After almost two hours of tinkering, it turned out the number was fifteen.
Technically, it was one 'final' class: Fighter – and fourteen glitched ones. But, with nothing else to experiment on using the orb, and having practiced a few basic skills – everything seemed to work fine so far. He didn't want to spend too long in the otherwise empty lecture hall. What if somebody came in and discovered Sean alone with the orb! Bruce had said he wasn't supposed to leave them without supervision, and the whole thing felt wrong.
Should he report a bug somewhere? There was no way this was intended behavior! If it were, then why would everybody worry about classes and respeccing – so it had to be a bug.
But it also wasn't Sean's problem. He exited the classroom into an empty hallway. It was his first time walking through a real space in this world: the windowed gallery was too ornamental to be a frequently traversed passageway, the dimly lit hallway that the rabbit had led him into probably wasn't even a real place, and the lecture hall was halfway between a modern college auditorium and something medieval. Or maybe it was more akin to some old-fashioned universities, the ones on the East Coast or back in Europe.
The corridor, however, was pure ancient architecture. Polished dark woods all over, some kind of exquisite paneling, thick timber floors, exposed ceiling beams. There was a row of unlit lamps, but the sunlight shining through sparse windows suggested late afternoon – had he spent that much time inside? But nobody had come to bother him ever since Bruce had popped in, so Sean was in the clear. He closed the door behind himself – which looked wholly different from this side. Less modern. It was almost as if he were transported back to the fourteenth century, if not earlier, just by walking through the doorway. Complete with the smells of dried herbs or maybe incense.
He approached the nearest window and looked outside: a second- or third-story view onto a garden, or perhaps more of a park. Shadows lengthening in the warm colors of the afternoon. Half a dozen people were wandering back and forth, others sitting on some benches, and there were muffled sounds of ongoing conversations. The view made him realize there were no windows or artificial lighting in the classroom. No, there had been light coming from overhead – but not lamps or light bulbs, more like… a skylight of sorts?
Sean tried to go back inside, but the door was locked. Worse: the handle wouldn't budge – as if it had locked itself once nobody remained inside. The other players had mentioned something about being unable to come back once they left, but Bruce reentered just fine– Right, presumably due to him being their instructor , at least in theory.
Suddenly, he heard a voice from beyond the end of the hallway, and two men walked around the corner a moment later. Player tags clearly visible over their heads: a lvl 64 Hunter named BountyBob, and a lvl 39 Cleric with an odd-looking label – instructor Mike Sawyer. Maybe a title, then? Funny how Bruce hadn't put that in his player tag.
Bob was wearing some fancy leather armor, much more sophisticated than Sean's starter kit. The Hunter continued what seemed like a rant as they walked, "…was that he didn't even seem to care. After all the nasty shit he'd done!"
The instructor wore more casual clothes, but still medieval in style, made of cloth and bits of leather and straps. He nodded and remarked, "I know, I know."
"Just stood there like an idiot, grinning," Bob carried on. "All the mechanics abuse and shady stuff he did – why did Omega even let him in here in the first place!"
Sean swallowed hard. Were his exploits detected already? Judging by the conversation, they might as well have been! He opened his mouth to preempt any accusations directed at him as the two players were approaching, but then they just kept going…
Bob continued, barely noticing Sean by the door, "And the actual worst thing was that when we tried to ask how he did–"
"Hold up, just one sec," Mike cut in and stopped. He turned to Sean and offered, "If you're lost, the exit is that way." He pointed back along the way they had come. "Turn left, then down the staircase and out of the building." He gave a tiny smile and half a nod, then added, "Welcome to Lobehelm, Sean."
"Uh, thanks?" Sean replied, slightly flustered.
"You were saying?" Mike asked, already resuming the walk.
But Bob stayed behind, studying Sean. He asked, "Huh, did they change Tank's starter kit? Shouldn't it be heavy armor? That looks more like Hunter's… or Warrior's?"
Sean didn't know what to say. Not like he could admit they had changed classes willy-nilly, or that he now had them all. Sort of.
