We visited all the skilled tradesmen who needed an apprentice. They taught me something about their trade and hoped I would gain a skill. However, none of those fields gave me a skill. We then moved on to the tradesmen who already had apprentices, and again, I didn’t learn a single skill.

  The worst experience of the bunch was with a crafter named Bolo. He had been a brusque man with a high level of self-importance. While it was true he was highly skilled, he didn’t want to answer any of my so-called ‘silly questions’ and almost ended up throwing me out of his workshop.

  Next, we checked in with the farmers who worked the small plots inside the walls. There weren’t many of them, but they managed to grow a surprising amount. I never planned on becoming a farmer, yet I still felt a sting of disappointment when no skill appeared.

  It seemed that being a Grey Elf was the system’s way of putting me on hard mode.

  In the end, I was utterly dejected until I reached the herbalist.

  “Hello, my name is Alf. I am new here.” After doing this about a dozen times, knowing what to say had gotten a lot easier. “I am here to see if I can learn from you.”

  “Alf, do you know what plant this is?” a young lady asked, reaching out to touch one of the plants in the herb shed. She was a stunning blonde with radiant skin and hair that flowed past her waist, catching the light and casting an earthly golden glow around her. Despite her youthful appearance, there was a confidence and authority in her voice that suggested she was no novice when it came to Herbology. If I had to guess, I would say she was around twenty-one or twenty-two years old. Her presence in the herb shed left me feeling both puzzled and intrigued. How could someone so young be an expert?

  Thanks to Rabbit, I could see the effects on the majority of the plants in the shed. “I don’t know what that one is called, but it has a frost damage effect.” I tried to impress her, so I went through the line, listing every effect that I could see. Some of them had more than one, so it looked impressive doing them all at once without needing to concentrate. Of course, for the couple I hadn’t known, I would have to focus on finding the single effects. If I genuinely knew nothing about a plant, it would take longer, so I just ignored it, and she didn’t seem to mind.

  “Wow. That was a good display. It seems like you knew them by heart. You must have been working with plants for years to memorize them. We can use someone like you. Currently, it’s just Kaji and I doing most of the work. Potions don’t work the same on every race, as you probably know, so some of those effects are different on Humans. Do you know Human effects as well or just Elf effects?”

  “I didn’t know that. Just Elf effects?” I replied.

  “That’s odd. That is usually the first lesson ever taught, but maybe if you were in an Elf village, they weren’t making potions for other people, so it didn’t matter. I mean, as you know, Elves are a little reclusive. Consider if you were undead. A healing potion would have a completely different effect than if you were a living person. That example is always used because it’s usually the clearest to understand.” The lady stopped and pointed around at the small herb shed and continued, “As you can tell, we are just starting our collection and need all the help we can get. What level is your Alchemy?”

  “I don’t have an Alchemy level. I never acquired the skill, but if you teach me something, then I might be able to learn it.” I rushed to finish the sentence as if rushing the words out would somehow make it less horrendous.

  The lady’s face scrunched up as if things weren’t making sense. “What of your Herblore skill?”

  “I am a level 3 in Herblore, but it has maxed out already. I have only been working with them for a couple of days, but have an excellent memory and think I could be of great use.” While I was talking, her smile began to fade, and I didn’t know why. I clearly was what she was looking for.

  “I’m sorry, Alf. I don’t think you could help.”

  “Why not? It seems like you are desperate here,” I said, almost pleading.

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  “Alf, you seem nice. You should work on something that you have a high affinity for. I get that you like plants, and I love them myself.” She stopped and looked at them wistfully.

  I did not love them, but if I had a chance not to get banished, I would pretend to love plants too, if need be. Hell, I would dress like Poison Ivy if it helped my chances.

  “They are majestic, but love isn’t enough to succeed sometimes. We are desperate for people, but people who can help. With your low level, you wouldn’t even get a bonus from the herbs themselves. That would mean that if you picked any herbs, they would be less effective in potions. Your help would hurt our cause, and we are limited on potions and herbs at the moment, so we can’t take anyone at a low level, especially if their skill is already capped. Additionally, our alchemy lab is rudimentary, so we need all the Alchemy profession bonuses. I am sorry, Alf.”

