Having not been given the option to choose any of my own courses last semester, I hadn’t been aware just how many choices there actually were. In terms of its width, the course guide resembled nothing so much as a phonebook, and by the time I managed to get halfway through, I was starting to understand why Suds had taken the reins last time around.

In fact, it was large enough that choosing my classes wasn’t a one-sitting affair. I ended up taking a break to write some letters to my friends letting them know I was okay -- without cell phones, it was the best I could do short of showing up at their homes and workplaces unannounced. After that, my body seemed to realize that three days of being in a scream-coma didn’t actually constitute three days of sleep, and even with my Endurance, I found myself practically collapsing into bed.

A day later and after making judicious usage of my ability to skim, however, I was well on my way to a viable course list.

Much like last time, some of my classes I had no say in. The note from Suds had contained a list of two courses he wanted me to take.

The first was Intro to Dungeon Delving - Practicum. It was something he hadn’t really needed to put there, all considering. It wasn’t as if I was about to suddenly duck out of the dungeon course and leave Alara and Emin hanging. Besides, with the oversight and guided nature of the course making things much safer than just winging it on my own, I was frankly looking forward to exploring more dungeons.

The second wasn’t entirely a surprise given all that he’d alluded to it, but I still found myself a bit skeptical that I’d do well in it: Mining for Prospective Miners.

Guess I really am going to use that pickaxe.

Despite not being the world’s largest fan of physical labor, I wasn’t going to put up much of a fuss on that front either. My run-in with Slippy the Gentle Garden Snake had proven that mining was a useful skill, and considering Sylum’s settlement dungeon was metal-aligned, I imagined the skill would only become more valuable over the course of the semester.

With those two taken care of, the only other thing he’d written was “Take between four and six courses and pick one more professional class and one more class that makes you look strong.” Vague and incredibly open ended, which was why I’d been taking so long with the course guide.

I decided to tackle the professional class first, flipping through options like The Art of Floral Arrangements; Animal Husbandry; Smoke and Leather: An Exploration of Butchering, Meat Curing, and Leatherworking; and Shower Singing for Tone Deaf Stars.

I regrettably admitted that the last of those would have suited me well, but I had no desire to subject anyone to my singing attempts, myself included.

It ended up taking the better part of an hour to settle on anything, but at last I decided to double down on what I knew rather than picking something new up. I already had a bunch of underleveled skills. Training them felt like it made more sense than picking up a few more just to leave them languishing there.

To that end, I wrote down my selection at the bottom of my growing course list.

Carving, Construction, and Carpentry: A Deep Dive Into the Joys of Wood!

I was already passably proficient in two out of the three with my carving experience and the construction I’d done back in Emer’Thalis. On top of that, I had a near-limitless amount of magical wood at my disposal which I wasn’t doing anything with.

That settled, the non-professional course options were even more daunting. There were of course the standards: more dueling, more weapon training, physical training, magic training. Sprinkled throughout the conventional choices were more out there classes. I eyed a few with a frown.

Extreme Hide and Seek!

In this intense twist on the classic children’s game, we pit students with tracking skills against those with stealth skills. But beware! This isn’t your mother’s hide and seek. For those hiding, at any moment you may find your leg cut off in a bear trap or have your arm snapped off by a vicious hunting animal! Should you be one of the trackers, your stealthed targets are free to fight back, slipping out of the shadows to eliminate you with a knife to the throat.

Note: TAs wanted. Looking for individuals with anti-death and healing skills.

The fact that I’d recently gained a stealth skill notwithstanding, I decided I would pass on that one.

Having to read through all of the nonsense options took me a good while, but eventually I spotted a gem in the rough, scribbling it down immediately.

Resistance Training

A course to train your resistances up. Provides students with opportunities to gain and level most traditional resistances (Cold, Heat, Pain, Bleed, Poison, etc). Less common resistances may also be leveled with assistance from the course instructor.

It was possible the class wouldn’t exactly be comfortable, per se, but it was a must as far as I was concerned. I already had a bunch of resistances sitting at low levels, and between the buff to my resistances I’d grabbed from hitting 25 Constitution and the Enhanced Physical Hardiness skill waiting for me in my class space, resistances were extra useful to me.

The last class I settled on had one of the shorter descriptions, but was no less appealing for it.

Skill Advising

1:1 time with a skill advisor. Advisor will give advice on how to gain desired skill augments and help with gaining and training new skills.

