Haru tugged on her purple hood and riding cloak as she scurried through the game’s main hub of Fairbank. Tardiness to HomeRoom was greatly frowned upon.

Vernal popped his snout out from under her cloak. “Roo, your nametag is still on!” He hushed out.

The witch looked up and gasped. Over her head in green letters with a blue outline, as with all players and interactable mobs, her name was displayed: Haru, Blight Witch. Around, players took notice. They began to emote laughs and in chat, made fun of the bug someone found in the game. Cringing from her silly mistake, she sneakily pulled up her digital planner and disabled her nametag. The words overhead faded away. A small crowd began to form and jump around excitedly near Haru.

She slipped into a small row house, the drink vendor’s shop, a few blocks away. Gritting her teeth in embarrassment, the hope that the commotion would die down and that she had lost the trailing group was what kept her together. The last thing Haru needed was for a player to see her phase out of bounds to get to HomeRoom. Only five cycles remained until the start of class and she hadn’t even left the play area yet. Not to mention that even once she entered the Backlot, it was still a long way from the entrance to HomeRoom.

A sliver of luck fell upon Haru, and the crowd of players quickly became bored. The group stopped running around looking for the witch and she was able to slip away from the often-unvisited store. As she left, Haru gave Wasser, the vendor NPC, a bashful smile and tried to play off the incident with a chuckle and a wave. Wasser returned the gesture, seemingly happy to finally have a visitor, as she departed for the entrance to the Backlot.

Finally, she reached the closed gates of the yet-to-be opened Grand Princeps’s castle on the far side of the main city. Most players lingered near the auction house far away, near the main gate, and there weren’t any quest givers on this side of town yet, so there was almost no chance that a stray player would stumble out here.

She prodded the solid iron bars to wake up the watcher.

A deep baritone voice filled her head. “Late again, Haru?”

“Hi Ostiarius. Yeah.” Haru flicked her cloak nervously. “I had an encounter run long again.”

From under her cloak, Vernal piped up. “You could’ve just let me wipe him.” His harsh, muffled voice hushed out.

Haru hummed loudly to drown out the cat’s comment. “Yep, looooong fight. Very intense.”

Ostarius who was the gate itself as he didn’t have his own model, let off a suspicious hum. “Well HomeRoom starts soon. You’d better get a move on.”

Haru nodded in agreement, then looked over both shoulders to be extra sure there weren’t any players around. Certain there weren’t, she dashed forward, into the closed iron gate. Her form caused a ripple that expanded into a wave across the gateway’s static form.

A flash of light dazzled Haru and she teleported into the Backlot. Its architecture was like Fairbank’s, brick and wood row houses with an extra-wide stone avenue that had tree planters down the middle. It was going to be where players could buy houses soon. At the far end of the avenue was the academy, where the devs put HomeRoom.

Finally reoriented, Haru yanked her cloak off. With the clothing draped over her arm, Haru burst into a dash. Hanging onto her witch’s hat, her heels clapped against the cobblestone. “Keep up Vern!”

The cat, having been rustled from his makeshift perch hurled himself into a four-legged sprint. “I’m faster than you, banana head!” Vernal opened distance on the witch, already ten strides ahead.

With the academy’s clocktower in sight and the metal armored guards closing the gate, Haru reached her arm out and materialized her staff. With a leap, she swept the staff parallel to the ground and plopped down on it. The staff launched into motion, taking off like a rocket in flight. As Haru passed Vernal, she scooped him up and placed him down at the rear.

The cat began to groom himself. “This is more like it. Should have just done this from the start.”

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“I told you I’m faster than you.” Haru stuck her tongue out at him.

“Your staff is faster than me, and barely. But not you, never in a million years.”

The two careened through the narrow gap in the closing academy gate just as the clocktower bell rang, signifying the start of HomeRoom. With a sharp tug on the front of her staff, the magic implement came to a sudden halt. Haru, having overestimated the amount of force needed to slow down, tumbled end-over-end. The only thing saving her from a faceplant was a firm grip. She yelped, dangling from her staff.

Seeing everyone in the courtyard staring at her, she released her grasp, falling only a few hands of height to the ground, feet-first. Haru cleared her throat and slapped her hands together. “See? I can be on time.” Her staff dematerialized, disappearing over her head.

