“Hey, Drake, you want some tea?” Daisy asks. “I can finally use the teakettle on my own now!”

All of the magitech appliances in the Hearth require Elite rank to use because Wizardry is needed to activate their sigils. This also has the effect of making them fairly child-safe. By the time you reach Elite, you probably have a decent idea of how the world works and why you should be careful with the stove.

This means Daisy and Meadow are sharing their delight at finally being able to make their own danged tea.

While Aunt Heather is usually the one that runs the school, she’s out doing things only a Legendary Oracle can do (namely, searching for other reincarnators), leaving the less Legendary aunts in charge while she’s gone.

Aunt Rosemary is a portly woman with gray hair done up in a bun with wisps of hair constantly escaping their confinement. She’s the one who comes to show me around the school and talks to me about setting up a study plan. We have to figure out what I know and what I need to learn, for starters. Milo’s first priority is learning Common, so any real studies for him will need to wait until he has that down.

“So, you’re a reincarnator, huh,” Aunt Rosemary says. “I haven’t encountered many myself, but I have a general idea of what to expect. You are capable of more quickly learning skills that you knew in a previous life, correct?”

“Yes, but accessing them sometimes causes Sanity damage,” I say.

Aunt Rosemary nods as if that’s the most normal thing in the world. “We’ll be sure to keep some Sanity-restoring items available for you, then. You will probably gain a skill to resist Sanity damage at some point. That will be useful if you ever need to deal with anything eldritch. There are monsters that can cause Sanity damage just from looking at them.”

I will need to think about what path I want to take in life and which skills to focus on so that I will be offered a suitable class. I still want magic, though, and every class gets access to some sort of cool powers at Elite rank and higher. Anyone Elite or higher can do general Sorcery, Conjuration, Divination, Alteration, Wizardry, Invocation, and Illusion. Most people only focus in one or two of them, or specific areas.

Hearthkeepers use Sorcery to light fires, heat or cool food, and things like that. They use Conjuration to create water and other simple substances. They use Divination to find ingredients and keep an eye on stray children. And so forth. But they are also perfectly capable of learning to use that Sorcery to throw a fireball into the face of a monster that’s threatening their Hearth. Elite Rogues, likewise, frequently make use of Divination to find treasures, Alteration to pick locks, and so forth.

“If anyone can learn those skills, then what are classes for?” I ask.

“Classes give large bonuses to taking actions appropriate for that class,” Aunt Rosemary explains. “A [Nurturing Child] like your cousin Burdock will receive more experience when nurturing things. This includes things suitable to adult classes like Hearthkeepers, Rangers, and Farmers. My sister Holly was a [Nurturing Child] before she became an Orcharder.”

“So then a Farmer would get more experience for doing things related to farming?” I ask.

“Exactly,” Aunt Rosemary says. “Then, once you reach Heroic rank, you will gain an additional set of available skills related to the class. These tend to be more unique. You may access the library records of deceased members of Corwen Hearth to see what their skills were so you can get a better idea of what the possibilities are. Our founder, Ash, for example, was a Legendary [Guardian Hearthkeeper], a very interesting class that gives massive bonuses when defending the Hearth.”

“How does the class selection work?”

“The system box will appear in your third eye at the age of 7, 14, and 21, as well as the attainment of a new rank if you are already over 21. You will be given three options of slightly different paths based upon which of your skills are highest. If you are skilled in one thing and nothing else, you will only receive classes focusing on that one thing. While some Hearths favor overspecialization in their Hearth’s primary occupation, Corwen is an adventuring Hearth primarily, so we encourage having a broader skillset.”

“What’s your class?” I ask. “Or is it rude to ask?”

“It’s rude to ask anyone outside of your Hearth or prospective party members,” Aunt Rosemary says. “My class is [Tutorial Teacher].”

“Of course it is…” I suppress a sigh.

“Is there something wrong with that?”

“No, no, nothing wrong,” I say. “How do the adjectives work?”

“They tend to focus on your secondary skills and how they tie in to the main class,” Aunt Rosemary continues her tutorial. “This is also why having a diverse set of skills can help. You can wind up with some powerful hybrid classes.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

The [Tutorial Teacher] pulls out an old, heavy book and puts it on the desk in front of me.

“This is a compilation of every known skill and subskill available at Basic rank,” she says. “There may be some obscure subskills it may be lacking, particularly in Clairvoyance and Recollection, as we have only had two other reincarnators in our history.”

I note the date is written as 603 GF. “This book is over a hundred years old.”

Aunt Rosemary nods. “This edition was compiled after our previous reincarnator died and her skill list was made public. Corwen automatically creates a book containing a list of a member’s skills and Deeds when they die. We don’t even know what Verbena the Mythical [Witch Hunter]’s skills look like since she’s still alive.”

I look in dismay at the hefty tome. “Are there also skills for speed reading and memory retention? Ugh, what am I saying, of course there are.”

“You may need to read more than one book to unlock them, but I don’t know how much of a bonus your past life knowledge will give,” Aunt Rosemary says. “What is your Soul attribute?”

