Perhaps levity was not the proper tone at the moment. Pixel rolled away from Alan and sprang to her feet, her hatchets materializing in her hands as she stood. Her head whipped around, her eyes scanning for enemies.

  Alan tried to imagine it from her perspective, she had been moving through the forest, all nice and normalish when suddenly she felt pain and then woke up in a different area with him kneeling over her. In addition to finding herself in a completely different location, she probably didn’t even know if he was responsible for taking her down.

  Holding his hands up he tried to calm her, “we’re safe for the moment. We managed to get away from the ambush.”

  He made sure to stress the ‘we’, hopefully reassuring her that Alan was not the enemy. It also let her know they had been attacked. The brief explanation seemed to help, and her movements became less panicked.

  Then he heard her voice, but it was coming through the squad chat in addition to her mouth. “Mikael, Jordan, report.”

  Jordan came back immediately, “Boss! What happened, where are you?”

  Keeping her eyes on Alan, she answered as best she could, “I’m not sure. Still in the forest somewhere, and I seem to be ok. Alan is here, he says we were ambushed.”

  It was Mikael who responded this time. “We saw that you got hit, your shoulder took a bad wound and it left you with a condition that we think knocked you out. We tried to ask Alan what was going on, but he didn’t answer.”

  Pixel arched her eyebrow at him inquisitively. Alan answered, not bothering to use the chat since she would be the only one who could hear him anyway.

  “I couldn’t answer them. You had my communication set to just the two of us, and I don’t know how to change it.”

  She actually winced when she remembered. “Sorry, let me switch you over and you can fill us all in.”

  After a moment of vacant staring, she gave him a thumbs up. The next several minutes were spent with Alan explaining what had happened. Pixel wasn’t happy, hearing how easily she had been taken down, but it sounded like Jordan and Mikael would enjoy reminding her about it in the future.

  The rest of his squad was impressed by the tail he told of getting her out of there, and the Earth Fairy even gave him a grudging thanks. As the story had unfolded, she had become more at ease in her posture. Once he finished, she was ready to take charge again.

  “So how far are we from the ambush site?” was her first question.

  Alan had to think for a moment, “once we had been running for a couple of minutes without any more sign or pursuit, I slowed down a bit. I would say we’re about six kilometers away.”

  Mikael chimed in, “no wonder we couldn’t find you, we’re still near the original attack. Should we make our way towards you boss?”

  “Why don’t you hold there for the moment. We can figure out our next step first.”

  From Alan’s description, Pixel recognized what they had run into. The squad was one of two special units that the enemy had set up. At the cost of a much smaller unit size, although still larger than their own scout squad, they received a much higher boost than normal. These were usually used as roving elements on their own side of a battle to deal with intruders, just like Pixel’s group.

  They must have been lying in wait to ambush anyone scouting out the area. It was Pixel’s bad luck that she had wandered right into their trap. However, it suggested that they were probably guarding something of high value. You wouldn’t station such a valuable group in the middle of nowhere, hoping someone blundered onto them. The only thing that fit the bill was that they were guarding approaches to the enemy base. Perhaps the ambush would turn out to be a good thing after all.

  Not wanting the other half of her squad to fall into a similar trap as they had, she told Mikael and Jordan to stay in place and they would join up with them. With hostiles in the area already alerted to their presence, staying split was not a good idea. They would be better off sticking together for support. If the others had been with Alan when Pixel had been hit, then a direct assault to rescue her might have been possible.

  Once they were back together, they would continue looking from there. They had potentially narrowed their search from half of the battlefield, to an area maybe five kilometers across. That was a ton of space to find a person or small group, but the enemy HQ should be huge, like their own.

  On the way back to Jordan and Mikael, Alan faced more questions from Pixel. From the story of her rescue, he had revealed quite a bit about his classes. She now knew he was a healer, a mage, he also identified as a rogue, and he must have a strength class if he was able to carry her that far. Because she also recognized his spewn, she knew it was designed for dexterity and constitution hybrids, so Pixel was sure he had at least five classes.

