“Bada bababa bum ba do da” Jisseppi sings loudly to himself as he dances back to his home. Now safely within the inner caves and more so the safety of his particular tribe's tunnel he’s no longer caring to stay quiet. Many of the townsfolk give him strange looks as he passes. Ignoring all of them he reaches a crescendo as he arrives home.

  “Mom, Kofi, I finally got a class.” He screams opening the door. His brother rushes to the door.. The gaunt child wraps his spindly arms around him. At barely 2 feet he stands at his brothers, relatively tall for a goblins hips.

  “Hey brat did you hear me?” Jisseppi pulled his brother back from the hug, looking at him with a massive grin.

  “Uhh is that good?” Kofi looks up at his brother, his mouth agape in confusion.

  In an extremely sarcastic tone. “Uh yeah silly that’s the whole frickin’ thing I’ve been waiting for” Jisseppi kneels down to his brother’s height, his tone getting far more sincere “Now I can make some real money bud, no more dried centipede for us.”

  Gisele hurriedly wraps her lower half in a blanket. She winces as the rough patchwork fabric scraps the burn on the stump her right leg used to be. The wound hasn’t been healing well and she doesn’t want her children to know.

  Her thoughts rollercoaster as she overhears the conversation. At first she’s happy for her son and hopeful for his future. Then she starts worrying he’ll do something stupid like her. Then she hears about the centipedes and her head drops. The stings of guilt and shame stab her heart. She wishes she could provide better for her family. *That fucking beast* she thinks to herself, gritting her teeth. As she hears her boys approach she forces a smile, but it doesn’t reach her eyes.

  While Jisseppi explains how he got the class and the limited details he learned from his cursory glance at the basic stat box, his brother falls asleep on their one bed. “So have you ever heard of a vanguard scout before? Scout is the basic class, so the addition of vanguard makes it unique right?” Jisseppi asks his mother, genuinely hopeful she’ll know exactly what it is. He waited to look at the class window since his mother would be able to explain it in more detail if she knew anything about it.

  Gisele’s express becomes forlorn, as she struggles to meet her sons eyes, yet again she has to let her son down. “Sorry I haven’t heard anything about it.” Quickly though she perks up “Though the scout class get’s stealth at level 0, so I’m familiar with that. I can explain it to you if you’d like”

  “Yes please.” He responds excitedly

  “A normal person will only ever be able to control their physical appearance in regards to stealth. Nothing can be hidden. Basically you can camouflage yourself, or hide behind a rock, but you still smell, your heart beat still makes sound. With the stealth skill however, those features are controllable. Unlike most skills it doesn’t require mana to activate and instead requires focus. The higher your rank the more you will be able to hide yourself from other senses. I believe at higher ranks you’re able to get more specific and hide yourself from one sense more than another.”

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  ******

  Though he hasn’t been in guilds since high school the years of being an active guild master in various MMORPG’s pay off as Kyle quickly types away with his various customers having issues with their phone bills. He loses track of how many dabs he’s taken and once the familiar metallic tang of a completely empty cart burns its way onto his tongue he sighs.

  He rushes to finish with the few customers he’s been assigned, quickly unscrews his cartridge from the vape pen and tosses it to the trash bag next to him. As it clings off the wall hitting a soda on the floor Kyle looks over. “Fuck I’m disgusting” he says in a pitiful tone. The exact opposite of an asmr tingle rushes across his spine as the ping of another customer being added to his queue overwhelms his headset. Before he answers he grabs his last cart, a strong live resin sativa and screws it in. He laments, he’ll have to go to the dispensary soon. It’s the one thing he actually needs to leave his house for and he hates it.

  He wishes he had something stronger than weed to “cope” with his feelings, but regular therapy is absolutely repulsive to him. He would never do it. The single session of consulting for his medical marijuana card was like having needles placed under his fingernails. It took a look time of mental bargaining to convince himself it was worth it. In the end the idea won since with the card he could get more weed at a time. That meant less trips. Yada yada some financial bullshit he’ll save money, or whatever he told himself.

  “Yay self loathing time” Kyle plops on the bed right as his shift ends. Into the pool he goes, hoping the sweet new sativa he got will keep him breezy in the shallow end, he breathes deeply into his oily pillow. *What game was I gonna play? Oh yeah, that new smithing one I found last night.* Unfortunately his thoughts delve deeper. *When is something ever gonna happen to me. Why is my life always so boring? Why couldn’t I have been born lucky* “FUCK! I want to die”He first screams angrily, but the latter trails into a pathetic whimper. *Wait didn’t something happen to me last night* He thinks to himself *That weird light, or whatever. I should go check that out. But what’s the point, nothing good will come out of it. Nothing good ever comes out of anything I put effort into.* “I hate my life” *God dammit I hate being like this I should change. I should go down there and see if it’s still there. It’s probably not. I probably fucked up whatever fucking opportunity. I could have fucking had in that moment* The tears well in his eyes and he has to fight them away. He smacks his head into the pillow a few times before jumping out of bed and rushing to his vape. *I should go down there tonight. No fuck I’m too lazy maybe tomorrow. No shit I can’t keep doing this.* “god resolutions are hard”

  Kyle starts making his first and only meal of the day at almost the exact same time as yesterday. It's a pizza. Well it’s two pizzas. Okay it’s three pizzas with about half a bottle of a very sweet BBQ sauce smeared on the top.

  As he finishes his 2nd to last slice, his stomach begs him to stop “god I hate I myself.” With one more slice Kyle looks down at his own plate. *Damn I made all this food I should finish it. Wouldn’t want any to go to waste.* He laughs to himself after he lied to himself within his own head as a joke to himself. He’s gonna eat that last slice, might as well make himself chuckle through it anyway.

  ******

  Once he has time to settle, Jisseppi looks further into his class, a beaming smirk plastered on his face as he tries to keep it quiet.

  Vanguard Scout

  Level 0 - Scout

  Level 3 - Level based stat boost

  Unknown - Unknown

  “Damn” He exclaims while happy with what he saw, the limited information really put a damper on his mood. Without an expert like his mother to guide him through the specifics of the class will be a mystery. *Still though a stat boost at level 3 is good I’m pretty sure most classes get 1 pre assigned point, at level 5. Maybe this one will be better, maybe my next unlock will be at level 5 since I’m pretty sure other class have to wait until level 5*