“Uhh… it’s over five million,” I say.

Aunt Rosemary blinks at the ludricrous number. “In that case, I would not be surprised if you were to unlock skills simply by successfully doing something once.”

“Yeah, that happens,” I say. “I got Search (Puzzle Pieces) the first time I put together a jigsaw puzzle. I didn’t get a Search (Bait) skill the only time I’ve dug up fishing bait. I suspect I didn’t do a lot of fishing in my previous lives. I only have clear memories of one of them, though.” I pause with a frown. “I unlocked four skills from killing three goblins. I’m sure I could become a phenomenal warrior. But I don’t think I want to be one.”

“I see,” Aunt Rosemary says, brow furrowing. “Well, do some consideration and research as to what path you want to take in life. I will be highly disappointed if you don’t at least manage Heroic rank, even if you choose a sub-optimal one.” She winks at me.

“I would hate to disappoint.”

“The library is open to you,” Aunt Rosemary says. “Please ask for help if you need anything from the top shelf. Don’t worry about accidentally damaging the books. They’re immune to damage by anything less than a Heroic ranked source. There’s also a game room with a number of puzzles and board games that help in improving various skills. Regular lectures will be given on a rotating set of topics. The schedule will be posted on the bulletin board in the entryway.”

It would be very easy, I think, to become a mighty warrior in this life as I clearly did in so many previous lives. It would be harder to improve skills that I don’t have a lot of memories for. Which means if I go in without a plan, I’m just going to wind up stuck in the same rut of least resistance for whichever skills I’ve used the most in my past lives. I want to do something new, which means I’m going to need to work at it. And, strangely enough, work at avoiding fighting. If I go and do a lot of fighting, it’s totally going to dominate my class choices.

I explain my reasoning to my mom.

Anise nods thoughtfully as she listens to my dilemma. “Well, if you want to avoid fighting except in emergencies, I can find some dungeons to run with little to no combat and make sure you have party members along to kill things for you. There are plenty of ways to contribute in a dungeon that don’t involve fighting and I can tell people you’re trying to unlock some sort of pacifistic class. You’d hardly be the first person to try that and we’ve got a lot of options.”

The school is a little chaotic. I’m the youngest student there, physically at least. The other students range from 7 to 13, but there aren’t enough of any one year to form what I would have considered a full class, and all of them plan on different paths in life. There are also a few older teens who didn’t get into a prestigious school who are here to read or help out with the younger kids.

One big advantage the system gives is that you don’t forget skills. Something you learned decades ago remains as fresh as the day you learned it.

In any case, this will involve a lot of reading and practicing, and Milo is right there in the same boat as me. We’re going to make it a point to learn additional languages, knowing that we’re young enough that we can probably get some good bonuses to it. If we plan to travel a lot, being able to speak many languages would be incredibly useful.

I haven’t told Milo one suspicion I have of the game-like nature of this world: That the people with black auras, with Soul attributes, are the ‘players’, and those with violet auras are NPCs just as much as ones with red auras are monsters. It seems odd to me that they don’t have the eighth attribute unlocked and most of them think the seven is all there is. But it doesn’t really matter. Soul or not, they’re people-like enough. I was always polite to AIs, too. Milo is from Earth but doesn’t know video games. I try not to snuff out his sense of wonder too much.

Milo might be the same age as me, but he’s older than me with regards to growth. As a goblin, he unlocks his apprentice class at three years old. It will be very difficult if he wants to attain Elite that early, and before he hooked up with Corwen Hearth, he was realistically expecting he’d only be able to reach Elite by the time he returned seven. Now, he figures he might actually make it if he pushes it and thinks a Deed like improving relations between humans and goblins and setting up trade deals might just do the trick.

Grandma Laurel recommends we take someone at Elite rank along for protection, especially if I’m going to try to avoid combat. And who is better at seeming non-threatening while still being able to set things on fire than my very own dear mother? Her underage drinking problem turned into a set of very stupid social skills.

“We’ll need to be sure to bring along some booze so I can use Persuasion (Share Drinks),” Anise says. “I wonder if goblins will like Corwen apple cider.”

“Did you become a Sorcerer rather than a Bartender just because magic is awesome?” I ask.

“Well… pretty much, yeah,” Anise says. “I didn’t want to limit myself to one place, though. But now, I have a new dream! Bring the cider to everyone!”

Anise pretty much immediately got sold on Milo’s mercantile ambitions just because it involves traveling and alcohol. This is what our vast apple orchards are actually for.

“I have Language (Drunken Slur),” Anise says. “I’m interested in seeing if it works regardless of what language is being drunkenly slurred. Oh, and don’t worry about me. I also have Discipline (Hold Your Alcohol). I won’t do anything more stupid than usual.”

“Of course those would be skills…” I mutter.

“Anyway, we’re making the first delivery of wool to Grubwick next week, so you and Milo should be ready for the trip since we still need you along because nobody else speaks Goblin yet,” Anise says. “And I’m bringing the booze!”