  Her first question was not what he expected, though. “Are you aware that outside of your newly integrated system that you will be assumed to be a member of the Aristocracy?” They were back on their private channel. It was probably safe to simply whisper to each other, but Pixel wasn’t taking any chances after her take down.

  “I don’t understand what you mean. What’s the aristocracy and why would people think I’m a part of it.”

  Her eyes widened in surprise, “this must be the first time off of your new planet.” It wasn’t phrased as a question, but he answered it all the same.

  Alan wasn’t sure how much to share, so he went with his gut. Pixel was a trustworthy individual. “Kind of. I once was taken to a place called the Warrior’s Arena, but I didn’t really interact with anyone. And…I don’t have a new planet yet. My tutorial still hasn’t finished.”

  “Wait, if you are still in your tutorial…” Pixels face went slack in the middle of talking and for a moment Alan feared she was having a stroke. As she started up again he realized the dungeon had fuzzed her thoughts. “Wow, so you really don’t know anything.”

  She must have realized that if he was still in the tutorial, then this was most likely a dungeon. To prevent one of its dwellers from realizing where she was, the dungeon had influenced her mind. It made Alan feel a little like he was living in the Matrix.

  It took almost the whole trip back for her to explain what she meant, and they were going at a slower pace to avoid running into any more ambushes too. Alan had already heard form Thadrick about how with one class he could aspire to be a town guard. On Earth that sounded like being a security guard, a fine enough profession, but not very impressive.

  However, in the Network, such a position was regarded incredibly well. These guards were literally the difference between normal living and being devoured by monsters for most citizens. While it varied from planet to planet, on average, about twenty percent of the population had at least one class.

  While there were some who could make a good living without a class, becoming a guard made for comfortable living. Assuming you survived the monster raids. That was all his friend had said he aspired to. If he was truly skilled, with one class he might be made part of an Army such as the one Alan was currently in. It was much more dangerous, but it also paid very well.

  Alan also knew that the other miners had a class as well. It was necessary if they were going to be traveling into dangerous areas like the mine tunnels. This probably held true for other activities. The Network was not a safe place, and those without a class were heavily restricted in what they could do.

  While dungeon dwelling Thadrick had told him he only aspired to be a guard, Alan knew that the real dwarf was most likely working on getting a second class. That was probably why he was in that dungeon, after all. Having two classes would elevate him further, to something fewer than fifteen percent ever managed.

  This would allow him a much greater array of jobs, from a guard at a city or capitol, or one of many types of crafter, or maybe even a leader in an Army. All of these would come with a healthy income and tremendous respect from the serfs, that’s what those without any classes were called.

  It wasn’t until someone had three classes that they could call themselves an Adventurer. Only around ten percent of the population managed this, as it meant getting at least one rare class stone. Those sold for enough to buy most small villages, so it usually required a lucky find to achieve. As far as the serfs were concerned, these people were heroes. Those with three or more classes might have various side jobs, but generally, an adventurer’s profession was clearing dungeons.

  Alan already knew that with a town came a dungeon. His own crappy town only warranted a stone obelisk that would spawn monsters, but if his town somehow improved, the stele would eventually become an actual dungeon. Apparently higher tier towns and cities ended up having not one, but multiple dungeons attached to them.

  While this may not seem advantageous, since more dungeons meant more monsters and more danger, they were also crucial to the citizens. Town dungeons were a great source of resources for the populace, both mundane items, like wood and ore, and also magical ones.

  Just like his own obelisk, these town dungeons would only leak monsters if the boss wasn’t defeated every so often. Unlike his own, where the boss appeared in the real world, these bosses were inside the dungeon itself.

  While serfs could enter dungeons to harvest resources, they had no shot at defeating the creatures inside, let alone the boss. This is where adventurers came in. It was they who explored the depths and defeated the monsters to keep the dungeon from leaking. Without them clearing out the bosses occasionally, the towns would be overrun with hordes of beasts or other monsters.

  The adventurers got something out of it as well. Just like Alan had experienced, there were rewards for exploring dungeons. There was always some type of quest to complete that came with a Network reward, and often there was loot from the monsters as well.