I’d have to double check it with Suds, but assuming I could manage to get an advisor who knew my skills without revealing that I was a Protagonist, it was something I was sorely in need of. Considering how recently I’d grabbed even basic skills like Writing, I had to imagine I was missing a bunch of simple skills that I should have had by now.

That only made five, but when nothing else managed to catch my eye, I decided that was enough. Frankly, assuming I managed to keep my provisionary apprenticeship with the archmage, I had more than enough on my plate.

No sooner had I scrawled the final course title onto my list than did a knock come at my door. I called out “come in,” and a moment later, Markus poked his head in.

I’d already thanked him the day before for tending to me through my “episode,” which I’d found a pretty awkward thing to do. No one wanted the people around them to have to feed them and give them throat medicine while they non-stop screamed for days, and I was no exception on that front. To his credit, though, Markus told me to think nothing of it, and acted no differently towards me than he had before.

“Markus. What’s up?” As far as I was aware, I wasn’t due any further etiquette lessons.

As it turned out, however, the cause of his visit was something else entirely.

“Lady Tess. Your friends are at the door.”

As I descended the stairs to see my friends, I found myself oddly nervous. What if the whole “screaming” thing had freaked them out? More than that, there were all sorts of weird political undertones in Sylum, and I wasn’t sure if it would make me look weak from an Adventure standpoint or bad to associate with from a Noble standpoint or-

The very moment I got into view of the currently-open front door, a massive figure charged into the house, crushing me in a brutal bear hug.

“PPG! You have not died!”

Ack. Hi. Pretty sure if you press a little harder, I will. I let out a particularly undignified “eep” as my organs were smushed in ways that I was fairly sure they weren’t supposed to be smushed in. To her credit, as if realizing she was about to break me, Alara immediately loosened her pressure if only by a little bit.

“I am glad you have triumphed over whatever foe struck you down! While I did not doubt your eventual victory, I have slept poorly while awaiting it!”

Unironically, really loving the confidence here. I wasn’t certain I’d ever met such a good hype-woman.

“Hi Alara. I’m glad I triumphed too. Um. Sorry about all that. Must have been a little freaky.” If one of my friends had started to scream non-stop for three days, I’d probably have been a little wigged out, at least.

“Hah! One does not apologize for such a thing. And besides, your spirit was impressive! I learned that you have the lung capacity of a champion, PPG! Truly an impressive feat.” She released me, opting instead to pat me on the back while I furiously flushed at the idea of having “the lung capacity of a champion.” Had I really been that loud?

Seeming to realize I was too preoccupied to extend the proper invitation in, Verin and Emin came to save me from my embarrassment, at last entering the house.

“Lady Astorius. I am glad to see you well. I hope you do not mind, but on receiving your letter, I had a desire to drop by. Imagining that your companions would wish to do the same, I took the initiative of coordinating and collecting the others.” She cordially bowed her head my way in acknowledgement.

“And I’m, well-” Emin stood behind the others, somehow looking nervous to be here even though it wasn’t his first time in the house. “I tried to give you a cure-all potion, but it didn’t work, which makes sense, because apparently it was mental, and the cure-all potion doesn’t work on mental ailments, but ultimately, I-”

“What Dark Plant Man means to say is that he is very happy you are not dead too!” Alara yanked both of us into separate side hugs, shocking Emin out of his flustered rambling.

All right. Feeling a little silly now. Not sure why I was worried.

“Thanks guys. Weird… weird couple of days. Alara, I know you said not to apologize, but still, sorry about that. Didn’t mean to put everyone through that or worry you all.”

Alara attempted to reiterate her earlier message, but Verin silenced her with a look.

“I will accept your apology, Lady Astorius, as you are correct in asserting that I have been worrying as to your health. I am heartened to see I needn’t have done so, however. Furthermore, I have come to ask if your health is such that you are capable and amenable to leaving your home.”

Aw. Love you too pal. It was the great paradox of not wanting to worry anyone, but also being glad that someone out there was worrying about me. Still, despite it feeling good, I’d make it a personal mission to go into traumatic comas less often.

“Yeah, I think I’m good to go out. I mean, I’m pretty much totally back to normal.” I’d initially woken up with a tiny bit of throat soreness, but even that had faded by now. “Why, what’s up?”

Verin nodded, as if having already expected my assent. “Good. In that case, as we are in the midst of our post-semester break, the three of us are currently lacking in the way of obligations. As the second half of your celebrations were somewhat unfortunately interrupted due to circumstances beyond our control, we feel it is only right you make it up to us by allowing us to celebrate with you presently.”

