The System uses Essence to give us Levels, Classes, Skills, Spells, Aspects, items, currency, and more. The difference between mana and Essence is often considered complex, but in reality can be summarized quite simply. Mana is a natural resource that manifests in varying densities throughout the world around us. Mana interacts with life, can twist and corrupt life, be manipulated by life, but it doesn’t require life to exist.

  Essence, in contrast, is believed by our leading researchers to be a power generated by the actions of life. Whether you build, destroy, or alter the world around you, Essence is created.

  - Rufus Veres, Level 37 Verbose Historian, A Brief History of the System

  As Mason finished speaking, the door opened and another man walked in. He was taller than me, but shorter than Hassan, with narrow shoulders though he was well-muscled. He was dressed casually, in a black t-shirt and dark jeans. His hair was an unusual dark green, and his eyes were the color of sand. He looked around and sighed, then spoke in a deep voice.

  “Starting without me again, are you?”

  He held out his hand for me to shake as he introduced himself.

  “Name’s Block. Yes, it’s both my name and my job!” He chuckled at his own joke and seated himself next to Vale, who shrugged at him.

  I swallowed nervously and replied, “Nice to meet you Block, I’m Az. Just let me get some water before we start. Actually, does anyone else want some too?”

  Once I’d poured everyone cold, clean water, not the muddy stuff we pulled up from the town wells – handling the expensive glasses carefully – I sat down again and started talking.

  “I knew going into the Tutorial that I wanted a combat Class. I want to get out of this town, away from Gleason, and to get stronger.” I gestured towards my scar. “I’ve been hurt by monsters before, the night they killed my parents, and I want to be able to protect myself and others.”

  I listed the Classes I’d been offered, starting from the non-combat Classes and ending with Devoted Squire. Hassan leaned forward at that.

  “Why wouldn’t you take that one? Weren’t you raised by a Priest?” he asked.

  “Sister Mercy – Hazel – is a member of the Church of Lost Angels. She doesn’t actually have a Priest Class, though, she’s a dungeon-jack. Anyway, the CLA doesn’t like Paladins that much either. They might agree on a lot of things, but from what I know the Paladin solution to everything is to kill the hell out of it. The Church wants people to convert so they can be ‘saved.’ I don’t want anything to do with either the Church or the Paladins, so I wasn’t going to take that Class.”

  “I’m curious kid, what do you think would have happened if you took Devoted Squire and then showed you aren’t actually devoted?” Mason asked.

  I looked at him with a shocked expression.

  “Uh, that’s an option?! I mean, I thought the System would smite you or something…”

  His lips twitched slightly into a bare smile.

  “I don’t know anyone who’s done it with that specific Class, but I do know that a Paladin who stops completing their ‘holy’ Quests doesn’t get smited. The System just won’t give them any Paladin options when they reach the next Tier, and they might lose some of their Skills when they have to change Classes.”

  I sat back in my chair, stunned.

  “I guess that if I’d known that before… Well, I’m not sure I would have wanted to risk it, but yeah, I would have at least thought about Devoted Squire. Maybe if I had known how fucking hard the Advanced Tutorial was going to be!”

  Mason nodded, then looked at the others as if gauging their reactions. Seeming satisfied, he looked back at me.

  “Glad to hear that, kid. People have different reasons for trying the Advanced Tutorial. Some think they are hot shit, some who feel they have something to prove, and some who just don’t care if they live or die. Most of the survivors learn something in the Tutorial, but not all of them. I don’t want to waste my time or risk the lives of other Delvers taking on anyone with a death wish.”

  “I don’t have a death wish, sir,” I replied confidently, only for Hassan to laugh and Vale to crack a smile.

  “Sure about that, Ashley?” Hassan asked, grinning. “Not too many people are brave enough or dumb enough to call Mason ‘sir’!”

  “Sorry! Mason!”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Mason shot Hassan a mock glare before winking at me. The effect was honestly a bit terrifying.

  “Moving on then,” I changed the subject as fast as possible. I quickly described my fights, starting from the beginning. When I reached the part about the scorpion and my new… hairstyle… I got what looked like an approving glance from Vale. After describing my near-death experience with the spiders, their reactions were a bit less positive.

  “You were lucky,” Hassan said bluntly, crossing his arms.

  “Yes sir, uh, I mean, Hassan.”