  The towns and cities were further enriched by the adventurers when they then sold the gear they found, or spent the gold they looted. It was a symbiotic relationship that benefited everyone. Admittedly, the adventurers got more out of it, but they were also taking on more of the risk.

  The details of Pixel’s explanation were helpful for Alan to understand how the universe he was about to become a member in operated. If she had stopped there he would have described this as an almost utopian society. But of course there was more, nothing could ever just be good. In any system there would be those who took advantage.

  So far Pixel had described those who had three classes, but the term Adventurer also included those with four. After four classes, a rare stone wouldn’t cut it anymore, it required obtaining at least an epic one. Rare stones were expensive, epic stones were, ironically, the stuff of legends. If a serf actually managed to acquire one, they could sell that one stone and be able to set themselves and others in their family up as adventurers.

  In general, the more classes one had, the more powerful you could become. There was variation based on personal skill and drive, but someone with one class would have to get incredibly lucky to overcome a person with three or four. This divide only grew as they level up. Overtime, those with five or more classes had risen to prominence on planets across the Network.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Along the way they managed to obtain incredible wealth. This allowed them to set their sons and daughters up as adventurers as well. The most successful were wealthy enough to even purchase epic stones for their progeny.

  Most planets determined their rulers at least partially by strength. Sometimes it was decided by popular support, but those chosen would also have to win the acceptance of the truly powerful individuals in the system as well. It was difficult to order around someone who could kill you at any moment. This meant serfs were almost never in a position of leadership, except in smaller villages.

  Because the powerful were the ones who controlled the reins, and they were also the only ones wealthy enough to afford purchasing epic stones for their offspring, the top spots ended up becoming hereditary. This wasn’t even counting the fact that those with so many classes often lived far longer than even a normal adventurer, some for thousands of years.

  This had led to a divide. The Aristocracy were those from the ancient families who controlled most of the wealth and had all of the power. There were thousands of factions in the universe, and the Aristocracy was at the heart of them all.

  If Alan had more than four classes, like Pixel assumed, then people would think he was a member of one of these powerful families. Not all of the aristocracy were equal, obviously. Some families were larger and more powerful than others. As far as those elitists were concerned, the least of the Aristocracy was better than the greatest of the rest of the universe. So even if Alan was only from a minor branch, he would be shown respect and deference from everyone else, for fear of angering the Aristocrats.

  That was what he would be shown to his face anyway, Pixel informed him. The adventurers were jealous of these pampered individuals, not so secretly wishing they could have had their easy lives, and the serfs despised them. It was the aristocracy who coined the term serfs, which was not all that flattering to begin with. They then made it worse by treating them all like servants, no matter their actual station.

  Being raised in the ‘democratic’ portion of Earth, such a system was hard for Alan to accept. Having traveled to countries ruled by dictators and despots for many of his missions, he knew how disliked those in power often were. He would not enjoy being lumped in with those who had repressed the people for so long.

  “So, other than having some people fawn over me, and others secretly despise me, is there a downside to people thinking I am a member of this aristocracy?” he asked when she was done with her explanation.

  Pixel thought for a moment. “Well, as long as no one finds out that you aren’t, you should be fine. If a true member of the aristocracy was to discover your origins, that could be another matter.?

  Alan wasn’t sure what the problem was, “Why would that matter? Are they afraid I’d be an embarrassment?”

  “If they thought you were simply someone who had lucked into gaining five classes from a lucky drop, they would probably try and bring you into their family through marriage or adoption. The more members in your branch of the family, the more wealth and therefore power you can accumulate.

  “The real danger to you is if they find out you are from a newly integrated system. Then they will try to take advantage of your worlds’ naivete. They will promise you the sun and stars and instead bind your system into de facto slavery through unfair trade agreements. And if you’re smart enough to see through their schemes, you can usually expect a knife in the dark and they will instead find someone else on your planet to work with. Usually a race comes out of a tutorial with a decent number of people who have managed to obtain five or more classes, and at least one will be willing to sell their world for the equivalent of shiny baubles.”

