“Skills? What are they?” the imposing figure in the center of the room asked. He was a towering presence, his height accentuated by his broad shoulders and muscular frame, a testament to his survival in a harsh world. His face, weathered by countless battles, bore a nasty scar that covered his left eye, a mark of his past. Despite the scar, or perhaps because of it, his face was set in a permanent scowl, giving him a no-nonsense air. Which, I thought, is probably a good thing if he has to deal with newbie adventurers every day.

It had been a little over a week since my fight with the wolves, and I had finally saved up enough coins for the Introduction to Weapons Skills class. It was being held in one of the training arenas that the guild had, which allowed members to come and spar and hone their skills outside of battle. Thankfully, the rest of the requests had been fairly routine, and not a single animal or monster had been sighted. However, that hadn't stopped Mom and Dad from worrying whenever I went out after hearing about my run-in with the wolves. Predictably, Daniel had the opposite reaction, pestering me with questions about the fight and being a nuisance.

I still had the occasional nightmare, but having talked with Gem about it, I was starting to get over any lingering after-effects of my first fight. Apparently, Katherine had thought adding a counselor subfunction to her programming would be a good idea. Neither Gem nor I could figure out why since, as far as her creators were concerned, no one on the planet would ever know Gem existed, but I was grateful nonetheless as, with its help, I had been working through some issues I didn’t even know I had.

“Well, since no one seems to want to answer,” the man said, breaking me from my thoughts to refocus on the present. Why don’t I pick someone? How about you, Ms. Cobbler? I'm sure the daughter of our esteemed Guildmaster can answer such a simple question.”

Gem commented.

I acknowledge.

Before I could answer, a window appeared in my vision with the technical documentation for the skills subsystem. Gem says, and I mentally send her a grateful smile. Over the last week, Gem had started teaching me how the various processes that made up the System worked, and I could now read, if barely, the technical documentation for some of them. Most of it was still incomprehensible gibberish to me. Still, I was encouraged by the fact I was slowly able to understand more of it as Gem imparted the knowledge her creators had assumed anyone reading the documents would have.

“Skills at their core are the system’s way of rewarding hard work and accomplishments; they are also how magic users can have their spell interact with the world around them,” I answer. “Skills can be broken down into two main categories: physical and magical. Physical skills are like the Weapons Skills we’ll learn in this class and can be unlocked through practice or spending skill points. Magical skills, like Fireball or Ice Spike, on the other hand, can only be unlocked by skill points. If a skill is unlocked using skill points, the necessary information to use that skill is implanted into your mind by the system.”

“Very good,” the man said, and for a heartbeat, I appeared as if his scowl deepened, “would anyone else care to elaborate on what Ms. Cobbler said.”

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As I was having this short interaction with Gem, a boy only a couple of years older than me raised his hand.

“Mr. Mason,” the man said, “you wish to add something?”

“Yes, Sir, while what Ms. Cobbler said is the generally accepted theory about skills, it has long been believed by members of the Mage’s Guild that there is a mental component to how skill interacts with the world around us. How else can mages and even fighter types create new skills?”

I couldn't help it and let out a little snort of laughter, and unfortunately, our instructor heard it.

“You have something to add, Ms. Cobbler?”

“Of course, the system has a mental component. I’m surprised it’s a debated topic at all. We know the system can adapt to cultural and societal changes. The system we use today isn't like the system our ancestors used a century ago. Conversely, the skills that were commonplace back then are but a distant memory today. Mages and Weaponmasters have created new skills that have supplanted older skills. More importantly, how do you think the system gives you your first class during the initiation ceremony? Sure, it looks at all the skills and accomplishments you’ve gained over the first ten years of your life, but that can only give it a list of possible classes. It needs to figure out from that list what class would suit you best; to do that, it evaluates your mental compatibility for each class and gives you the one that best fits. For instance, someone who tends to sneak around would better fit a Rouge class than a Knight class.”

Everyone in the room was staring at me as if I had grown a second head, and I could hear Gem laughing her digital ass off in the back of my mind. she says, still chuckling.

was my intelligent response.

I say before turning back to the knight and trying to deflect by saying, “Anyway, I assume you had a point in asking what skills are?”

“Right,” the man said, giving himself a little shake. “As Ms. Cobbler mentioned, skills can be divided into two major categories: physical and magical. The general rule of thumb is always to try to train a physical skill and save skill points for purchasing magical skills. The system also breaks skills down into passive and active skills. Passive skills are any skills that work without you interacting with them. Take Detect Enemies, for example; at low levels, it will always detect things with hostile intent about a meter around you. On the other hand, active skills have to be interacted with. For example, Slash allows you to bring a sword down quickly and deal damage to an opponent. The nice thing is that the system can detect your intent and initiate the active skill without you going into your menu.

“The downside is that the system only allows you to have ten active skills accessible at any given time, so you will have to figure out your fighting styles and pick skills that best complement them. Oh, and just so you know, if you want to swap out a skill, all the progress you have on that skill will be lost. As for passive skills, for some reason, the system doesn't limit how many you can have, so if you can get the same effect with a passive skill, it’s always preferable and doesn’t take up an active skill slot that can be used for something else.

“This brings us to why you are taking this course. Like most courses taught by the Adenturer’s guild, we don’t try to dictate how you should fight; if you want that, join the guard or army; we focus on giving you a firm foundation to build your style. To that end, we will start you down the road to some basic weapons skills, and when everyone has earned at least two of them, we’ll go over to the local dungeon so you all get some experience fighting monsters.

“Any Questions?” No one raises their hand. “All right, spread out, and my assistants and I will start you on the road to getting your first weapons skill.”