Of my remaining two courses, for one of them, there wasn’t much yet to say. The ethics course had started with a full-on syllabus day, of interest mostly because I’d be handing it to Markus to make sure he could warn me if there were culture-specific taboos I might trip up on. While a fairly large class, a lot of it would be discussion-based in smaller breakout groups.

The most notable -- and unpleasant -- feature of the course, however, was its roster. Or more specifically, the fact that Warram was there. For my own sanity, I sincerely hoped those breakout groups would involve as little of the guard as possible. Even barring my distaste for him, I just knew in my bones that he would be insufferable in any sort of debate. He was the type.

It was the final of my classes, however, where the truly unexpected occurred: As it so happened, I ended up making a friend.

A throng of eager would-be herbalists clumped together amidst the surrounding trees of the forest. Unlike for most of my fighting-based courses, the student demographics were a bit more diverse here, with the age range running from mid-teens to gray-headed elders. Some were here to gain skills before they gained their class. Some were here just to pick up a new hobby.

The professor, a woman in comically large glasses with frazzled, unkempt hair, welcomed all equally. She apparently also taught a course on mycology, which she encouraged us to check out as well, but I wasn’t sure I had all that much interest in mushrooms.

Her first order of business, however -- after pulling us out of the city and into the nearest wooded area -- wasn’t so much to teach us as it was to make us teach ourselves.

I glanced down at the thin booklet I’d been handed, only a handful of pages thick, but full of colorful drawings and diagrams. A Field Guide to Common Plants and How to Harvest Them.

“Okie doke, you budding herbal experts! It’s time to check out some plants!” A weak, but good-natured collective cheer punctuated her words. “For this first class, we have two goals. One, I want to get everyone a little bit used to being out here and doing some fieldwork. Two, I want as many people as possible to nab the Herbalism skill before we head back.”

Well, I’d be gaining at least one skill today then. Despite having spent so much time in a forest, I’d left all the herb picking to those who knew better than I did. If I hadn’t, I was pretty sure I’d have poisoned myself. Probably multiple times, honestly.

“So here’s what we’ll do! Everyone gets a good hour just to walk around the forest. While you’re out there, I want you to try to use your field guide to identify as many common plants as you can. If you flip to the last page, there’s even a list of plants where it’s safe for you to try to harvest some of them!”

A bit different than other classes, but nice. It had been a minute since I’d had a good stroll through a forest where the trees didn’t have freaky black veins.

“Now, this entire area of the forest is incredibly tame, and there are nice big red fieldmarkers laid out to let you know if you’re about to wander too far off from us. Still, things happen! So instead of heading off alone, we’re going to pair off, or in the case of anyone with lower stats who’d like some extra reassurance, we’ll form small groups. That’s it though! Buddy up and get to it!”

Walking up to strangers -- especially while fully sober -- had never been a particularly strong suit of mine, and I was resigned to waiting around until most people had paired up to figure things out. Surprisingly, however, I didn’t have long to wait.

“Sorry. Uh. Would you like to maybe pair up?” A man who was at once incredibly unassuming and also the most eye-catching figure in our group stared down at me, sheepishly scratching at the back of his head. For all that he had a sort of boyish face, I pegged him to be only a year or two younger than me, if that.

His outfit, in large part, was one of the things that set him aside from everyone else. Not in that it was gaudy or all that strange, but in that it was entirely poorly suited for the outdoors. A long black robe was cinched around his waist and draped around his legs. The fabric, a close match to his skin tone, practically swallowed the man, while simultaneously making him seem stick-thin. His glasses, too, were a notable accessory, with wide octagonal eyepieces and brown-tinted lenses which shone unnaturally brightly under the dappled sunlight.

In truth, though, none of that really registered until after the bigger oddity.

Light seemed to misbehave around the man. As if fleeing him, or perhaps as if sucked into him, it left the space about him dimmer than everywhere else. To tie off the effect, his irises were so dark as to almost be pitch black, barely discernible from the pupil within.

Had this been the first I’d seen of him, it would have been something of a shock to process all at once. In truth though, I’d caught myself staring at the guy more than once on the way over. I didn’t think he’d caught me staring, but it would at least explain why he’d chosen me to pair up with.

Well, I kind of feel like you’re not supposed to go off into the woods with strange men you don’t know. But, it is a class, there are a bunch of people around, and…

I rechecked the man’s status.

Emin: Level 14 Bio-Transmogrifier, 230/230hp

Well, that advice was before I could summon knives. Pretty sure I could take him.

With that kind thought, I agreed. Armed with our handy-dandy field guidebooks, off we went into the forest.

“So? How’d you end up in an herbalism and alchemy class?” I meandered through the forest with Emin in tow, figuring it couldn’t hurt to chat along the way. “Ooh! Brush Moss.” I pointed to the moss patch in question, flipping to the relevant page in the guidebook to double check myself.

