“What do you mean by sea?” Liam asked, looking just as confused as the others. “I thought it wasn’t safe to travel by sea?”

“It isn’t,” Uncle Naro replied. “For those who know what they are doing. I have a friend who has been sailing the seas for many years. She’s basically the queen of it. I have already sent word to her to ask for possible transportation.”

“Oh?” Avery and Blair muttered as they grew interested.

“Besides…you said you wanted to go on adventures, right?” Uncle Naro commented. “You won’t get much adventuring by just using portals to travel. Out there, in the wilderness, are dungeons that many don’t know about. Some need to be taken down so the monsters don’t come out anymore. While some are so new they have wonderous loot waiting to be taken.”

Artem’s, Gimmel’s, Liam’s, Mercer’s, and Roman’s eyes gleamed with excitement at that.

“Now that is what I think sounds like an adventure,” Roman commented as he let his thoughts drift to all the possibilities.

“However, before we do any of that. I need to assess and see where you need to grow,” Uncle Naro stated, dampening their moods a bit. He let out a laugh as he added, “Come on now. Don’t give me those looks. We have three days before she arrives, a day for her to resupply, and then she’ll be leaving the day after. That gives us plenty of time for you to get an idea and a direction on what to work on.”

Liam thought about his plan. Depending on what they each needed to work on, that should all work out. He wanted to visit the Library in this city and see what there were for him to learn, but that could come after they get a proper assessment on what they needed to work on. He looked at Uncle Naro and nodded. He then looked at the others and said, “I think that should be fine. What do you all think?”

Mercer brought a hand to his chin and thought it over. Blair shrugged making it known she didn’t care. Roman did the same. Avery looked wary, but she nodded. Ariyana and Artem looked like they were onboard with the plan. Gimmel just sat there.

“Everything alright Gimmel?” Liam asked.

“Hm?” Gimmel muttered as he turned his attention to him. “Oh, I was just waiting to see what you all thought.”

Liam gave him a puzzled look before asking, “Okay, but what are your thoughts?”

“What do you mean?” Gimmel asked as he tilted his head and looked confused.

“What do you mean, what do I mean?” Liam asked. “I’m asking what do you think of that plan?”

Gimmel stared at him. “You’re asking me for my thoughts?” Gimmel asked, now looking surprised.

Liam grew even more confused. “Well, yeah. You are a part of this group aren’t you?”

“I mean yeah, but…I’m the newest and the lowest in the totem pole of this group,” Gimmel stated.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Roman questioned, sounding just as confused as the others.

“Well, as the newest and lowest rank member does it really matter what opinion I have?” Gimmel asked, trying to clarify what he believed the others were confused about.

“Yes,” Liam said, dragging the word out a bit. “Everyone’s opinion matters.”

Gimmel was taken aback.

“Why do you look so shocked?” Blair asked.

“Well, usually in groups, parties, clans, or even guilds, the newest and lowest members do really have a say or an opinion on things,” Gimmel explained.

Uncle Naro laughed. “That’s true for many. However, Little Gimmy, not all are like that.”

“Little Gimmy?” Gimmel questioned, looking a bit horrified by the nickname.

Liam chuckled a bit. “I don’t know how others do things, but we aren’t like that here. If you have an opinion, an idea, or even a suggestion, don’t be afraid to voice it. Right guys?”

Artem, Ariyana, Avrey, Blair, Mercer, and Roman nodded as they gave him a smile.

“Besides,” Liam started back up. “Besides Uncle Naro, you might be the highest leveled person here.”

“Really?” Gimmel asked. “What level is everyone?”

Uncle Naro raised a hand up as he looked around the facility. People were starting to come in for lunch and the place was starting to fill up. He then looked at everyone and said, “Let’s move this conversation somewhere else. That way we can talk freely without anyone listening in.”

Liam was a bit confused by that, but slowly nodded his head. Everyone agreed with the large man and stood up.

“So where are we going to go then?” Roman asked, curiously.

Uncle Naro gave him a grin. “Outside of town and a little into the forest that resides right next to here.”