It took me a second to parse through Verin’s noble-speak, but once I did, I found myself slightly taken aback. I glanced through the open door at the sun still high in the sky.

“Wait, you mean you want to go drinking?”

Verin nodded curtly. “I believe that is an accurate summary, yes.”

I was happy to say that birthday celebrations mark 2.0 were a resounding success. Alara enthusiastically kicked things off, dragging all of us over to the Adventure District. The beer was plentiful, and after Alara shouted that we were celebrating my birthday, it grew even more plentiful as strangers offered to buy us a few drinks.

Gambling was the name of the game here, with a deck of cards appearing in Alara’s hands in a flash. We went through the incredibly limited repertoire of what I’d already learned, as well as played a few new ones.

As was only fitting for the birthday girl, I thoroughly thrashed them.

Gambling has reached level 3!

Seeming to sense that getting too drunk in the Adventure District would only lead to… adventures, Verin decided to take charge of the second leg of the journey. Perhaps more aware of her public image than she’d been during my dinner party, she was by far the most sober of any of us, herding us along.

Emin, bless his heart, was on the opposite end of the spectrum.

The man just couldn’t hold his alcohol.

Still, he seemed to sober up rapidly as Verin escorted us all into the Noble District promising us “a drinking experience we should find most enjoyable.” I wasn’t sure if the reedy researcher ever found reason to be in this part of the city, but judging from the wide eyes he was throwing at the silver-plated roads, I was guessing no.

While I wasn’t entirely sure what sort of mischief the nobles got up to in their own bars, I did end up finding Verin’s choice “most enjoyable.”

Her bar was a much more snug affair than the tavern-like gambling den we’d been in previously, and in fact, most of the space within was dedicated to the bartenders. They needed it, too.

Each drink we ordered was half beverage, half performance, as various spirits were manipulated with magic, lit on fire, condensed from steam, and a dozen other equally showy effects. I idly wondered if Nadja would ever get to a level like this before recalling that wasn’t my problem one way or the other.

While I’d been worried Alara might be too loud in noble spaces, it seemed Verin had anticipated this with her choice of venue. Alara’s loud exclamations fit right in with the rest as she cheered on the theater of it all.

It was also here that I reevaluated my earlier statement about Verin trying not to get drunk. On second take, it seemed she just wasn’t much of a beer fan. While Emin and Alara stuck to the normal liquors, with our Perception thresholds, Verin and I dove into the mana-infused variants.

At her behest, I ordered a drink titled The Philosopher’s Orb. Through some trick of gravity, it floated, not being served in any glassware at all. Unable to tip it into my mouth, I was forced to bring my mouth to it, biting into the orb as if it were food.

It tasted like knowledge and toasted almonds.

I surreptitiously tried to activate my Conjure Liquid augment on the cocktail, swapping out my current Springtime Spritzer, but as I’d mostly expected, it was too fancy.

While I didn’t manage to get my skill to work on it, though, I did have a different skill come into play.

Drinking has reached level 10!

Congratulations! You have reached the Initiate rank in Drinking!

Based on your skill usage, you have been granted a skill augment for achieving a new skill rank.

Bartender’s Favorite Augment

Bartenders will be alerted that you have this augment when entering a bar. Grants bartenders additional experience whenever they make a drink for you.

Additionally, both you and your bartenders gain an innate understanding of your taste. Bartenders will be able to subtly adjust drinks to fit your palate, while you will gain an instant understanding of which drinks on the menu you’re most likely to enjoy.

Note: This skill is not considered class-aligned. Leveling speeds will be drastically reduced moving forward.

It was a bit of an odd-ball, sounding like it benefited my bartenders more than it benefited me, but I’d take it! Evidently, the bulk of my drinking had been done in bars, which seemed to skew things in that direction. Combined with the many liquor lessons Nadja had given me before… all of that, it seemed that my skill had pegged me as more of a snooty cocktail person than anything else. I couldn’t fully disagree.

Instead of personally informing my friends of my skill level, it was the bartenders who did so, both of the two behind the bar letting out a cheer as soon as it leveled. They insisted that the next one was on the house, and with my new superpower of actually knowing what drink I wanted, I was able to order immediately.

All right, I’m sold. Good augment.

