When Error did eventually calm down, his advice was quite different from what Dix had anticipated. “Look, kid. You shouldn’t just fill up every skill slot you can right away. You need to build it all up slowly, and see what you actually need as you grow. This will be particularly important for you, considering what you are trying to do.”

Seeing that Dix was still resistant, he started presenting examples. “Imagine that you filled up everything with skills that appealed to you now. Then, five levels later, you suddenly need something else entirely. Instead of just straight forward damage, you need some kind of stun effect, or poison, or bleeding. Any kind of skill that can cause status effects is incredibly important, but right now you don’t have any. Now, some of that will be alleviated by adding elemental damage, but we don’t yet know if that will work. So, for now, stick to the things you have already decided, but leave a little space. Particularly for the tank skills. You don’t yet actually know how many defensive skills you will actually need.”

While Dix was contemplating that line of thought, Thunk added another, perhaps more important one. “Something else you also need to consider, is that with the way your Devouring Stride works you have no idea at all how many things you can add that might actually fill in a lot of what you are looking for. Certain Passives are almost as strong as Active skills if used correctly, and you will have more than almost anyone.

“I know Passives aren’t that exciting to most people, but anyone with a Devouring skill literally lives on them. Even with the extra skills you can absorb with the changed skill description you will still run out of things to add to it eventually, so you will need a lot of them. Adding up a large base of the most useful ones now will slow the timer down, giving you time to find even more.”

Seeing the sense of both arguments, Dix finally agreed. He knew there were some holes in the build he had put together so far, but he couldn’t really see what exactly he needed yet. Taking the wrong skills now would be worse than taking none. It was the difference between crippling himself for the rest of his life, versus not being prepared but still having the option to remedy that in the future. As an added argument, he also realized that the book might have some of the things about the skills he had chosen so far incorrect. Maybe one of them would fill more of the holes than he originally thought it would. There was also the option of building his own skills as well. They might not specifically fit the archetypes, and could complicate his current class plan, but they still might be the way to go. Waiting was the best choice.

Satisfied for the moment, he asked a question that had been bothering for most of the day. “Hey, I thought we were training today, but all we’ve done is talk skills and classes. Why?”

Error laughed. “First we teach, then we train, then we fight. You still have a lot to learn before you go charging out to conquer the world, or whatever the Gods give you for your quest. And as you don’t yet have it, you have time to learn the proper lessons now, instead of while facing near certain death. Besides, do you really want to run out into a world you know so little about, with the only thing barely keeping you going is a status system that you don’t understand? Take today to learn as much as you can before we start training tomorrow.”

Once more Dix had to bow to their reasoning, although he didn’t like it. All that walk before you can run crap was starting to irritate him after all the praise the two had heaped on him for his performance in the dungeon yesterday. Still, there were important things he needed to learn about everything, and this was the best time to learn them. One thing in particular stuck out as being at the top of his list. Still, the question he asked surprised his trainers a little. “What are the Trials?”

Once again the two shared a look. To Dix it looked to be a mix of apprehension and eagerness. Thunk answered this time after letting out a long sigh. “We’ll tell you, but it’s a little complicated and a lot important for a number of reasons.” After glancing at Error again he drained his mug and settled himself in for a more serious discussion than they’d been having.

“Okay. Let’s start with the rewards first. I assume that you’ve played a video game before.” Dix quickly nodded, and Thunk got back to it. “Well, you have likely noticed a lot of things that you expected to see are missing. Things like an inventory, map, health bars, things like that? They all come from the Trials.”

Suddenly Dix remembered Tuti mentioning something along these lines. With a bit of struggle some bits of the memory came back to him. “Wait. I remember… She said I have to earn them, right? Something about cost?”

“Exactly. And the Trials of the Hero are how you do that.”

Dix interrupted again, “Seriously? They call them the Trials of the Hero? Couldn’t name it anything more pretentious and likely to kill every farmboy in existence? At least it’s not the Trials of the Gods, I guess.”

Error snorted, but quieted down after a fierce glare from the dwarf. He turned that same glare on Dix, leveling a stern finger and saying, “The Trials are no laughing matter, no matter the name. A great many people died trying to pass, so show some respect. If not for them, then at least for the danger of the Trials. And if you want to go home, you are going to have to take them.”

The response Thunk got to his final statement wasn’t quite what he had expected.

With a snort, Dix said, “I am home. But I’ll need to take them anyway, so I’ll listen.”

Looking confused and startled, Thunk stuttered out, “Wha, um, what do you mean you are home? Aren’t you from Earth? I mean, I saw you transfer down.”

