[Power gained - level 5 Business Guild Master]

The floating white text had come up yesterday, when Livia had a chance to settle down and think through what she could learn from the experience.

Supposedly it was a reward for not blowing up at Albert right there on the spot, and keeping the others from doing so too. The kind of thing you could only expect to be rewarded for prior to hitting level 10, in short.

Now that she’d had a night’s sleep, and the refreshing feeling that always came with a new level, it was easier to reflect over her Class’ path so far.

She was halfway to a capstone already, and the direction was fitting, recruitment would be key in the early stages, but would never stop mattering either. She still needed a plan for what came after though, something to really switch things up and give them some unfair advantages.

“Hey, where were you yesterday by the way, you’ve been surprisingly quiet?” Livia was alone, the others were already out for training. I like sleeping late, sue me.

[I was letting you do your thing, as you would say. I’ll admit it was close, but I also knew me chiming in would just add to your annoyances and increase the risk of your tantrum. You surprised me, good job.]

Why did I even address him. Livia got up and prepared for a new day. She had decided to bring Oscar along to meet with these three siblings with the pre-Aspirant [Enchanter], before they sent Roldy off on the [Quest].

Him and Kalle were spending the time training with Sten and questioning him about every detail of the first task he’d been given, and how he had figured out when he had completed the hidden objective.

Livia went down the stairs and the first thing she saw was Oscar.

Trusty Oscar, he was even waiting for her with a sandwich. He had been an anchor to bounce ideas off and keep her grounded when she was thinking of some new unrealistic movie-scenario they might be able to pull off. She’d gone through everything from college football draft movies to Hitch, any way she could charm her way in and convince all these teens to take a shot on a future in the hands of a stranger. Avoid wording it that way to their face. Check.

Today they were going to ease into it; establish relations.

They headed towards Salcret, Livia in deep thought on how to play this, but it was hard to say anything definite about what would work, what with two of the siblings’ Classes being unknown, and the third not even having one.

Oscar apparently had other things on his mind.

“Ehm, by the way if I could run something by you, I’ve been thinking that I’m narrowing down what I want to go for, you know, come summer,” He had actually decided a while ago, he just wanted to be certain.

Now that he was… Well, he wanted someone else to be certain too. That it truly fit him. “I want to go for something like [Organizer], or maybe even [Scout] and turn it into something like [Explorer], really lean into the support-role and help out at the guild, maybe earn a Caster leaning later on? I’m not sure.”

The suggestion was not received as he had expected, Livia actually frowned when she heard the first Class. “Did your first combat actually scar you that bad, Oscar?”

When he looked like a fish out of water at the surprising question she spared him the trouble of a response and kept talking.

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“I was running at the time and out of breath, but it looked to me like your mind was clear and you were doing everything you could–not freezing up, not letting your injuries get to you–yes, you were out of options, I get it if maybe you felt stupid afterward, swinging a burning branch at a mosswolf was probably the dumbe…Hrkm,”

Livia caught herself, and Oscar raising a palm to his chin in mock offense made her smile. “Look, you will get a lot stronger with a Class, recover faster and be able to do more even in hopeless situations. If you want to level by staying home with me and doing base-building, then that’s alright too, I won’t deny I appreciate the help. But I have not gotten the impression you plan to avoid combat with the way you’ve been training?” Oscar could only nod at this.

After some thinking he replied. “I just don’t know another good support Class that could be as well-rounded, I want to help out everywhere.”

It would have been a first warm day today with the sun being out, if it wasn’t for the biting wind.

They got into the [Guild] house to make their final preparations, when Livia had her idea: “You should choose [Squire]!”

It was Oscar’s turn to frown. “What’s that?”

The question nearly made her drop her jaw. “You don’t know about knights?”

“Oh, [Knights]. Uhm, sure, they ride magical steeds?” The words made Livia sag in relief, but then he continued. “From the Albernine Empire, when Humans were actually feared, you mean to tell me you know something of how to get a Class from the Albernine era?”

[Stop giving the boy hope, you know as little as I do about such Classes.]

“Wait, knights are way older than that, they were old in my time. Your only reference is from this place?” Oscar only looked at her like that much was obvious. “When you think of a knight, what do you picture?”

Oscar only had to think for a second. “All kinds, they rode magic tigers and giant flightless birds, pegasi, or whatever else they personally bonded with. Oh, and wore nothing but giant, enchanted helmets, and many wielded chain-lances,”

Livia was just facepalming. What had this planet done to her beautiful knights? “Wait, helmets specifically, not just armor in general?”

Oscar actually laughed out loud. “Every warrior wears armor, even a lot of Casters wear armor, but [Knights] wore huge magic helmets. I’ve heard one story that they needed no visors for sight, because they could see through the eyes of their bond,”

Livia was just shaking her head at this. Although on a magic tiger, that one must have been cool. But on something like an ostrich? How did they deal with the bouncing?

Eventually they got on with business, but Livia was still insisting [Squire] was the way to go for Oscar, even if she had no proof of the Class’ existence or how to get it.

Only [Knights] had survived the passage of time in people’s minds.

Mr Beard insisted that squires were not necessarily related to Elderwood [Knights], and that Humans must have gotten the more advanced Class from some other race here.

But Livia questioned why it was called [Knight] in the first place then shut him down rather quickly.

Decisions for later, it was time to recruit.