Vernal, landing on his feet after the stark halt, sat and stared at the clock. “You’re still late, Roo.”

Haru traced the cat’s gaze with her eyes and panicked. She was nearly a cycle overdue to arrive. Hurrying upstairs, she reached room 307, the only room on the third floor. This was a meeting for all of the main encounters of the game. As she stepped through the door, her outfit transformed into a sailor outfit.

Everyone else was there already, seated at desks in rows, facing a podium at the far wall. Their outfits either a white button down for the guys, or sailor outfits for the girls. The silence permeating the space, pierced by the clatter of her shoes, embarrassed Haru.

She found her assigned seat in the middle of the room. The desks were assigned roughly based on the geography of the world map and the starter area was in the middle. Haru draped her cloak over the back of the chair and sat down. To her right, the next major encounter after Haru and her best friend, Leonora of the Dark Tide. The pirate was still wearing her miniature tricorne with a skull on the sides.

Leonora leaned over and whispered. “Don’t worry, Professor Min has a tendency to start late, you haven’t missed anything.”

From the front of the room, an authoritative woman’s voice called out. “Haru’s so weak she gets beat by a clock.” The joke was made by the still undefeated final raid boss and HomeRoom leader, Astra Starbreaker.

Leonora grumbled and frowned in Astra’s direction. The rest of the room erupted into laughter.

Haru slinked down in her chair. In front of her was Gunther, the Fallen Paladin. He too, found no humor in Astra’s comment.

Vernal, sitting at Haru’s feet, let off a mild hiss. “I wish I could give her a piece of my mind.”

At the far end of the room, near the podium, the other exit slid open.

With a boom, Astra shouted. “Enough!”

The room fell silent. In walked professor Adam Min, in a lab coat and glasses, with a large folder under his arm.

“Class, rise.” Astra boomed.

Everyone stood up.

“Bow.” Astra commanded.

The group bowed.

Professor Min stood at the podium and placed the folder down upon it. “Hello everyone.”

“Hello professor.” Everyone spoke in unison. Haru’s voice trembled, laced with sadness.

“Please be seated, let’s get started.” The professor nodded in acknowledgement.

One by one, each encounter sat down with a measured rhythm until everyone was seated again. Min opened his folder and began listing off non-patching change notes to everyone individually.

“Haru.” The professor called out.

“Yes sir.” The witch responded.

“I’ve noticed that your encounter has been taking much longer than expected. Have you changed up phase three again?”

Haru looked at her hands as she wringed them. “I—I think…”

“Why have you changed your third phase again? You know you’re supposed to descend and fight the player after Vernal is defeated.”

The witch became flustered. “U—uh. Well.” She cleared her throat. “I don’t like hurting the players.” Her response was muttered meekly. While true, it wasn’t entirely true, though.

Astra exploded in laughter. “She hates the best part of the job. How lame!” Her fellow raid bosses followed her lead and cackled along. Then the entire group followed suit. All except Vernal, Leonora, and Gunther.

With a sigh of disappointment, the professor shook his head. “Haru…” He paused to let the rest of the class settle their laughter. “This is the second time we’ve had this discussion.”

Haru nodded, on the verge of tears.

Min continued. “I’m sorry, but you must abide by the formal encounter structure as outlined. Deviation from that can cause issues for the developers. Even if you object to the format, the team will monitor the encounter and change it as they see fit. Please refrain from making any alterations yourself.” The professor frowned. “I don’t want to have to give you a formal warning.”

The witch stared at her desk, the reprimand stinging. The group jeered at the ultimatum.

“Well then, next, Gunther. Your changes are…” Min started.

Leonora patted Haru on the shoulder. “It will be alright. It’s easy, just follow the devs’ instructions. It will be fine.” She whispered. “Don’t worry about the little things.”

The professor called out. “Alright, that is it for the server-side changes this time. Next time there will be full patch notes, so please come prepared.” He closed the folder.

“Stand up!” Astra called. “Bow!”

Professor Min exited the way he came, and the room grew cacophonous with chatter as HomeRoom ended.

Haru sat in silence, remorseful she caused trouble. Suddenly an alert from her planner echoed in her head. With a poke into the air, she summoned it forth.

The notification was telling her that a player was loading into her encounter.