With just some minor run-ins with groups of monsters, Ashton and Sam made their way back to Calibur Games. They climbed inside, and Sam seemed visibly more relaxed now.

  "See? No ghosts after all," Ashton laughed, and Sam stared at him.

  "That didn't stop you from acting like ghosts were going to pop out from every other corner when we were on the way here."

  Ashton smiled as the pair walked up the stairs, "I'll go upstairs and make a small fire."

  "... What?"

  "You know, on the roof. Nothing big, just something small as a treat for the Salamander," Ashton said, smiling a bit, "That reminds me, does any office in the building have some kind of aquarium?"

  "For the undine, I'm guessing? You can probably ask around later. And please, be super, super careful. I don't want a fire to start here. It already feels like half the city burnt to a crisp..."

  "Don't worry, I picked up something that should stop me from burning the place down."

  "... Do you mean that rusty, blood covered shield that one of the lizardmen was carrying?"

  Ashton smiled and shrugged, "Yeah, so?"

  "Nothing." Sam patted his friend on the back, right when the two were about to split up, "I'll come up later."

  "Sounds good. See you-"

  "Oh, holy shit!"

  Ashton was interrupted by a voice he had just heard for the first time the other day.

  A man came rushing up to Ashton. It was a member of the five-person group that he met in the park where Ashton had taken down the hidden tutorial boss.

  "No way, what are you doing here?" Oliver asked with an excited smile on his face. Ashton glanced past him for a moment. The rest of Oliver's group was approaching as well.

  "I came here to look for him," Ashton said, pointing at Sam, "He works here at Calibur."

  Sam widened his eyes, immediately entering his 'networking mode'. He pulled off his gloves and shook Oliver's hand, "Samuel Penn, Director of Art at Calibur."

  "Oh, uhm... I'm Oliver Crowley. University Student, I guess? If universities are still a thing. Which I guess they aren't," Oliver said with a slightly confused and surprised face.

  But Ashton was a bit surprised himself. "Crowley? Like the occultist?"

  Oliver flinched lightly, "Hm?"

  Jacky, the archer and seemingly the leader of that group, quickly laughed, "Exactly like the occultist, actually." She looked at Sam and shook his hand as well, "I'm Jacqueline Kingston, but please just call me Jacky."

  The group went around and introduced themselves.

  "Name's John. Hargrave."

  "Paul McKenna, it's nice to meet you."

  "Uhm, hello, I'm Nicole Jameson."

  The three smiled and seemed quite happy to see Ashton again. They were a lot more beat up than before, and seemed quite happy to see Ashton again. Each of them was covered in bruises and cuts and bandages.

  However, as Ashton looked them up and down, one thing was clear. They all had classes, with one exception. They all wore outfits befitting their class and carried some proper, even if aged, equipment with them. Jacky, while still using her own recurve bow, had swapped her arm guard and quiver for ones provided by the beginner gear kit. She was still carrying the other bow around, like a backup, and some older-looking arrows were mixed in with the modern type that you usually saw these days.

  Paul had a helmet on his head and was wearing a reinforced-leather chest-plate, bracers and greaves over his clothes. He also had a metal shield strapped to his backpack. Nicole was wearing some kind of cloak that was hiding most of the items she probably got, but when she was shaking Sam's hand earlier, Ashton spotted a ton of small pouches.

  John carried around a proper-looking war hammer that replaced the sledgehammer he had before, and had some simple, thin leather armour on his chest.

  These four were an Archer, Shield Bearer, a Scout, and a Hammer Fighter respectively. They all had pretty good classes, and since they were wearing their beginner gear already, they must have taken Ashton's advice to heart. Most of them, at least.

  One of them was still wearing the same clothes as before, just that they were ripped and dirty now. He was still carrying around a bat, and didn't seem to have any additional armour beyond a piece that he had apparently chosen as a reward from the first quest. And from the way that he acted just before they parted ways, Ashton figured he knew why. Though, it wasn't like it was his place to ask about it.

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  "Where did you guys wander around until now?" Ashton asked, really quite curious to hear what other parts of Drakewood were like right now.

  "Mostly the outskirts of town... trying to see if we could find any of our friends. But..." Jacky explained, but from her expression, it was clear that they didn't have any luck so far.

  Sam wondered, "How about your parents? Siblings? If you weren't able to make it to where they are, then we could try to send some people with you."

  But that topic made everyone in the group even more dejected. Nicole almost started crying, but Jacky quickly put her arm around her and started to explain, "We all moved here for uni, so our families are scattered all over the UK."

  "Oh, I'm... I'm sorry," Sam said with a sad frown, "I know what that's like. My mom and stepdad are in wales right now."

  "Oh? You're welsh? You don't sound it," Paul pointed out, and though he spoke in proper 'queen's English' until now, when he did speak at least, a bit of a welsh accent slipped out.

  Sam shook his head, "No, no, Ash and I are from here. Born and raised in Drakewood."

  "Oh, really? How far back?" Jacky asked curiously, "You know, with all of this stuff, and with magic being real..."

  Sam already grimaced, "Urgh, don't even get started with that."

  "H-Hm?"

  Ashton laughed, "Don't mind him, he's always been pretty sceptical about all the Arthur stuff. Well, most people are."

