Cass’s stylus flowed across the in-desk interface, his face an image of concentration. The first thing Archivist Marell had taught them all was how to customize and modify their overlays. Pellin kept insisting they were personal interface screens, but nobody had cared except one.

  “Nerd,” Orla had said for the third time that day without looking up.

  But the Overlay was more than just interesting; it was almost alive now.

  Since the time of the Reshaping, everyone had an overlay growing up. For the Uncalled, it barely ever said anything other than system alerts: attack warnings, notices, Calling announcements. Most people learned to ignore them after a while.

  But that all changed the moment you got your Calling. It evolved, becoming interactive with each person. Cass hadn’t explored much yet, but the deeper they went, the more intrigued he became. Pellin, on the other hand, was almost slavering at the mouth.

  “I never knew that!” He yelled out in a burst. “You can change the colors?”

  “Wow! Identifiers can do all of that? They’re so lucky.”

  “Why do only combat-oriented Callings get that ability?”

  It was after his third outburst and the sudden silence that followed that Cass grew a little concerned. Seeing the man sit there, staring straight at space with a goofy look on his face, he leaned over, “Pell, you alright? What happened?”

  Pellin blinked, then turned in his chair, eyes wide, “I leveled up…”

  “What? How?”

  His shoulders trembled as he tried to hold in a laugh. “I just had a few thoughts about the interface structure, tested it out, and got a huge amount of experience for it.”

  Orla snapped her head toward them. “How is that fair? Do you know how much shit I have to sell to get level two? My quota’s brutal.”

  A smug grin spread across Pellin’s face, “Looks like the nerd is in first place now, does-”

  “Mr. Cray,” Archivist Marell’s voice cut in, sharp as a knife. “Do you have something to add to the class?”

  “No, Archivist.” He said with a shake of his head, then paused and thought for a moment. Before she could move on, he swallowed and raised his hand. “Actually, Archivist, I think I might.”

  Marell gestured at him, “Proceed.”

  “I was looking through the customization options and tested out interconnecting layers with one of my abilities.” He’d started calmly, but the more he spoke, the more excited his voice became. “Specifically, I connected my passive diagnostic scan to the notes addition you showed me, creating a map of internal data patterns, and then…Bam!” He struck the desk loudly, “Level two.” Scratching his chin, he noticed all the looks coming his way and deflated in his chair as he squeaked out, “I think I triggered a micro-achievement or something.”

  “That,” Marell said, pointing at Pellin, “is the kind of thinking that gets you noticed by the system.” She gave a brief smile, “Congratulations, Mr. Cray. It’s not unheard of for new Callings to go through sudden and explosive gains in experience. I know, when Guildmaster Hollis was first starting, he had several sudden leaps in levels.”

  As the instructor moved back to teaching them about re-labeling things in their overlays, Cass leaned over and fist-bumped a glowing Pellin. “Congratulations, man. That’s great!” And he meant it…mostly. Pride for his friend warred with Cass’s jealousy deep within; it’d likely take him forever to hit level two.

  With Marell droning on in the background, Cass silently made a mental note. His plans for leveling so far mostly had to do with creating quests and building them into routine patterns. By doing so, he could grind out experience at a fast rate by passively allowing it to come in. But with Pellin’s sudden explosion in leveling, he now knew there were other paths he could take.

  Like his father had pointed out, the system liked it when you pushed things.

  Class wrapped up with a promise to dive into Callings tomorrow, and a new alert lit up their overlays. The next stop was Institutional Overview, and as the trio filtered into the corridor, they passed multiple blocks of trainees heading to different rooms. Cass couldn’t help but wonder just how many classes were running all at once.

  The next room didn’t have interactive desks. Instead, it was a series of tables where a man dressed to the hilt in Silver with a sharp goatee pointed right at Orla.

  “You, what’s your Calling?”

  “Merch-” She didn’t have time to finish.

  “Consortium related, sit at table 2.” He pointed at Pellin next, who barely got out the first part before he was told to sit at table five. For Cass, he didn’t even get the question as he was also told to sit at table five, where a young man was already waiting for them with a cheery wave.

  “Hi, name’s Brendan Caner.”

  Brendan was a short young man with close-cropped hair. Like Cass, he too was wearing a Guild robe. After they got seated and introduced themselves, he looked them both over. “Why do you think we’re assigned to these tables?’