  Alan couldn’t help laughing at that, but declined to share why he thought it was funny. It would be quite the joke if someone did to Earth what the Europeans had done to the natives of his homeland.

  Alan had another question, “Are you a member of the aristocracy?” He was suddenly wary that maybe he had already blown his cover.

  Her high pitched laugh was reassuring, even if she kept it quiet for fear of discovery. “No, I wish! I started with four classes.”

  “Why do you say ‘started’, I thought you couldn’t get more after upgrading to opal.”

  She smiled as she looked back at him.“You can’t. I said ‘started’ because I now have three. My main class, Shadow Walker, is a hybrid class. It came from a combination of my dexterity and intelligence classes. Starting at the diamond level, which is after opal in case you didn’t know, it is possible to get classes that combine some of your previous ones.”

  This was definitely news to Alan. It seemed like there was so much he didn’t know, he wasn’t sure how even people raised in the Network could keep track of everything. “Is it better to get a hybrid class?”

  Pixel had to think again about that one. “Not necessarily better. They have their advantages, like every time I level up my class, it provides increases to both dexterity and intelligence. It also is easier to level up a hybrid because you can cause it to grow from a wider variety of actions.”

  With a source of information that was so willing to share, Alan decided to pump her for everything he could get. “Are there downsides?”

  “Not necessarily, but it could prevent you from forming a different hybrid later. If you were really part of the aristocracy, they would have planned out most of your progression so that you could get the best classes later on. If you didn’t know better, you might choose a nice sounding hybrid at the diamond level that could limit your choices as you level up. You won’t have to worry about this for a while, new hybrids only come at the highest level in a grade.”

  Alan didn’t follow that last part. “What do you mean?”

  “When you evolve grades, like from white to red, the aura in your body evolves as well. This also happens when you level your class, but to a less dramatic effect. When evolving, it both grows in strength and in connections to your body. Your classes, in addition to everything else they can do, are also a part of your body. The more classes you have, the more dense your body becomes, because it is filled with little pieces of your class.”

  Alan was having flashbacks to Liam Neeson talking to Ewan McGreggor about little organisms in people’s bodies. It wasn’t a happy memory. Meanwhile, Pixel continued.

  “If your body has too many classes, then your aura won’t be able to properly connect to your body. The stronger the aura, the harder it is. It seems counterintuitive, but that’s just the way it works. The aristocracy are usually the only ones who have to worry about it, because a red grade aura can handle up to four classes.”

  Alan’s head was starting to hurt. “So what happens if you have more than four classes when you try to evolve?”

  “The short answer is, you can’t. If you somehow managed to upgrade all of your classes to diamond without anyone explaining this, you would be locked at the white level forever. However, a hybrid class is just as dense as any other. So if you had five classes originally, and upgraded two of them into one hybrid class, your aura would be able to evolve to red.”

  Alan was glad he had entered this dungeon. He would like to think Tamee would have let him know some of this when the time came, but he never could tell. She was supposed to be helping him more, now that he had proven himself to her, but she still shared only drips and drabs.

  With his eight classes, he would need to find four hybrid classes. That begged the question, “how do you get hybrid classes?”

  “If you’re rich, you can buy the ones you want, just like any other class stone. There are so many varieties of classes and hybrid classes as you increase your levels and grades that finding a specific one can be difficult, however, through large auctions and the Network store, you can find just about anything if you have enough money.”

  The Network store sounded interesting, maybe it was like the dungeon points he earned. However, he didn’t want to get side tracked now.

  “What if you aren’t really rich and still need a hybrid class?”

  Pixel took a drink from a water bottle she must have kept in her storage before answering. “The same way most people get their class stones, from loot and rewards. The Network is fairly benevolent when it comes to rewarding people. It always seems to know just what you need. So if you have too many classes and you are closing in on the next grade, you can expect to see some hybrid class stone drops. It’s one of the reasons why Network rewards are so sought after.”

  Alan had a few more questions for her, about things like how to determine which classes to choose, and did it matter which classes joined together in a hybrid. Were there some classes that were unable to join?