Liam let out a sigh. He was starting to think the man just wanted to show off his culinary skills and he couldn’t do that when they were eating and getting drinks here in town.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Liam and everyone stood around an open clearing in the forest near the port town. There weren’t any monsters or creatures around. It was a quiet around them, except for the laughter coming from Uncle Naro as he watched the expressions of Ariyana, Avery, and Mercer as he pulled up his high leveled Outdoor Kitchen mode of the Mobile Crafter and started making snacks and tea for everyone. Artem and Liam helped him out.

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

The three looked at Liam and asked him if Uncle Naro’s ability was similar to his. He nodded and told them that it was the one and the same. He then told them how Uncle Naro had the same starting class as him when he started out. They were impressed and were starting to understand why Liam wanted the man around. With someone who had the same starting class as him, he would be a wealth of knowledge that could help him.

“Now that we’re away from possible prying eyes and wandering ears,” Uncle Naro started as he passed around cups of tea. “Let’s continue where we left off. I’d like to know what your classes are and current levels. Let’s start with Gimmel since he’s higher than you.”

Gimmel looked a bit embarrassed when everyone turned to look at him. He took a moment to recompose himself before saying, “I am level nineteen, and my current class is Fantasy Puppeteer.”

“Fantasy Puppeteer?” Ariyana, Avery, and Mercer repeated as they looked at him with curious glances.

“Interesting choice. I assume it is an evolved class from your starting?” Uncle Naro asked.

Gimmel nodded. “I started off with the Rogue class. However, after I found out that I had an affinity with Illusion and Puppeteering I was tasked to level them up. After reaching level twenty in both I was given the choice of this class only.”

Uncle Naro eyed the young man. “Puppeteering is a costly class. I am surprised you weren’t dissuaded from getting it.”

“What do you mean by that?” Mercer asked.

“Puppeteering is a class that relies on using puppets. The costs for maintenance, making, or buying new puppets can be on the high end. You don’t see many people with that class due to that unless you are rich or have parents or backers willing to pour money into you,” Uncle Naro explained. “There is a craft that can make puppets, but it’s a craft you need a lot of knowledge in in order to do it since it requires different techniques.”

The three looked eyed Liam with suspicious glances which made him react quickly by saying, “What? Why are you looking at me?”

Artem and Roman laughed as Blair snickered a bit.

“You guys had the same reaction as us,” Roman commented.

Mercer let out a sigh as he muttered, “I had a feeling.”

Liam, looking embarrassed, quickly retorted, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I can’t get that craft until later so I’m focusing on what I have now. Just so you know.”

“Oh? Pray tell, what exactly are you working on right now?” Avery asked as she narrowed her eyes.

Liam lifted up his hand and pointed a finger up as he listed, “Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Construction Craft here and there, a bit of Tailoring, some Chef crafting whenever I am with Uncle Naro and Artem, and soon I’ll be learning Enchanting and Rune Crafting.” He then thought to himself, Not adding the Soul Crafting I still need to work on.

“Don’t let him fool you. He hasn’t listed the sub-categories of each of those crafts,” Roman called out. Liam swiftly glared at Roman which made him laugh hard.

“Geez, we take our eyes off of you for a moment and you decide to pick up more,” Mercer stated as he shook his head.

“Just so you know, it was Uncle Naro’s idea about the Enchanting and Rune Crafting,” Liam stated defensively. “He offered to teach me.”

Everyone looked at the Bear-folk. Uncle Naro looked at each of them with a serious look as he nodded. “As a Crafter he will need to get as many Crafts under his belt as possible. It will help him grow and evolve his class.”

The others looked perplexed as they listened to him.

“Why are you guys looking like that?” Uncle Naro asked.

They didn’t respond for a long moment. It was Mercer who broke the silence as he replied, “It’s just that Liam…tends to take on too much and will work himself ragged. We’re afraid he might over do it.”

Uncle Naro stared at him with that serious look for a few seconds before giving him a warm smile. He then looked at Liam and stated, “You have a good group here. For them to be worried about you like that speaks volumes.” He then looked at each of them and said, “It will happen. It’s in his nature to get lost in a project he wants to work on. I have seen it myself and experienced it as well. However, you are right to be worried. Keep an eye on him. Make sure he rests when he is supposed to.”