  “Thank you,” I said, and Kaylie drew me out of the herb shed. I rounded on Kaylie and asked, “What is going on? I can tell your village is in bad shape from being there.”

  “Calm down. Vinya is new here and doing her best.” Kaylie put up her hands and continued, “We used to get our herbs from the Sacred Tree Village, but they signed a non-aggression pact with the Unionists, and that means they could no longer trade with us. Their herbs were way more potent than anything we could hope to make. But that is no surprise since they are Nymphs. Now that we aren’t getting any herbs, our potion-making has almost completely stopped. Every potion here is valuable. Vinya was right that you can’t help her. If you have maxed out at level 3, you won’t get any strengthening bonus, which is important to make the village-grown herbs become potent enough. More than that, you will never be a professional Alchemist.”

  “Professional?” I asked in one simple word.

  “When you reach level 20 in a skill, you will get a profession with the skill branch. In my case, I am good with Fire Magic, so I was able to access the Mage Tree. The Skill Tree is unknown and unending. That doesn’t mean it never ends for individuals. Some people can access certain branches of the Skill Tree while others can’t. Even if someone like you got access, the tree might have no options.”

  Her explanation of the Skill Tree worried me. If I were never able to get access to this Skill Tree, I would be at a severe disadvantage.

  She continued, “If you were an alchemist, by increasing your Herblore, you might be able to increase the strength of herbs you pick or allow potions you or others make to be even stronger. Skills are where power is at, not levels. If you can get professions, then you get access to the Skill Tree, which is important not only for the bonuses but also for the ability to prune and grow your tree your way. Think of it like fighting. Not everyone is a close fighter, and not everyone is a ranged fighter. If you can focus whatever bonuses on whatever type of fighting suits you, then you will be stronger. It won’t be spread out to just any type of the general category, but fit you like a glove.”

  “I could still help by memorizing effects or moving stuff around for her.” I almost begged.

  “She is a higher level than you, and it only takes a moment of concentration for her to see more properties than you. Do you think moving some items around will offset the cost of your food, shelter, and safety?”

  “No,” I replied dejectedly. “But what about the farmers? There’s a lot of manual labor in that.”

  “Again, it comes back to the skill bonuses,” Kaylie explained patiently. “If you were the one tilling the soil and planting the seeds, the crops wouldn’t grow as fast or as large. We have limited space inside the walls, and the system only works because of the farmers’ high levels and profession choices. You helping there would actually hurt the village.”

  Knowing that getting kicked out of the village was a death sentence, I asked, “What happens now?”

  “I have never seen anyone so bad at all the skills. The problem is usually finding the best place to put someone. Not the fact that they can’t do anything.”

  “I still have some combat skills,” I replied, trying not to give up.

  She sighed. “Hopefully, we can level those. The problem is, you’re an Elf. It would have been great to have you in something that can help us in the long term. Imagine being a skilled crafter. After teaching you for a hundred years, we would probably have the greatest crafter in the region. If you were just a fighter with your skill level, you would probably be dead soon. It would be a shame to waste someone like you.”

  I stared at her like she’d lost her mind. First off, I wouldn’t want to be stuck here, crafting for hundreds of years. Secondly, I didn’t want to go out there and get killed either. It seemed getting home was a far-off dream, and surviving was my only option.

  “Should we just leave now?” I asked Rabbit.

  “Why? Let them teach you how to fight so you can leave any time you want.”

  “Well, hopefully, I will surprise you,” I said to Kaylie.

  “Me? No. I am not a soldier. I’m going to have to hand you off to Carrick. I heard you already met him.”

  “Really? When?”

  Kaylie’s smile should have said it all. “The way he puts it. You were laughing at him, so he had to make you his shoe.”

  “I like that saying. He was definitely stepping all over you.” Rabbit burst out laughing in my head. As if Kaylie could hear him, she chuckled as well.

  I didn’t find it humorous.