Seeing Ridley out the door, Alexander took a moment to collect his thoughts. He had felt something lift off his shoulders thanks to his brother's visit. Hesitation that was wound tight around his mind had lifted, and he felt a willingness to dive into his new life, without reservation, for the first time.

  Opening his menu, he started writing down rigorous notes on his notepad. He looked for potential paths to distribute his points for key skills. As he was diagramming and calculating, he decided, with much glee, to pull out his trusty old whiteboard. He positioned it next to his pedestal and resumed poring through his menus.

  He noticed an icon with a small red exclamation point. It sat next to his class name. Where once it had said Wizard (novice), it now said Wizard (apprentice).

  He clicked the red exclamation, and a notification appeared.

  ^

  Congratulations on reaching levelError:12 and you have been promoted to a Wizard Apprentice.

  Reward: Mentor Session with a Master Wizard available.

  Use now?

  Alexander looked at the error in the notification and found it odd that it seemed to indicate that this was a level 12 reward he was receiving. He looked up at his stat screen. It certainly said he was level 6. Alexander didn’t take long to decide that more information was better, so he accepted the reward. As he did so, there was a small flash on the screen revealing a wheel.

  ^

  Selecting your Wizard mentor.

  Please spin the wheel.

  Alexander’s face was blank as he muttered, “This feels rather undignified,” before flicking the wheel with a finger. As the wheel spun, he saw a series of weird names on the slots. Zentara Scalesong, Pangoro the Moonshaper, Marwin Tidewhisper, as the wheel slowed he saw the slot it would land on, and felt anxious. With a click, the wheel settled.

  ^

  Gruffel the Rift Nibbler will contact you for your mentoring session, please wait.

  Alexander waited for a few seconds before getting annoyed that there was no approximate wait time. He tapped his shoe on the floor and looked at his watch before moving to look through some more options. As he reached out for his pedestal, light exploded in the room with a shrieking noise.

  “Ahhhhh, Lalalalalalalaaaa!” The light in the room congealed before spinning together and forming the figure of a humanoid goat. Tassels hung from his horns, and he wore a loose flowing, ornate white and gold robe. The figure was shorter than Alexander by at least a foot, and as Alexander looked closer, the being was semi-transparent.

  “I am the great and terrible Gruffel! I give you permission to bow!” he shouted with a pompous air.

  Alexander just stood there, choosing not to take advantage of his offer. Gruffel didn’t even look at Alexander; instead, he seemed bored as he flipped through a book.

  “I was told you will be mentoring me?” Alexander asked after settling himself with this odd intrusion.

  “Yes, oh poor weary wizard. You have done well; you've struggled to get this far, yada yada. I am quite busy, so I’ll allow you one question that I will answer to my fullest ability, before resuming my mighty works.” The goat waved a hand in the air mysteriously as he said this before adjusting his monocle and continuing his book.

  “I am not sure what manner of question to ask. I have to presume you are knowledgeable,” Alexander said, intentionally leaving any questions out of his sentence.

  Gruffel sighed as he closed his book and looked Alexander up and down, seeming unimpressed by what he saw.

  “I know many things. My knowledge is worth more than your entire planet! As far as you are concerned, I KNOW ALL OF THE MYSTERIES IN THE UNIVERSE! I KNOW THE HIDDEN PATHS OF THE BOUNDLESS RIFTS! I KNOW… what is that?” Gruffel asked.

  Surprise shone on his face as he pointed down at Flick. The demi-dragon had walked up and sniffed the air around Gruffel's feet. Swiping a claw through the air, it passed right through the goatman’s leg. Disinterested, Flick scrambled up Alexander’s side and lay down on his new favorite perch, Alexander’s head.

  “This is Flick,” Alexander said. “What manner of beast… is it your companion?” Gruffel asked, spinning his monocle and leaning in to focus on Flick. The monocle seemed to glow as he scrutinized the dragon.