And he was no longer wearing his dirty sweatpants and old shirt, having stashed these in a locker in his training room as the notes suggested. So he was indeed wearing basic leather armor that was more suitable for a Warrior, complete with two starter axes at his waist. The book had said he could take a single two-handed weapon – or two single-handed ones. And yet his player tag said Fighter – he also had no idea what that class was supposed to wear.
"We swapped gear!" Sean blurted out, a bit too excitedly. He quickly improvised a small lie, "There was a Fighter, or a Tank… who wanted to–"
"Weird, but good luck with that," Bob interjected and turned away. The two players went back to ignoring Sean as they kept walking. The Hunter continued, "So anyway… Huh, I completely lost my plot."
Mike suggested, "Something about the worst-something… or the actual worst–"
"I remember! The…" Bob cut him off. "Yeah, so we ask him how , right? And then he's like… shrug and I don't know, or that he's too busy to explain… He also said something about the weather and–"
"Do you think it was some kind of new exploit?" Mike interrupted.
"It had to be!" Bob confirmed. "There's no other way. The bounties from Lakeside got him the other day – the dude should be enjoying a nice vacation away from the game or any other…"
The voices became incomprehensible as the two guys turned into another corridor and Sean realized two things: one, he wasn't at the center of events. And two, more importantly, other people were using exploits too – but it was clearly unpopular among the player base. He had assumed as much and prepared himself to use basic melee skills from several classes – basically stronger attacks, no fancy effects.
Sean concluded that he had to be careful with this. At least until he could figure out what the rules of this place even were – the last thing he wanted was to be the target of Bounty-Whoever. Then again, it was interesting that the Hunter class wasn't as useless as Bruce claimed – and the lvl 64 seemed pretty high. He would need to experiment with different skills and loadouts.
For now, Sean followed the instructions: back down the hallway and left, then the staircase… He noticed a wide wooden stairway that must've been what the instructor had referred to. It was the centerpiece of a large, multi-level hall – he walked up to the balustrade and marveled at the view. The interior looked like some kind of castle or an ancient manor. Stone walls and elaborate chandeliers overhead, people moving back and forth – some instructors, but mostly newbies like himself. Many folks without player tags too, here and there. He understood why the rabbit had led him through back corridors for a more discreet entry.
The exits from the hall were marked: numbered lecture halls, some offices, individual and group training rooms, a mess hall, various dorms. The large doorway wasn't labeled, but it must've led to the outside. Sean made his way to and through it, and onto a large plaza, eager to see the world from the ground level. It was… pretty much what he had already been expecting, but even more immersive: vibrant sounds suddenly surrounded him from all directions, varied chatter and birds chirping. The architecture was obviously based on old European cities – but clean, functional, rather than purely ornamental. And people were everywhere. Gathering, walking, discussing things. Few player tags to be seen, so Bruce's explanation of it serving a similar purpose to the student driver's sign had probably been accurate.
Sean turned around and read the Adventurer Training text on the building he had just left, which made sense. The sprawling complex took up a large chunk of the plaza's edge, with several smaller entrances scattered along the wall. There were other buildings with visible labels: Portal Travels, Royal Bank, Realm Defenders , and others too far to read clearly. Sean stepped toward the bank and somebody bumped into him from the side.
"Watch where you're going, newb!" a slim guy complained as he passed on his way to the training hall. He wasn't wearing a player tag.
"Right, sorry!" Sean said, then caught up to the man and asked, "Wait, what's– Where are the quests around here?"
The stranger stopped, glanced back at Sean, then gestured around vaguely and suggested, "Just ask some NPCs, I'm busy!" Then he walked away.
"Wait, but how do I know who…" Sean started, but the guy didn't care enough to stop again.
Everybody was clearly busy.
Sean looked around. How to tell NPCs from players – everybody was just people, minus some player tags, of course. But since most players weren't wearing them in the first place… He didn't want to bother the city guards, even though they were easy enough to spot: standing guard or patrolling in formations, they all wore steel armor and had their weapons drawn for presentation. It seemed as if they were parading around more than guarding anything. Then there were various people walking hurriedly… presumably players too – they all wore different clothes, some outfits clearly from Earth.
