The hierarchy of the Guild is generally informal. The Guildmaster, in consultation with the Council, appoints Directors to handle crucial tasks – examples include Logistics, Recruiting, Morale, and SPECTRE.

  What the fuck is SPECTRE, you ask? It stands for Special Protective Endeavors in Counter-intelligence, Tactics, Reciprocity, and Equalization. Some consider SPECTRE to be the Guild’s Left Hand, but that’s just stupid. There’s no fucking Left Hand.

  -

  Leon dragged the shaking girl to the back of the line and yelled at the rest of us to get started. I ended up behind the two orcs on one side of the stairs. They both made the ten-foot drop look easy, if not quite as smooth as Leon had. When it was my turn, I looked to make sure H’ruk was out of the way, and swallowed.

  that

  Unlike many of the other students, I definitely did not scream on my way down. I did, however, stumble on landing, as the strange sensation of slowing down hitting the ground was oddly disorienting. The girl who was scared of heights only had to be tossed another three times before she started up the stairs on her own, white-faced and shaking.

  For me, the jump from the first platform only used up six points of my barrier each time. I was sure falling had done more damage to me in the Tutorial, but then I’d usually ended up on my back with my head hitting the ground. That was probably the difference. When we’d finally made it through the first ten jumps, we had to go up to the next platform, which was fifteen feet up.

  It sure seemed like a lot more than an extra five feet compared to the first platform, at least when I looked down from it. I needed a few moments to gather my courage before I leaped, only the threat of being embarrassingly tossed against my will finally motivating me to jump. I almost fell down when I hit the ground.

  It was extremely confusing for my brain to try and process what had just happened. I’d obviously been falling faster than I had on the shorter jump at the moment my barrier activated. But my barrier still hadn’t shattered – instead, it had slowed me down more rapidly. I actually hit the ground at the same speed I had from the ten foot drop.

  unnatural

  My barrier had taken ten points of damage this time, and a few of the students actually had theirs break – I guessed none of them had put any points into Barrier. After ten rounds of jumping off the fifteen foot platform – getting slightly more stable with each landing – we had to go up to the third platform, which broke quite a few more barriers. No one was hurt, but from the surprised cries it didn’t sound fun. It didn’t like fun either, jumping from a twenty foot height.

  It wasn’t, even though my barrier held easily.

  It turned out I was the only one to go past the fourth platform. Jumping from the fifth, my barrier shattered and dumped me on my ass with a groan. I saw Marta, Clarice, and Yuri grinning at my misfortune before Leon hurried them back up the line. With over thirty students in each line, my barrier easily recharged between jumps, but my legs started to get tired as all the stair climbing piled on top of the effects of the weightlifting we’d done that morning.

  By the end of the class, there had been a few sprained ankles which Lydia had easily Healed before sending the briefly-injured students right back into the line to try again. I caught more people staring at me as I trudged up to the thirty-foot platform again and again.

  I realized that I might be the highest-Leveled person in the class. On top of that, I’d put free points in Barrier, and my Aspect put another point there for each Level.

  The last class of the day was Skill Theory and Classes, and to my surprise the teacher was Head Instructor Thompson. Once my brain had adjusted to the fact that I didn’t need to throw myself off of any more walls for the day, I did my best to pay attention as she covered a variety of introductory topics. I noticed that a lot of the students – especially the trainees – looked bored, and I assumed that some of them had learned all this stuff before.

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  Honestly, I felt like should have already learned this stuff too, but I was fairly sure we’d only covered some of the topics back in Sunland. I knew that combat vs non-combat Classes was a distinction made by people, not by the System, who never said anything on the subject. Likewise, I was familiar with the idea that not everyone with the same Class got the same Skills offered by the System.

  “Let’s talk a little bit about how to categorize Skills,” Thompson said, and I perked up a little. This sounded new to me.

  “Just like combat vs non-combat Classes, keep in mind that these categories come from humans and not directly from the System. There are different categorization schemes, of course, but one of the main ones is organized around the concept of basic utility – in other words, what is each Skill – or Spell – most useful for? The typical categories in utility classification are: offense, defense, detection, concealment, movement, recovery, buffs, debuffs, support, conjuration, alteration, utility, tool use, summoning, and affinity.”

