Bruce stood beside the table with the orb and contemplated it. Sean joined the group of wannabe-Mystics and waited. The orb looked smaller than he had assumed, maybe a foot in diameter – give or take an inch or two.
"Look who's a brat now," Santiago murmured when he noticed the guy.
"What, mate?" Bruce asked, distracted by the remark. He looked around quickly and spotted Sean, so the summoner complained, "Not you too, champ! Another victim of the Mystic-curse…"
"No, I'm just…" Sean started, then quickly came up with an excuse: "Maybe thinking about switching to Mage? Or Arcanist?"
"No wukkas, solid picks, but." Bruce remarked and frowned a little. "Though there will be an influx of Mages once Mystic fades, and not enough melee or Tanks – reckon best stick to Ommy's recommendation, ay?"
Sean began, "I'll try to–"
"Can we just get the classes changed, please?" Santiago interrupted. "Like before it gets rebalanced…"
"Nah yeah, so impatient you lot!" Bruce scolded, took a deep breath and placed his right hand on the orb. His whole body tensed – Sean couldn't see it the first time from afar. The summoner held his breath the whole time, but gave up after six or seven seconds. "There, did it…" He glanced up at Santiago's player tag, as did everyone, and the instructor said it first: "Naur, no change." He looked at the orb. "Beats me, mate."
"Can I try?" Sean asked and everybody turned to him.
Santiago murmured, "Yeah like a hobo will–"
"Shush!" Michelle silenced him.
Bruce sighed and explained, "Look, you mob. I wasn't supposed to let you touch stuff all over the place, and this thing here is pretty nasty, but." He looked at the orb and continued, "Takes days of practice and even then… Yeah nah, I haven't the time for that, ay?"
Chris tried, "But maybe he can–"
"I'll just do it myself!" Santiago cut in and stepped forward. He touched the orb, but recoiled after not even a second. "Aaa-ah! What the…" He grabbed his hand and rubbed it with the other hurriedly.
His hand wasn't hurt, no bleeding or burns visible anywhere, not even puffed up.
"Told ya!" Bruce boasted with a wide smile. "Reckon ya should've listened, ay?"
"Is it that bad?" Sean asked.
"Yeah nah… nah yeah?" Bruce said ambiguously. "More like… disturbing. Righto, any other takers? Reckon it's your funeral, but."
Chris and Michelle took a step back. Santiago stared at the orb, face still twisted into a wince.
"I could, uhh…" Sean started, suddenly growing uncertain of his ability to do this. Then somebody pushed him from behind, he couldn't see who. He stumbled forward but steadied himself on the edge of the table.
"Oi!" Bruce instructed, "No jokes around here, ay? Better off askin' the priests for the class change, that's what they're for, but."
Sean just looked down at the orb, so peaceful, so tempting. He laid his hand on top and…
Not pain, not quite. More like… all of his body was suddenly alive, all parts at once. Every neuron activated. Every tooth drilled. Every muscle struggled to leave its confines. Even his skull hurt. A total sensory overload or maybe how it would've felt to be electrocuted at low voltage. He lifted his hand off the orb, but purposefully didn't recoil from it – except only then did he notice he had taken a step back unwittingly.
"I did warn ya," Bruce reiterated and shook his head, "but you lot went and did it anyway, ay?"
"At least they didn't cry like a little girl," Michelle commented.
"Who cried– I didn't cry, yeah nah…" Bruce denied, but checked his face for wetness anyway.
"Oh, no, that's… never mind…" she tried to dismiss it.
"Who, then?" Bruce insisted.
Michelle sighed-groaned, then looked at Chris – who just shrugged – and then at Santiago. The latter was still staring at the orb, so she admitted, "We may have, well, nudged Juan to touch it. Since he's so knowledgeable about everything and–"
"Before I arrived, nah yeah?" Bruce cut in, and she nodded. The summoner grinned and remarked, "That's sick. Respect, champs, but…" He glanced at the orb one more time, then commented, "Reckon you lot better get going, check out the–"
"Can I try again?" Sean interjected. Everybody looked at him once more.
Santiago mocked, "Do you like getting your head drilled by a– whatever this thing is?"
