Chance rubbed the back of his head. The shorter man laughed loudly, "It's quite alright. Don't worry about it. What can I get for you?"

Chance put his hands together and gave the menu one last scan. "Can we get a room and a platter of food? Please?" He asked as he looked down at the man. "Sure thing!" The man said as he reached under the counter and handed Chance a key. Sage wanted to ask the man what he was, so badly. She thought it would be rude, so she didn't say anything.

"The food will be brought to your room when it is ready." The man rubbed his beard. "It is 15 gold for the room and five gold for the platter, please." Chance could hardly wait to taste the platter. He gave the man 15 gold, and Sage gave him 5. After he paid, he looked at the room key. Chance and Sage waved at the man before heading upstairs to their room.

Chance opened the door, so fast Sage was scared he might break it. They both let out a sigh of relief when they noticed the second bed. "I'm so glad we don't have to share," Sage said as she sat on the bed closest to the closet. "Same. But I'm even more glad we are getting some real food." Chance said as he shut the door and sat on the empty bed.

-

After a worker brought up the food, Chance took a plate and went right into his inventory. Sage followed his lead, though she was more focused on getting organized. The two of them sat in silence for a while, enjoying the food and reading over their items.

Once she was done eating, Sage pulled the small brown book from her inventory. Chance watched her crack it open. "Is that the book we got from the town hall?" He asked as he finished his fries. Sage nodded, "Yes, it is. Before we sort loot and such, I want to ensure we are working with the correct information. I don't want to think about it either, but if we died and are now stuck here, we should know our options." Sage suggested as she read through the beginning of the book. Chance watched her for a few minutes before sliding his book out and giving it a skim.

"Found the information about classes on page one-hundred," Sage told Chance. "It looks like there are other books we can get with class-specific information in them. Chance searched his inventory for anything with blank paper. When he didn't find one, he flipped to the back of the brown book. "Do you have a pencil or something?" Chance asked. Sage shook her head no, "Wait! In one of the bags we got from the goblins, there was a journal thing." She said, stepping off of the bed and going to their bags of loot. She searched the bags for a few minutes before reaching in and tossing Chance a leather journal.

"Thank you." Chance smiled and flipped through the book, "Looks like the owner never got the chance to use this." He mumbled. "How about you read the important stuff, and I will take notes?" Chance offered. Sage sat back down and shrugged, "Sounds fine to me." She flipped through the book to find the section on classes again. "So it looks like classes are how you learn abilities. . Some races have different racial abilities as well," Sage mumbled as she flipped through the pages. "We can learn skills by trying new things and reading skill tomes," Sage told Chance, who quickly wrote that down.

"Chance, this book says we can take a second class once we reach level ten." Sage looked up from the book; her mind was already racing. She was trying to digest all of the possibilities mentally. Chance laughed loudly, "We should focus on the class we have first." He waved his pencil. Sage scanned the page, "You're right. It says multiclassing takes away options from our starting class. There is something called a class tome, but it says they're often expensive." She sighed.

"Does it say how we can increase our class level?" Chance asked as he looked back at his inventory. He moved around the tabs before settling on the one with all the class information on it. "Sage, I hit level 1!" He shouted. Sage looked up from the book and checked her class level, "This must be because of the huge green thing we killed." She said with a smile. She wanted to give her class a scan but decided to go back to the book for now.

Sage read what she thought was important before looking at her class. "It looks like if I go the specialist route, I can take my first ability right away." Sage was trying to put up a good front; truthfully, she was clueless about this process. Chance scanned his class; as they read, they sat in silence.

-

Sage selected the specialist subclass. "It looks like you can only see a few abilities ahead. I got unyielding. It will allow me to use a shield and stop one ability that is four to five levels ahead of me." Sage mumbled, not really sure what that meant. Chance was bouncing around in his mind. "If you are going to focus on being my shield, I will take the field medic subclass." He said as he flipped his tabs around. "It says it allows me to heal minor injuries, for exactly 10hp." Chance eyed his health bar. "I don't see numbers on my health, though, so we will focus on the minor injury part for now."

Sage gave him a confident nod and selected her ability. Chance watched her arms light up for a second. When Chance picked his ability, Sage watched as his hands lit up. The two of them jumped as a box appeared before both of them.

Congratulations! You've reached level 1!

