I woke up to a light kick to my torso. Immediately, I flipped up with my seraph’s wing and stood on guard, fumbling my sword out of its sheath.

“Woah, little girl, I won’t bite!” A guy with an aggravating smug smile stood over me. He had a few daggers and a shortsword at his side, and wore leather armor over his tight-fitting clothes. “I just need some help.”

It went without saying that I was helplessly outmatched by someone his age, and he clearly had plenty of experience, literally and figuratively. Seeing I wouldn’t stand a chance in a fight, I picked up my slate and chalk from my backpack and began to write, scribbling words down quickly with the help of my [print communication] skill.

{What’s your class?} I wrote.

“A Silent Angel, huh?” He looked me down, recognizing my white, ceremonial robes. “I’m a [scout], what about you, miss?” That explained how he sneaked up on me. Scouts were well known for their high mobility and stealth skills.

{I’m an [apprentice], Level 4} wipe, write, {I’m training to become a [swordsman] though} I figured I could be open with the guy, he looked like the type of person who might appreciate my audaciousness.

“Hmm, didn’t like the mage life?”

{I’ve got better things to do with my life than study magic forever}

“Huh.” He frowned. “That’s...a little foolhardy, don’t you think? I hear a good wisdom score can get a decent mage an easy career.”

I shrugged.

“Well, that’s your choice, then. I sure as heck won’t stop you. What class do you want to take, then?”

I thought for a bit. I had thought quite a bit about what intermediate class I would choose when the time came, but I never settled on anything. I wasn’t indecisive, per se, but it seemed so far in the future, considering how slowly I was leveling up, that I never felt the need to. Eventually, I subconsciously settled on ‘swords’ as a career choice.

{What sort of classes can I intermediate into as [scout]?} I asked.

“Hmm, let’s see, I have...Menu, open unlocked master classes....” he paused for a moment, “I’ve got [wyvern rider], [assasin], [cartographer], and [informant]. I’m sure there are a whole bunch more you can get.”

There are four types of classes: novice, intermediate, master, legendary. Scout is intermediate and you can ‘intermediate into’ a master class. There is more that determines the classes a person can class-up into besides their current class, but the class they currently have matters quite a bit. That’s why I needed to put points into the ‘swordsman’ general class, because my current one didn’t align with, well, swords.

{Are any of those duelist classes?} I’m here to win, not to waste time and energy on classes that don’t get me what I want.

“I think [assassin] is a duelist class, they can use pretty much any light weapon, have good mobility, and are mostly about fighting people one-on-one. You sure you want a duelist class? You seem fairly fragile, so I’d recommend [cartographer] if you take [scout]. You would be surprised how great they are at avoiding combat.”

I shrugged. {To answer you, I think I’d prefer a duelist class.}

“Really gung-ho aren’t you?”

I shrugged again.

“I guess that’s fine. It’s good for some people to have ambition, even if it’s a bit misplaced. Anyway, that’s enough idle talk. Have you ever heard of The Mudmule?”

{Sure, I’ve seen the thing walking around before, to say the least,} I responded.

“Well, that makes things a whole lot easier. I’m a part of the adventurers guild, and we got hired to take it on. Do you know-”

{Ok, I’m in. When can I fight it.}

“Uhh- W-wait what? You said you’ve seen The Mudmule, right? No way you can stand up to that thing. You’re, uhh...a bit underprepared for something like that. Also, it’s, like, a guild-exclusive thing.”

Well, as much as I didn’t want to admit it, it would be dangerous to participate in a fight against The Mudmule. It turned the earth nearby to mud and was ten times the size of most trees; an absolute colossus. I didn’t know much about the guilds, but even an organized group of fighters could potentially lose to it.

{I don’t care, I can win against it. I’ll join the guild, too, if that’s what it takes.} I responded stubbornly. I could grow strong enough to fight it if I trained really hard, I figured.

“You must be suicidal, kid.”

{Scuicidal is going in alone. I would have a party by my} Wipe, write, {side, don’t I?}

“I get the feeling you won’t listen to reason on this.” He scratched his head, then said, “Well, it isn’t really up to me, anyway. Could I ask you for information on The Mudmule?”

