Rechecking my profile, I was now greeted with the questbook interface. It immediately reminded me of an amalgam of games I had played throughout my life. Familiar, yet different from all the other questbooks I had browsed Flipping through the pages, I made my way to the tutorial questline. 

[The [Mage] tutorial has been unlocked. When you are ready, hit accept. 

Reward: Dowser of Knowledge. ]

Huh. So it’ll give me an item before I even start the tutorial. I mean, that’s not all that uncommon. Well, in games at least. Selecting accept, I was met with another floating box. It disappeared with a slip of the ribbon, leaving behind a crystal pendulum. 

“Don’t people use these for divination?” I mumbled to myself. Concentrating on the item, my observation skill enlightened me. 

[Dowser of Knowledge] This pendulum has been especially attuned to a hidden location. Holding the item by its chain will guide the user toward the pre-selected designation. However, this item holds only a single use. 

“Okay.. well it's only a tutorial. Right Grendel?” he mewed softly in response. “Right, so hopefully it won’t be too difficult.”

Holding out the pendulum, it began to lift steadily in one direction. “Huh... So basically what I was expecting.”

I followed the pendulum through the city streets. Some of which were becoming increasingly familiar. I never really explored Pinehill much in the days since I’d moved here. Enough to find Boxtro, and some places that I liked to frequent when I had some cash, but not much else. Anything too far from the bus lines was a bit out of bounds for me. Rounding a corner I was met with a familiar sign. Is that? The sign must have changed in the reversion. Letters that had been dark now flickered to life in the early afternoon.

“Boxtro looks so brand new,” placing the pendulum back into my pocket, I cautiously made my way inside. 

Immediately I was met with the stench of sweat. As my eyes adjusted to the strange new lighting I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Boxing rings had been replaced by training dummies, dumbbells replaced by wooden practice swords. Above all else, the place was packed. 

“Oh, Sel! Here for training too?” a familiar voice prodded from behind the nearby check-in kiosk.

Turning, I was met with Ben’s pert face staring back at me. His worry had seemingly dissolved since I had seen him last. He didn’t revert, did he? I wanted to make sure. 

“Are you part of phase 3?” I asked, waiting for a robotic response.

“Huh? Oh, you mean that nonsense going on out there? The weird screens told me that Boxtro had been assigned as a tutorial location. They gave me a choice of if I wanted to run it or not, so of course, I said yes. It is my business after all.”

Oh. I sighed in relief, “So what class did you get assigned?” 

 “Something called a Sentinel? I tried looking it up in a dictionary but it just came up as some sort of guard or protector I guess.”

“Huh. I think that might actually suit you.” After all, you’ve always looked after me whenever I come here. “Well, it's good to see the place busy. What tutorial did you say this place was for?”

“It's for warrior types I think. Most people coming in have been like warriors or knights as far as I can tell. Shouldn’t you know that though? Or else, why would you be here?”

“I'm actually just passing through. Somehow… I didn’t end up as a warrior.”

“You? Really? Someone out there must have messed up. You’re the most dedicated person I’ve ever seen come through here.” 

Placing my head down in defeat on his kiosk desk I told him. Is he going to make fun of me too?

“A mage huh? Well, I wouldn’t write it off completely yet. You never know, you might end up enjoying it.”

“Is that Selle?” a muscular man said from behind me. 

“Oh hey, guys,” I couldn’t quite remember their names, but I had seen this guy and some of his friends around the gym before.

“A few of us were wondering when you’d show up.”

“I’m actually just passing through, I saw the new sign and wanted to see what was going on.”

“Wait, so you’re not training like us?” he looked to Ben “Did you know about this?” he shook his head in confirmation. “Well… at least stay for a little while, we haven’t seen you in so long.”

“What are you going on about? I’ve been here. It's you all that I haven’t seen around here in a while.”

They seemed a little taken aback. Huh, that’s a strange response. I would almost say they look embarrassed.

“Y-yeah, about that… We’re sorry Ben,” he just stared back at them confused. “A new one of those chain gyms opened up near my apartment building and so me and a couple of the other guys who live near me started going there. It's just that the commute here was becoming a hassle, and with my job changing up my hours all of a sudden, it was getting harder and harder to make it out here to work out. Don’t you understand Sel?”

“Not really, I work from home,” I turned back to Ben, “Anyway, I might stop by later again to test some things out, but for now I’ve got my own tutorial to get to. Can’t get too behind everyone else.”

Turning back to the muscular man, I could see a single tear forming in his eye.  As he let out a slight whimper my body involuntarily shuddered. Why is he crying? Was it something I said?