  Since Pellin was staring into space again, Cass decided to answer. Pointing at the first two tables, where he recognized three people from the morning's activities were seated, he said, “Combat Callings, so probably Company-related.” He pointed at tables three and four, where an uncomfortable Orla had her ear bent by a man in an expensive robe, “Merchants and probably tradesmen.” Then he pointed at himself and the other two, “Guild and Administrative.”

  Brendan was taken aback, “Wow, you figured all of that out fast? You must be really smart!”

  Cass shook his head with a smile, “No, just observant. Pell’s the smart one.” Pellin stopped staring and sat up a bit straighter, giving Cass a grin.

  Brendan seemed to vibrate in his seat before asking another question, “What do you do for the Guild?’

  “I’m a QuestWright. You?”

  “I’m a Clerk.” Brendan said, a big smile on his face as the sound of his foot tapping echoed across the room, “They’re already talking about putting me in the Petition Chamber. I can’t wait!”

  Any further conversation was cut off as the man in Silver snapped his fingers twice, “Pay attention and listen up. My name is Thalen Vex, and I have the pleasure of being an Officer in the Silvers, the best Company in Liora.”

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  “Second best.” Someone muttered in the front.

  Thalen’s head snapped to the sound, “What was that?”

  When no one answered, he took a deep breath and continued, “In this class, you’ll be learning about Consortia, Companies, Guild procedures, and how both the Liora and World Councils work. Now, let’s get started and don’t doze off, what I’m about to say could save you a lot of anxiety in the future.”

  To Cass’s surprise, the instruction was actually interesting. None of them ever had a chance to speak or ask questions, as all raised hands were promptly ignored, but Thalen was entertaining to watch as he gave a rapid-fire rundown of Liora’s inner workings. When only fifteen minutes had passed, he had everyone stand up and call out if they were affiliated or not.

  For those with a Consortium or Company backing, Thalen had them explain what they did and why they mattered, causing a few stuttering replies as they were forced to think about it. On Cass’s turn, he’d gained a lot of interest as soon as he explained how his Calling worked. Brendan’s turn had the opposite effect, as people barely looked at him after he explained his role in the Guild.

  When it was over and the next update came in, Cass felt like he’d gained a lot of knowledge in a very short period of time.

  Orla breathed a sigh of relief when she was rejoined by the other two, “Well,” She said as they filed out into the hall. “Remind me to never apply to the Valiants. Vex looked like he could crush a watermelon between his buttcheeks.”

  “It wasn’t that bad,” Cass said with a reproving tone, “Learning about things like that helps all of us.”

  “Not me,” Orla replied with a snort, “I counted three errors in what he taught.”

  “Okay all-knowing Orla, what were the three?”

  She held up her fingers while counting down, “First, he said the World Council oversees all Team licensing, which is just wrong. Regional Guilds manage that. Second, he claimed that the Plumber’s Consortium has the most power in all the trades, when really, it’s the Merchants. And Third, he mispronounced my name twice. It’s ohr-la, not ur-la.”

  Cass snorted, “Sure.” When it looked like she was going to object to his brushing away her complaints, he turned toward Pellin, “What do you have next? I’ve gotta meet up with Kara for something called Practical Systems Lab.”

  “Same,” Pellin grabbed his head, “Only I’m not meeting up with anyone. There are no System Engineers in Liora to help me through all this. Instead, I get to run off to a console somewhere near the Atrium to see if I can fix one of the Guild’s machines. It’s good experience, and will help out my Calling, but I don’t like being assigned tasks. I’d rather they let me do things at my own pace.”

  Orla poked Cass in the ribs, “He doesn’t like being assigned tasks.” The way she said the word seemed to imply it meant something else. “I wonder what it would be like to have to assign tasks to everyone.”

  Cass batted her hand away. “What about you?”

  “Pricing and indexing, the Marrowind way.” She gave them both a wink, then, without saying anything else, started to walk away, her stride already stretching out to cover longer distances. Cass said a quick goodbye to Pellin, then headed to the Annex, where the update indicated that Kara would meet him.

  He found her harranguing the Clerk girl from two days ago.

