The amazing thing about being an indentured servant was... Oh wait, there wasn’t anything amazing about it. It did, however, give Noa a newfound respect for Cinderella and her innate ability to remain interminably chipper. The woman sang songs while she worked, which put Noa’s glower to shame as he shoveled a manure mix from a wheelbarrow around the trunks of young apple trees. He at least counted his lucky stars that he didn’t have to mix the manure in the first place.

It was clear, based on the manure and the sun beating down on him, Noa was given the least desirable job on the farm. Everyone else worked within the shade of fully grown trees, plucking apples, except for Waroc━She-monstrosity’s brutish companion━who acted as Noa’s warden and taskmaster. Oh, and he was She-monstrosity’s husband. He too shoveled manure.

After the verdict on his punishment had been made, Noa was taken to the farmhouse, where Waroc proceeded to clothe him in oversized clothing, the pants requiring a rope to keep them up. He provided Noa with a place to sleep, and promised that he would receive two meals a day, all of which added up to more servitude to pay off. Essentially, Noa would be working on this farm to pay for two weeks’ worth of sales in apples that he didn’t steal, along with his “amenities”, amounting to about two to three months’ worth of work. A month was forty days here with ten months a year.

Fortunately, after the workday was done, Noa was free to do what he wished, and that was to be taken up in his “training” with Elvethor, as the elf had been calling it. So after long hours of manure shoveling and his final meal for the day in a cramped servants’ quarters, Noa borrowed a lit lamp, and made his way out the side of the farmhouse.

Elvethor greeted him, the lit stone in his hand casting an eerie glow across his sinister grin. “How was your first day?” he asked.

Noa narrowed his eyes. “You’re up to something,” he said.

“Need any healing?” Ah, there it was. All this guy seemed to care about were his healing ranks.

Noa sighed, placed his lamp down, and offered his blistered hands to Elvethor.

System Join Eliaz Ruellan’s party?

Yes or No?

Raising an eyebrow at the translucent blue visuals in front of him, Noa said in an unsure tone, “Yes?”

Elvethor snorted. “You don’t need to say it out loud,” he said.

System [joined Eliaz Ruellan’s party]

Status Effect [Party Exp Bonus +10%]

[Total Exp Bonus +40%]

Huh, seems like overkill, but I’ll take it, Noa thought.

Elvethor hovered his hands over Noa’s, and this time, Noa got a cue from the spell.

System [Received Lesser Mend]

Interesting. Noa didn’t get any cues when he wasn’t in Elvethor’s party, but now that he was, he did. He doubted, based on the message, that he’d get cues for spells that weren’t directed at him. At least that turned off friendly fire, in a sense.

“Alright, follow me,” Elvethor said, grabbing Noa’s hand and dragging him along before he had a chance to grab his lamp again. They wound down the curvy street past a couple other homes, the street declining towards the town’s center. It certainly wouldn’t take long to traverse the place, and there really wasn’t much to see. Each wooden building was just as mundane as the next, most of them not even two stories.

The most interesting building here was the one they stopped in front of. It was made of stone, and was about three stories in height. It looked reminiscent of a cathedral with stained glass windows and an emblem of a six pointed star pressed into a hexagon sitting above its pillars.

Elvethor pushed one of the large, ornate double doors open, revealing a chapel. Rows upon rows of pews led up to a wide altar, upon which rested an array of flowers. Behind the altar, a wrinkled man in blue and white robes, stood with his head bowed, holding a golden star amulet in his hand, same as the one on the building itself.

He looked up, and gave a ragged smile. “It’s good to see you again, Eliaz,” he said, his voice echoing off the arching mosaic ceiling. He slowly made his way around the altar while Elvethor dragged Noa down the aisle and stopped in front of the man. The elf immediately bowed.

Deciding he probably shouldn’t make enemies with ecclesiastical leaders here, Noa followed suit, although stiffly.

“Who is your new friend?” the wrinkled man asked. Then covered his mouth to hide it from Noa. The man must have been hard of hearing, given that his volume hardly changed. “And why does he smell?”

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Noa rolled his eyes.

Elvethor also covered his mouth, using the same volume, though his voice was far less apathetic. “He’s Yana’s new shitboy.”

Noa frowned as the priest recoiled a bit, then shook his head and sighed at Elvethor. “Vulgar as always, Eliaz.”

“Yeah, yeah, Elorn wouldn’t be pleased. Anyways, we just need to use the library, Priest Olwen,” Elvethor said.

“You know where it is,” Priest Olwen said in a suffering tone. He did it well━perhaps Noa could learn a thing or two from this old man.