People were mostly gathered in front of the Realm Defenders building, whatever that meant. The majority of them had robes and cloth capes – some player tags above their heads, and they were already talking in groups. Sean decided to approach them and see if some were NPCs. Halfway there, he spotted Emma sitting on a bench by the entrance to that building – there wasn't a player tag over her head, but he recognized her instantly by the phone… also by her hair and the same clothes she had worn in the lecture.
Maybe she had figured something out in the meantime? Come to think of it, Sean hadn't even noticed when she left – he must've been occupied with making the class changes for everyone. She was sitting in the shadow of the Realm Defenders building, with the towering stone facade to what he assumed must've been the west – but the air was still warm enough in the mid-afternoon.
Once Sean was next to her, he opened with: "Hey, still wearing your old clothes, I see."
"Uh-huh," Emma replied without taking her gaze off the phone, scrolling.
"Weren't there any fitting clothes for a Healer? Or how did the starter kits work?" Sean followed up. "Back in the lecture–"
She finally looked up at him and cut in, "Oh, it's you."
He smiled and tried to joke, "Yeah, it's me, Sean. And I know – it's hard to recognize me without the hobo-disguise!"
Emma frowned and remarked, "No, that's not… whatever." Then she went back to her phone, now typing.
"So hey, what's the deal here…" Sean began and looked around. He quickly noticed a pattern judging by the player tags. "Why's everybody here a Healer or– Right, also some Mystics…" No response, so he turned to Emma and asked, "Were you able to figure out how quests work or how to level up, or…"
She finished typing and sighed, then looked at him from the bench and answered, "I've been out in the fields, but it's such a chore. Healer's attacks aren't made for fighting solo."
Sean nodded and saw a staff lying beside her on the bench – or more of a large wand. Likely part of the Healer starter kit. "With that thing?" he asked. "Does it work as a weapon at all?"
"No, with the attack spell," Emma corrected, frowning again.
"Right. I forgot Healer has that too," Sean admitted. "How did it go?"
"Seriously?" she deadpanned.
"I take it not great… based on you being– Wait, why not keep grinding XP – did you run out of monsters out there? Or how does that work?"
Emma glanced at her phone and exhaled loudly, then explained, "No, there's loads of rats everywhere. I tried fighting and it sucked, so I came here to look for a team and– Wait, what have you been doing all this time?"
Sean hesitated. What to tell her? About the orb and everything.
She shook her head. "No, whatever. Just…" she trailed off, and her eyes were already focused on the phone.
A moment later, Sean came up with a good enough excuse, so he said, "I've been reading the introduction book. I just skimmed it, but there was some useful stuff inside."
"Uh-huh," she offered.
Sean thought about it for a moment. He could look for another Healer – but what if it turned out to be someone as curious about everything as Juan? Or as annoying as the whole Mystic gang? He had almost been found out by the two experienced players in the hallway, and even now some people were eyeing him. He needed to get rid of that player tag, fast – but would it be suspicious if he started fighting solo? Maybe if he had some support who wouldn't ask too many questions – or pay too much attention to what he was doing, which would probably be experimenting with starter skills from different classes.
He was standing next to such a person, or so it seemed. He asked, "Maybe we could party up, see how it goes?"
Emma shifted her gaze from the phone to him and asked, "Is that your pickup line?"
"What? No, it's…" Sean protested and sighed, then offered, "Look, you're looking for a party – I might need some healing… Totally not a date."
"Uh-huh," with her eyes on the phone again.
"I mean, if you don't want it…" Sean tried, not quite bluffing – but mostly to see her reaction: "I can ask around, see if anybody's interested."
She glared up at him for a few seconds, then simply stated, "Fine, whatever." And back to the phone.
He wanted to ask what she was even doing on that thing – it appeared to be some messaging app that Sean failed to recognize, but he didn't want to stare too much or lean in. So he asked instead, "One thing, how do I get rid of this player tag over my head, do you happen to know?"
"Just ask an NPC to do it," Emma explained.
"And… how do I tell them from players?" Sean followed up, then added, "Also, do you already have a quest or how does that work? I'm not sure how to make a party either and… Wait, are you still level one or umm…" After which he simply trailed off.
She looked at him with an exasperated expression, and he tried to return a friendly smile. A thought nagged at him that maybe it was the beginning of a wonderful friendship!