  “Chancey, I don’t care what the chart said. The Quest Guide is not all-knowing. After all, it was written by Clerks!” She threw her arms in the air, and that’s when she noticed Cass at the entrance. “Finally! Come on, let’s get me out of here.”

  Cass had another light jog that jiggled his burning thighs while he followed the Guild Trainer towards the Annex. He looked back at Chancey once as he caught up, “She’s going to cry.”

  “She’ll recover,” Kara said, not slowing in the slightest, “cradling stupidity is an easy way to continue letting it grow. My role in the Guild is to make sure everyone is on task and doing what they’re supposed to. That girl is a mental menace that’s going to get someone killed one day.”

  They arrived at the threadbare chair and extra-wide desk right on time. Kara pointed a finger at it without speaking, and as soon as everything turned on, she began speaking.

  “You and I have three time-blocks in each day, there’s a reason for that. The first block is simple: ability progression. The second and third are combined, following your logistics class after lunch. I don’t like the back and forth of your schedule any more than you do, but it’s good to break up the monotony.” Pointing at the screen, she said, “Today, you’re going to create your first quest.”

  Cass blinked, excitement burning in his chest. “Seriously?”

  Kara gave him a level stare, “Don’t get ahead of yourself. It won’t be issued, at least not yet. This is a design test. I want to see how your brain structures objectives and communication. And.” She tapped a control on the Annex, causing a pre-formatted quest to appear. “I’m curious about what your drafting will look like.”

  Quest ID: GH-2387-M-LIA

  Objective: Bring the sealed letter from Quest Registry (Main Hall, Desk A) to Kara Tullis at the Guild Atrium.

  Assigned Candidate: Public: QuestBoard: Blue

  Status: Active

  Questor Reward: +5 XP

  QuestWright Reward: +0.5 XP

  “When you say drafting, are you talking about my active ability?” Cass asked as he pulled it up.

  Kara nodded. “Exactly. Open up the drawer below and remove a blank vellum.”

  Cass did so and found the large drawer to be filled to the brim with blank pages. Lifting one out, he noticed the material was exceedingly tough. There was a thickness to it that was hard to describe. Scratching at its surface with a nail, he didn’t make a mark.

  “How am I supposed to write on this?”

  Kara gave a quick, bark-like laugh, “You’ll see. Now, put it down in front of you, then focus on the quest. Think about what you want it to say, not word for word, but as if people were talking to you. Your emotions, your mental state, and your vocabulary all cross over when the quest is drafted. What do you want to tell people, Cassio Vale? To the people who take up your quests, what do you want them to feel when they read it?”

  Cass swallowed. Nothing he’d heard about being a QuestWright had mentioned this. He thought it would be neat and tidy. Sit in a room, stare at a map, fix problems as they come.

  Nothing to do but try.

  Following Kara’s instructions, Cass centered his mind on the quest, then, while touching the vellum, activated his Quest Draft ability.

  The change was both over and underwhelming. The moment Cass hit the ability, he felt his whole body seize up as if he were grabbed by a giant and locked in place. Eyes fixed on the vellum spread across the desk, he got to watch it unfold live as the words sporadically formed themselves from nothing at all. As soon as it finished, a silver glow sparked across the page, then it settled and winked out.

  It worked. Cass thought with a sense of relief that was no small thing. It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought it would, only, there was still some small part of him that doubted if he really was a QuestWright. It had just never been a part of any of his plans.

  Kara stretched her body across him, examining the page without touching it. “Not terrible for a first draft, but there’s definite room for improvement.”

  Cass looked down and read it out.

  [TIER 1 DELIVERY QUEST]

  To those who would take on this quest, send thyselves to the Liora Quest Registry and find a crying girl named Chancey. With most haste, and most carefully, obtain a letter to one Kara Tullis, then bring said letter to her within the Guild heart.

  Be not afraid of her glares and waspishness, the woman is good.

  Cassio Vale

  Liora Guildhall

  QuestWright

  “Wait…I wasn’t thinking any of that.”

  That was when the unexpected happened.

  Kara couldn’t hold herself back anymore as she roared with laughter. It went on for several seconds, until she finally wiped away a single tear drifting down her face, saying, “The woman is good.” That only set her off again as Cass felt the mortification settle in, along with something else.

  [System Notice]

  Bonus experience granted for first quest draft:

  5xp

  Achievement progress:

  1/10