The group took another ride on the escalator to reach the third floor. Upon arriving at the top, the group separated and headed towards their own job orientation. Before separating, Marvin suggested that they should meet up after their orientation. The group agreed and they decided to meet up in the lobby after their respective orientations.

Cliff walks around the third floor looking for his assigned room. It took him 15 minutes to find his room and upon seeing the room number,303 he immediately went in. Inside the room, he noticed few people already inside waiting for the orientation to start. The room for the orientation can accommodate around 30 people assuming all seats will be taken. Cliff choose a seat near the front to better hear and understand the upcoming orientation. Time passed on and people started arriving in the room. Cliff looked at his phone clock it showed 9:00, its time for the orientation to begin.

Cliff observed that not many new divers choose to be a Druid. They are only 20 people inside the room when 9 o’clock arrived. Cliff inferred that druid is not a popular job.

As he was busy thinking, a man entered the room and proceeded to the front. This man looks like in his late 30’s and he neither skinny nor muscular. He looks just to have the right fitness for his age. As this man reached the front, he eyed everyone in the room. “Good morning! I’m Glenn your assigned instructor for your orientation and also for your upcoming job training”, the man announced to the group. Cliff stared at Glenn trying to recall where he have heard or read that name. Liked getting zapped, Cliff now recalled who Glenn was.

“Glenn Lore, Specialist, rank 4 elite Druid; one of the rare Support class Diver that have a low casualty record. Also gained the moniker Iron Mace due to his excellent combat prowess using the mace. Most parties he have joined commented that he has one of the best zone control and sustain healing in the business. Currently he is grinding missions to increase his proficiency and rank according to rumors going around the internet”, Cliff awed in admiration to the instructor that in front of them and thinking on how long will he be able to catch up to Glenn.

Glenn cleared his throat and began to speak, “I would like to congratulate you on passing your Diver’s exam and successfully registering. Now before I begin, did everyone of you received your Diver’s watch.” The whole room nodded in affirmation to Glenn’s question. He continue, “The watch you receive is personalize for your own use, just put your thumb on the screen of the watch and it will turn on. You can explore the watch features on your own.”

After the short introduction of the watch, Glenn again eyed the room and suddenly asked, “what do you think is the most important trait of being a diver?” The room was silent for a few moments and from the back, a girl shouted, “Energy!”. Glenn looked at the girl and urge her to stand up, then Glenn asked the girl, “Miss, why do you think energy is the most important trait of a Diver?” The girl was in thought for a moment and the answered, “Because we use energy to power skill we learned and the more energy you have the more skills you can use.” Cliff did not agree to the girl’s answer. Right was he about to refute the girl, Glenn spoke, “what you say is true but it is not the right answer?”

After he said this, Glenn noticed Cliff and said, “Sir you seem to have a different opinion from what she have said?” Cliff stood up and answered, “I think the most important trait of a Diver is their ability to learn. They can use their experience and knowledge to adapt and win any situation they are in.” Glenn chuckled and spoke to the group, “What you have said is right, though energy is the basis of skills but not everyone is good at using them. Now always remember that not every mission is the same and not every Rift is the same. You must adapt accordingly on what you have learned.” The girl was about to question Glenn, but then Glenn continued to speak, “Look at me, I don’t have an abundant energy but still I climbed up the ranks and made my self known. You want to know how I did it? I keep learning and improve my craft.” The girl seated back when she heard what has Glenn said. The room was again quiet.

Glenn clapped to get the attention of the group. “Now enough about me, we are here to talk about the job you chose,” said Glenn. For first half hour, Glenn talked about the basics of being a Druid. Cliff summarize what have Glenn said.

First a Druid is a support class diver, so conserve energy if possible and balance healing and zone control. Second be aware of your positioning, usually druids are in the middle of the party formation, so he/she can respond fast to any threat in the front or the rear. Third, mostly applicable to any class of Diver, improve and maintain a healthy body. He said that support have it rough when it comes to battles because most likely the are targeted by the opposition, so you need to have a good body to either evade or run away from attacks; but he also added that Druid sometimes do tanking duties, so be ready to get hurt and also build up some muscle just to be sure. Lastly, on what Cliff learned from the first half hour, master or be proficient in using your skills. Glenn said that mastery of your skills maybe the deciding factor if either you live or you die. The room became serious when he said this.

