"Hmm... I think this bit goes here?" Vanessa asked herself as she attached a small cog to the inner workings of the airship's core with no small amount of hesitation.

She quickly closed her eyes and braced her body but after a few seconds of silence passed she exhaled in relief and smiled. "Yay! It didn't explode for once! I finally have an evening which doesn't have to be spent repairing even more broken parts."

Vanessa wiped her brow then got up and nodded. 'Yup. I don't even care if that cog doesn't belong there. The core is running with it so it's at least not doing any immediate harm. I do need a break for a bit though.'

She clambered out of the belly of the mechanical beast and smiled upon seeing Beta emotionlessly tinkering with some of the airship's outer wiring. "Hey, Beta."

The clone nodded to acknowledge her but didn't stop to talk.

"As focused as ever, haha." Vanessa didn't mind how lifeless Daz's clones seemed at times.

In fact, she found that it made them great conversation partners when she just needed someone or something to talk to. Rimmy was a good choice for that too but a lot of people did that while Daz's clones were a bit more of a... personal confidant.

She frowned as she climbed down the ladder to the ground. 'I've been doing that a lot lately, talking to Beta - Gamma too when he shows up. I'm glad Sandy likes to knuckle down and work on the core whenever he has the chance so he can't pay any attention to my whining... It'd be embarrassing if he actually cared, haha.'

Vanessa grabbed her quarterstaff which had just been resting against the base of the airship's hull and she then held it behind her neck and lazily rested her arms on it with her shoulders raised.

'I guess I miss Rose. It's kinda weird that I don't have many friends here. There's Rose, Sandy, Beta... maybe Daz? Uh... Yeah, one of those isn't a real person and the rest are super busy,' Vanessa laughed in thought before she began humming as she strolled through the outer fort of Fort Skip with no real goal in her mind.

'I'm kinda surprised how satisfying it is having someone rely on you. I wonder why she told me to leave her alone for a while though?' She tilted her head in deep thought. 'She's usually more than happy to see me.'

'Well, she's smart. I'm sure she has her reasons,' Vanessa concluded confidently.

A slow 20-minutes passed as the girl just meandered around the fort doing nothing but greeting people with that warm smile of hers. She was alone with her thoughts, mostly.

"Yeah... I should go check up on her," Vanessa mumbled. 'She may be smart, but she's just a kid and she did rely on me a lot. It'd be irresponsible of me to just ignore her. A simple visit couldn't hurt, could it?'

----------------------------------------

Daz stopped welding the small bronze figurine of Rimmy that he'd only just started working on this evening.

He took off his welding goggles and gloves - both items he didn't really need but they helped put him in the crafting mood when working with metal.

He then reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. "A text from Rose? She didn't just jump right back into her capsule after our talk? What a surprise."

The message read: 'Help! Vanessa came to check up on me and I don't have the willpower to tell her to leave!'

Daz blanked for a second before he began laughing almost hysterically. It took him a good few seconds to eventually calm down. "Hahaha... Why did that tickle me so much? I can basically feel the panic from her text. She's so... normal. This is refreshing."

He replied with a simple: 'Act natural.'

After that, he returned to his crafting and put his phone on silent mode. The last thing the reaper wanted was for Rose to avoid Vanessa and focus solely on texting him. Some time together with her crush would do the girl some good.

A few peaceful hours passed and before long it was midnight. "Hmm?" Daz raised his head and turned to look at the door to his workshop. "Who's banging on the door this late? Not many people even have clearance to enter the inner fort anymore."

He got up off his stool and cracked his back before approaching the door and opening it. A puff of smoke greeted him.

"I had a feeling it was you, Sandy. Need something?" Daz asked as he completely ignored the very rude gesture of the man blowing smoke right into his face.

Sandy chuckled. "Ever the walkin' stone, eh?"

He took another drag from his pipe but exhaled the other way this time. "Just wanted to chat. It's been a while, Kiddo."

Daz stepped aside as he held the door open. "Come on in. I'm not exactly busy."

Sandy smiled and strolled right into the workshop. "'At's a surprise, what with all of this war and Ember nonsense. Figured you'd be up to yer knees in work like a farmer with shit."

Daz narrowed his eyes as he shut the door and followed the short and stocky man. 'Why'd he emphasise 'farmer' with so much hatred? I don't think he has a think against tractors or anything... Hmm... His weapon? It's a hoe if I recall. Is that why he's come to see me? Is he stressed out over his class?'

Daz would get no answers just speculating and he wasn't so socially inept anymore to just bluntly ask.

Instead, he sat back down in his stool and picked up his Rimmy statuette. It possessed many imperfections and had clearly been moulded incorrectly, but it still resembled the Guardian of Fort Skip rather well, Daz felt.

"Ya workin' with metal now, Kiddo? Movin' up in the world I see," Sandy remarked as he found a chair that had been sloppily placed to the side of the workshop.

He grabbed it and brought it to Daz's side before choosing to plop himself right down into it. "Still got yer pipe?"

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Daz nodded. "There's no reason why I wouldn't."

He grabbed the smoking tool from his Industrial Item Box where he kept it and handed it to Sandy.

The man began filling it with some strange green herb the system called Farom Lucid Dreamgrass. It was extremely potent, apparently.

Sandy handed the pipe back to Daz and then lit it with his lighter. "Go ahead, Kiddo."

Daz took a draw and nodded. "Not bad."

"'Not bad' he says, hahaha! Carl and Bobby both passed out when they took it. Your body must be crazy to withstand it without specific resistances," Sandy laughed.

Daz shrugged. "I have a lot of points in the Immunity stat."