  “In a way. Not officially. The system says it could be once our bond grows strong enough. As for what manner of beast, it is called an Umberbolt Demi-Dragon.”

  “A WHAT!?” Gruffel exclaimed, pulling out a blank scroll as he started scribbling notes. “Approximately two hands long and shortened wingspan… serpentine body with equine facial features… How did you get such a magnificent creature!? Does it use lightning and shadow as the name suggests?”

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  “Well, yes...”

  “WHAT MANNER of method did it gain a DUAL affinity!? How did you identify it if you did not bond it yet!”

  “That is a story that takes a bit of time, but answering the last question first, I used my pedestal,” Alexander said, pointing at his pedestal in the middle of his room.

  “YOUR WHAT?” Gruffel exclaimed even louder. “HOW DO YOU HAVE A PEDESTAL AT LEVEL 12! What kind is it!?”

  “I am only level 6.”

  “WHAAAAAAT?!” Gruffel huffed and puffed and started grumbling in a despondent whisper. “I only got my pedestal upon reaching adept, 35 YEARS of harsh training! How is a level 6!? Dual affinity Demi-dragon just falling in his lap…” the goat mumbled in a rush.

  “Excuse me, Mr. Gruffel, I believe I am the one who is supposed to be asking questions in this session. You have already asked a half dozen. Am I obligated to answer all of yours before I get mine?”

  Gruffel composed himself and waved away Alexander's concern. “My boy, my bright and promising apprentice! I do confess, you have had some interesting encounters that could help me. That in and of itself is quite an accomplishment! Good job.” The goat reached up and patted Alexander on the shoulder patronizingly.

  Alexander felt nothing as the goat patted him leading him to believe that this was a projection of sorts.

  “I am willing to give you additional help, of course, if you provide me with some of your experiences for my academic notes,” the goat said with greed in his eyes.

  “Academic notes? I am open to helping with that.”

  “Of course you are! You are a Wizard! Now first, for my own dignity's sake, I must uphold my side. I am duty bound with my contract with the system to help you wayward planets develop. So here is a tip for free…” Gruffel said with a conspiratorial whisper. Alexander, on reflex, leaned in. “Did you know… you can cast spells outside of the system?” Gruffel said in a self-satisfied grin.

  “…Yes.”

  “OH! You discovered a hidden principle, have you!? Good for you then. More than one?”

  “Eight in total so far.”

  “EIGHT! Wha, how… hrmph.” Gruffel crossed his arms and sat. “Eight before level 7! You must have been training and experimenting night and day for how many months since getting your powers?”

  “Just over three weeks.” Gruffel's face contorted in frustration; Alexander decided not to inform him of his strict wizarding hours.

  “Then I would say this… you must have an incredible will stat.”

  “Will stat? There is no will stat.” “AHAA! HA! I got you, you little thrice-spoiled lucky human! Tell me, human, what stats does your world have when you see them?”

  “Strength, endurance, dexterity, intelligence, wisdom, charisma, and luck,” Alexander rattled off easily.

  Gruffel cleared his throat. “Good, very simple for you to work with. I am going to assume that the effect will be something like this: your intelligence is your ability to comprehend and remember information, your mental dexterity to find solutions. Your wisdom is your ability to intuit what’s happening around you, a gut feeling you can trust; charisma is like wisdom, but for interactions with other beings around you. These are the mental stats the system recognizes, but it doesn’t encompass everything. The soul is too complex a thing even for the architects to understand. Oopsy." Gruffel said in a mocking tone as he waved his hand in the air. "...just got a blasphemy warning. They are a bit touchy.”

  Gruffel cleared his throat before continuing, “What every good Wizard knows is that will is the stat that allows your mind to influence the mind of magic!”

  “Mind of magic?”

  “Magic is not a dead thing; it is a living force. Using your will, you can shift it to do interesting outside-the-box things. Enhance your spells or slightly change its nature. Any of this ringing a bell?”