{If you let me fight it.}

He rolled his eyes. “Listen, kid. The first thing you should be asking is: ‘can you help me join the guild?’ cause you aren’t fighting it without doing that first. Also, unless you’ve got some damn good info, I’m sorry, I just can’t help you with this. If you won’t tell me...” He sighed, then began to walk away. “I’ll just ask someone else.”

As the distance between us lengthened, I stood still, a nasty from on my face.

Wait...why was I just standing there?! This was the perfect opportunity I’d prepared for a year ago, handed to me on a silver platter!

I quickly ran to him while writing, barely outpacing his brisk walk as I wrote, so he could see my slate.

{I actually have documents about The Mudmule. I was super in-depth about it, too,} I wrote.

He raised an eyebrow at me. “That sounds unbelievable.”

I smiled, his disbelief fueling my determination to show him wrong. {You want to bet I didn’t?}

“A bet you say?” he asked, sounding enticed.

{Yep. Since I’m so weak, how about we bet Exp?} Wipe, write, {How about 40?}

“Your forty Exp is worth, like, five Exp for me, but...”

Exp requires more effort to get the higher your level, and gifting Exp when at a lower level results in giving less than you lost. Additionally, Exp when gifted from higher a higher level to a lower one does not increase in potency, staying at a 1:1 ratio.

“But,” he continued, “...if it helps out the youth, and you really aren’t lying, I guess I can spare the expirence.”

{Then it’s a deal?}

“Sure, but are you sure about this? You never know if someone’s serious about extortions, so if you lose this...’bet’, and actually lied...” he shrugged. “Maybe I’ll kick the crap outta you.”

{I won’t be losing the bet.}

I had way too much free time, in the past. I spent most of it getting ready for my departure, even if I didn’t know what that departure would look like. I observed and wrote about fighting, monsters, classes, medicine, and anything else I would need, then buried the documents in the ground a mile from the village for later reference. Though, I remembered most of what I wrote so they weren’t very needed anyway. I guess it was a roundabout way of doing things, and generally unnecessary, considering I remembered most of the stuff I wrote down.

At some point, I had considered fighting The Mudmule.

The [scout] was digging into the ground with a dagger near a little rainwater pond, where I buried most of my notes. He couldn’t see my slate while digging, so I just remained silent as always.

“You better be right about this kid, I don’t like having my time wasted.”

Not long after he said that, he put away the dagger, then pulled a small clay box out of the ground.

“Damn. There really is something. I halfway expected you to try dropping on me while I was busy.” He glanced at me with an unamused expression. “I don’t like to hurt kids.”

I didn’t understand what he was getting at, so I just stood still.

He removed the lid to the clay box, revealing notes hidden inside. He started flipping through the papers inside, observing them diligently. It took him a few minutes, but I could see his face light up more and more as he shuffled through the papers. He was probably realizing just how meticulous and detailed I was, heh.

“Not gonna lie, this impresses me. There’s a lot of info, here, and nothing conflicts with what I already know. I can tell it’s your handwriting, too,” he said after looking through them. He sealed the lid back onto the box. “It’s the sort of report I’d be expected to write, and you’ve got a big vocabulary, too.”

{Were you expecting something else?} I asked. All I did, all my life, was write, write, and write.

“I guess I’d expect no less from a Silent Angel...Menu, give the girl 50 Exp...confirm.” He looked like the life had been sucked out of him. “And I was so close to leveling up...” he shrugged, “Well, help the youth grow, I guess.”

Congratulations, you were gifted 50 Exp!

Great, I could only turn into an intermediate class at level 10, but I’m on my way. 19 Exp until level 5.

“I guess this is fine, though. You had some interesting notes here. You must have put a lot of time into studying it.”

I nodded. {Can you help me join the guild-} my chalk was finally too small to use easily, so when it slipped, I ended up scraping my finger a little. I decided to stow it away for emergency use, at least until I got a new stick.

“I...never agreed to that,” He responded to my incomplete statement, “but if you really want to prove yourself...Sure, you can show me around that ‘Cobold Valley’ place you mentioned in your notes.”

“But you need to at least go on one adventure with a party before you do anything like that. It’ll be a while before we fight that behemoth.”

I nod.

“Oh, you ran out of chalk. I’ll go get you a new one when we get the chance, ok?”

I give a thumbs up.

“Ok...oh, and my friends call me Maladrain. What’s yours, kid?”

That’s a real spooky name.

I used some hand signs to convey ‘Saya.’