[You have died!

But you did it heroically, saving a poor girl from a horrible death in the jaws of some mutant bug! In so doing, you have completed a hidden quest: Hero of Sedgewick. You receive a bonus of +1 to a stat. Choose well; the chosen stat also influences your heritage.

You will resurrect tomorrow at dawn. Meanwhile, someone has requested to meet you.]

Suzette found herself sitting on a bench to the side of a large patio. The paving stones looked like marble. Palm trees surrounded the area, and in the center were several medium-sized, white-feathered birds with long, black legs. Their heads and longish beaks were also black. Currently, the birds were engaged in catching the food a man was tossing to them.

The bird feeder was a man with dusky skin, readily apparent since he wasn't wearing a shirt. Instead of pants, he had a sort of skirt that went from his waist to his knees. It was pure white and trimmed in gold. He had a curly black beard, but his hair was covered with a white cloth held in place by a gold circlet on his brow. He wore sandals on his feet. Smiling over at Suzette, he dumped the rest of the bird food out of a small jar into his hand and flung it in the air.

Something landed near Suzette, and she saw it was a shimmering blue scarab about an inch long. It tried to scurry away, but it was caught by a long black beak. "I tried bread crumbs, but they didn't like them, and they told me it was pigeon food. The Ibis love the scarabs, though, so scarabs it is. I’m so glad you're here; I need your advice. Which do you think is better? This one?" he posed for her, turning sideways and putting one arm straight ahead and one behind.

".....or this one?" He turned sideways to her but in the other direction. His head changed into that of an Ibis, and he was holding a staff in his front hand.

The change to something non-human was startling. "Holy shit! Who are you!!! What happened to your head?!"

"Ah, well, that settles that. I like the old traditional look, but it does make it more difficult to connect with people." The man's head returned to normal, and the staff disappeared.

"Let's start over. I'm Hermes, Thrice Blessed God of Magic, Alchemy, and a lot of other cool things. And you are Suzette, the newest member of my secret order of Hermetic Scholars. Want lunch while we get acquainted?"

“Does getting acquainted include answers about what’s going on?”

“Absolutely. And if you aren’t happy with the answers, or the food, you’re free to leave and do whatever boring thing you prefer until you can rejoin the world.”

Suzette shrugged. This was weird, even for a game, but something smelled delicious. She followed Hermes into the next room.

Lunch turned out to be skewers of lamb in a tangy sauce, spicey brown rice, along with some very tasty sliced fruit she didn’t recognize. After inquiring about how Suzette's new job was going, her host gave her some background on Hermetics.

"It started with this really nice fusion between Greek and Egyptian beliefs, along with what was going on in the studies of alchemy, ritual magic, and astrology. I could see it all fit together, but this blend of magic wasn't going to be for everyone. Most scholars like to specialize more. So, I held a big get-together in Alexandria, invited the people I wanted to come, and leaked the information to see who else showed up. It was a great party and lasted over two weeks. Non-stop mix of philosophy, magic, science, and partying. I was surprised at who came. I expected the scholars, but I also got a fruit vendor from Carthage with some ideas on heavenly movements, a group of girls from Athena's temple who had their own heavenly movements, and the current royal assassin in Luxor."

"In the end, we decided to form a secret society, and they named it after me. That was really nice of them. We've been learning, unlearning, and hiding in plain sight ever since then. Oh, and I mentioned Cuthitcus, the Royal Assassin? He was really impressed by that little poisoning you did. He thought it was a nice touch disguising it as healing. He brought it to my attention. I agreed with him, and we sent the invite."

"Wait...I killed someone. That gets me into your secret society of magic?"

"Nope. Killing is all too common. It was how you killed him. Let me give you some more background. The world runs on natural laws. Dragons can fly, pears fall off of trees, and everybody dies. But if you know the laws, study them, and really get a feel for them, you can sort of push back against them - flip them around. Gravity makes things fall, but you can learn to fly. Everything dies, but you can stretch things out and live longer or maybe even walk back out of death. Like you get to do soon."

"What you did was an application of the principle of Polarity. Everything has poles—North and South, sweet and sour. Things can be both alike and unlike. Opposites can be different in substance but alike in degree. Extremes can meet. Paradoxes can all be reconciled."

"You did something paradoxical by accident. You took a healing herb, added a bit of tainted dark magic, and suddenly, in addition to cleansing the wound, you made sure the patient died of poison."

"But I-"

"But you didn't mean to. You didn't know. That's great. Through not knowing, you find new knowledge. Another application of Polarity. You're a natural."

Suzette's head was whirling. "Wait. But I'm in a game, and I'm just a Contract Worker, and I don't even have primary skills. But I now have Hermetics as a primary skill. How does that work? How am I here?"

Hermes stood up. "Easy, you’re here because you died and had to be somewhere. Is this place more unlikely than a dingy room with a few snacks? And are you sure this is just a game? What if this is the real world, and you only think it’s a game? Maybe getting out of your pod is how you enter the game that you think is the real world. Or maybe both are just two polar extremes of reality, and you have a foot in both? After all, how we experience reality is different for all of us. Don’t worry; you'll figure it out.

