My new ‘friends’ and I were sitting on the ground beside the pond, relaxing and having a bite to eat. At least, they were relaxing while I was just pretending to. I didn’t know these people and it would have been stupid to trust them just yet.

“My halberd can be kind of annoying,” Giles said as he shifted his spear-axe thing out of the way. “I might have to switch over to a shorter poleaxe just so it won’t get in the way as much.”

“That would be easier for the tight spaces,” Grayson told him.

I looked at the spear-axe that was lying on the ground beside Giles. The halberd. It was about seven feet long from tip to tip, with the head of it being an axe. I imagined that it would be useful for keeping your distance from monsters while killing them, but it did seem a bit awkward at the same time.

Lenore’s bow was on the ground beside her, and that looked a little awkward to carry around too, but not nearly as much as that halberd. I still didn’t see a single arrow for that thing on her, which made me a bit curious.

“So,” I said, turning my attention to Grayson. “Tell me about enchanters.”

Grayson finished chewing a bite of apple, then responded, “Sure.”

“They’re one of the weakest classes,” Lenore offered with a smirk. “Everyone says so.”

“And everyone also says that conjurers are one of the weakest classes,” Grayson responded to her with a knowing look. Then he looked back and me and explained, “That is kind of true, depending on how you look at it, but enchanters can be pretty useful too.”

“True,” Pham agreed with a nod.

I’d already figured out, or at least, suspected a few things about enchanters and how they worked. However, it was all guesswork based off my very limited experience. I wanted to know how it all really worked.

“Basically,” Grayson explained, “enchanters are all about buffs and debuffs, or boons and banes as the system calls them.” He paused for a moment to let me absorb that, then continued, “Enchantments are a type of aura that you can put on things, which temporarily changes how they work. If it improves things, it’s called a boon. If it weakens or hurts them, it’s a bane.”

“That makes sense,” I responded thoughtfully. “And is that why it says ‘bane’ under my talents and affinities? Because Hex is a bane?”

Grayson grinned at that. “It means that you have an affinity for banes…”

“If you have an affinity for something,” Giles added, “it means that type of magic works a lot better for you.”

“Like you have an affinity for stupidity?” Lenore asked him with a smirk.

Giles ignored Lenore as he told me, “Any abilities that you get which are banes, will be stronger because of that.”

“Congratulations, Red,” Lenore told me. “You’re a black enchanter.”

“Black enchanter?” I asked, trying to figure out how that was an insult.

“Black enchanter just means that you specialize in banes,” Grayson quickly explained. “It’s just a nickname for the path you’re on. A white enchanter is one that specializes in boons, and a grey doesn’t specialize at all. They use both, which can be less powerful but more versatile.”

“White enchanters can make their whole team stronger,” Pham added. “Black ones can make their enemies a lot weaker and easier to kill.”

“And what kind are you?” I asked Grayson.

“I’m a gold enchanter,” Grayson answered proudly. “Basically, it just means that I’m a specialized white type. I specialize in boons that I can put on myself.”

“Kind of useless as an enchanter if you ask me,” Lenore teased him, though in spite of her words, the tone was almost friendly. “He can’t boost anyone else. Might as well just be a warrior.”

“True,” Grayson agreed cheerfully.

I chuckled faintly. “With your name, I would have assumed you were the grey type.”

“Nope,” Grayson responded with a grin. “I named myself after one of my favorite comic characters. The first ability I got was Dancer’s Step, which jacks up my agility until I’m like an acrobat.”

I nodded politely, though I didn’t see how that related. Still, he was being nice and answering my questions, so I didn’t want to fuck with him just yet.

“Knowing your path affinity this soon is great,” Pham told me. “It will really help with your build.”

“My build?” I asked. I was really feeling like a broken record, constantly repeating things that they said. I hated feeling completely lost with this stuff.

“How you build your power,” Grayson told me. “What abilities you choose and how you slot your stats. How you do that is entirely up to you, but most people stick to abilities that match their affinity. That way, you get the most bang for your buck.”

“Don’t neglect your stats,” Lenore told me, apparently deciding to be serious instead of snarky. “They’re critical.”

“True,” Grayson agreed. “All of them are useful, so you’ll need to decide what you want to prioritize. As an enchanter, focus and presence are the ones that will help your abilities the most. Focus is all about your mental power and will give you more control over your enchantments. Presence lets you put more of your personal energy into your enchantments, making them stronger.”

“But you can’t rely only on those, Miss Donna,” Giles added. “Your abilities will be strong, but you’ll have a lot of weaknesses.”

“Exactly,” Lenore agreed emphatically.

Grayson nodded his own agreement. “Perception deals with your senses and awareness, so it will let you spot threats and see what other people’s enchantments do. Vitality is all about health and stamina.”

“Super critical in the Labyrinth,” Lenore said.

“I would recommend slotting at least ten into vitality,” Giles said. “At least, if you’re going to do Labyrinth runs. That will keep you from getting tired too easily.”

“Dexterity is about fine control and accuracy,” Grayson continued. “Great if you want to hit what you’re aiming for.” He grinned at that and added, “And you don’t have to slot much before you become ambidextrous.”

“Agility does the same kind of thing,” Lenore said, “but for your whole body. Balance. Reflexes. Your ability to move.” Then she smirked and added, “And that one can really save your ass in here.”

Grayson nodded at that again. “True.” Then he said, “And then there’s strength, which is probably the least useful for your abilities, but is really important if you want to fight without them. Besides, being strong is just good in general.”

