Sean was relieved as, in an instant, all attention turned to the open door and away from his untimely, leporine remark. A young man decisively entered the hall, fair-skinned, dark-haired, slender but clearly fit, and of short-to-medium height. Presumably their instructor.
Even in the doorway, he was already excusing himself with a heavy Australian accent: "How ya going? Sorry I'm late, you lot, pet problems." He stopped in his tracks, looked around, added, "Just so we're clear: no such thing as dragon taming in this world, but." A second of silence later: "Reckon you better keep that in mind, nah yeah? Too easy. Let's get stuck in, ay!" He turned to the center of the room. "Roight! Yeah nah, not doing this," he said and waved at what Sean only now consciously noticed: a neatly arranged pile of branches and kindling, the desks all pointing at it. The instructor continued, "And youse can watch the cinematics on YouTube, no wukkas? Reckon might chuck the neon lights on…"
He focused for maybe three seconds. Sean used this moment to study his very un-modern attire – it was just like thin, segmented leather armor from some video game, or… right. This was a reality-game. The instructor then made an odd hand gesture, and a player tag appeared over his head: Bruce-Duh-Grate, lvl 73 Elemental Summoner Mage. The 'Elemental' had a special text effect, purple twinkling all over the word.
Bruce glanced up at it briefly, then nodded to the group. "Just so it's clear we're not mucking around. Arrive late, leave early. That sorta–" he started, but was interrupted.
Juan exclaimed, "Holy shit! Is this an epic–"
"Too roight, mate!" Bruce cut in. "Epic. Summoner. Spec." He let it sink in for a second… then another, and finally explained, "For those who haven't looked into the endgame yee-et – a proper ripper of a class, ab-so-loot weapon of a build. A bloody beaut! None of that Necro-orgy-nonsense-ay! But we're gettin' ahead of ar-selves , but…" He walked over to a small table behind the woodpile, the player tag moved smoothly with him. There was an odd sort of half-orb on top of the table – Bruce touched it and concentrated.
Sean scanned the training group. Emma was back to her phone – perhaps she had never looked up in the first place, but everybody else was watching intently. Well, Juan was almost drooling at the sight of the title, the orb, or maybe just the Australian dude. The others varied in how impressed they were. Suddenly, player tags appeared above their heads as well, matching their names…
Everybody was level one, single-word titles: Paladin, Cleric, Trickster, Berserker, Bard, Arcanist , then Cleric again, Fighter , and so on. He glanced up and his tag was: Sean, lvl 1 Warrior . He peeked up at Emma's Healer , then at her – and it was obvious that she hadn't noticed anything happening, still typing on her phone.
"Um, Emma?" he tried, and she gave him a glare of pure exasperation. Sean pointed up and added, "You might want to see this."
Emma hesitantly looked up, frowned hard, and complained, "Oh, for fu– Well, isn't that just dandy…" Then she went back to her phone.
Sean didn't know what any of these classes meant, but there were gasps and whispers around the semicircle. Juan finally half-whistled at his Mystic tag, then commented, "Sweet!"
Sean started, "Is that Mystic a good–"
But Bruce clapped his hands and exclaimed, "OI! Listen up, you drongos!" Everybody focused on the instructor now, even Emma – whom Sean noticed in his peripheral vision. Bruce continued, "These are your starter classes. Early game, you can swap 'em round twice a day, no wukkas." He paused for maybe a second, then added, "So nothin' to worry 'bout. Too easy, what's the go?" He turned to his left, so Sean followed his gaze.
Santiago was already lowering his hand when he asked, "Can we change our classes, then?"
Bruce nodded and started, "Nah yeah. Meaning, you can, ay?"
Santiago instantly followed up, "Can you switch me to 'Mythic' ?"
"Mate…" Bruce started and raised both arms a little… just to let them fall back down in exasperation. Sean was beginning to see a pattern here, namely: the Mystic class, whatever it was. His Warrior and even Emma's Healer seemed fairly generic, class names that would fit just fine in any video game of the past, in the RPG genre at least.
"Me too!" Caleb added, and two other people raised their hands.
"Look at this mob," said Bruce, "there's– It's a gimmick. A fad. They'll be over it before we're even done here, ay?"
"But meanwhile, can you–" Santiago pushed.
"Steady on, champ," Bruce cut him off. "Naur, not that simple, but."
"I think the brats really want their treat," Sean commented sarcastically – a bit of sweet revenge, perhaps. Then again, it made sense to ride the current meta.
Bruce looked at him with a smile and exclaimed, "Righto, but! There's a–" He turned to the mob and said, "You find a priest once we're done, ay? They'll sort you out."
Michelle asked, "But didn't you just assign all the starter classes like no wukkas ?" She pronounced the last bit poorly, but it was pure mockery. Two more people raised their hands, apparently very eager to join the Mystic fad.
