The forays outside the village with Jonas became routine and Luna was looking forward to it the whole week. While every child in the village went outside to help on the fields or herd the village's sheep flock from time to time, it was something entirely different to go on patrol and learn about animals and monsters. She normally spent her days helping her father in the mill, processing the village grain into flour, or doing easy sewing work for her mother, who took shameless advantage of her daughter's [Sewing] skill and gave her all the easy and repetitive sewing jobs.

While that might be a very efficient way to handle things, Luna dreaded her time inside holding a needle and thread. It was mind-numbing boredom and she rued the day she proudly proclaimed to her mother that she had gained the skill. The worst part was that she needed to concentrate on the work and daydreaming only lead to her messing up and pricking herself with the needle.

While her skills did not gain any levels, Luna was gaining knowledge every day, just not any solid experience. While skills could improve that way, being told how things are done is very different from doing them herself. By now she was absolutely sure that she would pick the Hunter class, but the second class option was still undecided. She had not broached the topic with Jonas before, but today was the last Sunday before her Rite and she could use some solid advice.

They were close to the midpoint of today's patrol, so she decided to roll the dice and see if Jonas could help her figure it out.

"Hey Jonas, let's stop at this little brook for lunch. It is a good spot, we are close to the forest and have some trees for shade and I need your advice on something."

Jonas looked at the sun and nodded agreement, pointing over to a patch of grass in the shade of a tree close to the brook. "Alright, first drink the rest of your water-skin and then refill it at the brook. It is a hot day and you need the water."

Following his own advice Jonas drank the rest of his water-skin and refilled it. Using a tree stump as a backrest he sat down and began unpacking his lunch. Looking questioning at Luna, he waited for her to get comfortable before asking, "So what is it you need advice on?"

Chewing on a piece of jerky, Luna contemplated how to best broach the topics. "You know that I will have my Rite next week?" Seeing his nod, she continued, "As we talked about before, I will be picking the Hunter class. But what I have not decided on yet, is which second class to pick. Not that I know all the options I might have, but I really do not like the likely options of Crafting classes. With the Hunter class, I simply do not have the time to get anywhere close to being useful with a dedicated crafting class. Hunter also gives me access to the relevant crafting skills I need to process animals. Do you have any ideas?"

The more Luna talked the more disbelief crept into Jonas' face. "What do you mean who have not decided yet? Your parents should have talked about this with you already. Of course, a crafting class is out of the question. You have no time to spend your days working on a craft, your duties as Hunter will keep you busy. How could your parents, ..." Jonas suddenly stopped, "oh that sneaky son of a bitch. Your father did this on purpose! Ah well, I guess payback is fair. I guess I am the better person to ask for advice anyway."

Shaking his head Jonas went on. "Alright, since I will be your Hunter trainer anyway, I might as well tell you now rather than later. I was born in Creek Springs, but I left right after my Rite. I not only gained access to the Hunter class but also Knight. I thought the Knight class would be enough to make it as an adventurer, fighting monsters. But is not even half as glorious as stories make it out to be. You do not travel around as you like, you have to stay put until the local lords set up a quest. No traveling and seeing the world, because roaming bands of independent adventurers are highly suspicious and not well-liked. I was told there were problems with some of those a few decades ago. Something about getting ideas above their station and trying to rebel against the local lords."

He shrugged his shoulders. "Adventurers these days are glorified guards, who are sent out to solve problems at their Lord's whims. If you are not happy with that, you can find somewhere else to live and if you protest or disregard an order you will be outlawed. There is no adventurer's guild, only mercenaries who work for money. Only that does not sound too good, so the Bards and Minstrels are told to keep using adventurer."

Jonas kept careful watch of the expression on Luna's face during his explanation and had to suppress bursting out in loud laughter. Where she had looked excited at first, she was now looking as if the world was about to end. "What do you mean there is no such thing as an adventurer? What about those stories of them cleaning out dungeons and fighting against monsters to claim new land?" Luna screamed in his face.

"Those are just stories for children," Jonas told her "all the adults know that the world is not as the stories describe it. It might have been different a long time ago when there were many more monsters to fight, dungeons to pacify. But these days the biggest danger is a war with one of the other kingdoms, or a dispute over trade with one of the merchant cities, not monsters. Sure, occasional monster attacks and new dungeons are popping up now and then, but the court wizard regularly casts spells to check for new dungeons in the kingdom. Then the king posts a reward for its destruction, only the dungeon is so fresh there is nothing big to fight. Mostly just a few low-level monsters and that is it. No glorious battle, no monster hordes, and no epic loot."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Why do you think the village is so safe out here?" Jonas went on obliterating Luna's naive worldview, "We are a week's travel away from the next town. If anything serious would appear around here, just a few Hunters are hardly enough to stop it. We could hide behind the stockade and hope to hold them off, but who would know to send help? No, the kingdom is quite safe, even Creek Springs in the middle of nowhere."

"But what about the forests?" Luna asked.