  "Yeah, because it's absolute nonsense."

  Not minding his friend, Ashton continued, "But that's where you were going, right? You think there might be something to it?"

  Jacky nodded furiously, "Yes! Do you think so as well?"

  Before he replied, Ashton smiled lightly at his friend, who was just rolling his eyes, "Do you guys want to join me on the roof? I'll be making some potions."

  "Potions?" Oliver stared at Ashton immediately, "Can I help?"

  With a laugh, Ashton nodded, "Sure. While we're at it, you can explain to me why you don't have a class yet."

  Oliver widened his eyes and he nervously looked over at his friends. They chuckled a bit and Ashton looked back at Sam. Before he could say something, the fighter nodded.

  "See you later. I'll have to do some more..." Sam grimaced, "... annoying things right now."

  As he looked into the entrance of Calibur Games, he could already see a group from the other companies in the building, led by some extremely loud individuals from the investment office.

  Ashton quickly led the way upstairs, and the six of them soon reached the rooftop. Just like yesterday, there was someone standing watch up here, though it was just one person. Considering that they were carrying a spyglass all of a sudden, Ashton figured that this person already got their hands on a matching class.

  "Backpacker?" Ashton asked as he approached the seat and table on the other side of the roof. He had already channelled the spirit and tagged all the things that he needed, so they appeared by the table and got all the materials out.

  The party following behind Ashton, though, was startled when they saw that small, goblin-sized cloaked figure. "Calm down, they're a summon."

  "A summon...? So you really are a summoner?" Jacky asked, staring at the Backpacker surprised. Of course, all five of them had watched as Ashton summoned the Pen of Insight, but the Backpacker probably fit the image of a summoner a lot more.

  "Yes, I am. Actually, could you guys help me for a second?" he started, grabbing the rusty, circular metal shield, and a few large stones, "Use the stones to build a small base and put the shield on it. Please make sure that the metal doesn't touch the wood of the floor."

  Paul, John, and Nicole quickly grabbed everything and said that they would get to it, while Ashton sorted through the rest of the things that he got out.

  "If you guys want to help me with this, please sort some things out for me. Three orc stones, ten second quest goblin stones, and five scincidian stones."

  While the two of them got to it, Oliver with some serious excitement, Ashton sorted through some of the other plants and grabbed as much as he figured he would need for the potions.

  After a minute or so, Paul, John and Nicole came back, and Ashton asked them to use some of the wood that he had picked up on the way back through the botanical gardens to build a small campfire on top of the turned-over shield.

  "So, about the King Arthur stuff," Ashton started, looking over at Jacky, "I'm guessing you were a classical literature student?"

  Jacky's cheeks turned slightly red as she cleared her throat, "Yeah, I am. Or was, I guess. I was going to go into the Master's program next year, too, but... well, I doubt that's happening anytime soon."

  Ashton tried to smile, but it was hard. "Probably not. What about the rest of you all, were you also studying literature?"

  Oliver quickly shook his head, smiling as he looked closely at the small stones, "Nah, we were all studying different things. I was in the history program," Oliver explained smugly, "Paul was studying entomology, John was in the physics program, and Nicole was in the... What was it? Clown Program?" A teasing grin had formed on his face as he started rattling it all down, and Nicole snapped her head around.

  "I-I'm studying theatre!" she replied, just whispering the next part, "I'm just... doing a lot of clown concepts right now, that's all..."

  Ashton laughed, "Don't worry, clowns are cool. There are a few types of spirits that take the form of clowns, and there's some fairies that are really into the clown aesthetic as well. That's nothing to be ashamed of, really."

  "Wait, seriously?" Jacky stared at Ashton, "Spirits? So like, Clown Ghosts?"

  "Oh, no, no, ghosts are a type of 'undead', totally different category. Spirits are like... them, the Backpacker. They can take any form, really. Some sorts of spirits look like animals, other like inanimate objects. And some look like a cool little dude, isn't that right?"

  Ashton looked at the Backpacker, who slowly looked up from the phone. Seeing that everyone was staring at them, they looked around confused, and Ashton just smiled and told them it was okay.

  Jacky quickly wondered, "Okay, and what about fairies? Because there's a lot of different ways they can be interpreted as well. What do they actually look like?"

  "So... that's a bit more... complicated. They usually take semi-humanoid forms, but there are also cases where they don't really have a physical form at all, and just sort of 'infect' things. But the most common types of fairies look roughly humanoid."

  Oliver slowly spoke up, staring at the table, "So you mean like... that small one right there?"

  Ashton raised a brow. Oliver had been periodically glancing at the pixie this entire time, but was probably just holding back since nobody else seemed to be paying attention to her, "Oh, yeah, that's Poppy. I'm surprised you were able to see her, by the way. And you're sure you don't have a class yet?"

  While Poppy waved at a stunned Jacky with a broad smile, Ashton and Oliver locked eyes.

  "Uhm..." Oliver started, "A class just wasn't offered to me yet. Shucks, I must have no talent at all, r-right?"

  "Considering how well you were handling yourself the other day, that's obviously not true," Ashton pointed out, "You must have had at least one or two offered to you by now. I'm guessing you're looking for a magic class."