"Now,” Luciandro squared his shoulders and grounded his staff. “What’s say I take you on? Temporarily, at least.”

“You mean as your apprentice?” Jack’s eyes went round. “Won’t Amiandro have something to say about that?”

“I’m not suggesting you spend the next decade at my knee,” Luciandro said. “I’m suggesting that I teach you the basics, insofar as I may. I remind you that I —we all here— are considered monsters. Not beastkin, not demihumans, monsters. As such... let us just say that our manipulation of magic, and the types of magic we may manipulate, are not altogether the same as those who are considered otherwise. The basics, however, are mostly from the essentia school of the neutral college, and so all may cast them without opposition.”

“Considered monsters?” Jack asked. “Osmando said the same thing. Considered as monsters by whom?”

“Why, Mund, of course,” the wizard seemed surprised at the question. “The world has rules, Jackson Grenell,” he gestured with his staff. “And we must follow them, whether we like them or not. That is your first lesson.

“Now,” he nodded towards the token in Jack’s hand. “I will show you how to read your guild token, and show you some of the tasks you may use it for.”

“That might be easier said than done,” Jack confessed. “Given that I neither speak nor read the language, I doubt I’ll be able to do much with it.”

“Yes,” the old mouse stroked his beard. “That will be a problem.

“Tell me this, Jackson Grenell,” he asked. “Forgive me if this sounds rude, but how do you come to be in this place without knowing anything? Did you simply wake up one morning and decide, ‘today I shall travel to a far off land I know nothing about and go bandit hunting?’

“Don’t get me wrong,” he hurried. “I mean no disrespect, and I’m obviously more than glad you’re here. I’m simply very confused, and the condition vexes me.”

So Jack took a deep breath and gave him the story, or the bare bones of it, as quickly and concisely as he could. He was still working on the assumption that time was precious.

“That...” the old wizard clasped his grounded staff with both hands, “is quite the....

"And you really have no idea how you got here or why? I mean, here, as opposed to somewhere else?”

Jack shrugged. “As I said, my working theory is that I got shoved here so I could be taken care of if the bus missed.”

“Doesn’t make sense,” Luciandro frowned. “Why go to so much trouble? I know from my master that passage between the universes is difficult and costly to manage. Far easier to simply punt you into the void between and be done with you. No air in the void. Very little light. Nothing solid. You’d be irretrievably dead in thirty or forty minutes.”

Jack had no answer to that. “Maybe because my attacker was a demon lord?” he posited. “And they can’t resist going for the Rube Goldberg attack? Even when a simple projectile between the eyes will get the job done quicker and easier?”

“Actually, that might be it,” Luciandro nodded.

“In any case, we need you versed in at least the basics of self preservation and adventuring before we can proceed with any hope of success, so we may as well get going. I’ll read your information to you. Later, perhaps, should we all still be together and alive, I’ll have our youngling teacher help you with learning to read."

It was a testament to how normalized Jack was becoming to the bizarre nature of this world that he didn't find the notion peculiar.

Now, firstly,” his hand disappeared within his robes for a moment and reappeared holding a smooth stone about the size of a grain of Japanese rice. “Hold your token thusly,” and he demonstrated, holding his own between his fingers, much as Jack had been shown to hold the shard of amber, although this time, palm up.

“Now,” he went on once Jack had mimicked him, “while holding it flat, pour a bit of mana into it through your fingers, as you did with the language spell. But this time, keep your mind on the task at hand. You’ll want to be thinking about yourself, and your powers and their measure. The stone will recognize your flavor and produce a depiction of your abilities and classes, along with your basic information and current experience.”

Jack nodded and held the stone level before him, sending out the mana trickle. Wavering at first, but solidifying quickly, a smaller scale duplicate of the field he’d seen in the guild hall was projected into the air above the stone. It was still gibberish except for the rifleman class and rank, and, oddly, a list of the weapons he’d qualified in when he was on active duty. All the English text remained translucent and difficult to read.

Luciandro’s eyes went round, and he let out a whistle.

“Those are some impressive... not to say unbelievable figures,” he said in a breathy voice. Then he gave Jack a look and turned back to the guild token and its display field. “But, then again, I’ve never seen a hero’s status field before.”

“I dunno,” Jack said. “Guildmaster Jonkins seemed to think it was pretty unbelievable himself. Presumably he’d met at least the last hero at some point, given we’re all supposed to have appeared in the same place, and Mokkelton’s the first town. Of course, he didn't seem to view it as a good thing.”