“Now we move on to skills,” Glenn announced and then the whole room became excited. “All Novice rank 1 skills are free for you guys and any higher rank skills, you have to pay certain amount of credits to learn,” Glenn said. The whole group was shocked to know this. Cliff thought that all skill will be free from the start. Some one from the group raised his hand and asked, “Why do we to pay to learn skills?” Glenn laughed at the stupid question by the young man. “How do you think the Tavern will maintain their organization if they give all the skills for free? Remember any organization needs funding to run; sure the Tavern have sponsor but it is not enough to keep them afloat” he said to them. Glenn was scratching his head as if trying to remember something. He sternly said, “Ah! also forget about trying to learn the skill from other sources, like asking a higher rank of the same class because they are not dumb to do it for free; they maybe even price you more.” He said this for their own good.

“Now that is your problem for later, for now please look at your phone, the Tavern should have sent you a file that contains the skills that you can learn. Please read it and we are going to have a 15 minute break for this, for when I come back I will explain and give some tips on each skill to you.” Glenn ended and he immediately left the room.

Some people left when Glenn left the room. Cliff decided to stay and read the file the Tavern have sent. He took out his phone and opened the email the Tavern sent. Cliff started to read and the file reads out;

DRUID SKILLS

Novice Rank 1

Roots/ Lock-down skills

1. Earth Bind

One of the signature skills of Druids, uses the ground beneath your target to lock them in place. There is a little cast time before it can be used. The user must send their energy to the ground beneath your target to manipulate the ground to bind their target. The cast range of this skill is 10 -15 meters from the user. The cast time is dependent to the user but usually 1.5sec is used to cast this skill. Energy cost minimal. Also take note that the surrounding terrain can affect the strength of the skill.

2. Stone Cage (a.k.a. Cage)

This skill encloses a circular area with walls made of earth/stone. The circular area has a radius of 3 meters and the Cage has a height that varies from 7-10 meters. The cast range is 4-8 meters and cast time of three seconds but can be improve. Also the strength varies on different terrains. Energy cost average.

Displacement skills

1. Energy Shackles

The user forms chains from his/her energy. Take note that there is no cast time for this skill but depends on user’s proficiency on controlling energy. The chains can be use to grab a target and pull them towards the user. The chains have a max length of 7 meters.

2. Burst

Firing a condensed ball of energy that explodes upon contact to the target. The target is either push away or towards the user depending on the positioning of the blast. Can knock back multiple targets. Cast range is 5 meters and 2 sec cast time but can be improve.

Heals and Buffs

1. Healing wave

A group healing skill that send a wave of energy that heals your allies. The cast range is 10 meters and the AOE is around 2 meters. Cast time 3 sec and can be improve. Most used healing skill by Druids of this rank.

2. Revitalize

A single targeted skill that heals and alleviate some fatigue to a target. Cast range is 10 meters and cast time of 5 sec. Most reliable healing method of the druid class but also has the highest cast time for a rank 1 druid skill.

Cliff was excited while reading the file. He is now trying to choose which skills is he going to master first, while he was thinking, he notices that few people are starting to come back to the room. There’s only five minutes left before the orientation will start again. Cliff settled down and return his phone to his pocket and waited for the orientation to start again.

Glenn walked in the room holding a cup of coffee and spoke, “Now where was I; ah skills now you have read the file, I’m going to demonstrate some of the skill but for the root skill I will just show you videos of them for we are limited by our venue.” Cliff was again excited because he is going to see a live demonstration of the skill which will make his decision easier. Glenn put down his coffee on a nearby desk and took a remote on it. He push the button on the remote and then a LED screen drop down in front. Before he played the video, Glenn said, “I’m going to show you first a video demonstration of the root skill; this will not take long so pay attention.” Glenn proceeded to play the video.

In the video showed a training session of 2 divers in split screen, whom both are the druids. They both have same level of equipment. They also have training bots to practice skills onto. The only difference is that the 2 divers are in different environment. The one on the left is on a rain forest environment, while the one on the right is on a desert environment. The two divers started to channel energy, ready to cast a skill any time.

The two shouted, “Earth bind.” Energy shot out of their on both of their hands and aimed towards the ground beneath their targets. Upon hitting the ground, the ground beneath their target coiled around on the feet of their target. The bots are restraint by the earth binding them, then the 2 divers ordered the bots to move. The two bots moved and everyone was in awe on what happened next; the one on the left have difficulty moving because of the earth binding its feet, while the one the right moved like nothing is hindering it.

