"I'm sorry?" I asked, trying to regain a bit of composure from my fall.

"I apologize, I realize I could have given some warning. I saw what you did back there. It's unprecedented for a Named one to take on so many apprentices, let alone to give so many Names at once, and in so short a time no less," said the boy who walked out from behind a tree, a shadow still obscuring his features from sight.

"I'm not sure what you mean. Thank you, I suppose. If you are here to shake me down I'm sorry but I made the mistake of making a teacher's salary, so I don't have much to give you," I told the boy. He pulled a sphere out of his pocket and it quickly lit up with an internal light and floated near the boy's head, revealing his features.

He was young, just older than my first class. He had dark hair and sun-tanned skin, lithe muscle filling out his clothing with bright blue eyes that seemed to glow in the night to tie it all together. His clothes were practical, and he had various weapons about him, a longsword at his side and a bow and quiver about his back with various makes of knives around his chest in a bandolier. He was scarred heavily, silvery lines running down his arms and one on his face, though it wasn't a defining feature like it was on some, coming in just under the ear and barely gracing his cheek with its presence. He also had ten Names clearly visible, although I had a feeling that he had far more Names than that. The mononym above his head was Zerrious.

His face was marked with confusion at my last sentence and he told me as much. "I'm not sure why I would shake you, or why it would have anything to do with your yearly income, but I am on a quest to join the gods. I ask you to allow me to shadow you until you deem me worthy of all of the Names that you have," he said.

"Oh, is that all," I said pulling myself from the ground. As he saw me struggling he reached a hand out with an embarrassed expression and helped me regain my feet. "I'd be happy to have another student. We start in the morning tomorrow, but if you are willing to wait three months we will start a new school year and you can come in at the beginning,"

"No, I think I will start tomorrow. I hope to have these Names soon, so I must learn as fast as possible," he responded.

"Well, I'll see you in the morning then," I said as I started walking again, making my way home for the night.

"Yes sir," he said with excitement and ran home with an incredible speed I could never hope to match.

I continued my nightly routine and went to bed later than I usually did, finding the boy a little bit odd, though clearly very talented. When I woke up that morning I had a similar thought process as I did when falling asleep. I quickly went through my morning routine and headed off to class.

Zerrious was standing in front of the small building, although it wasn't locked and there were clearly other kids inside from what I could see through the windows. Zerrious greeted me as he saw my approach with a bow and some quick words, a bit too quick for this early in the morning. "Good day master, what chores do you require this morning?" was his quick greeting.

"You're not doing any chores right now, mostly just observing for now, although you'll want to shadow me when I plan the next day's lesson after school," I told him, chuckling a bit to myself at the boy. "Also, don't call me master, here I am Mr. Sigurd, and simply Sigurd when I'm not teaching,"

"Oh, okay ma-Mr. Sigurd," he said then, stumbling over himself because of confusion at my odd teaching style. It was evidently customary for apprentices to do chores for the first few years of their internship, something that I assumed was why it usually took so long to get profession Names in this village. That and the fact that those jobs actually involve a bit of skill, unlike the basic subjects I teach.

I laughed a bit and walked inside, motioning for him to follow me. He did so, walking into the room and standing in front of the classroom with me. "Now everyone, this is Zerrious and he is going be helping me out for a little while, so I need you to be as nice to him as you are to me, okay?" I asked the kids. Of course, they all agreed to the affirmative, but I was nervous all of a sudden. I had never had any sort of T.A. or substitute since I started the school. If I was sick we just didn't have school that day and that was fine by me, but they never got used to someone else telling them what to do, so I wasn't sure how they would react.

Luckily I had nothing to worry about, the kids mostly ignoring Zerrious for the day. He learned a lot following me around for the school day, taking notes on both class concepts and my teaching style throughout the day. When I left Zerrious moved to leave as well, likely to work on some other skill, but I called him back to finish the day with me.

"Zerrious! We haven't completed the school day yet, follow me," I shouted as he started jogging off.

He paused and turned to me with a puzzled expression on his face. "But all the children have left, what else is there to teach when they are gone?" he challenged.

"I'm not teaching them anymore today. I have to prepare for what I'm teaching them tomorrow. It's the most important part of a teacher's work to be ready to teach and to answer any questions your students may have. Most of my day is devoted to the children of this village and I wouldn't have it any other way," I explained to him. He seemed shocked by the words, although I supposed that it would be odd in this world for one person to spend so much time not bothering to improve on a skill, but to spend all of it making everyone just as good at those skills as they were. Which was evidently what I was doing.

"I apologize, I didn't realize the devotion this calling took," he said as he quickly caught back up to me on my way to my shack.

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure it looks like more than it is, especially when I'm not worrying about grades like my teachers always did," I told him.

"Grades? They required certain quality levels for. . . Well, I'm not sure what they would require the quality levels for," he said, eager to drink in my knowledge no matter how seemingly useless.