Throughout all of it, not once did anyone pry into what had happened with my screaming episode. It was an impressive feat of restraint, and one I appreciated them all the more for, as I wouldn’t have been sure what to say. The bigger truth, that I’d used a skill shard I got from a god, was probably too much to reveal. The smaller truth, that I’d broken down from my Trauma Suppression being deactivated, was perhaps a bit too uncomfortable to share.

At the end of the day, however, there was only so much drinking a person could do, even with a superhuman liver. We closed out, Emin spluttering in shock at the bill until Verin offered to grab it.

We all walked (if somewhat drunkenly) back to the gate between the inner city and outer city, and Emin offered to walk me home. Before I could accept, however, Verin stumbled into me, grabbing my arm.

“She’s with me tonight.” Her head jerked up as if to hiccup, but no sound came out, perhaps stopped by the sheer force of her Etiquette.

Huh? I am?

As if sensing the question, Verin continued. “You have not visited in some time. And I have been worried! So you will be in my care. I have decreed it!” She shook my arm as if doing so would somehow prove her point.

Mm. Okie doke. I have nothing against a sleepover.

Emin and Alara simply shrugged, and after I hugged them goodbye, Verin dragged me off.

Verin had such a nice room. Nice rooms, actually. An entire little area of the mansion siloed off juuust for her.

That, and an impossibly comfy bed. We collapsed into it, tired after the walk back. Tipsily, she leaned into me, much cuddlier than normal after drinking.

“Mm. I am glad you came back with me,” she mumbled. “... was worried you would decline.”

Why would I? I liked Verin. Just some good one on one time with a friend. She was right; it had been too long.

“Except,” she continued, “I will admit, I have not been entirely fort… entirely frorth… entirely forthright. I had… ulterior motives for drinking with you today.”

I chuckled at both her verbal slip up and the words themselves. Verin could be so serious sometimes. What kind of “ulterior motives” could you even have when just hanging out with someone?

“It is… I have a confession to make. And I struggle to be direct in a matter like this. Thought drinking would make it easier, but it is still tough, tough, tough.”

Mm. The “liquid courage” method. I was familiar. No idea why she was nervous though. We were good friends by now! Didn’t know what she was talking about, but I was sure she could just tell me.

“After you… Well, we sent a messenger to your grandfather. And we sent a messenger to a healer. But they were slow! So slow. So I tried to… tried to save you when we brought you back here. I know things. As a high noble. They teach us how to recognize signs of poison. Curse marks. Other possible spells we might get targeted with.”

Huh. Have people tried to assassinate Verin? Is that a thing? It was a sobering thought, almost literally so. I still couldn’t see where this was going, though. I hadn’t had a curse mark or anything like that.

“And I thought you were dying! It was an emergency! So I kicked the others out and I… searched you.”

She-

She what?

Was she saying what I thought she was?

Verin totally saw me completely naked, didn’t she?

I let myself feel the shock for a second before discarding it. All right. Okay. Fine, who cares? She did it to save my life. I’m not going to be a weird prude about this, and besides, I was apparently thrashing about while screaming. Honestly, that part feels more embarrassing than the nude stuff. Verin sees nude people all the time in her drawings.

Good. Fine. I was over it.

I was about to say as much to her, but it seemed she wasn’t done yet.

“And well…” She abruptly moved a hand to my stomach, earning a confused glance from me. “I had to take your dress off, and I’ve been trying to ignore it. I really have. But I saw, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, non-stop for three days now, and-”

Wait. Wait, wait, wait. Wait.

Ulterior motives.

Going out and having drinks with me.

Inviting me back to her place.

Getting into bed with me.

Nervous to tell me something.

I could feel Verin’s heart racing as she leaned into me, her face already so close it was almost touching mine, and mine suddenly sped up to match. After royally messing things up with Nadja, I was willing to admit I wasn’t always the best at reading the signs. But still.

Is this? Am I? Is she?

Verin dragged her hand down my stomach, coming to rest right at my midriff. She clenched her hand, clutching at the fabric and running her thumb across it.

Ah! Wait! Ah! Crap! Abort! I had very literally zero idea how to handle this situation!

She pulled the fabric towards her, and I could feel her accelerated breaths, the heat from her body, the metal biting into my back as-

Wait.

The metal?

“Which means I saw you without this, you understand?”

I looked down towards her hand, finding exactly what she was gripping through my dress.

That’s- Holy hell, that’s my Obfuscation Chain!

“Lady Astorius. Would you happen to be a Protagonist?”