"Your world is a mess, but from what I learned from you and my research, you are one of the first earthlings to make it here in more than two thousand years… you are a strange one."

"You are not the first one to tell me that, as my mom said, "you're a strange duck."

"But, you aren't a duck?"

"It was just a saying my mom used, I just kind of always went against the mold, the weird kid out, black sheep, you know the sayings."

"Hmm, fair enough, well I wonder what weird things you will bring to this world."

"Well, I can see when people are looking at my status."

"What? What do you mean?"

"Like, I can see other people's windows when they have them open."

"OH!"

"Yeah, Jes said it was "weird", and I meant to ask you about it."

"We use a magic that is based on what I've found from your memories and from the information that I've been gathering, it is similar to your computer programing languages, to generate all of our systems, so that may have something to do with it."

"Huh, could be, I did learn some programming back in the day."

"It is worth keeping my eyes on, your world advanced differently than the others, your population exploded and sciences took over in place of magic."

"Wait, we could have had magic?"

"Your world had magic, up until it was cut off from the sources."

"The sources?"

"Yes, it is what powers all magics, it is what maintains this world, they are all linked, and if your world broke its link, that would explain a lot, although, that doesn't explain how you got here any more than anything else…"

"We did start having a large shift and witchy practices did start coming back with a vengeance."

"Witchy?"

"Eh, it's just what it was called, it was part of a women's empowerment I think, but I liked it, so wasn’t going to complain."

"Fair enough, but that will be enough for tonight, we will talk again soon"

The next day, Davin woke feeling far more refreshed than he had since he first awoke in this world, and having the confirmation that he broke the mold for this world also boosted his confidence. When he awoke he prepped his gear as he had over the last week, making sure to pack his tools as well, it is one of the few things he had not thought to try, thinking that the hall was purely an exercise in stealth and not a full range of his future skills. The first half of the hall went easily, but adding in some of his tools, and anchoring the pressure plates so they couldn’t fall, made the last half of the hall a lot easier. The grasping of the handle and turning the knob was exhilarating, the weight lifted from Davin's shoulders, making him instantly feel lighter. Swinging the door open without checking it was the wrong choice, a burst of dust was poofed into Davin's face and the world again went dark.

Davin felt as though his head was swimming, whatever hit him was still messing with his head, opening his eyes the world came in streams and flashes, slowly focusing. "You almost did it, got overconfident in that last bit, but it was a great showing" Gale's voice poked into his mind like a bomb.

"Gah, not so loud, my head is throbbing" Davin whispered in response.

"You'll be okay, it only lasts a few minutes, that’s why you're still on the floor" Gale's steps shifted around his head.

Like he said the world only wobbled and swam for a few more minutes, the pounding subsided and Davin was able to sit up, "what was that stuff?"

"We call it Crawler powder, since it leaves you crawling, heh" laughing at his joke.

"It felt like I spent all night drinking and all I remember was the hangover, that stuff is brutal", rubbing his head as the lingering effects left him.

"And that is why we use it, who knows what you'll have to face outside the city, so we need to make sure that you're ready" offering his hand to help Davin up.

"Speaking of which, what is outside of the city?" taking Gale's hand and was pulled up.

"Everything, it’s a whole world out there, the bastion exists to be the starting point and where you can return in some select circumstances, but the patrons will assign you a task, or at least the start of one, and then it goes on from there."

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Davin and Gale went through his training, Gale taking a far more involved stance this time, joining him in all of his tasks, watching him… When they came to Jes's tasks, she did the same, the two watched over him like they were waiting for him to screw up like they were waiting for him to trigger a trap of some kind. "Okay, you two have been watching me like hawks all day long, what's the deal?" the tone of annoyance tinging his voice.

The sudden question caught them both off guard "Huh?! Doing what" Jes responded, instantly looking away trying to act nonchalant.

Gale on the other hand just smiled "just want to make sure there were no lingering effects from the crawling powder", this response made Jes's eyes go wide.

Davin took an intentionally large step back from them, "Okay, what's going on? you two haven't had a single snipe at one another, no jabs and anything, and then you're both staring, c'mon, you're both supposed to be master rogues."

The two of them looked back and forth from one another, Gale chuckling and Jes avoiding eye contact "well you reached the door, so that means that you passed, congratulations."

"Passed? Passed what, I thought this was training?" Davin felt more confused as the moments went by.

"By reaching the door, you show that you can more silently, and you understand the fundamental basics of your toolkit. Those are a few of the keystones to what we do, at this point, I can officially call you a rogue."

