Waiting for me outside was Gunderson and another man standing just a bit away from him and behind some type of reception counter.

“Welcome, to the IDPA’s regional field office for Northern California.” Gunderson announced to me with a big broad smile on his face.

Looking around the room I had exited the stall into, it had the same red industrial brick wall, and linoleum floor of the coffee shop bathroom. That, and the stall I just left were where the similarities ended though.

The arrangement of this room was entirely different from the one I had been in just minutes prior. The counter and the man that was standing behind were the first things noticed, but the placement of it should have put them well into the wall of the coffee shop’s bathroom.

Behind where Gunderson was standing, there was also a door that hadn’t been there before. It was the only door I could see in this new room, so that must be the exit. I hoped it was anyways.

“This guy over here is Garcia.” Agent Gunderson told me indicating the man standing patiently behind the small counter. He had a plain, grey work uniform with a little name tag that said, G. Herrero. “He works security at the entrance here for us.”

“Hi.” Garcia raised his hand in greeting.

“And this.” Gunderson gestured his hand in my direction. “Is our newest and most amazing supernatural.”

“Oh.” Garcia straightened up immediately, standing at attention and giving me a formal salute with his right hand.

“No need to be so formal Garcia tone it down would ya.” Gunderson lightly reprimanded.

“Sorry sir, sorry ma’am.” Garcia told us both.

“Tsk, I said to relax Garcia. I’m trying my absolute hardest not to overwhelm her, despite everything”

Good luck with that happening. I’ve been feeling overwhelmed and out of my depth for days now. Walking into a teleporting bathroom stall in a coffee shop’s men’s bathroom is so very far away from being ‘not overwhelming’, I wouldn’t even know where to begin.

“It’s um, nice to meet you, Mr. Herrero.” I told him with an effort on being polite.

“She knows my last name already?” Garcia asked Gunderson.

“It’s written on your name tag dummy.” Gunderson pointed out.

“Ah, right.” Garcia blushed a little in embarrassment.

“Come on then, no need to waste time standing around in this itty-bitty room.” Gunderson told me while walking over to the door I spotted earlier.

Opening it revealed a brightly lit and spacious space beyond. There were a fair number of people moving this way and that past the door that I was looking out from. They were all dressed like typical office workers, and judging by the sounds of people typing on keyboards and printers going off, this was the ‘office’ Gunderson had told me about.

I guess he wasn’t actually lying about this place.

“Come on Jenni, there’s someone specific I want you to meet. I think he can give you some good advice on your class.” Gunderson told me with his typical friendly smile as he walked out into the office proper.

I guess I should follow after him. Before I left though, I turned and gave Garcia a wave goodbye, which he eagerly returned.

Catching up to Gunderson, I had to avoid colliding with a few people who were walking by.

“Careful now, Steve, Marta, everyone, this right here is Jenni our new supernatural.” Gunderson told them while trying to interpose himself between me and all the human-shaped projectiles that seemed intent on moving through us rather than around us.

At Gunderson’s words, a large number of the people who had previously been laser-focused on getting to their next destination stopped to take a look at the person Gunderson was gesturing his hand at.

Me.

A large blush on my cheeks exposed the awkwardness and discomfort I felt about having all these people stopping to look at me.

“Oh wow, this is her then.” Steve said walking up to us.

“She seems a lot shyer than the last girl.” Pointed out the woman named Marta.

“Um…” Was all I could think to say, all but confirming Marta’s observation.

“I just wanted to make a quick introduction with you guys, but we can’t stay too long. I’m trying my best not to overwhelm her with all this.” Gunderson confided in the small crowd.

I decided then that Gunderson was terrible at preventing me from feeling overwhelmed.

“This way Jenni, the guy I want you to meet should be at his desk that’s just down this way.” Gunderson told me while guiding me away from the crowd with a lightly placed hand behind my shoulder.

Following his direction, we quickly left the curious group of office drones behind and made our past row after row of cubicles. This ‘office’ that I was now in seemed to be fairly large. I wonder how many people are actually working here?

Eventually, Gunderson and I made our way to the far back corner of this floor to yet another office cubicle, except this one was occupied.

Sitting at one of the desks was another man in a decent-quality black suit.

“You’re at your desk after all! That’s a relief, I was worried we’d have to spend the rest of the day hunting around for you on different floors.” Gunderson told the man.

His words prompted the new man to turn around on his swivel chair to take a look at us. This also gave me the chance to look at his face.

He looked to be about the same age as Gunderson, and he also had a large bushy mustache above his lip and beneath a pair of black-rimmed glasses. But while Gunderson was rather tall and athletic, this person seemed to be a bit shorter and not quite as physically fit.

“Herbert, why are you looking for me this time? Do you need me to write up another one of your reports for you?” The man asked Gunderson in a polite erudite sounding voice.

“Wha-, No! Nothing like that. I wanted to introduce you to Jenni here, she’s the new supernatural I was sent out to meet.”

“Ah, this is her then. A pleasure to meet you, Miss…?” The bookish man prompted.

“Oh, um Jennifer Morrow, that’s my name.” I rushed to answer.

“Hmm, a little too eager to give away personal information, but thank you for the introduction all the same.”

Sheesh, he asked, now he’s mad that I actually answered?

“In the spirit of fairness, my name is Zachariah Knowles, Special Agent Knowles.” The man called Knowles continued.

