Ice forging wasn’t like sailing where I could pick up a trait just by watching. After observing Oforf for what felt like an eternity, I finally asked him about it. “What skills do you use to carve the ice like that?”

He offered the class again. “I’d be happy to teach you if you like. You just have to free up a class slot.”

Oforf has offered you the Ice Smith class.

Warning: You must first see your trainer and renounce your current class before accepting a new one.

I wasn’t quite ready to give up one of my unique classes so I tried again. “I might take you up on that later. For now, can you just tell me about the skills and what they are called?”

He smiled. “Chiseling and Carving are how I shape the ice. Once I’m satisfied with it, a pair of techniques is required for it to reach its final form. Infuse Mana brings out the natural properties of the ice while Harden is necessary to keep it from melting or shattering.”

“Just those four skills?” I asked to be sure.

Oforf laughed. “It helps to have an affinity for the element you’re working with. There are also advanced techniques but I don’t want to confuse you.”

No matter how I asked, he refused to elaborate further.

Once we were outside, Sasha elbowed me. “What was that all about?”

“Nothing,” I deflected. “I’m interested in the class.”

“Me too,” she admitted. “Do you think I should take it?”

“I don’t know,” I replied. “It might be difficult to fight if you don’t have any offensive skills. Of course, it’s not a huge deal what you choose. You’ll have the option of a secondary class soon enough.”

“How do I get rid of my class?” She asked.

“Do you know about fast travel?” I asked. The expression on her face told me she didn’t, so I continued. “You can go to any town you’ve already visited insistently.”

“How?” She asked.

“I don’t know,” I replied. “Let’s try it.”

It took a little looking, but we eventually found a list of all the towns we’d been to in the menu and put two and two together. It also gave us the option of returning to our bind points. In my case, it was on a boat that had departed on its return voyage to Kingsport.

“Come with me to Homestead,” Sasha said as her finger hovered over the menu option.

“Sure,” I replied, clicking mine at the same time.

I was used to fast-traveling from other games. Some showcased loading screens while others faded to black. I wasn’t prepared for what actually happened. Sasha and I took off in a whoosh and flew through the sky. The boat was a speck in the sea as we passed high overhead. Our path followed the road once we passed by Kingstown. Traveling through the pass took only a couple of minutes. We dropped to the ground, landing gently in the middle of the quiet lone street of Homestead.

Sasha ran ahead toward the house where she picked up the Pikeman class. I got there just in time to catch the tail end of the conversation.

“Okay, I’ll do that,” she said, bowing slightly to the miffed-looking class trainer.

“I have to warn you again,” he said solemnly. “There is a penalty to what you’re asking. Are you prepared to pay the price?”

“I am,” she replied.

Light flashed around Sasha and flew from her body, landing in the class trainer’s open hand. He closed it and a system message popped up for all to see.

Sasha’s Primary Class has been changed to: N/A

Sasha’s level has been reduced to 1.

“Are you okay?” I asked once we were out of earshot.

She nodded. “I’ll be fine. I was only level five. Besides, there’s something I want to do here.”

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Rather than teleport back to Stormbreak as I thought, she marched over to the inn. It wasn’t very busy. Several new players sat at the bar marveling over Helen’s cooking while a bored-looking Anna sat at a table in the corner making a house of cards. She perked up when we entered only to pout when she recognized us and go back to her cards.

Sasha walked over and sat across from her, careful not to disrupt the card tower. “Hi there,”

Anna didn’t look up as she slowly added a pair of cards to the pinnacle of the wobbling tower. “Hello.”

“I was hoping you might be interested in teaching me how to play Card Battle,” Sasha said, her tone artificially bubbly.

The cards crashed to the table as Anna’s concentration broke. She didn’t seem to mind, though, as she slid them into her bag before meeting Sasha’s gaze.

“Sure! I’ll play you,” she chirped, equally energetic. “Do you need a deck? What kind would you like?”

Sasha frowned. “I don’t know. Can you recommend one?”

Anna puffed out her chest with pride, taking out an all-black deck. “How would you like to try the cursed deck?”

Sasha glanced over at me. “She’s offering the Card Battler class. Do you think I should take it? Will Nelly mind?”

“I’ve never seen her upset about anything,” I replied. “Besides, I’ll bet she’d love to play you.”

“What about Ice Forging?” She asked. “Which class do you think is better?”

I shrugged. “You have to do what’s fun for you. It’s okay if you both take the same class. Either one can be powerful if you play them right.”

“Don’t worry,” Anna added. “With this deck, your cards will feel very different from hers.”

“Let’s play a game first,” Sasha decided after giving it some thought.