With that, Jes leaped at him and wrapped her arms around him, giving him a big hug "I passed you on the first day, at this point, I've almost learned more from you than you could from me, you have helped me make my training more streamlined and versatile."

"Even though you're not very good at the lying aspects, you more than make up for it in the others" with that Gale pulled out a package from his pockets, which the package was far larger than the pocket it came from. "Here you go, I don’t think you'll have any issue making use of this" handing the package over to Davin.

Opening it and holding it up, Davin was confused, it was a wide leather belt, looking like a plain wrestling belt "what is it?" he asked.

"It’s the first and more important piece of gear a rogue can get, it’s a belt" Gale smiled wide.

"I can see that it’s a belt, but why do I need another one? And why is it shaped like this?" holding the belt in a way to show off the wider back.

"That is where badges go, should just inspect it, that should tell you all you need" sarcasm edged into his voice. Davin did what he was told, and inspected the belt.

[Rogues Belt: (requires attunement) when attuned this belt grants the bonuses from any badges attached to it, as well as provides a small amount of extra protection, this belt has six badge slots and once it is equipped, takes the shape of a standard belt, the badges mixing into the material protecting them from damage.

(Attunement): attuned items are bound to the soul of the user, making the items unusable by others and granting bonuses when equipped, attuning an item involves a basic ritual.

"How do I use the ritual? I don't know any rituals…" Davin looked crushed after reading the description.

"We are going to teach you!" Jes's excitement was clear on her face "it is one of the few rituals everyone can use."

"Like magic?" Davin's voice climbed in response to Jes and her excitement.

"Not just like magic, but is actual magic." Jes pulled out a few ingredients from her pouches while Gale pulled a small table from seemingly nowhere. The two of them worked quickly, easily setting up the well-practiced ritual. "Set the item on the circle, then all you need to do is repeat the incantation then offer the item a bit of your spirit to bond to" Jes was walking Davin through the ritual with the practiced ease of someone that had gone through this several times.

"How do I offer it my spirit?" looking into his hand as if it should be holding something.

"It is easy, while your hand is in the circle, touching the item will feel almost like it's reaching out to you, and you just let it grab on" Jes pantomimed the actions as she said them. Davin followed the instructions to the letter, the words pouring out of him like water, more words than the original incantation flooded out as well, and he reached out with his soul and felt a small tug.

[Would you like to attune item [Rogues Belt]? You can only have a limited number of attuned items at a time, and hitting your maximum will unattune the first item you attune. You currently have zero of 2 attunement slots used, would you like to continue?]

[Yes] [No]

Davin quickly selected yes, feeling a surge through him like a shot of caffeine, feeling his heart race as if he'd just done some sprints. "Woah, that is a bit more intense than I was expecting" gasping out in surprise looking over his two main trainers.

"Yeah, the first one is always the roughest, but it is good that we got it out of the way now, now all you'll need to do, is apply that badge you have, and once it's set, it will do the rest of the work itself." Gale tapped the belt on one of the open badge slots.

"Wait, he already has a badge? How?" Jes asked sharply.

"The only one that you can miss getting, the one from Big Green" smugly looking over at Jes, "this guy is a natural."

With that Davin pulled out the badge from his pocket, setting it on the belt, to which another message screen popped up confirming his choice to attach the badge to the belt, which he also quickly approved.

"Now that that is over, this is the next step," Jes said as she waved away a small window that Davin barely caught from the corner of his eye. To which a new window popped up in front of him. [You have completed basic rogue skill training, please choose four from Acrobatics, Athletics, Deception, Intimidation, Investigation, Perception, Performance, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth] with each skill having its own button, luckily for Davin, he'd already put a lot of thought into this choice if he truly had to make one, hitting Perception, Acrobatics, Investigation, Sleight of hand, upon making the choice, the window scrolled down and alerted him to his other proficiencies that he'd been practicing, [ Light Armor, simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, short swords, thieves' tools, acquired congratulations]

"Oh! So that’s how I'll know, was curious when I'd get them as listed skills" as Davin closed out his windows.

To that Jes nodded sharply, "it is handy, now to work on which of those you'd like to specialize in."

"Specialize?" Davin asked questioningly.

"Yes, your expertise, the skills or tools that are some of your strongest" Jes started cleaning up from the ritual.

"And I can pick from any of the ones I know?" wrapping his new belt around his waist.

"Two for now, later you can pick two more" Jes swept up the mess from the floor.

"So can I go with Insight and Investigation?" Davin asked.

"Oh, of course, you can!" Jes responded excitedly.

With that, Davin looked at the two of them, "Okay, what's next?"

"I am glad you asked," Gale said with what Davin would learn is the scariest smile in the known world…