  She wrote each of the categories on the blackboard as she listed them out.

  “Most of these are pretty straightforward, but a couple require further explanation. The support category, for example, is used for Skills that specifically enhance other Skills you already have – a good example being the Resource Transportation Skill that many Classes such as Miners, Farmers, etc get. It specifically modifies their Inventory Skill to be able to hold much more of the specific materials associated with their Class, such as ores for Miners. It does cover Skills that you would use to support your teammates in a fight, which fall into the buffs category.

  “Utility is the catch-all classification for Skills that don’t fit anywhere else, the primary example being Inventory. Tool use is another confusing category, because it means ‘tool’ in the most generic sense of the word – anything from a paintbrush to a sword – and includes all the weapons Skills you might be familiar with.

  “Finally, we have affinity, which some people think should encompass tool use as well. They argue that a weapons Skill is basically an affinity for a particular weapon, just as a Skill related to using a paintbrush could be seen as an Artist having an affinity for that medium. Regardless, it is most commonly used for the base magical Skill you find in most Mage Classes.

  “The Skill Fire Magic, as an example, gives you direct access to the Spell Fire, and additionally grants you a damage bonus and mana cost reduction when casting Spells based on that rune. There is an affinity Skill for any type of magic, though some are much rarer than others. As you’ll learn in your Magical Theory class, the affinity Skills are why Mages tend to focus on one or two areas of magic.”

  Thompson paused for a moment, surveying the group. When no one raised their hand to ask a question, she continued.

  “Ultimately, anyone can learn any Spell if they have the requisite Tier, Power, and Control. However, as affinity Skills Level up, those bonuses become quite significant. It therefore makes the most sense for people to excel in the areas of magic where they benefit from their affinity.

  “This is very similar to the fact that anyone can learn to use any weapon, as long as they have enough Strength, Dexterity, and stamina to wield it properly. Yet, they’ll never be effective with it as someone who has the corresponding weapon Skill. The same is also true for armor, by the way, which is why some would argue armor Skills belong in the affinity or tool use category rather than defense. Ah, but now I’ve gone off on a tangent.

  “Coming back to the different categories, as a simple homework assignment I want you to classify each of your Skills and/or Spells under the usage classification scheme. Then, consider which areas you have covered which you think are important to be successful in the role you want to have on your team. This implicitly requires that you understand the role you want, so let’s spend a minute reviewing those.

  “The typical roles within a Guild Squad usually fall into one of these categories: ranged damage, melee damage, defense, crowd control, healing, support, scouting, and leadership. In the long term, everyone should plan to fill more than one of these roles. It’s up to you and your Class if you decide to focus primarily in a single role or diversify.

  “When we meet again on Friday, you’re expected to be ready to discuss your desired roles, your current Skill and Spell categories, and which category you think is most important to select your next Skill from. All of your mentors will be here, and we will divide up to discuss these topics privately within each Squad.

  “That will be all for today. Class dismissed!”

  With that, we had finished our first day of classes. Dinner was fairly quiet, as we were all worn down from the long day. Tara tried to convince us to eat at the restaurant, but I vetoed that suggestion, reminding her that most of us would quickly run out of money if we did that every day. She and Arlo joined up with some of the other trainees – not Yuri’s group, of course – and headed that way while the rest of us ate at the dining hall.

  I skipped out on going to the bar, instead returning to the dorm and taking a long shower. I had full mana after not using any during PT2 or in the classroom, which seemed like a waste. I wanted to go do another Sprint, but I’d told Wolf I wouldn’t. I promised myself. Then I went up to my room and practiced casting Fire until I was too exhausted to continue.

  ?─????????─?

  Life isn’t some kind of grand destiny.

  It’s just a collection of decisions shaped by the moments that happen around us.

  Of Moon and Magic follows a silver-haired girl. Her mana was weak, but that never dulled her hunger for magic.

  We follow her steps. We weigh her choices. We sit with her loneliness. In a world where magic is everything, war is constant, and morality is little more than a neglected guideline.

  Will she become just another cog in the machine?

  Or will she be the one to end it all?

  Only one way to find out.

  Point of Interest:

  Update Schedule

  ?─????????─?