The others nodded.

“Alright, who’s next?” Uncle Naro asked as he looked around. “How about you little Kitsune?”

“It’s Roman. Not Little Kitsune,” Roman deadpanned. “I am level sixteen, and my current class is a Mage class.”

“I’ll go next,” Ariyana jumped in. “I am level fifteen and also have the Mage class right now.”

“I am also level fifteen and have the Mage class,” Mercer informed.

“Level fifteen, swordswoman,” Avery said.

“I recently reach level seventeen, and I have the Defender class,” Artem stated.

“Same on both accounts,” Blair chimed in.

Liam felt out of place as he listened to everyone reveal their levels. Embarrassed by their stares, Liam said in a meek tone of voice, “Level nine…Crafter.”

Artem, Ariyana, Avery, Blair, Mercer, and Roman stared at him. Roman opened his mouth and was about to say something but stopped. Liam saw the look in his eyes and guess Eri must have said something to him as he snapped his mouth closed.

Gimmel and Uncle Naro stared at Liam. The looks on their faces were both shocked and surprised.

“Are you serious?” Gimmel asked, not believing him.

Liam nodded.

“But…Ho…I don’t understand. How were you able to fight like you did against those high leveled monsters and Demon-kin?” Gimmel questioned.

“I am quite curious as well,” Uncle Naro asked as he eyed him.

“I can tell you why,” Mercer spoke up. Gimmel and Uncle Naro turned their focus on him as he continued, “I don’t think many know this, but Liam actually focused more on leveling his Sub-Stats than his actual level. Before we left the Tutorial Area, he had managed to get a lot of them to level twenty.”

Gimmel and Uncle Naro’s eye brows rose with their eyes.

“That’s insane!” Gimmel stated. “I don’t think I have ever heard anyone ever reaching the cap in the Tutorial Area before. How many did you have reach that limit? Are all your Sub-Stats at or above level twenty?”

Liam shook his head. “No. I don’t remember how many had reached that cap, but I can tell you that currently I think I have six left to get that high.”

Gimmel’s eyes rose a bit more at that proclamation as he let out an impressed whistle.

Uncle Naro stared at Liam for a long moment before finally saying, “I guess that can do it.”

Liam let out a sigh of relief as he looked at Mercer who gave him a swift wink.

Uncle Naro nodded his head. “Alright. Besides Liam, you all have roughly the same amount of levels. I guess the first thing we will need you to do is to evolve your classes out of the starting classes they are now. In order to do that we are going to need to have you think about what path you would like to go down while tying it with what you have an affinity for. I can help give you some ideas of the classes you can aim for and what they entail to get there, but I will need you to research some options on what seem interesting to you first.”

“What do you mean? Can you explain a bit more about how evolving a class works?” Mercer asked.

“To evolve a class you need to meet certain requirements,” Uncle Naro started. “Sub-stats being a certain level, Fields of Magic reaching a certain level, getting Fields of Magic to an Advanced Field, getting your Weapon Skills to a certain level, or reaching a certain Personal level. All of these contribute to a class evolving.”

Mercer and the others nodded as they listened.

“There are other factors to take in when trying to get a class to evolve,” Uncle Naro continued. “For example, if you’re trying to aim for a certain type of class that uses specific weapons then one would focus on leveling that Weapon Skill and the stats revolved around it. For certain classes based on magic one would focus on that magic. However, majority of the evolved classes involve more than just one specific thing. So you need to work on Sub-stats, Magic, and Weapon Skills at the beginning so when you reach the higher evolved classes you can focus more on the specific things to reach the class you are wanting to end with. Does that help?”

“It does. Thank you,” Mercer nodded and smiled in appreciation.

Uncle Naro’s expression suddenly changed as he remembered something. “There is a couple other things that affect class evolutions as well.”

“Oh? What are those?” Avery asked.

“Race and Bloodlines,” Uncle Naro replied. “Certain races can affect what kind of classes you are able to get. It can also restrict you from getting certain classes as well. As for bloodlines…they can give you specialized evolved classes.”

Liam’s focus instantly locked in on Uncle Naro.