"The only places that can still be dangerous are the deep forests, caves that lead deep underground, and the ocean. But whatever lurks there does not leave their domain and the king is quite happy to leave them be in return. When the kingdom was still untamed every villager had to have one combat class and there were many more people with two combat classes, working as full-time guards. Fighting predators and monsters was not a rare event that only occurred once or twice a year. You will be one of those few who will only have combat classes, so back to your second class choice, any ideas?"

Luna remained quiet for a bit, deep in thought and Jonas gave her time to process the new information. Her thoughts were racing, until just a moment ago she believed those stories of adventurers held at least a kernel of truth and were not just embellished stories from decades or even centuries ago. She felt betrayed because she had always thought at some point she might leave the village and go on an adventure. Now, what was she supposed to do? Slowly calming herself down, she sorted her thoughts. After all, there was no need to panic and make all decisions at this instant. First, she had to decide on her class choices for the coming Rite. There was no time pressure, she would work this out later, after thinking things through and gaining a better perspective.

"Ok, Jonas. So a Crafting class is out and I have to bury my childish dreams of becoming an adventurer. But if I still need to be useful for the village, my second class should supplement the Hunter class. What other options are there that would help me spot, track, or fight things while out here?" She asked Jonas.

Contemplating her question, Jonas decided to pick the long answer and explain a bit more about classes and how one could get access. "The Crafting and Combat classes differ in their requirements. All Crafting classes require you to have at least a basic skill for that class before it becomes available to you. Nobody is sure why that is, but one theory I heard is that the number of crafting classes is immense. Just imagine being offered all of them at once, how would you choose?"

"Most of them would be useless to you unless you had a family with money backing you to start a completely new trade, an actual need for your services, and the resources available to work. What if someone picked the Jeweler class because they think it would help them get rich or because some naive village girl thinks gems are pretty? What can they do if there are no gems or jewels around? No work to be had? They would have wasted a class slot and would have to travel to the City of Gods and pray for a quest that rewards them with a slot reset. Without the chance to gain experience and level the class skills, they would never be able to replace the class with a tier 2 class. I think that theory has merit and in a way, the gods are protecting us by limiting our choices. If you have gained a skill during your apprentice years you get access to the class and everything else stays hidden."

"Now combat classes are a different thing altogether. The basic classes are always available. No, that does not include magic classes or priests, those are a whole different topic. While it is possible to gain access to more classes right after your Rite, it is very rare for that to happen. Some noble families supposedly know requirements for some, but apparently, even they often fail at unlocking them for their offspring, because the requirements supposedly vary from person to person. So there is no point thinking about them."

Raising a hand to stall Luna's question he went on. "Everyone gets access to basic combat class options. Like Warrior or Archer would be examples. I can see two of the basic classes as real options for you to supplement the Hunter class. One is the Scout, which will help you with fieldcraft, tracking, ranged weapons, and, in a limited fashion, melee combat. It is still a light combat class, but it adds some combat expertise while improving on some Hunter skills."

Seeing Luna paying attention and not having any questions yet, he proceeded. "Another option would be the "Skirmisher", a class that relies on keeping their distance to the enemy and harassing them with a wide variety of ranged attacks. It would give you access to thrown weapons, like javelins or throwing axes, but you would need to get a ready supply of those, so it might not be very practical. It also does not help you if you are forced to defend yourself in a melee fight"

"Oh, I nearly forgot. There is another option, which is a separate position on a Lord's court these days. Beastmaster. They train animals for different tasks. I heard they can train animals to scout or even fight for them. But at the Lord's court they mostly train animals to help with hunting. Flushing out animals and driving them towards the noble hunting party."

Luna immediately shook her head at the third option. "Not a chance. Animals tolerate me, but they do not like me. The dogs in the village simply ignore me and I never managed to pet a single cat. I was only ever sent to herd the sheep once, it was an absolute disaster. They would not listen to me. Every other kid, no matter the age, just had to wave their staff and they could move the sheep between pastures or towards village stockade for the night. I could hop around and scream for all they cared. Beastmaster is not going to work and I agree that Skirmisher class does not sound very practical. I already need to carry arrows and a bow, a few knives, maybe a hatchet and that is in addition to a backpack with supplies. I do not see how I could also carry javelins or throwing axes. I need to pack light if I want to cover enough ground to find game animals. That only leaves the Scout class. Thank you!"

The decision made and the class talk was over, Jonas pulled up Luna by her hand to resume their patrol. "Glad I could help you. Please keep my history to yourself, I really do not want all the kids waiting in front of my house to hear me tell stories. And don't even try looking innocent, you know just as well as I do that you would have been right there with them!"

Jonas was about to start walking again but then turned back to Luna. "Next time we are going out you will have your classes and you will lead the patrol. Now you are just here to learn, but then you will start gaining experience for your skills until you are ready to go out on your own. Pay close attention, the more you know, and the fewer mistakes you make the more experience you will gain."