They made their way to the gate the guards the same ones from the previous day. Bunny Guard and Horned Lizard Guard. Both guards looked at them, but it was Mr. Bunny that did the talking this time.

“Will you look at that, your adventurers. Been a while since your kind was around. That will make a lot of folks happy, while most folk can handle stuff around here, it is nice to have adventurers helping out.” He smiled at them, or at least that is what it looked like, or maybe it was something else? Was he hungry?

“Thank you, sir. We need to go do some of these quests.” They showed them the quest tokens. Each token a triangle with a symbol on it. The symbols were those that represented their individual roles.

Mr. Bunny nodded, “Polite ones, that will make it easier for you. I see, well I am sure you got your maps; those places are very close but not all of them in same area. We close the gates at dawn and open at sunrise, just make sure to be back by then.” With that they waved them through, Mr. Bunny turned to other guard and spoke in a language that they did not understand.

They walked on to their destination; they could walk for a little while together before they needed to separate.

“Alright everyone let’s make sure we are back before they close the gate. Manuel since yours is the farthest pick up people on the way back.” The fearless leader had spoken, the rest nodded to Josh.

They came to where they would separate, one group would go take a small road to the left and the other would take one to the right. Josh and Bobby would go to the right. They waved to each other and continued to their final destinations.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bobby and Josh making their way to the Healer and Wizard mentors’ location as shown. The maps showed that they were not too far from each other. Josh had arrived at his mentors home, there was a house with two floors, it was very well kept, with a white fence around it.

“Looks like this is my stop. Be careful out there.” They had not really seen much that was dangerous, some foot traffic, most folks they had passed waved and seemed to be happy to see them.

“I will, see you this afternoon.” Bobby kept walking and five minutes later he found himself next to another house, it was smaller than the one Josh had gone to. It was surrounded by a fence as well the fence covered with plants, vines, and flowers. The smell of the flowers was sweet and calming. He walked up the path and saw an older woman working on some of the plants. She spoke and sung at the plants, the plants seem to respond to her voice, they became greener, and the flowers had more color to them.

She did not even turn but started speaking, “Has my request been filed? I am so glad; it has been so long.” She turned and he saw that she was nearly blind, her eyes from where he was standing were a white hazy color. But she moved as if the diminishing eyesight meant nothing.

“Yes, ma’am I am here to learn the ways of the Healer.” It was probably obvious why he was here.

“A healer, yes that is what I am. And I can teach you young one, yes Mother Pearl can teach you.” She performed a hand gesture and he thought he saw something move around him. He felt rejuvenated, suddenly as if he had just gotten up from a refreshing nap.

“What, what was that?”

Analyzing spell…. Analysis complete.

[Revitalize I] spell cast

[Revitalize I] – single target spell, MP cost 15MP, provides a regenerative effect for a total of 30HP over 30 seconds.

Skill Proficiency - 0

“That young one is what we do. We healers are there to make sure our teammates are healthy in every situation. There are many spells we can learn and some specializations we can take in the healing arts. But someone like me that has been around for a while, well we learn a trick or two.” And she smiled, it was a pretty smile.

“Thank you, please teach me, my name is Bobby.” And he bowed as was proper.

“Good, good, it will not be easy. But I can see you might have what it takes.” She laughed at this, “My eyesight might not be what it once was.” He smiled at her bad joke, “Now on to the teaching part.”

So, they started, it was a lot to learn, and he found that he enjoyed being here and learning from this strange woman.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Move your feet, watch your stance. No, no that is all wrong! Like this.” And the small man stood in a stance that was meant to hold back an attacker. His arm up with a small shield and the other arm holding the short practice sword, “You see the way I am doing it? How many times do I need to show it?”

Manuel found himself out of breath and sweating the instructor was a very angry little man, “Yes Master Corvey.” He was trying to be in the same position as he was being shown. Manuel had been given a wooden sword a small shield and heavy leather armor as well. This did not help the sweating and his shortness of breath.

“[Taunt] Your ugly and slow withed.” This made Manuel extremely mad for some reason, and he attacked, and the small man held his ground moving in such a way to block every one of his attacks. Not that the wild swings had anything that resembled real attacks, “Breath young one, breath.” This calmed him down and he stopped once again bending over trying to catch his breath.

“What was that Master? Why did I become wild and attack you like that?” There was something in the way he had done this that made Manuel see red and acted without thinking.

Analyzing skill…. Analysis complete.

[Taunt I] skill cast

[Taunt I] – single target skill, AP cost 5AP, causes an enemy to target party member due to hate being generated by skill.