Sean crossed his arms and exhaled loudly. These people… On the other hand, that orb seemed awfully interesting.
Bruce noticed his gesture and flashed him a smirk, but then addressed Michelle: "Naur. Or… well, nah yeah, but. All I did was focus on giving youse the best classes for youse , ay?"
Santiago shot back, visibly agitated, "Well, can't you just give us 'Mythics,' then!"
Sean corrected, " Mystics ."
The Latino glanced at him and remarked, "Whatever, hobo."
"Take a spell, mate," Bruce fired and pointed a finger at Santiago, "and let someone else have a crack, ay?" He then focused on Sean. "What's with the shocker get-up, champ? Look like you've been through a bushfire, but."
It took Sean a second to parse that, then he sighed and summarized vaguely, "It's– A pizza debacle in the car, pretty silly."
Bruce's smirk turned into more of a grin as he added, "Sounds like a proper lark! That's why we stick to horses in here, ay?" Then, calmly to the group: "Righto, but– Where was I?"
Caleb tried, "Can you make us Mystics , yo?"
Bruce lowered his head for a second, then explained stiffly, "I'll give it to you straight, ay? I'm not much of a teacher, this lecture is more of a community-hours thing, and changing class 'here' is only for proper emergencies like somebody finding Barbarian racist or sexist, but. That's Berserker's old name, ay? Best find a priest – they'll sort you out, no worries."
Sean eyed the orb in the moment of silence that followed. Could he get close enough to experiment with it? He had no idea how any of this worked, the spells, the player tags, the… Even his arrival here– Wherever the 'here' even was? The whole journey had been rather surreal! But he saw a fancy new toy and half-instinctively wanted to see what it did. What it could do. What Sean would be able to do with–
A female voice interrupted his chain of thought, and he searched for the source. Aiyana, as her player tag showed, asked from the central arc of the desk-semicircle: "Then I find Barbarian both sexist and racist. Get us that Mystic class, alright?"
Bruce lowered his head, rested a hand on the table beside the orb. "Give me a spell…" he mumbled, more to himself than them. Then out loud: "I wasn't exactly plannin' on doin' any real work today, ay?"
Sean saw his opening and asked quickly, "Maybe we can do it ourselves? Is it that difficult?"
Bruce looked at him with a confused expression and started, "Mate, it's a whole quest. Talkin' a day of proper prep and–"
Sean took a gamble and cut in, "I was a systems engineer, software thing – maybe I can figure something out?" The title was a bit of a bluff, or a self-awarded promotion, but what did it matter? The industry was done anyway.
Bruce seemed to consider it – or at least he didn't shut it down outright. Santiago commented after perhaps five seconds, "Yeah right, like a hobo will–"
Sean was emboldened by the high-lvl instructor taking him seriously and cut the bully off, "And what were you doing, middle-school?" It caused a few chuckles around the room.
Santiago was clearly furious. "I'll just figure it out myself!" he announced and stood up, then stepped toward the orb – fists clenched in anger.
Bruce didn't move or say anything – he smirked a little, maybe… and the air between them shifted . A figure formed: not human, not solid… it was quite bizarre. Almost as if the air itself took the shape of some kind of half-transparent golem…
…which shot itself toward Santiago! Bruce said, "Stop," and the air golem stopped in an instant, at most three feet away from the Latino – who promptly took a step back as he stared up at the entity's raised arm. Or its tentacle, perhaps, it was hard to say – but either way, it looked scary. Even when the thing was completely still! The surface, if it could be called that, was more of a blur, and the nine-foot-tall entity could have easily blended into the background – had it not been in front of everyone, in the brightly lit lecture hall. The effect was so surreal!
Sean realized: not a golem – an air elemental, of course! But not a whirlpool of special effects like in video games. Just regular air that had become half-solid: an unearthly form, presumably quite powerful, too. Funny how the first thing it did was to defend its master from… what, a lvl-one Berserker 'apparently charging' at him?
Bruce, in the meantime, didn't move a muscle, other than to say that command… and breathe, probably. It was a little scary, but also efficient – and not as if the Latino guy got hurt in the process. Now Bruce added, "You. Sit. Down. Ay?"
Santiago swallowed hard , audibly in the sudden silence, then sat back behind his desk. This time he seemed smaller, huddled in his chair. As unsettling as the demonstration was, Sean felt validated – not because he liked seeing the guy put in his place, but simply because the dude was annoying. And at least it would shut him up… for a while. Sean wouldn't have minded having this sort of option on the table…
Bruce waved at the elemental idly, and the thing dissolved into thin air. It was fascinating how the air in here could be used as a weapon – even if it required advanced skills and training. "Righto," the summoner explained. "We'll sort out your classes if there's time at the end, ay? Now, I'll give youse the story about how the world works. I'm sure you must be reelin', but!"