"No, but…" Sean said and exhaled tiredly, then asked, "But what if– Is there some kind of trick to it, maybe? What did they say– Is there a manual for this?"
"Naur," Bruce replied. "Reckon just the instructor-instruction yesterday – but I came late, left early, so I might've missed something, ay?"
Sean repressed the urge to chuckle – came late, left early… basically like this lecture .
"Yesterday?" Michelle asked. "So you're not a full-time instructor?"
"Yeah nah," Bruce answered. "This is my first time and I reckon it went great-ay! Why, what do you think?"
A moment of silence when nobody knew what to say.
Sean finally decided to comment, "It was great… for the first time…"
Bruce squinted at him angrily at first, but promptly shrugged and added, "Yeah fair."
"…but…" Sean asked, "didn't they say anything? Maybe some kind of spell or–"
"Naur, that stuff is all in your head," Bruce explained. "The words and chanting are just to focus your thoughts, ay? Signs of a newb, by the way, if they're waving and shouting at mobs, but."
"So nothing?" Sean pressed.
Bruce sighed, looked at the orb for a couple of breaths, then recalled, "Reckon there was something 'bout… focus. And that the pain ain't real or somethin' like that. Or that there isn't pain – it still hurts like hell, though…"
"Okay," Sean replied, collected himself, took a step forward, and placed his hand on the orb again – this time focusing on Santiago instead of his body screaming for him to step back. He had endured the hunger, the loneliness, the shame earlier today – he would get through this. It wasn't so much bad as it was… overwhelming? The whole sensation was simply too much. All kinds of thoughts tried to push themselves into his head, but he shrugged them off and narrowed the chaos down to something he knew…
…a Jira ticket… for a class change! Or maybe just something that closely resembled it in his mind – but why a pop-up window? One that looked exactly like a task from the tracking site at his last workplace, except the company had folded! Assignee: Sean Wilson, reporter: Santiago Guerrero.
It hung in the air in front of him, almost, except it didn't occlude anything, not visually – it was as if he was seeing both the ticket he was hallucinating AND the guy the ticket was for, one on top of each other. Then Sean simply approved it without review! And finally pulled his hand away, except now it felt external to the rest of his body. He flexed his fingers carefully and… everything worked, nothing broken or otherwise wrong.
Had Sean hallucinated it? Had he ever heard the Latino's last name?
"Holy shit, the hobo did it!" somebody said and Sean recognized… not Santiago, Chris? Somebody… said that… Sean shook his head and everyone was already staring at the player tag that showed: Santiago, lvl 1 Mystic.
"Oi, that's proper-brilliant," Bruce remarked. "Reckon… you can handle the lot while I 'say hi' to some old friends, ay? You the champ, good luck!" He patted Sean on the shoulder and left in the direction of the exit. The side door in the corner that he had entered through.
All the Mystic-enthusiasts turned to Sean with pleading faces, to which he merely responded, "Oh-for-fu…"
It had taken them at least half an hour to get the classes fixed. Multiple breaks to calm down after dealing with the orb. Santiago had eventually apologized for being tough about the whole 'hobo-look' and thanked Sean for the class change. Michelle had only explained once Bruce was away: it was a firm opinion among many internet commentators that changing classes wasn't as simple as the veteran insisted, especially into whichever class was particularly popular at the time. It was part of some balancing act across the Wheel, apparently, as people on social media claimed.
A few more class changes to Mystic, then Rebecca wanted a switch to Arcanist, and another stranger, Aisha, to Mage. Sean got the hang of it over time as the lecture hall emptied. He experimented with adding levels or focusing on different things, but the orb refused anything other than simple class changes. And it seemingly wouldn't let him alter the classes of people who didn't want it. Just like Bruce had explained, the orb was limited to emergencies – such as anything not-Mystic being allegedly racist somehow. So fourteen new players had entered the lecture more than an hour ago and, over time, most left as Mystics. Only four of them stayed with their original classes.
And Sean alone remained inside the room, busy with the orb. He was contemplating what class to give himself. Definitely not Mystic – too crowded. Mage sounded interesting, but if Mystic got rebalanced – then all those players would redistribute… And it sounded like Mage's Necromancer was more offensive, so people might default to that. Not enough melee characters… maybe Tank, then, eventually? He changed to Paladin as a more solo-oriented option to start with, but the Warrior felt tempting. He placed his hand on the orb again and focused on changing his class back to Warrior. He hesitated.