Glenn paused the video and immediately few have raised their hands to ask a question. Glenn said, “i know what you all going to ask why the one on desert move like nothing is hindering it.” Glenn looked at the group and said, “if you have read the file, there is apart there about roots that state ‘strength varies on different terrain’.” They nodded in agreement to Glenn because now they know what that statement pertains. “As you have seen in the video your surroundings also affects skill, like here sand is more loose and can be easily be broken if you use it as the medium of your earth bind, remember be observant of your surroundings so you will not waste your energy. Now same can be said to the next root skill, Stone cage; it is also affected by your surroundings.” Glenn ended as he resumed the video. Like before same scenario but different skill is demonstrated. The two druid cast Stone cage to a targeted location, like before the wall made of sand is broken by the training bot, which further prove on what Glenn have said earlier.

Glenn again press the buttons on the remote, just like that the LCD rise up. “Now we move on to displacement skill,” he said then he suddenly raised his hand upfront and made a ball of energy. “Displacement skills for novice rank is more of energy manipulation,” he added and then he started to change the shape of the energy ball. He made it into a triangle, a square and many other shapes in just a few breaths of time. “...so practicing your manipulation is the key to learn these type of skills,” he continued.

Then he formed a long chain-like structure with the energy on his hand and immediately swung his arm towards the coffee cup on the table. The energy coiled around the cup, then Glenn yanked the chain of energy towards him. The cup flew across the front towards him and he caught it and drank its contents. “This skill is called Energy Shackle; this skill requires a certain degree of mastery to do. You have to form a chain from your energy and make sure that it is stable enough to hold or touch your target because if it is not then the chain will break easily.” he said after finishing his cup of coffee.

Glenn then change his energy to a small ball almost a size of a baseball. Glenn walked towards the table and place the cup on top; he then went back to his original position. Glenn concentrating, and then ball of energy shot up towards the table. The ball of energy landed on the table near the cup, upon touching the table the ball exploded with a small bang, but the small explosion pushed the cup off the table and left a small dent on the table. “The skill I just demonstrated is called Burst; this skill requires you to enclose certain amount of unstable energy in a shell of stable energy. This skill is like a grenade but less the damage. It pushes any target away from the center of explosion. I only demonstrated the skill on a small scale so just watch the videos of this skill on your spare time.” Glenn said to the group.

Cliff became more excited from the demonstration Glenn did. He grasped some of the concept behind of the two skills. He can’t wait to start training these skills. Glenn continued, “the last two skills are healing skills so pay more attention because it might save your life in dangerous situation.”

Glenn then started to accumulate energy on his hand again. But this time, energy felt somewhat different and looks different, its green in color. Glenn then cast the skill towards where Cliff is sitting, Cliff and people in his immediate area felt that their fatigue went away and they felt like full of energy. “The skill that I have just cast is called Healing Wave. This skill specialize on group healing, to those hit by skill, you felt like that your fatigue have gone away and your body is suddenly full of energy. This is the effect of the skill if you have no injuries but if you have it will just heal up.” Glenn ended.

The room began to be noisy because not all of them were hit by the skill so some are asking to those hit by the skill if what their instructor said was true. Glenn cleared his throat to get the attention of the group and then he began to speak. “The last skill is called Reviatalized, like the previous skill it heals but only on one target.” Glenn said and he immediately form a green ball of energy. “This what the skill looks like as for the effect I will just let you experience it by your selves,” Glenn added, as he casted it to a person near him.

The room began to question Glenn about skills which he answered flawlessly. Cliff took note of the tips and tricks Glenn saying to the group. Just like that an hour went by and the room began to settle down. Glenn again announce, “If there no more question, we can bring this orientation to a close. A reminder the skills’ manuals can be ordered from the Diver program you have, if upgraded but don’t bother ordering the Skills we have talked about this orientation ‘cause I will teach it to you all in our job training. Also be back here after three days for your job training, be sure to bring a week set of clothes cause we are ‘diving’ to a rank zero rift for your training. Anymore info about your training will be given after this first week of training.” Cliff is again excited for what is to come. “The orientation is now over, See you in three days!” Glenn announced and immediately left the room.

END OF CHAPTER