“Okay!” Anna squealed.

I wanted to ask Sasha not to use any of the cards I gave her but didn’t know how to without tipping Anna off. I decided it was probably best to make myself scarce until Sasha’s tutorial was over.

“Welcome back,” Helen greeted me as I took a seat beside a pair of players at the bar.

“I’ll have the special,” I said without looking at the menu.

“Oh, hi,” one of the players looked up from a bowl of pasta. “How did you get to level twenty-five already?”

“These are gathering classes,” I replied casually, hoping he wouldn’t ask for specifics.

“I just started today,” he explained, ignoring my answer. “There aren’t many class options around here. I’m thinking about heading to Kingsport before I get one. Is the mountain pass safe?”

“Yeah,” I replied as Helen set a bowl of pasta in front of me. “The monsters stay away from the roads.”

The pasta was served in a creamy white sauce that almost tasted like béchamel. It had a certain spiciness that I couldn’t quite place. It brought together the angel hair noodles and chicken cutlets perfectly. Helen served a basket of garlic toast and a glass of white wine to go with it.

I missed part of what the players next to me were saying when I went into semi-immersion mode to feed the recipe to my food processor.

“…and everything tastes and smells so good,” the second player said to the first. “It makes you wonder what else we can experience.”

“Well, don’t try taking off your pants,” I laughed. “That costs money.”

“Why did you try to do that?” The first player asked.

“Because he’s weird,” Sasha interjected from the table across the restaurant.

I excused myself and returned to see how she was doing against Anna. “Is she kicking your butt?”

Anna laughed. “She’s my new prized pupil. We aren’t playing. I’m showing her tricks.”

“Tricks?” I asked, hoping to learn some.

Anna tutted at me. “Nope. I’m not going to teach you any unless you take the class. I will explain the basics, though. I gave Sasha a cursed deck which is magic-based. There are four types of decks. Aside from magic, there are monster, item, and mythos decks. Each type breaks down into sub-types. Decks are typically strongest if you stick to a single type. The same goes for elements and monster types. I use a dragon deck from the monster category. The starter deck I hand out has samplings from each of the four types. That’s usually the first lesson I teach when I beat you. Mom says it’s making people not want to take my class, so I decided to try something new with Sasha.”

“Can I get a better starter deck?” I asked. “I can’t beat anyone with this one.”

“Sasha told me about that,” Anna sighed. “She told me Nelly had trouble beating sailors in Kingstown. I already gave Sasha a new deck for her, so I suppose I might as well swap you out too. What type would you like?”

I took a moment to think about it. What kind of deck would give me the biggest boost to my unique classes?

“Do you have a fire-based item deck?” I finally asked.

Anna smiled but didn’t reach for any cards. “That’s an oddly specific request. Unfortunately, I don’t have much to offer that fits that criteria. I suggest either going with a fire-based magic deck or just a plain item deck and building your fire theme into it. You can customize it as you obtain more cards to make it unique.”

Or I could just make the cards I needed. I wasn’t about to tell Anna that, though, and I was glad Sasha didn’t.

“I’ll go with the item deck,” I decided. “It sounds interesting.”

Anna held out her hand expectantly. “Your old deck first, please.”

“Can I keep it?” I asked. “I’ve grown rather fond of those cards.”

Anna frowned, going through an internal debate. “Fine! But only because it was a weak deck.”

The deck she handed me was white with a hammer on the back. I flipped through it. There were some items I expected to find like a sword and hammer but also things I didn’t like a hammock and a cooking pot. Also mixed into my deck were quite a few skills.

“Item decks work a little differently than monsters and magic,” Anna explained. “If you’d like, I’ll play you a teaching game after I’m done teaching Sasha.”

“Sure,” I replied. “But I’ll come back for that. There’s somewhere I need to go.”

“You’re leaving?” Sasha asked.

“Don’t worry,” I replied. “I’ll be back soon. I just want to look for some quests while you train.”

“No need,” she said. “When I’m done here I’ll head back to Stormbreak and tether myself to one of the dwarves. Don’t forget to do that if you log out. I’d hate to get to Mount Drunder and find out both you and Nelly are stuck in the harbor. Remember, she tethered herself to you.”

“Right,” I said. “I won’t forget.”

I didn’t want to tell Sasha that I was leaving her to spend some time with my girlfriend. Once I was outside of the inn, I fast-traveled back to Kingstown and headed to the bar where Mary worked. The place was packed with players who all seemed to be having some sort of celebration. Mary and several of the other servers looked very busy trying to entertain them. I found a quiet table in the corner and got to work.