Bruce peered into the room and shouted, "OI! You still here?"
Sean half-panicked. He couldn't think properly with all the focus on the ticket, his class, the chaotic thoughts being pushed into his head, and the Australian slang overlaid on top of it all.
"I was 'bout to close shop, ay?" Bruce said as he stepped inside, then added, "What did I tell you 'bout Paladin, ay? Such a funny class, that–"
Sean clicked the ticket… in his head… unsure of what he wanted anymore.
"–Oh, that's better, but." Bruce pivoted mid-sentence. "Righto, reckon Warrior is best for you to start with after all, ay? But– Mate! What is with you, today-ay!"
Sean took his hand off the orb, finally. He looked up and his tag said: Paladin.
"Mate, Sean," Bruce stated firmly. "Are you havin' intercourse with that orb, ay?"
"What-no-I-wasn't-" Sean fumbled.
"Simmer down, already! Calm your tits…" Bruce cut him off and sighed, then added, "And where's your starter gear, ay? You been fingering the orb all this time?"
After a deep breath or two, Sean finally composed himself and explained, "No, it's not like 'that,' but– Come on, it took a long time to change all the classes to Mystics and–"
"Phew!" Bruce interjected. "The whole lot of 'em Mystics now?"
"Almost…" Sean admitted, trying to remember. "Six or seven… or eight since Juan started as one."
"Reckon you're enjoying it, the sado-maso-whatever-that-is," Bruce remarked while glancing at the orb with a smirk.
"It's not– Actually, it's not so bad once you get used to it," Sean explained.
"Sure," Bruce commented. "Anyway, chop-chop and let's bail, you and me."
"But… the starter gear and– I mean, I could really use a change of clothes right around now," Sean tried to offer some excuses to stay.
"Mate," Bruce complained, completely serious. "I got places to be, ay?"
Sean frowned. The urgency hadn't stopped the instructor from 'saying hi' to a lot of friends – or whatever else that was about.
"Can't you just leave me here for a bit? I'll…" Sean glanced up at his Paladin class, then went fully into excuse-making mode: "I guess I'll change back to Warrior, as you advised – and I still need to practice some skills. And switch outfits. And changing the class is more hit or miss than an actual procedure, so it might take–"
"Yeah, I noticed," Bruce cut in. "Switched back and forth between Warrior and this, ay? You gotta be more decisive, champ – the mobs won't wait for you to make up your mind about killing them or not, or whatever else was going on in here, but." He sighed and glanced at the desks, then further back. Finally, the summoner looked at Sean and explained, "I wasn't supposed to leave you lot alone in here, ay?"
Sean began, "Um, except you just left us for–"
"Righto, stow the excuses – fair enough!" Bruce interrupted. "You stay here and keep doin'… whatever was goin' on between you and that orb, ay?" He smirked and Sean was about to protest, but the veteran player added, gravely serious all of a sudden, "Just don't break anything, right?"
It didn't sound like a question or request, so Sean just nodded.
Bruce did likewise, then turned around and left the room. His player tag flickered and vanished on his way out.
Sean only exhaled when the door closed. There was something about the 'instructor' that felt strange. Between sending out a summon to 'stop' a level one player, and all the oddities in his explanations, not to mention the 'gifts' – was this how all high-lvl players behaved around here? But Sean calmed down and focused on the orb: Warrior then! Except when he approved the ticket, it flashed a message: 'Class change error!' – he panicked and dismissed the not-UI window. He had no idea what was happening in his head to make it all 'appear' that way. He waited a minute or so, just to calm down, then tried again… with the same result – and yet the switch to Tank moments later worked fine. Or Fighter, formally. Then back to Paladin without an issue too…
…it seemed almost like he had duplicated the class somehow, or glitched the Warrior, maybe. Would it even be functional? He finally took a break from the orb to give some skills a test run on the training dummy – but he couldn't help wondering… if that glitch worked, could he repeat it? And if so, was there a limit to the number of glitched classes one could hold!