“I just call him Zach, he hates it.” Gunderson whispered into my ear, loudly enough for the other man to hear.

“Yes well, my condolences on having Herbert here as your advisor. I’m sure that will be quite the challenging burden for you to bear.” ‘Zach’ told me flippantly.

“Hey now, I’ll have you know I’m doing a great job, and in fact, I’ve brought Jenni here in search of your sage wisdom.”

“Hah, jokes and flattery probably, but what is it you want to know?” Agent Knowles asked us.

“Well Jenni here has some questions about her class, but before that.” Gunderson turned to look at me. “Remember we talked about sharing things about your abilities?”

“Sure.” It was only like, half an hour ago. I wasn’t that forgetful.

“Well, Zach here could be a great help in giving you advice on your class and skills. He’s kind of a magic nerd if you will. Knows all sorts of stuff about esoterica and magic-related subjects.” Gunderson told me while Knowles watched us with a stoic expression.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“If you think it’s a good idea, I’ll trust your judgment on things like this, for now.” I told Gunderson. We did come all this way, into this strange place. If this guy could help me, and Gunderson trusted him, why not?

“Right then.” Gunderson said turning back to Knowles. “Jenni here has a Mage variant class called Magi.”

“It was called Magi right?” Gunderson turned to ask me quickly.

“Uh yeah, my status screen said my class was Magi at level 3.” I told them.

“You didn’t need to share your current level, you should be more mindful of the details you let others know.” Knowles reprimanded, again.

“As for this class, it does sound like a Mage variant, based on the name and your level.” He emphasized the word level, trying to remind me of the mistake he believed I made. “I don't believe I’ve ever heard of that one though, without information on her class skills, spells, or other status details, there’s not much I can tell you about that particular class. Aside from the basic information for all magic types.”

“Class skills?” I asked.

Knowles gave Gunderson a baleful look.

“We were going to get there, we’ve had a lot to go over in a short period of time.” Gunderson told him sheepishly.

Knowles cleared his throat briefly before turning to look at me.

“Each class will provide you with certain special skills. These skills can be divided into several different groupings and classifications, but the IDPA categorizes them mainly as: class, general, basic, and unique. Class skills are the special skills that are unlocked or available to unlock from whichever class you possess. Class skills tend to be more magical in nature and beyond the scope of normal human abilities, even at low levels.” Knowles recited, almost like he was reading from a memorized image of a textbook page.

“I see…” I said, digesting the bookish agent’s words.

“You should take a look, if you haven’t already, at what skills you currently have.” Knowles instructed. “I’m assuming Herbert told you how to look at your status, it works the same way.”

Ignoring the look he gave to Gunderson, I did as I was told.

“Um, skills?” I asked the empty air tentatively.

Level Rank Unique Skills: Portents 1 F Class Skills: Eyes of Night 2 F Incantation 2 F Spellcraft 2 F Mana Manipulation 1 F Shadow Affinity 2 F General Skills: Study 99 F Mathematics 83 F Mundane History 82 F Writing 81 F Chemistry 77 F Analyze 70 F Biology 70 F … Basic Skills: Walking 100 … Tableware Mastery 98 … Bathroom Etiquette 97 …

“Okay, I see them. Woah holy cow that is a lot of skills” I told them absently. There were a bunch of skills listed, but the list of basic skills dwarfed the rest. It just seemed like it would just keep going and going the longer I looked down. There had to be hundreds if not thousands of skills under there.

“Yes, you’re likely referring to skills listed under the basic section of what you are seeing. I should have warned you to will the Akashic Record to ignore that section for now, it will just overwhelm you with information.” Knowles said, with a slight tone of embarrassment in his voice.

“See!” Gunderson told Knowles triumphantly. “I told you, we shouldn’t overwhelm her with information.”

Trying to do what Knowles told me, I mentally willed the blue box to ignore all the basic skills.

“Your list of basic skills is the summation of all the skills you have cultivated in your mundane life before you were selected by the Akashic Record. The list of potential skills you could have there is vast, and most of them are very mundane and unimportant.” Knowles told me.

“Like Tableware Mastery?” I asked.

“Yes, like that one. Also, I’ll remind you to be careful about sharing information about yourself, as I’ve already told you.” Knowles reprimanded for the third time now.

“Well, it’s not like I disclosed to you the critical piece of information that I actually have that skill at an impressive level of 98.” I proudly told him.

“Pfft, you haven’t even reached level 100 in it yet? All you’ve done is reveal to me that you’re a slob.” Knowles shot back.

“Am not.” I told him with all the petulance an irate teenager could muster.

“Okay, okay, why don’t we focus on why we’re all here, giving Jenni some advice and counsel on what to do about her class and skills.” Gunderson told us both.

“Fine, but that means she would have to disclose information about at least some of her skills for us to have anything useful to tell her.” Knowles pointed out.

“That’s fine, I was brought here to get help and information about this stuff. So if I have to reveal some things, that’s fine.” I told him, having gotten a little tired of his lecturing me about not sharing details about my abilities.

“Fine.” Knowles said while rolling his dark brown eyes behind his thick-rimmed glasses. “Let’s start from the top then, tell us the names of some of your class skills.”

“Um, my class skills aren’t at the top. The section with my unique skill is.” I corrected.

This caused both Gunderson and Knowles to look at me with a bit more intensity.

“You have a unique skill, already?” Gunderson asked.