"'At' so?" Sandy seemed to lose interest and an air of seriousness surrounded him. "Kiddo, mind if I ask you something?"

"No, not at all. I assume your question has something to with why you're seeing me so late into the night?" Daz asked.

"Haha, can't get much past you, eh, Kiddo? Damned instincts, right?" He was wrong, but Daz saw no reason to correct him. "'Ave you ever felt like ye got royally dicked over by the system?"

"From time to time, yes," Daz acknowledged, "Though it's certainly helped me more than it's hindered me. I don't trust it nor have any love for it if that's what you're asking."

"Fair. Tell me, 'ave ya ever looked for a certain kind of skill only to be told you don't meet the requirements to learn it?" Sandy asked as he let some anger show on his face.

Daz shook his head. "No. I can't say I have."

"Really? Shame. I suppose ye've really leaned into the whole shovel business, eh?" Sandy asked mostly rhetorically as he took another puff of his pipe.

Daz followed suit then said, "This is about your class, Novice Farmer, isn't it?"

"Well I wasn't exactly hidin' it. Do me a favour, would ya? Try to get a skill meant for a dagger," Sandy requested.

Daz nodded. He trusted Sandy but he was never against proving a point with actual testing.

"System, show me the cheapest skill that allows correctional movement when using a dagger, please," Daz said aloud. 'Requirements, huh? I wonder if any will show up...'

Confirmed. Displaying desired skill.

Basic Dagger Guidance [F-Rank (Lower Tier)] Description

A basic skill of the system's creation that passively makes the host's movements when using a dagger better.

More system-series garbage. It's kinda sad that it's the most popular skill series since it's the cheapest even if it's the worst, eh?

Abilities Corrects mistakes in the host's movement when wielding a dagger by 0.5%. Cost 500 merit points Requirements The host must have a class that specialises in wielding daggers.

Daz frowned. "This doesn't make sense."

"What? I assume ya saw the requirement, yeah?" Sandy asked. "It's the same for me. The skill I sorely need is impossible for me to learn. I need a hammer-based class or an even rarer pure crafting class. I've looked into it and my only guaranteed way to get what I need is through your Class Reset Token."

Daz held up a hand to stop Sandy. "I had assumed as much, but for now, give me a moment to think, please, Sandy. I have never once seen a requirement box. I need to ask the system a couple of questions."

"Haha," Sandy chuckled as he relit his pipe and went for another drag. "Take yer time. I'm in no rush."

Daz nodded and held his chin as he began his questioning. 'System, why is this the first time I'm seeing a requirement field?'

Confirmed. That is because the host has requested the information of something the system can provide while wishing to see the requirements of the skill in question.

'Oh, lovely. More hidden features that the system only explains when you ask about them,' Daz thought with copious amounts of sarcasm. 'So, system, can you please explain to me why it is that I've never once seen this field before but it seems fairly standard to Sandy?'

Confirmed. Champions are not limited by class restrictions, though all other restrictions still apply. The host has seen these restrictions before, only not in a direct manner as the host has specifically filtered them out from their searches.

Now that, well, that intrigued Daz to no end. 'That actually makes some sense. I have a skill for using handheld guns even though that's unrelated to my class but like the system said, I've been limited in skill selection before due to racial limitations. My question now, however, system, is why are champions exempt from class-related restrictions?'

The reaper was met with silence.

'Okay. Something you don't want to talk about, it would seem. What makes the most sense is that the system's giving the champions the most options when it comes to choosing their first class upgrade when the trials end, or, in my case, second class upgrade,' Daz surmised.

Pulling himself out of his thoughts, he glanced over at his company.

Sandy was puffing away on his pipe in a relaxed manner as he slowly scanned the small projects Daz had crafted over the last month.

"So, Sandy," Daz called to get his attention. "You're interested in the Class Reset Token?"

The man nodded. "Yup. I don't see any other way about it, Kiddo. System says it's impossible to change yer class without one and they're rarer than a 20-year-old king who had magical powers before the system even came to earth. At least that's the word on the grapevine, haha."

Daz smiled. "I don't mind giving it to you, Sandy. I have no use for it."

'I originally wanted the Champion of Bludgeoning to come and claim it given his situation and clear potential, but maybe the boy's dead or simply did not want to cross an ocean for the chance. Not everyone is as crazy as Mu is. If I can use this token to pay back Sandy for all he's done and for the lives he saved during the bombing attempt by Timothy Marglow... It would be a token well-spent.'

"I don't take handouts, Kiddo," Sandy grumbled. "This may not sound like much since I'm an old man with a dead wife and a son who likely got killed by the system so I've not really got any reason to leave, but I'll pledge to serve ya until I die."

He chuckled as he closed his eyes and thought of the past. "Ye'r a king and I'm former-military. I won't be a soldier, mind ya, but I'll sure as hell break my back backwards to help ya build what ya want buildin'."

Daz made the token appear on the top of his extended palm, clearly having removed it from his Industrial Item Box.

He flicked the coin-sized chunk of metal at Sandy who easily caught it with his free hand.

"Don't go dying on me, Sandy. I'd hate for that token to be wasted. As you said, it's rarer than, well, rarer than me," Daz said sternly but Sandy could hear the trust and kindness hidden in Daz's tone which was buried under the emotionless tone of his.

Sandy stood up and tossed the token up and down a few times, seemingly in thought. "Don't tell anyone I said this since they'll call me soft but I won't let ya down, Kiddo... and thanks."

"You are very welcome. I do need a lot of things built, after all. Won't do me any good if you're tied down by a hoe, now will it?" Daz asked with a slight smile.

"Cheeky brat," Sandy grumbled with a smirk as he exited the workshop, leaving Daz on his own.