Elvethor pulled Noa to a set of stairs at the corner of the room beyond an archway. The stairs spiraled up a tower, then let off into a wide room stacked with books. Literally stacked. Could the place not afford shelving? There were a few tables, and Elvethor selected the round one in the center of eight stacks that Noa tried hard not to touch out of fear of knocking one over.

On the table was perhaps the shortest stack in the room, bearing the least amount of dust━the most used tomes. Elvethor selected a fat one from the bottom of the pile, then handed it over to Noa, who tentatively took a seat beside the elf.

“What’s this?” he asked.

“Class trees. Should give you an idea of where you want to go,” Elvethor said.

Noa flipped the book open to the first page, raising his brow. It was English, albeit old English. Strange that no one talked that way here if they wrote that way, but then people didn’t talk like Shakespeare back home either. Of course, Noa was born in the 21st century, so that analogy didn’t have any bearing.

“You’re not going to teach me this Aether-what-you-ma-called-it first?” Noa asked.

“Ugh, I guess,” Elvethor huffed, and Noa cringed as the elf’s chair squeaked loudly as he turned to face him. A book stack fell at the end of the room, probably from how offending the sound was. “You know that warm feeling you get when you’re someplace spiritual?”

Humming, Noa immediately recalled his time out on the water off the coast of Honolulu. He’d missed that time since moving to Seattle, and even with the occasional fishing trip, felt disconnected from the warm ocean he grew up knowing. He’d always believed the sea was alive, and much of his ancestry would say something similar. The ocean was a large part of Noa’s Polynesian background.

Now that he thought about it, there was a sereneness in his immediate area, but only as he recalled the memories. And beside him was a vague hint of something else, like it was just floating in the general vicinity, the peace tugging at his chest towards its location at his right.

System [Aether Sense] acquired.

Noa blinked. That easy? he thought, then realized Elvethor was still talking.

“━lot like feelings of peace or joy...” Elvethor went on and on and on. Noa just stared at him blankly until Elvethor got it. The elf frowned. “You got [Aether Sense] already, didn’t you?” he asked.

Noa nodded.

Elvethor sighed. “[Aether Designation] is going to decide what you’re using aether for. There are three denominations: Somatacy, Mentality, and Aethery. The first is for spells in regards to the physical realm, like [mend], the second for mental spells, and the third for spiritual spells.”

“How do I use it?” Noa asked.

“You’ll use it after you select a class path. Not that it matters too much, but for efficiency’s sake,” Elvethor said, pushing the tome closer to Noa. “Read it.”

Noa nodded, and slowly went down the list of class trees. Enhancers, espionages, fighters, mediums, healers, and the list went on. “How did you decide what class to pursue?” he asked.

“I started as a fighter on the front lines and hated it.”

“Front lines?” Noa asked.

“The war?” Elvethor asked. “You’re a total foreigner here, aren’t you?”

“Uh, yup, pretty much. So... are they enlisting people for this war?” he asked, a tad concerned.

“Of course they are. You’ve been dodging the draft, haven’t you?”

“Let’s say the ‘draft’ never showed up where I’m from,” Noa smiled sheepishly.

“Right. Well, the best way to level as a fighter is to go straight to the front, that is, if you’re broke. It’s nasty stuff, but if you’re lucky, it’ll pay for your family’s welfare.”

Right, the family I don’t have.

“If you want to continue dodging the draft, become a healer. Plus, once you’ve maxed out two of your base classes, you can go to university for free. They’re short on healers.”

“Free school?” Noa perked up.

He remembered his meager savings, barely above a grand, and yet, it was the grand he was going to use to put himself through school. All Noa wanted was to make a better life for himself, and suddenly, the opportunity was free.

Screw my savings, he thought, flipping straight to the healer class trees in the book. He scoured through the pages, looking specifically at the grand classes he could choose after mastering his intermediate classes: Bewitcher, Grand Healer, and Quickener. The first emphasized improving quality of life, while the second focused a lot on supporting life through general wellbeing, and finally, Quickener was about life giving. They can even resurrect the dead, he thought, smiling. More importantly, I’m not going to be at the front of the action.

“You’re going to pick a healer class, aren’t you?” Elvethor asked, narrowing his eyes.

Noa grinned. “Yup.”

“Right, but in case I didn’t make it clear, you will have to go to war after you graduate.”

“And if I choose a different class?”

“You’ll likely go to war anyways once someone figures out you’re here, just without any schooling. On the plus side, Yana can’t stop you once the university accepts your application.”

Well, damn. Healer it is, then.