  “Would this help other people with their powers?”

  “In different ways, it could. Resist outside influences, see effects others don’t, but it’s all theoretical. We know will is a stat because wizards and other magic wielders have all learned how to contest wills. So in that way, it can be measured, system acknowledged or not.”

  Alexander thought about his next questions carefully but decided to go for the big one first.

  “What is the system?”

  “Bzz bzz.” Gruffel said, crossing his arms in an X. “Too big of a question, I’m not allowed to answer. The only reason I could tell you about will is if they blocked that info, it would draw too much attention to it. I will just tell you it doesn’t matter right now; you must defend what you can and attack when you see opportunities.” Alexander shrugged, not feeling it would benefit to push for more information.

  “I have a major world event and am looking to optimize my abilities for that battle.”

  “Yes…” Gruffel smiled invitingly.

  “I have ideas, but could you help me with my skill trees?” “Ah… this will be fun.” Gruffel nodded.

  Alexander and Gruffel spent the next half hour looking over his Arcana and Spellcasting skill trees. As they did, he shared his ideas based on his current spells. Gruffel pointed out some other small options to take for future development, but agreed with his strategy overall. They then looked over his lesser skills and decisively placed his points, enhancing simple daily life skills and likely future scenarios. Finally, Alexander pulled up his Alchemy skill tree. He read off the options to Gruffel.

  ^

  Essence Extraction

  Essence Infusion

  Brew Potion

  “You picked this path of the enchanter skill well. You don’t typically want to go wide with skill trees, but deep. Meaning compounding improvement in one skill rather than having lots of weak ones. In the case of these Alchemy skills, however, you have the pedestal. So you can make some interesting selections and spend your way to success.”

  “Spend?”

  \“With magic resources, of course… now. How many resources have you managed to get from your quests?”

  “Quests? Only two unattributed.”

  “Null resources? The most common, I suspect. Ah, well. It will be a long, tough road to get started, but…”

  “Outside of quest rewards, it would be 83 unattributed, 40 earth, 18 lightning, 24 fire, 46 light, and 34 dark,” he said, tapping his fingers for each of the different elements.

  Gruffel’s jaw dropped progressively lower with every tap.

  “Also, this bag I have yet to sort through.”

  “Boy, what is going on with your planet?”

  “How would I know? May I point out, you have made some odd comments during your explanations. You talked as if you did not know of the path of the enchanter skill tree, and you referenced a null resource.”

  “Well, the short of that is most planets manifest these powers you are now encountering differently. The resource names and abilities are all filtered through your planet administrator into a form they understand. Then the form of the talents are more easily recognized by the populace of that planet. Culturally and functionally.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, but I can’t say much more, so let's get your business sorted so we can get to my payment…” Gruffel stroked his goatee slowly… “CRAFTING! Crafting is one of the noblest arts for a Wizard. Awesome displays of power should be rare and overly dramatic. For they are foolish by nature. Displays of power only invite challenge. Secretly stocking, preparing, and mastering your crafts are the ways of a Wizard. Defending your fortress with ruthless efficiency will make people fear the power of a direct confrontation with a Wizard. That is the proper way of things.”

  Alexander nodded appreciatively. This goat's views were far superior to the image he initially had of a Wizard.

  “So when it comes to this Alchemy skill tree, I think you should select all of them, Alexander.”

  “All of them? Really?”

  “Let me paint you a picture. You brew a potion, you extract the essence from that potion, then you infuse that essence into another potion. The value of a single powerful potion is many times higher than two weaker potions. That, combined with efficiency of items crafted using your pedestal…” The goat smiled.

  “Wizards usually find efficient ways to profit, as we typically spend with abandon to find breakthroughs.” Alexander nodded thoughtfully.

  “That is about as much as I’m allowed to inform you, boy. The system will get touchy if I tell you too much,” Gruffel said, rubbing his hands together with a mischievous grin. “Now spill all of your secrets!”