Lin sat in a large room. She imagined this room was what would happen if someone like King Arthur tried to make a modern day gym. Large square cut blocks of stone sat in the corner, their edges chipped and one block was even cracked. The far side of the room was taken up by a giant round metal ring built into the floor. A small round basin held stale water to the side and a large brazier that held no flames stood against the wall were several black marks.

Lin was going to take an educated guess, assuming the mage in her class title didn’t mean ‘Nerd that hit things with stick’, that this was where they practised the magic of different elements. Lin guessed air magic didn’t really need an object, if you felt stuck in an air funnel, it was going well.

Dayla sat on the bench next to her. It was a small resting area near the room’s entrance. Lin risked a glance at the woman hoping maybe the woman might have relaxed a bit.

Nope, Dayla still looked like she was going to have a heart attack at any moment. Lin tried to ignore that the woman’s hands were in an odd shape and sometimes little sparks flew off her fingers.

“I really freak you out, huh?” Lin rested her chin in one hand. Her unstable gibbering mind latching onto the nearest distraction.

Dayla jumped at her voice and a fireball smacked into a nearby wall with a whoosh of air. Lin gasped at her first sight of magic. The air had grown almost unbearably hot before the fireball flew loose.

The training hall walls rippled with a silver sheen before fading, not even a black mark left on the stone. Lin was impressed and also slightly interested If that spell didn’t leave a mark, then she really wanted to know what damaged the other wall…

Dayla smoothed out brown robes and composed her pink face.

“I apologise,” she dipped her head at Lin before forcing her eyes to meet Lin’s.

“Yes. You terrify me,” she admitted, pushing a strand of fiery red hair behind her ear. Lin frowned.

“What is a wild mage, what’s so bad about it?” Lin turned so one of her legs rested on the stone bench. Dayla looked hesitant as if this was a topic she rather anyone else dealt with.

“Well, I suppose there is no harm. First, you must understand how the standard classes work. As we both of the mage tree, classes that use magical energy in some manner. A [Mage] is the basic and easiest class to obtain when using magic. It grants people the ability to learn, handle, and resist magic,” Dayla’s tone turned warm and her nervousness eased as if the topic soothed her.

Lin nodded as she followed.

“So, are people born with classes?” Lin asked, excited. As horrible as it was being kidnapped to a world filled with mages and demon lords, this was magic. Dayla chortled.

“I would hope not. No, being born with a class is very rare. Some classes appear due to being in a unique position. A prince or princess, for example, but the children would be unable to do anything needed to level such a class up until they understood what was needed. A [Brawler] or a [Farmer] would only appear after a person understood the fundamentals of such a job. The idea of anyone under the age of 10 having a class is a horrible thought. It means that they have been forced to adapt to a hard life instead of enjoying what childhood they have. Sometimes, it is sadly needed or a child accidentally becomes fixated on something and they gain a class,” Dayla lectured and she had also turned towards Lin, mirroring her posture so they looked like two colleagues discussing an interesting topic.

“So I guess a child class or a young class doesn’t exist?” Lin thought after a second, Dayla shrugged.

“In the kingdoms and lands I have been, this has been the case. I won’t deny there may be a child out there who has found the true joy of life and obtained a unique class. Anyway, classes grant the person more power in certain fields. A [Farmer] can gain small strength skills and vegetation quality checking. Depending on their farms, they could gain animal domesticated beast affinity or pest trapping skills. A [Farmer] class can evolve into many specific kinds such as a [Dairy Farmer], [Harvest Farmer], [Rare Fruit Farmer] and much more,” Dayla clapped her hands and a jug appeared.

Lin blinked as she pulled two cups from empty air. She poured some delicious fruit juice. Lin accepted the offered cup with a wide smile.

It was sweet.

“So even Farmers get a complex tree? Are they a tree?” Lin frowned and Dayla nodded, sipping her own cup.

“Trees themselves are just what we came up with to group classes that close in nature or evolve from each other. So, the [Mage] uses magic, simple. However, not all classes are created equally. Mages come in many flavours. A man who focused on pure fire spells or school of learning may become a [Mage] or they may become a [Pyromancer]. These are roughly close in strength and power. The Pyromancer gives up power in other elements to become stronger than a simple mage could ever be at the same level of experience. On the other hand, the Mage has an equal balance can easily control his path of growth and has equal strength in all elements. The Pyromancer will have an easier time growing as a class but will quickly narrow down into a niche that might have trouble when their core power fails them against some foes,” Dayla drained her cup and grinned.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

She was… really nice. Lin felt a little sad that she had caused Dayla to act so weird before.

“So, stronger and narrow or balanced but broader?” Lin summarised and Dayla smiled.

“Got it in one. But with the [Wild Mage] Class, this an example of someone becoming a mage but somehow gained a flawed… not that’s a poor way of putting it,” She paused and then smiled weakly at Lin.

“The WIld mages of the world are like the core [Mage] class but also off-balance in some ways and extremely powerful in others. Magic grants them far more power, letting them do spells so far beyond their class, in height and range, to the point that the mage can’t control what happens,” Daya sighed and Lin gulped her sweet juice.

“Might class said… it said that there is a chance that everytime I cast magic, chaos can happen,” Lin said slowly and Daya nodded, a streak of sunlight make her hair looked like a ruby sea.

“Chaos, an element so out of my area of expertise that I can only give you the basic fact and some story telling,” Daya looked out the large arched windows that dotted the room.