Skill Proficiency - 0

“That is part of our special moves ragazzo. A warrior is the Tank you know this already. But our special moves is what makes us that. Anyone can stand there and hold a shield. But that does not make them a Tank.” Master Corvey helped Manuel up and led him to the side for water, “It is important that you stay hydrated young one. You lose a lot of energy and water in practice, but as you practice more this will become easier and you will learn how to breath and conserve that energy. It does no one any good if you pass out in a fight, your party needs you and you need your party. Rest and we will continue.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“How, how, I had my hand in my pocket, I was even holding on to my coins?” He had not even taken out his coins. He still felt them in his hand.

“This is the [Pick Pocket] skill, not only is it good to take things out of where people least expect but to also put things in there. It is a slight of hand, this trick is our magic, but no wasting of mana as we do not use it.” Mr. Corta showed him the coins he was sure that he had in his pocket, Pepe pulled out his hands to see that in fact he did not have the original coins in his hand but something else entirely.

Analyzing skill…. Analysis complete.

[Pick Pocket] skill cast

[Pick Pocket] – single target skill, AP cost 5AP, allows user to use skill without being detected.

Skill Proficiency - 0

“Es marivilloso, Mr. Corta. I still don’t understand it, but I will practice. How do we fight then?” Pepe had not seen what kind of weapons they would be using but he was kind of eager to practice with weapons.

“You think you are ready for that? So much more to learn ragazzo. But we can try it out just so you can see how it is done, maybe tomorrow you will get that lesson.” It sounded like little boy in Spanish, but it had a little bit of a different sound than what you would expect.

“You know Spanish Mr. Corta?” This was unexpected, they were in another world.

“I do not know this Spanish you speak of, but it sounds like a dialect from the north that I have heard before, it might be this Spanish, but I have never heard this word before.” Mr. Corta went to get a pair of daggers, a pair of clubs and some strange pointy weapon that Pepe had no word for, “We can use a variety of weapons ragazzo it depends on what we need at the time. If you are dealing with something that needs to be cut or something that can be easily hidden, then the daggers are what you want. If you need something with more um let's, call it persuasion or you don’t want to cut things, then the clubs are what you need.”

Mr. Corta showed him some of the moves with the daggers, then the clubs, then the strange weapon that he had brought, it looked like a thin pointy sword.

The moves were fantastic and had Pepe on the edge of his seat, Mr. Corta was so fast, and each move was like watching a dancer, a fluid deathly dance. Each set of weapons had similar moves but varied between the weapon used.

“Impressed yet? Each of these you can master, but it will take a long time, it has taken me many levels and years to master each one. I would recommend the daggers as the ones you should concentrate on; you are on the smaller side so the Rapier and clubs I would leave for later. I was a little bit bigger than you when I started, and the daggers were what I mastered first.” All the weapons were intimidating, he had a small pocketknife back home but nothing like these daggers, they were longer and seemed dangerous.

“I can see it in your eyes, you are intimidated, that is good. You want to respect these as you would anything dangerous. As you practice and grow you will become better with them and more confident, but never, ever fall prey to over confidence, they are deadly weapons, and they can hurt you as well as an enemy.” This last was said in a more serious tone. As Mr. Corta raised his left pant leg to show a long scar on his leg, “See that? I was overconfident and that is the result. Even now I respect all weapons, they are not toys.”

“I will have nothing but respect for them, sir.”

“As it should be. An old friend of mine cut off part of his ear because he forgot this lesson.” Pepe would not forget; his ears were too cute to be cut off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Erin was not as outgoing as the rest, like Bobby he was mostly a follower instead of a leader. But he was alright with this fact. His instructor was a lizard person, she had a long snout and very thin, her skin a pretty light purple with even lighter spots, she wore leather armor and a small diadem around her head.

“Master Ildvesi thank you for your instruction it has been wonderful.” And it had been wonderful, he felt like he understood so much more now, how to draw a bow properly, how to knock the arrow and fire it, even though he could not hit anything yet. And it was hard to draw the bow, when he had first tried it, he had fumbled it so many times, and after a while his fingers felt raw from pulling the string and his shoulder hurt. He had been improving as he had been practicing, but still fell short of the practice bales.

“You are so welcome. It is wonderful to be able to teach again. It has been many years, and my students visit, but they do not stay long. Being a Ranger is fun and essential in any Party. You have been standing and normally that is fine, but sometimes you must move, and it becomes much harder to move and shoot, not only when you are moving but when a target is moving. And riding a fast mount and shooting is also something we can achieve.” There were so many things to learn. He was glad that they could do their work from behind the lines.

“What else can we do?” He had read and seen the movies everyone talked about so he wanted to know what else they could do.

“There are so many things young Erin, we excel at long range, and we can use our environment to our advantage, being in a wooded forest much better than a city, but even in a city we are superb. We are also good in close combat but not always some of us are better than others, we can use short swords and some other melee weapons. While I am fine with a sword, I prefer range weapons. There is so much I could teach you, but not all, for that you will need to seek others that can guide you.” The Ranger was so varied so many choices, Erin was glad he had picked it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Time had passed and it was now late afternoon. Each of their respective masters had called training to a halt and that they should make their way to town before sunset.

