As the group moved into a private area, much to the lion’s confusion, Roge looked over the three party members to distract himself. The lion was the one he looked at the least, feeling the scales in his face heating at the obviously muscular lion. His look of concern and confusion messed up Roge’s feelings even more, leading him to look at the only female in the group.

  She was very obviously a [Deerkin], her skinny face somehow pretty even while she looked bored. She wore what looked to be thick cloth armor, it styled in a camo color scheme to make her blend into trees better, Roge assumed. What helped that theory was the bow and quiver she had on her back, both faintly shining with magic.

  The last member of the party was a fit elf, Roge constantly surprised by the general fitness of elves and had been afraid to ask. He didn’t look like a strength class however, the runes on his cloak and the book strapped to his belt leading Roge to believe he was some kind of mage. As soon as he processed that fact, his mind working a bit slower with all of the emotions he was ignoring, he felt a bit of excitement. Another person with magic might help him improve his classes further.

  “So what exactly is going on?” the lion asked, his tone and face grumpy, which strangely looked oddly cute on the man.

  With a look from Roge, unsure if his face was calm or panicked, Fred placed a paw on his shoulder and turned to the three adventurers. “I’m not sure how to say this, so I’ll be blunt. Roge has the [Static Mind] ability.” At that all three people froze, even the bored looked deer giving him a horrified look.

  Fred started explaining more, telling them about the first day or two and letting them know how much Roge remembered (which was nothing). Not wanting to rehash the information, the dragon looked through his [Status], nodding at the seven free attribute points he had and pulling up his [Screen Hoard] ability to see what the effect was.

  His smile was small at that, Fred seeming to slow his explanation down and looking worriedly at Roge. It was a good effect, letting him better customize his plants and objects. He’d focus on it later, though, as the three adventurers looked at him when Fred was finished with his explanation.

  “So you… don’t remember us?” the lion asked, the hurt and sorrow in how voice causing Roge to wince and look down.

  “No. I’m sorry. Were we… friends?”

  “Best friends. Ever since you moved here,” the deer woman stated, her worry still apparent even though he looked the most calm out of all of them.

  “So. Uh… What are your names?”

  “I’m Hops,” the elf stated, holding his hand out to shake. Roge took it reluctantly, feeling his body get more and more jittery with the awkward conversation. “Resident [Wizard] of the group, so if you have any magical questions…” He trailed off at that, letting out an awkward chuckle. “Thought I’d offer, but your previous self never seemed interested in runes.”

  “I mean…” Roge shrugged, letting a small smile come to his face. “I’d like to at least see how it works sometime. Don’t have any experience obviously, so you might have to go slow.”

  Hops nodded as the deer held out her paw, Roge also shaking it gently. “Marge. I shoot things and keep these two on track.” Roge shared her smile at that, the two men giving her affronted looks.

  “We’re not that bad…” the lion muttered.

  “*You* always run in front of things, even when you shouldn’t, and this one,” She pointed at Hops, “can’t dodge for the life of him. It’s not about you being men. It’s about you being stupid sometimes. Like I am when I try to go for the eyes. Still trying to break that habit.” She stage whispered that last part at Roge, the dragon letting out a small giggle as he forced himself to look at the lion.

  “Sean. Leader and tank.” The word ‘meatshield’ was coughed by Marge at that, Sean rolling his eyes and cracking a small grin.

  “I’m… so going to be bad at those names,” Roge warned, mouthing the names under his breath.

  Sean chuckled. “Yeah. Glad that’s not changed.”

  Roge shrugged, unease slowly trickling back in. “Haven’t really worried about it honestly. New person, no comparisons.”

  “That’s an excellent model for how we should view it,” Marge stated, elbowing her party members an grinning.

  “I’ll try to keep it in mind,” Sean grunted.

  “So…” Roge hummed, glancing back at Fred who was leaning against a wall. “When were you going to tell me about… that?” He waved at the wolf’s pink armor, Roge not helping the grimace that came across his face.

  “Honestly? Probably never. You never really did like our jobs as adventuring.”

  Roge felt confused at that, tilting his head to the side as he looked between everyone. “I mean… I’m fine with the adventuring part, I guess. Don’t know much about it obviously, but I know it’s an important job.” Once again, surprise came to the faces of the group, Fred joining in. “I just think your armor looks god awful.”

  Sean burst out laughing at that, smacking Fred’s shoulder as the wolf made a sour expression. “I had to buy it used…”

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  “I mean… I can help with that if you want. What color do you want?” He barely glanced at the [Inspect] screen that popped up for the armor, not wanting to mess with any of its combat abilities. He immediately noticed the [Pigment] ability and pulled out his ink bottle, some innate sense telling him that all of the abilities on the bottle were his.

  “Uh… not black…” Fred said, confused. Roge rolled his eyes at that, feeling more comfortable in the situation.

  “I can make it anything.” Touching the armor, as he got the sense that he needed to when he tried to activate [Swap], he swapped the two [Pigments] from the armor and ink, turning the liquid a bright pink and the armor a pitch black. It wasn’t two dimensional like the coin, and didn’t last long besides. “Blue? Orange? White? I can even add some detailing.” He showed off each color as he said them, feeling the need to keep contact to use his buff. After adding some green vine-like detailing to the sleeves, he let go of the armor, feeling his ability to change it go away, but the pattern stayed the same.

  “How the hell?!” Hops’ voice made the dragon jump for a second, having gotten too focused and forgetting everyone around him. “What kind of class allows you to-“ The elf was cut off by Marge putting her paw over his mouth, giving him a glare.