Luciandro was peering up at the field, face stern. “Be that as it may...” he answered. "I’ll read this off to you, and give you, so far as I can remember, some sort of reference so you might see where you fit in the grand scheme of things.”

“To begin,” he nodded, “I don’t suppose I need tell you your name, age, or eye color, yes?

“Your health, it rates as three hundred-fifteen points. That’s quite good for a human of your rank. I’d expect the norm to be somewhere in the neighborhood of two hundred to, say two-fifty for a run of the mill human adventurer at rank nine. Your mana is even better at four hundred fifty-one. Mage territory, that.

“Let’s see, now. Strength is fifteen, owing to a plus two bonus from your sentinel rank. Normal range for an adult male human, if I’m remembering correctly, is between seven and eleven. So you started out strong, and your class gave you a further boost.

“Your agility is up at the same level. Fifteen, with two of that coming from your class. Agility is a measure of your flexibility, fluidity of motion, and speed. Again, a normal adult human male will average between four for the epically clumsy and eleven or twelve for the acrobatically inclined. You started at thirteen.

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“Of course, before you twist something patting yourself on the back, your average housecat has an agility rating of around forty.

“Perception is nine,” he gave his beard a stroke. “You notice things, and recognize what you’re seeing, I’ll wager. I’m thinking not much gets by you. Humans tend to wander from dullards at two or three, to an alert six or seven.

“Jehsha says your intelligence is twenty-five, hmm? That’s at the upper end of humanity as a whole, but not outside of normal parameters. Let’s say, idiots begin at around five, the average run of peasant wanders the world at ten or fifteen, and the seekers and movers up around twenty to thirty, although those thirties are rare birds indeed.

“Your wis— er... wisdom. Yes. Well, I mean... five isn’t so bad. It’s at least average. And I’m sure it’ll come with time, yes?” he ran a finger inside his collar and gave it a tug.

“Endurance, now. Basically a combination of stamina and perseverance. Yours is... well, it’s not bad. Six. At least it’s better than an ungifted, although not by all that much. It’s possible that you’re not yet completely healed from the ordeal you told me about, and the stat will improve over time.

“Your toughness is fourteen, though. And an unmodified fourteen at that. You must have been through some sore trials, Jackson Grenell.

“Toughness is a facet of strength, but not tied to it. Meynardo, for instance, has a toughness of twelve. At its core, it’s a measure of your ability to withstand physical or mental force and push through.

“Given a fourteen toughness, I don’t imagine your low endurance will hinder you overmuch when times are hard, although I’m sure you’ll enjoy it less. A base human will normally have a toughness of between four and ten, depending on how much hardship they’ve endured over their lives.

“Your charisma is thirty-two. Low for the gifted, but in the upper end of the ungifted. I won’t go into all the variables that go into the rating, but I can tell you that the ungifted rarely rate past forty. The gifted, on the other hand, range from around thirty to up in the neighborhood of fifty, in part because of the power and mana they exude.” He paused to give Jack a good, long look. “Maybe if you smiled more?

“Chance. Luck, if you will. Serendipity. The degree to which fortune favors you. Yours is thirty-two percent. While the number may seem low, it’s actually quite high. You must have survived some very calamitous events, Mister Grenell. Even beyond your transportation to Mund, to have raised it this high.

“And finally,” he looked up, “your magical affinity. That is to say, the strength of your affinity. Your ability to wield magic at all. Twenty-eight. Now,” and he paused to order his words. “Magical affinity isn’t so simple as a base stat. No, it’s a balance. You’ve to weigh your ability to wield, that’s the twenty-eight in your case, with the affinity you have for a given school, as well as the opposition of its polar school.

“For instance, if you were attempting a spell of the conjuration school for which you have an affinity of, say five, your castings will be more powerful than one without the affinity, but with the same power, and you'll probably cast it at a lower rank.

“On the other hand, were you to attempt a spell from the curse school, which is in opposition to your affinity, you’d need more mana for a lesser effect, and would likely need to gain more ranks to cast it at all than one with an affinity for curses. And you’d end up with a less powerful curse at the end.”

While Jack was absorbing the mountain of data the old wizard had just laid in his lap, said wizard was examining the field of Jack’s guild token, stroking his chin, one hand still on his grounded staff.

“You want me to give you the particulars on the colleges and schools of magic you’ve affinities or oppositions in or your elemental affinities and oppositions? Given you seem to know a single, minor spell of the abjuration school, which you don’t seem ever to have cast, I’m thinking it might be a waste of our time at the moment.”