"Well, we used to be given assignments, practice problems that we had to do without any help. If we didn't do the problems correctly, or if they didn't like you much they would give you a bad grade. Often times it would hinder your growth because the teachers never cared if you understood, only if they mentioned it in passing. That is something I vowed I would never do, that kind of terrible system was doomed from the start," I told him, nodding sagely all the while.

"I think I understand, thank you for taking the time to explain," he said.

"What kind of teacher would I be if I never answered questions? Ask away and I will answer to the best of my ability,"

"Thank you, Mr. Sigurd," he said in way of ending the conversation.

We made it back to my little hut and prepared for tomorrow's lesson. Or lessons, I should say. We needed ten, one for each grade level I deemed necessary to learn everything up to the high school level. It took longer than I had anticipated because Zerrious would often stop me, apologize profusely, and then ask questions. I would of course always answer and we would continue. By the time we were done, it was late into the night and I offered to let Zerrious stay for the night.

"I would be honored Mr. Sigurd," was his curt reply. He slept on the floor with what I had as far as bedding went, and I wrote my experience of the day.

I had stopped journaling prior because nothing interesting ever happened anymore, there was no point to my writing. Zerrious though, could go far. I wrote down what I could about the odd boy, who clearly had no intention of teaching but of being able to teach. He was understanding concepts that had never so much as been hinted at in the village previously and quickly applying them to situations, although he had more trouble understanding the more esoteric problems. Exponents, roots, and imaginary numbers weren't used much in a society without taxes, something I found odd because new public works were created at a speed that I found insane. Regardless, I found that teaching him something he couldn't easily see was going to make it hard to teach him, regardless of his innate intelligence.

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"Have I missed something in your instruction? I heard nothing of taking time to write at the end of the day, is this important for any of your skills?" asked Zerrious late that night. I jumped a bit, making an unintended mark on the page which I quickly erased with a thought.

"No, this is nothing of note, I simply like to write the interesting things that happen around me. Not much happens to me, so anything of note gets jotted down," I explained, continuing my writing.

"This clearly means something to you, you have an enchanted quill and book, not cheap or expensive things to come by here. Feathers, leather, and vellum tend to be too weak for enchantments unless they are enhanced with various magical treatments, not an inexpensive thing to do in and of itself, regardless of making the scripting invisible, another very expensive process. Why would you spend so much on such items, let alone such powerful and high-quality ones if it wasn't very important to you or a skill you are trying to turn into a Name?" he asked, not backing down at my simple, although true, answer.

"Well, I didn't buy these. These aren't real in the sense you think, at least if I understand correctly. These are parts of my soul," I said simply. In hindsight, it should have been obvious that that would create more questions than it answered.

"My deepest apologies for the litany of questions, but I'm not sure I follow. The soul hasn't been proven to exist, at least in this village with little magical knowledge. Is there some sort of spell that creates this book and quill that you can teach me? I would love any foreign knowledge you may have," he said so kindly that part of me wanted to explain the concept of porn to him just to throw him off.

I didn't, instead, I gave him my story, pulling my book out and using my writings and poorly drawn illustrations to tell my story. "I was born in a world very far from here, yet so very close. Indeed I did say world because I come from a different universe than this one. I grew up in a very strange way for those living where I find myself today, but it was the most natural thing in the world where I came from. I grew up with no idea what I wanted to do with my life, going to school, and hanging out with the nerds that had their lives figured out, or thought they did before coming into contact with reality. My parents split up when I was in middle school. I knew that neither wanted me, but they made an effort to try to make me feel better, pretending to be sad when I left. My dad got drunk a lot, and by high school, I was taking any advantage of that I could get. I was a fairly heavy drinker, taking whatever classes my counselor thought I would be good at, never thinking I would go anywhere with my life. Well, I ended up in a computer class and as it turns out, I am rather good at giving proper instructions to computers. I pulled myself together, I quit drinking and I invested myself in coding, earning scholarships, and getting a job that I hate that doesn't pay the bills with enough left over to matter.

"But one day I woke up with adventure in my veins, in a whole new world with gods telling me I could save a world that was losing heart with their skills. I tried to find civilization, walking about aimlessly for days before finding the nest of a large evil spider-"

I was cut off by Zerrious excitedly exclaiming "I've heard this part! You got the shit beat out of you and you almost started a forest fire because you didn't have any concept of bodily coordination so you could barely fight at your best!"

"The details aren't quite there, because I walked out like a champion and never even looked back at the fire, you also left out the handsome, valiant, and exquisite fighter parts, but you got the overarching details right," I said, embarrassed by the way that story had evolved without my help. "The book is because I'm not from this world. I got a few different racial traits. I cannot get system messages, but I do get a quill, and I can see peoples na-mononyms,"

"Interesting. You seem to enjoy the life you had before this much more than you enjoy teaching by the way you tell it," he says.

"Ha! I hated that place, what makes you think I enjoyed my life?" I asked.

