The Search for the Class

"A ball?"

"Yes, we will be having a large ball for Princess Alexandria's birthday."

"Do we have to wear those big frilly dresses?"

Alice and Rose looked at Zoe with a bit of a weird look.

'That's the usual etiquette though and maybe they won't be so bad.'

"10 silver says Zoe wouldn't wear a dress. Anyone wanna a piece of that action?"

Derek threw out the challenge and before Zoe could say anything in her defense, Alice and Zoe immediately threw out their bets.

"We bet 40 silver that we can get Zoe into a dress!"

The girls were shouting out their bet and thought that it wouldn't be that hard to convince her to wear a dress. Markus was the next one to throw down.

"I'll back up Derek and say 50 silver for Zoe not wearing a dress."

All eyes turned to the quiet Ian.

"Fuck that, I'm not betting any coins on this stupid argument. I'll tell you what, if Zoe shows up to the ball in a dress then I'll dance with her center room."

Zoe felt her face get beet red at the thought of Ian dancing with her in the middle of the room. She started to imagine that night and how she would look in the dress.

"I'll do it!"

Zoe shouted this out loud as she stood up and slapped her hand against the table. She made everyone jump a little bit, but Alice and Rose were excited at the chance to dress up Zoe. The seamstress was going to meet them later in one of the fitting rooms with the Princess and the four of them would all be fitted together. The ball was still a few weeks away so there was still a bit of time, but they were going to be spending a lot of time preparing for it.

"Well, I have some training to do and I have to meet with Gyrax later."

Ian took his dishes back to the kitchen to get washed and then went to the training grounds. He had continued his training and found it harder to feel physical pain.

'It's kinda nice that I can't feel the pain as easily, but this could be a problem for serious injuries and there's no telling what could happen when I'm faced with mental harm.'

"I really need to get another skill so I can unlock my class. Maybe the library has a book with one of my skills that will give me a hint. Wait, I have to meet Gyrax in the library anyways and he did tell me about some kind of system to find books faster."

Ian went to shower and change then made his way to the library. He had been there a few times before, but it still impressed him how massive it truly was. The library was actually a tower, so books lined the walls all the way up the height of the tower. Gyrax's personally study was at the top of the tower and Alice had said that Gyrax had a plethora of magic books up there under lock and key.

"Oh, hello Ian. You're early for our lesson."

"Hello Gyrax, I thought of something as I made my way here and that was what if we used the sorting system to find one of my skills."

"Hmmm, that could work as we might find more information about your class. I also wanted to discuss your idea about your cellphones. I think what you proposed might just work. There is no guarantee that we can restore all functions, but we might be able to do a few."

"Alright, let's focus on the skill first. Let's search for 'Voice of the Forest'."

"Alright, let me give it a shot."

Gyrax closed his eyes and let his magical power build up. Ian watched as his mentor was soon covered in a veil of light-yellow magic and beams of the same light shot out at some of the books on the shelves. A total of 6 books came followed the light beams down to Gyrax, who then broke his concentration and collected the books before they fell to the ground. Gyrax and Ian then spent the next two hours reading through the books and only finding out that the skill, while powerful and one that could grow, was never directly mentioned under a class.

"So much for crtl + F."

"What?"

"It's a tech reference in our world. There exist these things called computers that are like access points to a plethora of knowledge. Ctrl + F is a function that allows you to search for a certain word or phrase on the page."

"I see, so what I did was similar to that function."

"Precisely."

They checked Ian's other skill 'Body of the Iron Oak' and there were only two books. One was pretty much fiction just telling a story about a knight that could use the skill and the other mentioned that when the skill was used enough then it would grow and become stronger.

"Do you have any other skills that might be useful for figuring out your class?"

"Well, I do have one more, but I think it's something that's better left unknown."

"I can understand not wanting to share some of the skills with less than favorable descriptions but Ian this is a bit more important than that. We are trying to figure out what your class is."

"Try 'Nature's Curse'."

Gyrax tried once more to find anything about Ian's class but only one book descended this time. However, before Ian could grab the book it shot back up on to the shelf from whence it came. Gyrax ended his concentration and grabbed Ian by his shoulders.

"Ian, promise me that no matter what happens you will never use 'Nature's Curse' ever."

"I promise that I'll never use that skill. What's so bad about it?"

"That book is full of nothing but curses that cause extreme harm to the targets. Those are skills and spells that should never be learned by any person ever."

"I see, good to know. Well, I have my fitting so I'm gonna head out for the day. Thanks for the help Gyrax."

"No problem young Ian and remember don't use that skill."

Ian walked back to his room and laid down on his bed. He was thinking about all the craziness that had happened in the last few months and what the future might hold. It had been a long day, but he forgot to check with Gyrax on the special project that the two of them had been working on. They had been working on using magic to charge their phones and essentially have them as communication devices. While the phones didn't seem able to run most apps, the group did find out they can text and call each other which was beneficial for recon and stealth missions.

'I'm hoping that little project will prove to be quite fruitful and it would make traveling more interesting.'

While Ian liked the idea of the communication set up, he missed a lot of music from his world and was trying to get access to his playlist that he had on his phone. This would hopefully allow him to play music while traveling and kicking ass all over the continent. He could just hear AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" playing as he walked into the demon kingdom.

'Haha, could you imagine the look on everyone's faces as I strut into the demon kingdom while playing some rock music. They would lose their minds.'

Ian slowly drifted off to sleep and began to think about the ball, the groups adventure's, and finally being able to go home.

*In the demon continent*

"Welcome back Silva. I trust your little escapade in the human kingdom went well."

"It did your majesty. However, the heroes are not what I expected them to be. One of the males was quite knowledgeable and even knew I was a rakshasa."

"Oh, that's quite interesting. Do tell me more about this hero in particular."

"He seemed fairly average and well-built for someone of his stature. Interestingly enough, he seemed to be in touch with nature but lacked a class."

"Hmmm, it's probably that class and that would explain why it appears as though he doesn't have one. I'm interested with meeting him. Send out Lyla, Ruby and Sapphire to draw him into our territory. That old man will never let a hero leave his kingdom unless it's to deal with a threat. I want to meet him no matter what it takes."

"As you command your majesty."

Silva walked out of the throne room while the queen of the demons, Lilith, smiled and thought about this interesting new hero. As Silva walked down the hallway to his office, he saw the various servants that Lilith had employed to keep the castle spick and span. Many humans were against the demons and supported the angels, but it was the angles that had killed the queen of Leone. The king of angels, Michael, had fallen in love with the queen but she was married to Leon. Michael told her to leave the king and come be with him, but it was already too late. The queen was with her second child and wouldn't abandon her family. Michael swore vengeance on the humans and when he returned, the second princess had already been born. He saw her, and in his seething rage, killed the queen on human soil. This led to the floating kingdom of Halotia and a lot of tension between the angels and the humans.

'If anyone can stop that madman, I'm sure young Ian can.'