“As to skills, yes, your employers at ACME trimmed away all of your access to primary skills and traded those off to give you abilities to make you more efficient workers, but only the ones they knew about. You’re prevented from learning most of the normal starting skills available to players. They went through other character classes and made a nice list of things you can't learn.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“But they have to follow the rules. If they missed a skill, or it was hidden from them, then you can still learn it. The System only keeps you from learning the skills they listed. There are others, but those skills are hidden until you find them. Similar to how I hid Hermetics. Seemed obvious to have hidden skills for a Secret Order. And you found it. So welcome. Glad to have you."

Suzette was starting to understand, “So, there’s a difference between Hermetical Alchemy and normal Alchemy? What about the Paradoxical Poisoning skill? And how does a sub-skill work?”

“Small differences that set my skills apart from other skills. You won’t find a ritual for a Hermetic Seal in normal alchemy, and without that, you won’t be able to make a philosopher’s stone! But the difference is important for you because it means you can learn my versions of those skills. And subskills are easy. All the experience you earn in a sub-skill counts toward Hermetics, in addition to the experience you earn directly. Don’t worry, you’ll catch on quickly, and there are people around to help. You can get some tutoring during your downtime each time you die rather than playing old video games.”

Hermes looked over at a sundial and scowled. "The sun always goes faster when I'm having fun. Or maybe Apollo has a hot date tonight and is cheating. But you have to go. I have two gifts for you. The first is my mark. You'll know the members of my order by it, and they you. No one else can see it. If you suspect someone is from my order, think of me as you glance at them to see their mark." His thumb reached out and brushed her forehead.

"And I have a book for you. It has some answers, some questions, and some puzzles that will lead you deeper into your studies and help you in 'the game.' It's yours, and you can't lose it; it will appear when you whisper 'Hermetica.'"

Suzette took the book. "Thanks. I think. No, definitely, thanks. Can I come back again? And how?"

Hermes smiled down at her. "Sure. Anytime you are between life and death or in your dreams. Oh, here, take a banana with you; they go bad quickly in the heat."

Things started to fade around her. She woke up sitting next to the fountain in Sedgewick at dawn, feeling horrible. She knew why Ozzy had been so morose. The after-effect from death really sucked. Then again, most mornings in the real world were almost as bad lately. She could deal with this. She stood up, and a banana dropped out of her lap. She picked it up and stared at it. Memories came back to her. She sat down and ate the banana. They went bad quickly in the heat….

[Summary

-You have met Hermes, Thrice Blessed God of Magic, Alchemy, Hermetics, and all things cool, gaining you 200 experience in Hermetics.

-You gained enough experience to raise Hermetics to Rank 3.

-You gained enough experience to raise INT to Rank 3.

-You have gained the Mark of the Hermetic Order of the Eternal Dawn.

-You have gained a copy of volume 1 of Corpus Hermeticus. Command word: Hermetica

-Your Heroic Death earned you a bonus stat point. This is added to your natural stats and is a clue to your heritage. You might want to pick that sometime. The clock is ticking.]

She realized she had to focus and choose where to put the point she’d earned by saving the girl from the monstrous bug. She could pick up more points of INT through Hermetics. Baking would increase her DEX. It would be slow, but she could work hard at it. CHA seemed like the smart choice. It was already part of her heritage, somehow. Charisma or similar stats had always been something she liked to focus on in the other games. CHA seemed like the best choice.

Suzette looked at her stats. INT was up to 4 now, DEX at 2, and CHA at 2. Everything else was at 0. She wanted to see if she could learn more about magic and alchemy, but the only clue was that WIS, INT, and CHA gave her more mana. She decided to go with CHA and raise that to 3. Her mana went up by 15 points. She also felt more confident and more sure of herself; the malaise of dying faded away to a whisper.

[You have chosen to increase your CHA. Your natural CHA bonus is now +3. You have uncovered more of your heritage and have discovered that you have a natural resistance to paralysis of 50%.]

All of that sounded great, but with the sun up, she needed to get to work. She noticed that she was getting some odd looks from some of her fellow workers. Going into the Tavern, she looked in the mirror behind the bar. She’d changed. Her hair had more curls, and were her eyes bigger? And what was up with her ears?

"Oh god! I've got Spock Ears." They stuck out a little from her hair with definite points to them.

Outside, Billy had gathered everyone around the table for daily assignments. She wandered out and started to pull her hair over her ears, then said to hell with it. This is who she was; there was no sense hiding it, so she might as well flaunt it.

Several people looked at her with interest. Ben cocked an eyebrow and smiled. Rolly gave a two-thumbs-up sign. Billy looked at her for a second and then sighed. "Ok, I’m not even going to ask how you managed a makeover and pointed ears. Looks good. And just shows that my instincts are 100% correct again. Betty has been crushing it as a baker and churning out the muffins. So, we don't need two bakers. But as I have just secured a half-interest of that fine tavern across the road, it turns out I do need a barmaid.

“I just changed your class to Barmaid. You start today in the afternoon and will be working later than normal, but you can sleep in. It’s just farmers and townsfolk now, but as soon as the players enter the game, the place will be busy. Talk to Derek, the tavern keeper."

[Your specialty as a Contract Worker has been reassigned.

You have lost the specialty 'Baker.' You retain your skill: Bake Muffin Rank 0.

You have gained the specialty 'Barmaid.'

You have gained the following skills:

Mixology (DEX), Flirt (CHA), Pub Games (DEX), Brewing (WIS), and Barmaid's Balance (AGI).]

Suzette was fine with the promotion. The skills looked better; she was out of the kitchen, and she got to sleep in.