Neophyte World Builder

REESE

The dreams started when I was thirteen.

At first I didn’t pay them much heed. I’d gotten my provisional class, a [Physical] class. I wasn’t disappointed, even if my mother really had hoped I’d have a more magical bent. I didn’t have bad magical potential, but I just preferred to do things more directly. So when the time came and I was assigned the provisional class that all the laborers, warriors, and so on grew out of… I was happy. Mother… not so much.

Most of the time, my dreams were pretty normal. I dreamed of things like forgetting to wear my pants when going out to spar with the guards, or losing all my teeth before the Thermain’s Memory Festival. I also of course had other dreams I really shouldn’t talk about.

Then just sometimes I’d more clearly remember something in the morning. The dreams themselves still weren’t totally sensible, but they usually had a repeated theme, some occurrence that would happen over and over. Sometimes just a place that I’d keep returning to in the dream, but usually it was an event.

The first few had been minor but notable. Once, the sky shimmered in strange colors at night, so bright that some in the town complained about lack of sleep. Another time, several dreams of an angry wounded bear kept me up for several nights, and then I heard that several hunters had brought down a bear with an infected shoulder that had been driven mad by pain. I wasn’t the smartest boy in town, but I could see the pattern.

When the blizzard came, I made sure my family was ready.

After that, people started asking questions, but I didn’t know the answers. I tried to make it seem like a bad feeling that I’d been lucky about, because I didn’t want people to think I could control the visions. For several years I tried to be subtle… but eventually the townsfolk figured it out. Maybe it helped that I never tried to claim I knew more, because the town started to prosper due to “Lucky Reese” as they called me. I’m sure that some of them figured the gods were involved, but none of us could figure out which ones.

By my late teens, I was ready to leave home… but hadn’t. Not because I was incapable, but because they wanted me there. I’d gotten training from the guard and the blacksmith both, and the local wise man and his wife had even given me some basic instruction in magic, hoping that I’d turn out to be some hybrid class. Yet that hadn’t happened.

My fifteenth birthday came and went. No class change occurred, no upgrade to some chosen champion of the gods. Not even a [Farmer] or [Guard] class came to me. My provisional class stubbornly remained past the normal time… even as my friends graduated to their careers and some of them moved on to the nearby city. The years passed, and as my nineteenth birthday arrived, I had officially passed the point where no one had ever heard of a provisional class remaining unchanged.

Excitement had swapped to disappointment. The visions still came, and I still had a use, but I was an embarrassment. Travelers never saw me, as the town hid me away when they passed through. None of the townsfolk—nor my parents—knew what to do with me. I had no official useful position, but my visions had led the town to prosper more in the past few years than in the last two generations.

It was frustrating… but better than being useless.

That was when she appeared.

I only caught a glimpse of this one on her way in, but I knew she was different than the other elves. The nearest elves were still leagues away, and any that passed through town were enough of a rarity that I always—always—received a vision of their arrival. It was usually nothing important, but the warning always gave a reassurance that nothing had changed. Whatever being or beings sent the messages to me had unusual priorities, that way.

This time, I’d had no warning. My dreams had been strange of late… dreams of bestial creatures I’d never seen before crewing a ship that somehow sailed in the sky, of dragons singing to one another, of a cackling imp gleefully rubbing hands together before moving pieces on some kind of game board. They were equal parts disturbing and interesting, but I could make no sense of them.

All I had to go by this time was distant view of an elegant elf slipping into the alehouse to get away from the gently falling snow.

That was how I ended up shivering, huddled close to the fire. The cave was my getaway in times like this, my home away from home. I’d set it up with some comforts, though it wasn’t meant to host me on the cusp of winter like this. It overlooked the town and the river, letting me enjoy the view and how it looked in the red shade of the setting sun. I’d have to go home soon, since staying overnight in this weather would be potentially fatal.

“You certainly didn’t let yourself be easy to find,” a musical voice trilled playfully from my side.

I jerked my head up to see the stranger’s face much closer than expected. In the firelight her fair skin looked to have a bronze sheen, and for an instant her eyes looked… off. I had no feeling of danger, but something deep inside me told me this was not a normal elf. Even her hair, a rich dark brown in color, glimmered unnaturally.

She was lovely, of course. Elves tended to be, when compared to humans like myself. Willowy of figure and moving with unnatural grace, she passed her hand near the fire to cause it to flare up lightly, the aura of warmth expanding and enveloping the entirety of the small cave. She moved in such a casual and effortless manner that I wasn’t sure what to think about her presence. It wasn’t easy to reach the little opening in the bluff without being noticed, but she’d snuck up on me with ease.