Dix just waved it off. “Yep, Earth born and bred. But I have no intention of going back there. This is home now.”

Even the elf perked up at this statement, but Thunk was still a little lost. His only reason for going through the Trials, for fighting, for all the killing was going home. He couldn’t fathom how someone would actually want to stay here. Sure, he’d made some friends, but everything about Mantra was dangerous. Earth might not be paradise, but it was a lot safer than Mantra was. “You… wh… you don’t want to go home?”

Dix just stared at him. He’d already said his piece, there was no use repeating it. Error, seeing his friend was still at a loss to understand their new acquaintance, tried a different approach. “So you don’t care about doing your quest then?”

Dix’s face lit up with determination and anticipation immediately. “Oh no. I am definitely doing my quest. And the sooner the better. I just had to negotiate a different reward is all.” He glanced at the dwarf again, quickly giving up on getting anything from him anytime soon. Turning his full attention on Error he pressed forward. “So, the Trials. What do I need to know?”

“Well, like he said, it’s complicated.” Much like Thunk before him, Error tossed back his drink and settled himself for a difficult conversation. Dix didn’t miss this similarity, and although he was curious what it signified, he chose to let the elf explain before he started asking more questions and interrupted again.

“The problem with the Trials is that even though a number of people have completed them, including the both of us, no one remembers exactly what happens inside.” He paused for the expected interruption, but Dix just made a rolling motion with his hand, so he went on. “We do remember generalities. We know there are a number of different Trials that test different capabilities in different ways. For instance, we know there are combat trials, but not what you fight. Puzzles, but not what they are, or even what form they take. Are they block puzzles, lock picking puzzles, riddles? We don’t remember. Movement trials, which we think are a number of different obstacle courses, but that is only because we can’t think of anything else a movement puzzle could be.”

As the elf took a breath, Dix quickly interjected. “Running away from a boulder chasing you, dodging projectiles, dodging melee attacks, timed paths through traps, just to name a few.”

Each different suggestion Dix made widened Error’s eyes. When he finally ran down, the elf turned and yelled at Thunk, “How the hell does he keep doing things like that? We’ve had people here from Earth for centuries that couldn’t think of any of those, but he thinks of new options for everything he runs across in seconds. By the Gods!”

Poor Thunk had gone from one shock to the next for perhaps a little too long. The first thing his tired mind threw out was, “Raiders of the Arc, I guess?”

A smirking Dix tossed back, “Close. Temple of Doom. And to answer your question, my mind works weird, and I don’t trust people. See, most people on being put into some insane situation like going to another world, one that’s full of monsters, magic, and menus, would assume that the people that live there actually know what they are doing, so they listen to what they say and believe it. And that’s the problem. They treat whatever knowledge they are given like religion and never question it. It is literally the holy guidebook of their new life, so they hold it close and never let go. They’re too scared to do otherwise. Idiots.” Dix rolled his eyes, thoroughly expressing his disgust, then perked up and continued his monologue. It felt good to get it off his chest, so why stop now?

“But me? Screw that. Weird new world? I’ll take the info people give me, but will assume most of it is incomplete. Whether through ignorance or malice, I don’t care. All of this is new, and I can’t wait to figure it all out!” The absolute joy and excitement in his eyes was something the two had previously only seen from the man during combat.

“Error, you probably don’t understand this, but he should,” Dix said, jerking a thumb in the direction of his fellow Earth born. “There is nothing new on Earth. We’ve discovered everywhere on the planet except under the oceans. The only real exploration left is space, and that’s about as dangerous as I assume fighting a dragon solo at level five equipped with only a shovel would be. Plus you have to work for some rich weirdo, or a government to even get the chance. The closest we come to exploration or discovering something new is playing games, most of which are now just slightly prettier versions of older games we’ve already played. It’s boring, and pointless, and safe.” The disgust in his voice when he said ‘safe’ was clear to all, but his lip still curled up to add to it.

A second later, his smile once more lit up his face. “So here I am. Finally some place I have yearned to be my entire life. Somewhere new, full of unexplored places, undiscovered history, and untapped potential. Somewhere with danger and excitement! I can’t wait to get out there and get started!” As he paused to breathe, he held up a finger. The others could see him calming himself before continuing, “But I’m smart enough to do it prepared.”

Dix paused briefly in contemplative silence, but spoke before the others could gather their scattered thoughts. “I am guessing that most of the people on Mantra are so concerned with survival that they don’t have the time to try new things, or really discover what’s out there. Hell, most are probably too scared to want to know what’s out there. The people here have enough knowledge of how the system works to survive, and even thrive enough to feel as though civilization as a whole is progressing, but that leaves them without the desire to really push things. Your people got to good enough, and went no further.”