I just nodded at that, having already figured out most of what those things did. However, I hadn’t known about focus and presence affecting my ability.

“And what do the free stat points do?” I asked. “That number keeps going up, but…” I shrugged at that.

Everyone just stared at me while Lenore actually made a show of face-palming.

“You haven’t been slotting your points?” Lenore asked in disbelief. “You really are a noob.”

“At least I don’t look like a trash panda,” I responded, referencing her heavy eyeshadow.

Lenore paused at that, blinked, then laughed. “Trash panda…” She looked at Grayson and said, “You know, we’re either going to be good friends or I’m gonna kill her.”

“There is no in-between,” Grayson responded evenly, though he held back a look of amusement.

I was getting annoyed by their reactions, as well as self-conscious. Had I really missed something that they all seemed to think was obvious?

“And we just got done telling you about how important this was too,” Lenore said with a sigh. “Total noob.”

“She is new to being a player,” Pham reminded her gently. “Were you an expert when you first respawned?”

Lenore grumbled at that, then just sat there with a defiant look on her face. Pham had a slightly smug expression.

“Miss Donna,” Giles told me. “As Miss Lenore has said, your free stats are very important to your build. You can move them to any of your stats in order to improve them.”

Grayson nodded. “If you put free points into your strength, you actually get stronger. When we were talking about slotting points into your stats, this is what we meant.”

“Okay,” I responded awkwardly. “Thanks.”

I was about to ask how I slotted my free points, but decided that I didn’t want to sound any stupider than I already did. Besides, it couldn’t be very difficult. Everything else seemed to work just by concentrating on it, so this couldn’t be any different. I just hadn’t thought to try that before.

“I guess I’ll need to think about what I want, then,” I said.

After this, I decided that I didn’t want to ask them any more ‘stupid questions’. Sure, I still had a lot of questions to ask, but it might be better to hold off on anything else for a bit.

I leaned back and considered just how I wanted to slot those free points. The idea of actually getting stronger, faster, or healthier just by slotting a few points… Being able to do something like that really emphasized the kind of power that players had.

At the moment, I had five free stat points, which seemed like quite a bit. After all, my total score in strength was five. Could I double my strength by putting them all in that? I wasn’t sure how much a single point improved thing, but this fell into one of the questions that I’d have to ask later.

After thinking about it for a minute, I decided that this wasn’t something I should probably think about too much. Grayson and the others had already just given me a crash course in what those stats did, and they’d given their recommendations.

First, I dropped three points into vitality, bringing it up to nine. Running around in the trees and fighting monsters had been exhausting. If I could give myself a bit more stamina and energy, I was all for it. Then I dropped my last two points into presence to help with my ability. Once I was done with that, I brought up my stats to look them over again.

CLASS: ENCHANTER
LEVEL: 3
FREE STAT POINTS: 0

FOCUS: 6
PERCEPTION: 7
PRESENCE: 9
STRENGTH: 5
VITALITY: 9
DEXTERITY: 7
AGILITY: 6

TALENTS AND AFFINITIES:
-ENCHANTMENT
--BANES

ABILITIES:
-HEX

SOULBOUND ITEMS:
-ARMOR OF THE ENCHANTRESS

I nodded, satisfied with how easy that had been and a bit embarrassed that I hadn’t figured it out on my own. I also realized that I felt a little different. A little more energetic for one.

“Nice,” I said, more to myself than to anyone else. “I wish I’d known to do that sooner.”

“I bet it would have made things a lot easier,” Grayson told me.

Giles shifted position and said, “As much as I have enjoyed this break and our conversation with Miss Donna, we do have a mission to get back to.” He looked at me with an apologetic look. “I’m afraid that we don’t have the time to turn around and escort you back to the nearest entrance, so you’ll have to decide what you want to do. As I see it, you have three options.”

“Okay,” I said, keeping my voice neutral. I hadn’t even thought about having them escort me out of the Labyrinth, though I probably should have. “What do you think my options are?”

“You can try to make your way to the exit on your own,” Giles said, gesturing down the trail back towards the forest, back the way I’d originally come. “But you’d have to deal with all the monsters by yourself, and not just the ones from this area that you’re already familiar with.”

“The next area doesn’t have trees to hide in,” Lenore said.

“You can wait here until we come back this way,” Giles continued, “which might possibly be a couple weeks. Or until someone else comes by who can escort you to an exit.”

I scowled at the thought of waiting here. Sitting out in the open with nothing to eat but fruit and bread? No thank you.

“Or?” I asked.

“Or, Miss Donna,” Giles answered, “you can come with us. We are on a Warden mission, which means going through a more dangerous section of the Labyrinth, but we can help protect you until we reach an exit.”

“Waiting here might be the safest option,” Grayson pointed out. “You already know the local monsters.”

“Yeah,” Lenore added with a snort. “But you know the Labyrinth sometimes gets annoyed at people hanging around the safe zones for too long. It’s been known to make those safe zones disappear.”

“True,” Grayson admitted with a sigh.

“I’m not staying here anyway,” I told them, looking back towards the forest.

For a few seconds, I was tempted to just head back in that direction so I could follow the trail and see where it led. I’d already faced those monsters, so I could at least handle the forest part. But whatever was after that…? Well, I’d have to face that by myself.

I took a deep breath, then gave a casual shrug. “I’ll go with you guys, if you don’t mind. I’d like to learn a bit more about this whole player thing.”

“Are you sure?” Pham asked.

“No,” I answered honestly, standing up and stretching as I did so. “But that has never stopped me before.”