"I don't think we're talking about the same life. You enjoyed that fight with the spider, you enjoyed going on an adventure, and you love telling the stories of your travels, I can see it in your eyes," he explained.

"Well, that life is over for me now. I'm a teacher, the only things from my journey still with me being my cane and my memories, as I believe they should stay," was my retort.

"These are the last Names I can get here. I leave soon after I gain these last Names. I want you to come with me, experience the adventures and tell my story when I don't come back. You don't have to decide now, and I will of course give you ample time to train someone to replace you, but think about it. This isn't the life the Gods had planned for you, and I think you know it deep down," Zerrious looks at me seriously before turning away from me and quickly falling silently asleep.

I did think about it that night. Reaching the same conclusion I did before was a given, my life was simply too easy and I didn't want to ruin that. I had everything I needed to make myself feel good and never change anything except to make my life more comfortable. Going to school the next morning was similar. Teaching the kids and giving pointers to Zerrious on his teaching practices went as well as it always did, the brilliant children growing almost as fast as I could teach them.

When I decided to break for lunch, one of my graduated students approached me.

"Ah, Kaycie! What can I help you with?" I asked as she approached me.

She got rather close before answering my question, talking in a low voice as if someone would care about our conversation, which piqued my interest until I learned of the topic of conversation. "I want to teach. You're getting old, and you haven't taken an apprentice that can follow in your footsteps. I want to teach and you can't do this forever. Take me as an apprentice, you will never have to worry about your students again,"

That seemed rather rude, although it was clear to see where she was coming from. In a world without modern medicine, age is a much more dangerous prospect as you get more susceptible to disease and your body starts getting weaker. The difference is, I spent most of my life getting pumped full of vaccines and learning how to slow the aging process, even inadvertently. The thing was this willingness to teach because of my influence both filled me with joy and made me reconsider Zerrious' offer. If I got Kaycie ready to teach, could I go on an adventure? Tell my story in different lands? Follow a boy who intended to master every skill and had the real potential to do it? As I thought about it instead of dismissing it out of hand like before it sounded like this was what I was meant to do.

"Kaycie, I think you would make a wonderful teacher. I would love for you to take my place,"

"I'm glad, this has been my dream since the first week of learning from you," she said, making me all warm and fuzzy inside.

"I already agreed to it, you don't have to butter me up," I said as a joke, which she actually understood and started laughing at.

We took turns teaching the students, me taking most of the burden as the one with the most experience to show them how I like to teach, although I encouraged both of them to create their own methods and do things how they understand them. It was hard to get them to teach in multiple different ways, because when a student asked a question they would both tend to default to repeating the same answer over and over until I stepped in.

When I got closer to the end of my time teaching, nearly passing on my entire wealth of knowledge to the two students learning to teach I talked to Zerrious after completing a lesson plan. "Am I still invited to join you when you leave?" I asked simply. It was a simple but loaded question. Essentially, I was asking him if he wanted someone to follow him like a lost puppy and document every failing, every embarrassing moment, but also his triumphs.

"Of course, I never go back on my word. If you are coming though, I will need to make sure you can handle yourself. It may very well get incredibly dangerous, and I can't be stuck worrying about you," he said. "I will make you armor, something light and understated, and I will teach you how to use that quill blade to protect yourself. If you still want to come, we can start training tomorrow,"

"I would still like to join you, and I am of course willing to learn whatever you deem necessary for our journey," I told him, not entirely sure what I was getting myself into.

A few weeks of training with a metal blade later I was reasonable enough that I wouldn't kill myself, and had to take a break to prepare a graduation ceremony, which had gotten progressively more extravagant as the years passed on and required more preparation in return.

The children wore the same thing, more mystical type robes than what we wore back home for graduation because that's cool, and the kids all got to keep them at the end, a monument to the school they attended as children. There were several speeches given, not by some valedictorian, but by parents and myself. I then opened the floor to any children that wanted to talk, and almost all of them did. They were happy to be done, but sad to leave. I then called them up one by one to give them their Names. Afterward, I made one final announcement before giving two individuals one more Name.

"I am so glad that you made it this far and I am incredibly happy that every single one of you made it through, but I am sadly no longer going to be teaching. I pass the torch on to Ms. Kaycie, your teacher next year," I then grabbed the shoulders of both Kaycie and Zerrious and gave them the Name of a teacher. "I will be leaving the village at this time. I would like to thank every single one of you for making this village home to a stranger like myself. I am glad that I managed to share what little knowledge I had before leaving for good. If I were to stay I would ask that if you need anything you ask me, but alas I cannot, as I will be going to get more knowledge to teach, and more stories to tell. I thank you all, and good night," I said before quickly leaving out the back as silence was broken by pandemonium.

Zerrious and I were prepared to leave this night. While I was giving my speech, Zerrious slipped out the back and prepared our bags. I had never so much as seen the things he had promised to make for me, but Zerrious insisted that they were in the bags and that I could change later. We ran out into the dark of night, chasing knowledge and adventure.