  “Quieter and less demanding,” she ordered, Roge giving her a grateful look.

  “It’s… well it’s hard to explain.” He glanced at Fred for a moment, wincing at the baffled look on the wolf’s face as he looked at his white and plant-y armor. “It’s a Draconic class focusing on possession of things. My first one focuses on abilities, so I can play around with them.” He pulled out his extra Color Coin at that, so as to not lose the buff, and easily gave it to the elf to examine.

  “I can’t… this is so…” He seemed to have blue-screened everyone except for Marge, even Sean seeming frozen as he looked at his plain brown leather armor and pulling out a wooden shield to look at.

  “So did you decide on what pattern you want?” Roge asked Fred, turning to the wolf. He seemed to be coming out of his shock, if the massive grin on his face was any indication.

  ~~~

  Fred, as it turned out, was a scout for the guild, using stealth and movement skills to get the information for notices. So he decided on a black and grey camo pattern, similar to Marge’s outfit, but less green.

  Sean got in the spirit at that, asking for his leather armor and shield to look the most like steel as Roge could get it. While the dragon couldn’t change it to give the protection properties of steel, he thought the greys he used in the design looked nice, if a bit amateurish. To not lose his [Colorful] buff, Hops offered up a couple of jars of paint to use, the [Wizard] apparently having used them for painting rune traps and the like before.? ? Roge tried to refuse at first, siting the destruction of more mundane materials, but Sean wouldn’t have it. “It’s the least we could do man.”

  Marge and Hops seemed fine with their choice of clothing, thought Marge did ask for her green camo to look a bit more leafy to help with her stealth. Roge wasn’t sure how that would interact with her stealth skills, but he accepted the task, even with his minimal drawing experience.

  He was even surprised to get a new skill after he was done, feeling confused at why it didn’t come with a class.

  “Got the [Drawing] skill?” Fred asked, his grin widening at Roge’s mildly shocked look. “You’re very obvious about looking at your screens.”

  “Getting used to them takes time you haven’t had,” Sean mumbled, giving Roge a comforting pat on the shoulder.

  “I’m just confused why it didn’t come with a class…” He was tempted to use [All Seeing] on the skill, but felt it wasn’t the best time for it.

  “Oh right! Never explained general skills,” Fred exclaimed, scratching his neck and looking away.

  “I can handle that, if you don’t mind,” Hops interjected, ignoring the groaning coming from everyone except a confused Roge. "Some skills don’t really need to fit to a class. The best example is the [Inspect] skill. While yes, there are classes that delve into getting information out of objects, [Inspect] and [Drawing] are just too broad.”

  The elf held his hands apart at that, Roge nodding as he listened to Hops continue. “They could fit into so many classes, that they split off into their own group. A pseudo-class if you will. ‘General skills’ is what it’s usually referred to.”

  “That… makes sense,” Roge replied, looking over his [Status], tempted to move the skills into their own categories, but feeling unsure if he could do that yet. “Though I imagine if you have too many general skills, that can hamper class skills.”

  “Right,” the elf nodded, though Roge noticed Sean and Fred looking a little bored. “It’s good you have the [Drawing] skill, though. It seems like a meaningful part of your class could improve as you rank it up.”

  “So… thanks for the lesson… Hops?” At the elf’s nod, Roge looked to the door, wanting to continue talking but feeling like he was holding up the group. “We can do what you all were originally going to do now. Sorry that took a bit…”

  “Don’t worry about it, Roge,” Sean stated, his gentle elbow to the dragon’s side making Roge’s scales feel warm again. “We just have to drop off some loot we gathered today. Got a fantastic haul from the local mines, including some quartz dust if you can believe it!” The lion started leading them out of the room at that, the hallways of the guild hall pretty bare. Roge was a bit too worried and nervous to notice the smooth, dungeon-like feel of the architecture when he came in.

  “I still think we can get an [Artificer] to make us something from it…” Hops grumbled, Roge looking confused at the statement. “Quartz dust is one of the major ingredients for simple healing items. Potions are the common thing, though…”

  Roge didn’t listen to the rest of the lecture, frowning as his mind raced over that idea. “What does an [Artificer] do?” he asked, cutting off the elf’s explanation and making everyone look at him. “I mean… I was recommended the [Alchemist] class to improve my build, but if [Artificer] can make potions…”

  “It’s harder to get from what I hear,” Hops responded, apparently not taking issue with the interruption. They’d reached the front desk outside by that point, Roge wondering how long he’d been thinking for, as it only felt like a few seconds. “You have to make your first object in such a way that it bonds to you.”

  “So if I already have a bonded item from a previous class…” Roge replied, taking out the now pink bottle of ink and giving Hops a curious look.

  “Oooo! That might work!” The [Wizard] seemed excited at that, pulling a sack out of his inventory while the other members of his party put their loot on the counter. “A wand is a good place to start, as making a potion might give you [Alchemist] instead. You have any materials that can make a long, thin pole? We might be able to put it in the bottle in place of the stopper.”

  Roge frowned at Hops for a moment. “You seem to know a lot about this…”

  “Well my [Wizard] class is similar, but with runes,” he stated, shrugging. “I was going for [Artificer] myself, but I only found out later that [Artificers] don’t use runes. To make their items, they just use magical ingredients.”

  “Alright…” Roge said slowly, looking at the blueoak trees in the courtyard before turning to the receptionist at the desk. He brushed past his embarrassment at the fact that, while he and the elf had been talking, Sean and Marge had already finished their transaction. “You mind if we cut a branch off of one of the trees?” he asked, pointing out into the courtyard.