“I uh… you were looking for me?” I asked dumbly. What else was I supposed to say? I immediately thought of at least a hand’s worth of better things to say, and flinched inwardly. That always seemed to happen after I’d said something dumb. My thoughts were always a little behind my mouth.

The elf looked me over, as if judging me. I was acutely aware that I had neither the nimbleness of a male elf, nor the overpowering physique of the more physical humans. I was built well, but I was well-rounded rather than focusing on one stat. Now I found myself wondering which this woman preferred…

A thought I quickly quashed. I’d never been unpopular with the girls in my teens, but my current lack of a class had made opportunities slim. I couldn’t let that part of me dictate how I treated this stranger, no matter how long it had been.

She chuckled, as if reading my thoughts. “You can relax, Reese. I’m here to help you. I can help your class evolve… I know you are having trouble.”

With those words, any of the more lonely and desperate thoughts of a young man vanished. I snapped my head up, eyes wide to stare at the woman who claimed she could be my savior. She was an elf… of course she was quite possibly much older than I was. But how had she heard of my situation? How had she found me?

Before I could get any of the questions out, she smiled and offered her hand.

“You may call me Sena,” she murmured in a light tone. “It may be hard to believe, but I have been waiting for you for some time… over thirty years, now. You really are a bit of a troublesome human, aren’t you?”

This time I couldn’t hold my questions. “Waiting for me? Thirty years? I’m um… not that old. Is there a prophecy or something? Do you know what’s wrong with me?”

I almost gushed out more, but Sena silenced me with a finger to my lips and a quiet shushing noise.

“I’d like to say all will be explained… but I’m afraid it won’t be,” she chuckled. “Your situation is unique among those that live… but it has happened before. The last one died young by a random accident. Fortunately, you have kept your wits about you enough to live to today. So no… no prophecy, exactly. Not yet, anyway. Aren’t you the one who can predict the future?”

For once I managed to keep myself from blurting out something stupid. “What do you mean?” I asked, barely stopping myself from confirming to her that I could do just what she’d asked. “I really don’t have any idea how you found me.”

Sena just let out a light laugh, “You’re adorable like this!” She seated herself across from me, leaning back on her hands. “The System told me where you were. We have a bit of a relationship, you know. Very different from your relationship with it… but I really am here to help you evolve your class. You have a lot of options, from the look of things. I have a recommendation, of course… but you don’t have to take it.”

And just like that, my future opened up again. I stared at the notification that only I could see… but from Sena’s smirk, the elf knew exactly what I was looking at. She also knew that I had an impressive list of options scrolling past… some of which were rare classes. I’d never even heard of a [Tempest Knight], but that was just one of the many options for my first class. I recognized a few that were normally only offered as second classes, even.

“How…?” I asked with a gaping mouth, looking up at the smiling elf. Once again something was off about her eyes… for an instant they looked wrong in a way I couldn’t catch. Despite the gift she’d just given, it made me a little wary.

Just a little.

“The System didn’t want you evolving your class until I was here,” she explained quietly. “You have a choice to make, you know. Aside from your class, I mean. You could stay here, near the town… build whatever life you fantasized about. You could even become one of those wandering sorts that try to push their limits. The System loves those, you know… and nobody would ever blame you for it. I’ll walk away and find some way to enjoy my life until the next comes along, after you die. I can wait another few dozen years.”

I wasn’t so excited that I missed the obvious implication. She was about to offer me some other choice that was significant, but that made me more wary. I narrowed my eyes at her and prodded the fire with a spare stick, watching the flames dance before me.

“Good, you caught on,” Sena chuckled. “He can learn, after all. Your other path is to come with me. I will help you learn to use your abilities for your new class, while we wander the world… and eventually beyond. Would you like to see the stars, my dear Reese?”

Her smile widened, and my next question died on my lips. “I know, you want to know the catch. There isn’t one, not really… aside from becoming famous. It’s inevitable if you choose the class at the bottom of your list. I’m told it’s one that should catch your eyes.”

I looked downward and stared. The list was long, so it took a moment for me to find what she was talking about… but once I did, the name leapt out at me. It wasn’t just an odd and almost terrifying name, it was somehow… familiar. I’d never dreamed about the name, but deep down, it felt like I’d known it all along.

It wasn’t her offer that intrigued me… not completely. I’d have considered it even without the class. It was the class that made my decision, the draw it had for me that I couldn’t quite grasp the source of. It looked like a spellcasting class, despite my [Physical] provisional class. I selected it without any doubt in my decision.