He pointed a finger at Error to make his next point. “Even you. The reason you didn’t know Devouring Stride worked differently than you thought was because you trusted the system message. You never looked for anything else. Hell, you never even paid attention to the things that made up the skill at all. If I had to take a guess, I would say that the base requirements for our shared skill are Quick Swap, Combat Form: Flow, Battle Sense, and a bunch of actual movement skills. Most likely Conditioning is also required, and one other joint skill made for movement specifically. Sound right?”

Error nodded slowly. The list Dix had just rattled off sounded almost exactly the same as what his first set of skills that had been combined to form Devouring Stride had been, but he was confused where this line of thought was going.

Thunk, on the other hand, barely managed to mentally kick his stumbling brain into gear long enough to realize he had finally gotten the information he needed to clear his debt to Error’s sister Lorna. Many moons ago he had gotten into her debt, but was already a friend of Error’s. The only thing she had asked of him was to discover how exactly her brother had made his Devouring Stride. The problem was that the elf didn’t seem to actually know, only providing a number of theories, each more wild than the last. While he was torn on whether or not he should, briefly forgetting that he likely couldn't due to being Dix's priest, actually give the formidable woman the information or not, this wasn’t the time to think about it. Pushing it to the back of his mind, he tried to focus on where this revealing conversation was going.

With confirmation of his theory, Dix rolled along with his explanation. “Did you ever really look at those skills? Tell me, which one of Quick Swap, Combat Form: Flow, and Battle Sense is actually a traditional movement skill?” He didn’t bother waiting for the elf to answer. “Now, I’m not from Mantra, so I’m not a hundred percent certain here, but I’m going to go with none of them. Even if one of them is, two of them definitely aren’t. Quick Swap is only about harnessing your momentum to more easily draw new weapons, which at least does include movement, but not in the sense that you thought. Battle Sense though? There is no movement in that skill at all, yet it forms part of the impetus for the skill to form. What’s up with that?”

Once again Dix paused, though this time was more to give the elf a chance to answer than for dramatic effect. Sadly, Error had no idea, and could only shake his head. He still didn’t have a clue where this was even going. With that lack of audience participation, Dix figured he’d explain for the slower members. “One of the things the people of Earth have spent centuries doing, is studying the human body. Most of our senses are actually controlled and modulated by muscles. You use muscles to move and focus your eyes. To smell you need to breathe using your diaphragm. Taste is pretty passive, but it is attached to your tongue. Touch is anything on your skin, so that is a little iffy. Hearing is mostly just vibration of some small bones, but vibration is still movement. And all of them, to communicate whatever it is that they are perceiving in their own ways, send a signal through your nerves. A signal that moves through your body. It sounds like a stretch, I know, but the proof is that it is there in the skill. The very sub skills that make the skill in the first place should have given you the answer you needed, but you never saw it because you never went looking for anything more. I’m always looking for more, that’s why my skill description was different.” Dix finished his speech with a flourish and a bow, as though expecting a standing ovation. He didn’t get one, but he wasn’t bothered, the expressions on the faces of his audience was all the appreciation and entertainment he needed.

With a beaming smile, he exited stage left, grabbing a beer and his notes on his way out. It had been a long day of discussion, argument, and study. He wasn’t exactly tired, but he was tired of people and needed some peace and quiet. He’d passed a library during his wandering the cathedral in the morning, so he set out to find something to peruse before he actually went to sleep. He was hoping to find a few books covering geography, monsters, dungeons, and the political layout of the world. For now he just needed overviews on each of those, in the hopes of getting a better idea of where he stood in the world, and where he needed to be going. Behind him, conversation hadn’t started again, although he was too far away to notice.

Error was pondering Dix’s words. He knew they were right, but he was resisting the lesson they had imparted. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be better, just that he was already set in his ways, and with the long lives of elves they accepted change slowly. He knew he would have to speed that up if he was to keep up with his new protege. With the attitude Dix had shown, there was no way the Folk would sit on his laurels.

Thunk was still smarting from the comments Dix had made about his fellow Earthlings. It wasn’t that he was wrong, just that no one wants to admit that they had done less than they could because they were scared. He didn’t have to wonder if most of the others from Earth had the same problem as him, he knew they did. There were some, though, that were more like Dix. And they had all been here longer than the newbie. The dwarf pondered on how far they may have gone in their time on Mantra.