“Chaos is a force that acts however it pleases. It infects some mages with power, however, due to its nature, it refuses to follow standard spell craft and causes spells to mutate into entirely new ones. The more one orders chaos to behave, the worst it spirals out of control, Wild Mages have caused themselves to turn to stone, sunk land masses, created volcanoes where thwere was only peaceful landscapes before,” Daya explained and Lin looked at her, something cold and sharp sticking in her chest.

Dayla waved her hands in a soothing manner.

“I have also heard of some Wild Mages summoning a fortune, finding a direct path to their soulmate, banish evil with just a spark spell, blessing lands for the rest of time,” Dayla countered and Lin took a deep breath.

“I’m screwed, right? I’m not going to be reliable enough to help with what the Queen wants, right?” Lin admitted and Dayla hesitated.

“I would not think the Queen would leave you, even if we do not use your powers as intended, my Queen is fair, she would make your life comfortable here,” Dayla promised and then grinned.

“I let you help me in the mage wing, I kinda enjoyed explaining things to you,” Dayla offered. Lin thought about that.

If she worked with the mages that brought her here… they might reverse the ritual and send her home. If not, Dayla was shaping up to be a solid person. Lin felt her fear ease just a bit.

“Sure, can’t hurt to give this hero thing a shot, right?”

----

Lin stood next to the army guy, he had taken off his jacket and Lin saw strong arms. They had all gathered into the training room, it made the place look much smaller with all the people. In the sun, his skin was darker than Lin first thought. One of his parents was from somewhere warm. He noticed her and his lips thinned before he stuck out his hand.

“Robert,” he introduced and Lin blinked before shaking the hand. It wasn’t a strong grip on her end but she did her best.

“Lin, nice to meet you,” she returned the greeting and Robert nodded once.

“You alright? They shuffled you off pretty quickly,” he commented and Lin shrugged.

“I can blow up the planet by accident or something.” she grinned at Robert’s frozen expression.

“You're fucking with me, right?” he guessed and Lin shrugged.

“I make magic go wonky, I dunno what will happen,” she answered, remembering as Malavan, Dayla’s teacher, had returned an hour later.

Lin should have been happy the mage wing was willing to give her a chance since she had the Hero class. She didn’t like how Daya narrowed her eyes at the mention of ‘willing’ part. Lin guessed she might have some old cranky mage angry at her for existing.

Wild Mages had such bad rep stuck with them, Lin only been one for a day and she knew this was only the beginning of the amount she would hear on the subject.

“Awesome, so you're a mage or something?” Robert raised one brow and Lin grinned.

“What about you?” she asked instead of answering. Robert frowned.

“[Berserker], it’ not a pretty class if I have to guess from what the knight captain over there muttered. Guess he was hoping for some white knight, sorry to steal your sucky class medal,” Robert closed his eyes as he grinned.

It transformed his face, which was already quite nice, into something that Lin was only going to stare at until he opened his eyes.

“N-no worries, happy to share,” Lin nodded once as the girl wearing the jogger clothes walked over. Lin could appreciate the woman’s body from a distance, she looked like she was rocking triathlons on a weekly basis.

“Hey, Robert, shiny knight guy wants us over there,” she paused and then blinked only just seeing Lin on the other side of Robert.

“Oh hey there, Robert, don’t hog the brit,” she smiled and Lin had to shake another firm handshake.

“Naomi,” she introduced and the man in white armour called for them again. Robert clapped Lin on her shoulder.

“Don’t blow up the world without me,” he said as he left. Naomi blinked and shot Lin a questioning look.

“I… explain later, I’m a weird mage,” Lin laughed nervously and Naomi grinned.

“I’m something called a [Scout], so I guess if you need me to scope out places to blow up, I’m your gal,” Naomi waved as she moved to follow Robert.

Lin wasn’t sure how she felt about being known as the girl who blew things up. Still, she was a lot better.

She was half expecting Robert and the others to get the [Knight], [Awesome Healer], [The super gimmicky but amazing thing] classes and make fun of Lin for being some explosive mage.

They all seemed… nice.

Lin felt another shard of panic melt away from her mind and she took a deep breath as Malavan called Lin and two others over.

The thin, dark eyed, guy and a girl that Lin hadn’t noticed before. She was pale like something was wrong with her. Her figure was thin and her brown hair limp. On her hand, there were small angry red holes on veins. Lin winced, she had IV drips before.

Lin… hoped it was IVs.

Malavan looked at the three of them.

“You three make up the mages of the group,” He stroked his beard. Lin looked over her shoulder.

Robert, Naomi, the cheerful archer girl and the slightly chubby guy stood around the knight captain.

The guy in the leather jacket and two girls listened to the old woman Lin had seen when she had first woke up in the altar room.

Her hands glowed with a white light. Healer? Leather Jacket guy seemed a bit of a hardass for being a healer…

Lin thought her nurse that looked after her Ward when she had ear surgery. No, leather jacket guy fit right in...

“I like you all to introduce yourselves,” Malavan instructed and went quiet. Lin looked at the gothic dark teen and the girl who was barely healthy enough to stand.

“Uh… Lin, Wild Mage,” she tried to smile, Dark guy growled, moving black hair out his pale, slightly, pimply face.

“Arran, [Floralmancer],” he grunted and Lin blinked at him. She looked confused until the other girl spoke up.

“He mean’s druid, he just doesn’t want to say it because he wanted to be Necromancer,” she smirked and Lin tried to keep a straight face.

“Colette, [Summoner],” she nodded at Lin.

Malavan looked at them all and he seemed to age 20 years.

“Not one of you is a direct pure mage, I… have my work cut out for me,” he whispered and Lin tried to shoot him a winning smile.

Lin didn’t think it improved his mood...