“Ah, and I think a, um, ‘worm root’ right next to it?” He directed me towards a speck of brown poking out from the dirt before chuckling to himself. “As for your question, would you believe I’m a researcher who mainly studies plants, but has never gone out into the woods and picked one?”

I gave him another once over before biting my tongue. Yes. Yes I would believe that. The guy had “I live inside a library” written all over him.

Apparently I did a poor job of keeping my thoughts from my face, as Emin broke out into another soft chuckle.

“Right. What gave it away?” He glanced down at the foot of his robe where leaf bits and other forest detritus had lodged themselves. “I’ll, uh, consider some pants next time. Feel like I’ll be learning a lot of new things with this year of classes.” He scratched at his head for the maybe dozenth time since we’d left, the motion so practiced, I wasn’t even sure he realized he was doing it. “Speaking of -- Uh, what do you think of the whole ‘dungeon delving’ course so far?”

I froze. Not at the fact that he was in the class -- in and of itself, hard to believe -- but at the fact that he knew I was in it. Seeing me tense up, he stammered out an apology.

“Ss-sorry, I just. Saw you in it. That time that girl next to you was being really loud. And then the teacher, you know. Told her to quiet down. Recognized you from that, and then saw you here, and figured ‘Hey Emin, make some friends!’ so…”

At that, I relaxed, feeling a bit foolish. All right, probably not some stalker, then. Just a little clueless. In fairness, he was right -- probably everyone in that class had seen me after Alara’s antics. I was frankly surprised I hadn’t spotted him though considering the weird light thing he had going on around him. Considering the size of the class, though, it was to be expected I’d miss a few faces.

“Yup, that’s Alara. Question, though: How does a plant researcher end up in a dungeon class? You know you have to, like, delve the dungeon, right?” I pictured the reedy man showing up to his dungeon run in a robe and tripping over his feet during the fighting.

“Heh. Well, um, it’s how you grow, right? I heard non-fighting classes almost never make it past level 18 in the city, so I figured I’d, uh, research and fight.” Another head scratch, this one particularly strong.

Can’t really fault him for that logic though. Pretty sure that’s why Suds and Barb paired their professions with fighting classes. I doubted a standard Maid leveled up as quickly as Suds had, after all.

That didn’t change the more important question though: “But can you fight? I kind of get the cleaner-battle-mage, and I still think it’s a little silly, but I get being a Battle Barber, but battle plant researcher?” Unsaid was that I’d already peeked at his class, and it didn’t scream “I can fight” from the name, either. Plus, he wasn’t in my dueling class.

“Hopefully? Here. Here’s, uh, what my class does.” He bent down to the moss and the root that we’d found, pointing to both of them in turn. Before I could ask what I was supposed to be looking at, the moss started turning brown. I would have thought it was some sort of aging or that it was dying, but at the same time, I saw the root begin to turn green.

So. He can swap the colors of some plants? Still not seeing how that’s a super dungeon delving skill.

Perhaps picking up on that, Emin got up, his eyes darting around. “Uh. Bad example. That’s how I usually use it for my research though!” He perked up, suddenly seeming like a man possessed. “It’s really exciting, actually. Kind of like doing instant plant grafts. The alchemical possibilities are endless, and I’m really hoping we can cut down the costs of some of the pricier potions to make them more accessible. Ah! But. Sorry about that. Fighting!”

He fidgeted in place before producing a piece of smooth, green chitin from some hidden pocket in his robes. “Works on things besides plants, though, too. Anything living or previously part of something living. So something like this chitin…” His hand suddenly flashed, a lustrous green carapace forming over it in the span of a second. He tapped it against a nearby tree and was rewarded with a very solid thud that resonated out.

“So, uh, yeah. In theory, I should be able to debuff a monster. Take its defenses or regeneration or something like that, and, uh, give them to a party member instead. Not great in duels, but I think it should work out! It’s, uh, neat, right?”

He looked over at me hopefully but with as little emotion on his face as he could manage. It almost seemed like he expected me to tell him how awful his skill was. Not sure why though.

“Pretty cool,” I agreed. “A lot more exciting than whacking things with a sword. Sounds like it could make some hard fights pretty simple, too.” I didn’t have a wealth of fighting experience compared to a lot of people, nor did I have a full grasp on what his skill could do. Still, I had an imagination. Depending on how far-reaching it was, could he do something like remove the “immateriality” from a shade? That would have made the darkness dungeon a cinch.

“Oh, uh. Thanks! Here’s hoping!” He beamed, displaying a somewhat lopsided smile. “And oh! Gardencap!” He pointed down to a nearby mushroom, growing from the base of a tree.

“Nice.” I spotted a few more to the sides of it, at last earning what we’d come here to earn.

Congratulations! You have learned the Herbalism skill.