  He laughed and replied, “Unlike some of us, I actually appreciate a little respect from my juniors.”

  I continued, describing how much time had passed while I recovered from the poison, and leaving out PAST’s little prank. I eagerly talked about the fight with the hobgoblin, explaining how I’d gotten my hands on its axe and beaten it with its own weapon. Mason frowned.

  “We’ll have to work on holding onto that weapon of yours, kid. It sounds like you recovered well but you don’t want to be losing it like that.”

  “Cut ‘er some slack, Mason,” Vale broke in. “She’s not afraid to get her hands dirty, and I like that. Too many prissy Archers out there.” She shot Hassan a loaded look and he sneered at her in return.

  We moved quickly through the fight with the insects, Hassan informing me that they were some kind of giant ‘wasp’, reminding me I needed to get in the habit of Identifying enemies. As I started to describe the final fight, Mason sat up and suddenly raised his hand, stopping me short. He looked at the other two – no, the other three. Hadn’t Block been there the whole time? He’d been so quiet I somehow had totally forgotten about him until just then.

  “Stop there, Az. No need to tell us about the mirror.”

  “Uh, sure, but why not?”

  “Mirrors are rare – not unheard of – but still unusual. I’ve never heard of one in a Tutorial before, even the Advanced Tutorial. Of course, maybe some of the kids who never make it out faced one too… The thing about mirrors is, they know exactly what you do when you fight them. They might have different equipment, even different Skills, but the main thing is that they know all your tricks.”

  “OK, but why does that make them so secret?” I was still confused.

  “The more ways you’ve heard about someone beating a mirror, the less likely any of those ways are to work for you if you fight one. Your mirror will know that you know and so on,” he answered, and I nodded slowly.

  “Good. Now, some people struggle mentally with killing a monster that looks just like them. If that’s the case with you I’m happy to talk about it, in private.”

  I considered, then shrugged. “It was Wasted weird when it happened, but honestly I think I went through so much shit yesterday that it maybe didn’t affect me as much. I was all out of fucks to give already.”

  He laughed at that. “Fine then, just know that you can bring it up to me later if that changes. Now, do you want to discuss your Aspect in private?”

  “Are they that rare?”

  “Not at all. I think most people that survive the Advanced Tutorial end up with one. By the time you get up a few Tiers they’re more common than not.”

  “That’s fine then. What do you want to know about it?”

  “You don’t have to tell us anything. Some people think you shouldn’t share anything about your Class, Skills, or Aspect with anyone. In theory they could learn something that they might use against you later. I think that’s a fucking depressing way to live at your age – wait until you’re older and you have some real secrets before you start worrying about that.”

  He took a drink of water, then continued.

  “Aspects can have the same name but different effects. I’ve seen Versatility before, but your version might be different. Now, the reason I’d like” he emphasized the word, “to know more about it is that if you join the Guild, you’ll be traveling with us to the Academy. Officially, I’m not required to train you during the trip, but that would be a fucking waste of time. So if you want us to help you as much as possible, we should know what your Aspect does.”

  “Does that mean you’re offering me a spot in the Guild?” I asked eagerly.

  Mason smiled. “I was planning to before we talked, and you haven’t said anything that would make me change my mind so far. So yeah, if you want in, we can talk about that first.”

  “YES!” I interrupted him with a shout and a huge smile. “I definitely want in!”

  “Hold on now, do you know exactly what you’re signing up for?”

  “Uh, well, I join the Guild, you train me, then I join a Squad and go on missions, fight dungeons, that kind of thing. Right?”

  I blushed at my own ignorance as Block chuckled and Hassan cracked a grin.

  Mason laughed, but not unkindly. “That’s the basics, all right, but you should know a few more details. First, the training takes a year at the Academy, plus some supervised missions afterwards. The Academy is divided into two semesters of six months each. While you’re training, we’ll provide room and board, but you won’t be paid.”

  Mason stopped and looked at me seriously before continuing.

  “It’s a dangerous life Az, no two ways about it. We provide our recruits the best training in LA. Even so, almost a quarter of them don’t survive their first five years. After that, well, it depends a lot on what kind of jobs you take. And you’re bound to the Guild for five years – even if you leave and find work elsewhere, you’ll still owe the Guild its cut until your term is up.

  “So, are you still interested?”