Jack didn’t hesitate. “Probably not necessary. I doubt I’d understand much of it anyway. Can I at least learn free souls and minor healing with any of them?”

Luciandro waved a hand. “Both are from the school of essentia, so, yes.”

“Then, no,” Jack shook his head. “Let’s move on to whatever’s next.”

“That would be weapon skills and ranks,’ Luciandro said, “although some of them appear to be inactive and in some script I cannot read, which is a bit disconcerting.”

“Okay, skip those,” Jack told him. I already know about those.”

“If you say so,” Luciandro sighed. He’d have liked to understand what that strange script said, but he supposed he could wait.

“This next section details your classes and their special traits. Sentinel is your primary, as you said. Its description is quite... extensive,” he raised an eyebrow, but Jack nodded for him to continue.

“Alright,” the tiny wizard sighed.

“Primary Class: Sentinel. Special traits: Plus two to strength. Plus two to agility. Plus two to endurance. Which, as expected, is where the bonuses came from.

“Adaptable: You may apparently use any out of class weapon or armor you find at a rank penalty of minus two below your lowest ranked certified skill, and gain experience and skill with them.

“Courageous stand: Your weapon and defensive skills increase by three percent for every enemy that you and your party are outnumbered by. For example, if you’re alone, and fighting three enemies your skill will increase by six percent. You’ll also be getting five percent more experience for every five enemies in battle range, whether you’re fighting them all or not.

“Self Reliant: Whenever you’re questing alone, even if you’re still nominally a member of a party, you’ll accrue experience ten percent faster than normal. Any other party members you have will continue to accrue experience at normal encounter rates.

“Insane courage: You’ll never fail a morale or fear check.” he looked up again from his reading. “Not sure that one even needed to be noted.

“Grim Resolve....” The mouse went silent as he read, casting glances up at the human as he did so. It took him a moment or two before he could bring himself to continue. “We’ll... skip that one for now, hmm?” he smiled uncomfortably. “Get back to it later, yes?

“Now, uhm... Tracking, plus ten percent. So, you can track, and do so ten percent better than you might otherwise, I suppose. Wilderness craft, plus five percent. Self evident, yes?

“Detect Life. Ah,” he nodded. That would explain how you can tell there are no enemies about, yes? I’m going to assume you already know what it is and how to use it.

“Mentor,” he nodded again, contemplatively. “That’s an interesting one, but somewhat in depth, and your rank isn’t yet high enough to make use of it. Still want to hear it?”

“Not right now,” Jack told him. “I’ll wait until I can use it. Which will be...?”

“Ah,” Luciandro checked. “Rank ten.”

“How close am I? Jack wondered.

“Depending on how things go in the next twelve hours,” Luciandro mused. “Do we all live, and none of them get away, I’d say along about the time you turn in your bounty token and collect your quest reward.”

“I’ll wait, then,” Jack decided.

“Good choice,” the mouse nodded. “That’s it for sentinel, then. There’s a description here for your artificer secondary class, but I don’t see you building any magical engines before morning, so we can probably wait until we’re done at the camp. The third? I can’t read it, it shows that it’s inactive, and aside from some gibberish up in the weapon qualification section, it’s not displaying any specifics.”

“That’s it, then?”

“As far as what the token tells me,” the mouse nodded. “Yes. There are a few other things that it can be used for, though. As I understand it, given that I’ve never actually been to a human town, the token will allow you tax free entry into any village, town, or city in the realm. It can be used for a single free meal per day at any guild hall. In company with a bounty token, it can allow you to requisition supplies from some of the royal quartermasters at a discounted rate, or even free, depending on what sorts of nuisances your bounty has you chasing.

“Finally, it allows you to accept spot quests in the field. If you will hold your token out to me, Jackson Grenell?”

Frowning, Jack lowered the token to where the old wizard could reach it. Luciandro reached up with his own token and solemnly intoned, “Jackson Thomas Grenell, I request that you become my apprentice. As well I ask that you protect and guide myself and such of my people as survive to some new home where we may be safe.”

He paused for a moment, waiting. Then he chucked his chin to where the two tokens pressed against one another. “You’re supposed to say, ‘I accept’ now.”

“Oh,” Jack stiffened. “I accept.”

The tokens took on a momentary glow before going quiescent.

“And now," the mouse heaved a great sigh, “I shall teach you how to release souls, and possibly minor healing should there be time before Meynardo returns.”