Tristan and I stood in the main hall. The two of us were having a heated conversation about the best type of cheese. We'd been arguing for a while, and some of the other priests poked their heads out as we started getting heated.

He, like a freak, said that cheese was nothing without flavor and that only good cheeses had strong tastes, so the sharper and saltier the better. He was wrong of course. Cheese should be gooey and stringy, like mozzarella. And while the flavor was important, it wasn't everything. Texture was king.

"You are a monster. A freak. That is not the natural order of things," I argued. "Soft cheese is by far the superior cheese!"

"You're a common peasant. A savage. No one worthy would ever consider such an abomination. You don't even know what cheese is. You have no idea how to handle a true delicacy."

"Boys!" A gruff voice boomed through the hall. We both stood straight and turned. Rennar was standing at the entryway, a large pack over his shoulder and his weapon—a war mace that glowed white when he used it in training—strapped to his waist. "Tristan, what have I told you about arguing under the Goddess's gaze?"

I looked back. The Goddess did look disappointed.

"Don't do it."

"And?"

"If I did, I'd have to run laps around the temple until I passed out or it got dark, whichever came first."

"Get started."

Tristan sighed, pulled off his robe, and started limbering up. He seemed like he'd done this a few times. I smirked, but Rennar's eyes shined with a cruel light.

"Alex."

Oh, Goddess no.

"You too."

Damn you Tristan. Damn you straight to the Depths, which were sort of like the underworld but also definitely a real place filled with monsters.

I didn't have robes on, so I pulled off my shirt and started limbering up. I had to say, my muscles had certainly come back, and then some. I wasn't Ro-Saleh level, but I wasn't that far off either. I wished I had Rennar back on Earth. I would have cleaned up. The dwarf turned and exited the temple.

"Should we...?" I asked, hoping we could get out of this.

"He will actually kill us." Okay, it was happening.

A few minutes later, Tristan guided me out the front door, and we got running.

It was slow at first, but once we hit our stride, we kept up a decent pace. Tristan was far less fit than the other trainees, but I was worse still, and my leg still wasn't fully healed after six months of training. It was much better, but not great. Apparently, all the other aspirants, which was the word for my fellow trainees, had unlocked some enhancements through their levels and the quests they'd completed, so they were stronger and fitter than most. Arden had explained that the first two ranks of an enhancement put you to the peak of human ability, rank three was like Captain America super soldier shit, and the ranks past that were stronger still.

Most people never got those higher ranks though, because specializing that much usually made you vulnerable in other areas, and being as strong as the Hulk didn't help you bake bread. Also, most people only had access to low-tier classes, and once every ability was unlocked, it was difficult to continue improving them. It took greater and greater feats to do, and most people didn't go out looking for danger and glory, and the ones who did usually ended up dead at some point. Made sense, really. And since I was a human, I was already at a disadvantage, which was just fantastic really.

"Hey," Tristan jogged beside me, sweat pouring down his face, "I didn't know the old man was leaving today."

"Yeah, neither did I." Rennar had been gone a lot over the last few months. Ro-Saleh had taken on instructing most of their classes. "Why's he... leaving so much?"

"Dunno... I was gonna ask... same question."

He was huffing and puffing pretty heavily, but so was I, just not quite as much. I think I'd finally surpassed him in endurance. Like me, he hadn't unlocked any classes, except outside of his human one. Butttt... I wasn't much more fit now. I was gassing out too. "How long... we run..."

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"Till... nighttime..." He slowed the pace a bit until we were doing that walk-jog thing people do when they hit their limit.

It was late afternoon. This would suck.

***

"Ahhhhh..." I groaned as I sank into the bath. We'd crawled our way to the temple bathhouse, which was a large stone building behind the temple. The large, hot pool of water was fed and heated by some magical stone called a lotus stone, which poured hot water from who knows where. My muscles were screaming at this point, so the hot water felt amazing.

"Sorry about throwing up out there. Rennar couldn't have chosen a better time to make me run. He's evil, you know?" Tristan was lying back, his arms stretched out on either side.

"Yeah, he's not very nice, is he."

"No, not really." Tristan smiled as he stretched his legs. "But also, he's kind of the best."

"Yeah, I can tell." The man took quests from the nearby villages pretty regularly for no charge. He said it was his duty to help the people of the land. He really was a true hero.