  The answer to the second question was the easiest. No, it didn’t matter. The classes you chose would affect what future classes you could evolve them into, but any classes could join together into something. It just may not be the something you were hoping for.

  The first question also had a simple answer, but an unhelpful one. The aristocracy, in addition to having everything else, also was in a position to hoard knowledge. Because of the many generations of adventurers each family had existed for, they had records of the different classes they had seen. They had stacks of books, or more often crystals, that contained all of their accumulated knowledge of both class progressions and what the different classes offered.

  Each family jealously guarded their database of classes, rarely sharing with anyone who wasn’t a member of the family. Some was common knowledge anyway, like quartz classes. There were only eight of them and each had six specific class talents. Anyone who dipped their toe into that world knew about them. Pixel was happy to share all the talents with Alan and he mentally stored them for later.

  Starting even at the opal level, though, there were many more options. No one, except maybe some of the most powerful families, knew exactly how many, but it was in the high hundreds or thousands at least. There were a few that were common for each basic class, like swordsman or scout, but most adventurers could list twenty or thirty variations that they had seen personally.

  Seeing as how Pixel had once had a mage class, he asked if she knew anything about either of his two options. He had both Sorcerer, which was from a rare stone, and Witch, from an uncommon one.

  She unfortunately didn’t know much about the sorcerer class, other than it would allow him to choose from a large variety of classes at the next level. Apparently that was a thing as well. Some classes limited your future choices while others expanded them.

  She was more familiar with witch, having encountered a couple of adventurers with the class. Their magic was more ritual based and required longer casting times. Alan hadn’t realized that the way he accessed magic could change as his classes leveled. If only someone like his Mentor had shared that with him.

  Alan wasn’t sure if that was simply an oversight on his part, or deliberate. Dracon was a big believer in figuring things out on your own. Probably not the best trait in a mentor, come to think of it.

  Sadly this productive Q and A session had to come to an end as they neared the site of the previous ambush. Pixel linked him into the full squad again and they coordinated their movements with Jordan and Mikael. It didn’t take them long after that to meet up.

  Now that the band was back together, Pixel laid out the next steps. She would take the front again, her stealth being the best, and Jordan would bring up the rear. Their archer, Mikael would be in the second position, and Alan would be tucked away behind him.

  As they advanced, he was impressed with the way all of them moved. He knew that only Pixel was red grade, but the other two surrendered little to her when it came to sneaking. It did help that they were more regular sized, both being only slightly taller than Alan.

  He was definitely not an expert in Network individuals, but going off of his instincts from his own military career, the three members of his squad were special. Even just comparing them to the group that had ambushed them earlier, or the one they had ambushed themselves, they were a cut above.

  It made sense that if you could only have four people in the squad, you would want them to be the best. He started to wonder how he himself had ended up here. Alan knew he was good, but only for someone of his level. He decided it was probably something the dungeon had done to slot him into its scenario. If he had not been capable as a scout, though, would he still have ended up in the same squad? That was an interesting question.

  Alan was unaware, but the entire time Pixel had been answering his questions, she had also been agonizing over the path they would take once they reunited with the other pair of scouts. What she had come up with was to try and swing around the probable location of the base and approach it from the rear.

  The problem was, she wasn’t sure exactly which direction the base was in. If the Untar Republic forces were playing it straight, their HQ would be located somewhere in the middle of the battleground. That would put them northeast of their position. However, there was nothing saying the base had to be in the middle, it could also be more on one side or the other. It made deploying from the base more difficult, but it also would make it harder to find.

  In her experience, she found that the Untar were not a complicated people. They were much more likely to go the traditional route. She also had a feeling in her gut that she should head slightly south before trying to swing back north to locate their camp.

  It didn’t take long for her decision to pay dividends. She held up her hand again and this time didn’t duplicate the order in chat. She must be coming to rely on Alan’s professionalism more.

  She slipped forward through the trees while the rest hung back. It was only a few seconds later that they heard her voice coming over the squad channel. “Move forward, but do it quietly. We have contact.”