Manuel was the farthest the others joining him and walking back. They all had learned a little of their various jobs but there was much more to learn. They had agreed to pick up some simple supplies before the night was over and to be ready for the next day of training.

At the gate it was not the usual pair of guards, it was a small woman of the same race as the inn keeper, the top of her head was covered by brown feathers longer than the innkeepers. Her features a bit leaner but still strong she stood with a spear in hand. Her partner was large with grey skin and quite intimidating, his muscles pronounced he held a large war hammer that stood as tall as Manuel which was the tallest of the group.

“Good you made it just in time. You are the new adventurers everyone has been talking about. Let’s have a look at you. What do you think Rotgert?” Saying the last she looked at her partner.

“Small.” His voice had a high pitch and was quiet, it was kind of funny to see something so large with a small voice, but who in their right mind would make fun of the behemoth? None of the boys laughed at this.

“Hey, hey no small jokes from you! You must excuse Rotgert he has a bad sense of humor.” To this Rotgert laughed in the same high pitch as his voice with a snort at the end, “Don’t listen to him, I might be small, but I can put Rotgert on the ground easy.” The boys did not know what to say to this, they had no idea how things worked here yet, so it would not be a surprise if indeed the small guard could put down the behemoth, “I am Liadris and my fellow guard Rotgert. We have request out to the guild so when you can if you could ask Miss. Hoysver about it, we would appreciate it. Oh, and there seems to be others of your kind in town.” They nodded to the request and went inside the town.

Others of their kind? What did that mean? More humans, more teenagers? They made a quick stop at the inn to get cleaned up then after asking Mr. Rowen where they could buy gear they would go to the store. When they entered the Inn to everyone’s surprise there were in fact other teenagers, a pair was talking to the Innkeeper they looked very similar maybe twins but a boy and a girl.

Some of the tables had others as well, all of them different ages some even younger than Josh and the rest. Some of them older, both boys and girls present within the groups. And their clothing similar as well, even one girl in a cheerleader outfit. At least they were not the only ones that had been pulled into this madness.

They walked around noticing that the groups were talking in different languages, this phenomenon was not just happening in the U.S. but also around the world. There were representatives from all over the globe it seemed. They finally made their way back to Mr. Rowen.

“Welcome back. So exciting to see all these people, this is going to be such a great season for us. I will probably hire some extra help as well. Any of you interested before I send the request off to the guild? How can I help?”

They asked about the store, and he gave them directions. They walked over wondering about the new arrivals and went into the store, it was not large but had good inventory, they had weapons, armor for different classes, robes, potions. They even had a souvenir area with what you would expect out of a souvenir store. They had shirts, cups, and many other things with the Starter Town logo on them, it did not matter where you were, earth or another dimension you had souvenir stores.

The store owner was a humanoid with the head of a ferret. He looked at the new arrivals, “Ooh the adventurers are in my store. How can I help you? I can give you a twenty percent discount on your starter pack. Oh, and if you can let the others that arrive know to come to me, I might just give you another 5% off.”

“Starter pack, what’s that?” Pepe had been looking at small daggers as his master had said this is what he should start with.

“Yes, for three easy payments of twenty-five Hartguar Silver Coins I can gear you up with the Starter Pack. Along with the starter pack you get six potions of your choosing but wait there’s is more! Not only do you get your class starter pack, the potions, this souvenir hat, but you also get this nifty multi tool.” The hat had the store logo and Starter Town written on it. There did not seem to be anything special about the supposed multi tool.

Another customer had come in while he was giving his sales pitch, “Did I hear you right? You are charging how much for the starter pack?”

“Ah, um, Miss. Hoysver, what are you doing here?”

“What am I doing here? Well, let me explain to you what I am doing here, as a representative of the adventurers guild I have to make sure our members are getting the best deal and that they are not being ripped off.” She was not happy, and she was showing it.

“I was just trying to make a sale, not trying to rip anyone off. It’s a good deal, have you seen this multi tool?” She was still starring him down, he put away the multi tool and looked down, “I am sorry Miss. So young adventurers what can we help you with.”

Each of them told him what they needed, while they would not be getting the multi tool they did leave the place with starter gear for each of them and what they would need to continue their training. Miss Hoysver had informed them that the guild would be footing the bill for the starter pack. They returned to the inn where they had dinner and cleaned up before calling it a night. Back in their rooms they started to talk about the new people they had seen. They felt a little bit better about being here, while they may miss their family and their homes there were others like them. They did not feel so alone anymore, they slept better that night.