I stretched out and laid my head back. It was a little weird at first taking baths in this world. Baths here were communal, and people weren't modest about nudity. In all honesty, I was picked on pretty heavily for being weird about it at first. They said it was all in my head and that I was making it weird. Everyone had a body. It seemed like people hadn't been so heavily sexualized here, which was actually really nice. After a month or so, I stopped caring. Unless Na-Ya came, then I cared. She was way too pretty, and my broken Earth brain couldn't just see a body. I had to keep my eyes away from her anytime we ended up in the bath together.

Damn you, puritans! You ruined me!

"I wonder why he left." Tristan was mumbling a little. I could barely hear him.

"Maybe a quest. I know he does them a lot."

"Probably. It's just weird that he's leaving so often. He usually only goes on one or two quests a month, and rarely do they last more than a couple of days. He was gone two weeks last time. Even Lady Varga seemed worried, and she's the most level-headed person I've ever met."

"Well, if anyone can handle themselves, it's him."

"Yeah."

We relaxed for a while, and I started thinking about my training and my progress. "So how do I know I'm doing the right thing? I've been throwing myself at everything I can and haven't unlocked a single class."

Tristan laughed. "You gotta be patient, man. It takes most people years, and even then they only end up unlocking a racial or heritage class. I've been working at it since I was a kid and only just unlocked my human class last year, and the human class sucks. The talent it offers, [Boundless Potential], is good and all, but that's all we get."

"Yeah, what's up with that? Why do we suck so bad?"

"Theory is the Goddess brought us here because we're so adaptable. Most of the other races are more set in their ways and only have a few heritages that are connected super strongly with their people and history. Humans make cultures out of nowhere, so we have a huge number of heritage classes, and they can be really good. It's just a lot harder to unlock the really strong ones, and the weakest ones aren't exactly a huge jump in strength, so most people stop there since, you know, unlocking stuff requires almost dying most of the time. Unless your a carpenter or something, and even then, extreme woodworking is an thing. You gotta look out for those lumberjacks in Nolei. I hear they're scary."

"Huh. That makes sense. So what kind of class are you going for now?"

"I'm working on unlocking the Priest class, but it's slow. I still have a lot to learn. The biggest issue is that humans are, like, the lowest affinity class for priests, and that makes everything harder. We have to work a lot harder to achieve the same effects, and it takes a lot longer."

"Who's the highest?"

"Sun elves. They're her people, so it comes naturally to them."

"Makes sense. So what are the requirements?"

"It's a bunch of stuff. First, I have to understand the basic principles of the faith. Then I have to learn how to use divine energy. I need to be reasonably fit since most healing affects us too, and I have to swear to the faith. I've done all that, but I can't seem to figure out the next step."

"What is it?"

"No clue. Rennar has been teaching me, but it's just like there's a hole I'm missing. It's the same with a lot of the other aspirants. The Goddess doesn't tell us what the final step is to unlocking a class. Once we complete the prerequisites, we have to figure the last part out on our own, and many people never do."

"That sucks."

"Yeah, it does."

I thought for a moment, and an idea came to me. "Hey, what are you doing this week?"

"Nothing, just the usual. Why?"

"Let's do a quest together."

"We're not really supposed to..."

"So what? I'm not a priest or aspirant here, and you're stuck in place. You said you've already completed all the prerequisites. Maybe we need to get you out of your rut!" I was getting pumped. I felt like I could handle an easy job or two. How hard could it be?

"I don't know..."

"Come on! It'll be fun. We'll explore, see the world, fight monsters, and maybe level up. It'll be great!"

"I would call walking to nearby villages seeing the world..." Tristan thought for a while. "... but okay. I'll talk to Arden, then Lady Varga if he thinks it's a good idea. What are you thinking?"

"Well, Rennar showed me a map the other day, and it looks like there's a village not too far from here. Why don't we go over and see if anyone needs any help? We won't take on anything too extreme. There has to be something we can do ourselves. Plus, if I'm out and about, I'll get to start learning about the world a little more. I can't stay in the temple forever. I'll go crazy."

"Alright, man, let's do it. Sounds like fun."

We shook hands, then settled back into the hot water and enjoyed the warmth.

"Oh, Alex?"

"Yeah?"

"I was just wondering..."

"Yes, Tristan?"

"I've just been curious for a while now, but I've never asked you... What does a car look like?"

"It's a big rectangle made of metal. They're everywhere on Earth."

"Wow."

"I know."

"What's it like riding in one?

We talked for a long while about the intricacies of cars and engines and how Earth had its own type of magic.