Unlocked: Bestiary Tab

Unlocked: Spell Book Tab

Unlocked: Skill List

The first thing Chance did was go to his bestiary. "Sage, check out the bestiary section. It looks like we have an entry for both of the goblin things we fought." Chance said as he read. "The little goblins are called Goblin Underlings. The information about them is blank." He said as he selected the next entry. "The big thing was Goblin Oversized." Chance chuckled. "Looks like they're used as guards. They're not very intelligent." He told Sage.

Sage was starting to feel better about their situation. But she still had so many questions nagging her. Chance was feeling the same. The unlocks were allowing him to focus on anything other than their situation. "I like this. It looks like we can get more information by killing these creatures." Sage said before opening the starter guide to make sure. "Scratch that. We can also get more information by studying." Sage let out a sigh of relief; she wasn't sure how she felt about killing goblins yet.

-

After they were done looking at their new tabs, the next thing they did was look at their skills. Sage moved the lockpicking skill to her active skills slot. "The lockpicking skill will make my lockpicks less likely to break and make them appear more on downed opponents," Sage told Chance before looking past her tab. Chance sighed. "I don't have any skills yet. It looks like you can have ten active skills. Everything else gets sent to the skill bank."

"Okay." Sage was trying to go over all the skill possibilities. "We should sort that loot now! I am super curious about the key." Chance said as he got off the bed and started dumping out the sacks. Sage went into her inventory to see if the key had a description.

-

"It's a dungeon key," Sage told Chance as she read the description. "It says we can use it once we hit level 5. It will take us to a multilayered dungeon." Sage mumbled as she scrolled through the description.

"Glad we got something useful. It looks like we got a bunch of junk from looting." Chance said as he tossed the items into a single bag. "For useful stuff, we got a; compass, rope, two sleeping bags, and a few other things I think we could use." Chance said as he motioned for Sage to come over. "Take what you want. I think we should sell the junk after." He suggested.

"That's not a bad idea. Since it's late, we can see about selling things in the morning. I am going to need to pick up a shield so I can use my ability." Sage paused, "Oh, and a new weapon would be nice too." She told Chance. Chance opened his inventory to put the compass away.

"Sage! We forgot about all the crab we had!" Chance groaned as he eyed the spoiled crab legs. Sage quickly opened her inventory and observed the crab meat. Everything has gone bad except the chelae and eyestalks. "Great. What are we supposed to do with it?" Sage asked. She scanned the room before setting her sights on the trash barrel.

"I hope this doesn't smell." Chance said as the pair emptied the rotting food from their inventories. It did smell; the smell was too much for Sage, so she took the barrel and put it in the closet. Chance thought this was hilarious. "Someone is in for a nasty surprise." He said and went back to going through the items.

-

Once they were done, Chance climbed back onto his bed. "We can hit up the store and take up another job tomorrow." He mumbled to Sage. She was giving her tabs one last look, "Yeah, that sounds good to me." She said as she stood up to climb into bed.

As Sage got to her feet, as she stood, a yellow circle appeared at her feet. "Chance!" She snapped before being teleported away. Chance stood as fast as he could, but she was already gone before he reached the circle.

"What the hell?" He slid his hands through his hair and began pacing the room. Chance made sure to gather the sack of junk and anything else they left lying around. His body began to get tense. "Sage!" He yelled at the floor. Chance stood in place for a few minutes before rushing to the door. As he ripped the door open, a flash of yellow consumed him.

-

Chance screamed as loud as possible as he fell, his body eventually hitting something hard. He let out a loud yelp and continued the descent. Before he could fall any further, his body became entangled in rope—pain shot through his body.

I have to figure out what just happened. Chance groaned as he moved his free arm and placed it on his chest. Healing touch. Chance watched his hand glow green; he could feel his body healing. Although it wasn't perfect, it was enough to keep his eyes open. He used his free arm to take his hunting dagger from his inventory. "I hope this drop isn't too far." Chance said as he cut the rope. He braced himself the best he could; his whole body jolted as he felt the cold water on his skin.

I hope Sage is okay. Chance thought as he pushed his head above the water. He looked around and back up. The ropes stopped me from hitting the water. I guess I was teleported here. He scanned the area again. It was hard to see because of the darkness. I have to get myself sorted first. Chance fought himself; he knew he had to stay on track. Eventually, his eyes focused on a slab of land.

Chance used all the strength he had left to swim. Despite being healed, he was tired, and it was apparent he still had injuries. When he finally reached the land, he crawled to the closest wall. His head was pounding. Chance tried to fight it, but he passed out despite his best efforts.