After waking up the next morning George went on reading the wine manual until it was time for class. In the beginning he disliked the automatic sleeping system in the real world but after experiencing sleepless nights he was starting to miss it. In the real world the chip would also block out dreams but in Nash he would have this uncomfortable dreams about his parents and Vincent, and what annoyed him the most was that he would take the abuse just like he did in real life.

George had almost finished the book but he couldn’t really concentrate because of his thoughts. So after a while he gave up reading and started to walk towards the classroom. A lot of students were outside busy going from class to class. George wondered how long it would take for him to make enough money to take classes every day. But he wasn’t that worried about it, even though Nash was a harsh world it did have one advantage, if you didn’t have any ambition or wanted to live a common live you could do that without fail. Common food is really cheap and every only needed to work one of two days for food and another day for some extra money which most of the people used for drinking. People can also voluntarily become a city worker. This gave security and also would mean that they would not starve.

George had thought a lot about that kind of life. It would be a lot easier than trying to gain strength and go adventuring. But the one thing George hates the most is wondering around with nothing to do. George could learn new things fairly easily and didn’t like mindless work. So he still hasn’t decided what path he wants to follow. But he still needs to learn a lot of things and decided to put his trust on Solomon for the time being.

After walking around the school for a while he came to the practice yard and saw the boy in blue working with a sword in the yard. He was sweating and was hitting a dummy with a wooden longsword. Every hit made almost no sound and felt like the last bit of energy he had left in his body, but he kept hitting the dummy without stopping. George respected his effort but couldn’t relate to it, learning things came easy to him but he didn’t have the drive to keep practicing, he had tried learning a lot of things in the great library but would get tired of it soon and go to the next subject. But seeing the determined look of the boy in blue was something he was envious about, he wanted to have something in life he would work just as hard for like the boy in blue did his sword training.

After a while, he came back to his senses and he was already late for class. He walked to the classroom at a high pace and to his surprise was not as tired as he had expected. But he was still breathing heavily and went to take a seat. The classroom was small but could still fit around fifty people. They all looked around his age and he could feel the tension in the air.

George found a seat in the corner so that he wouldn’t be bothered by the other kids. But that didn’t really help. A boy around his age with a big smile on his face got up and started to walk towards him. George had read about people with dark skin but this was the first time seeing on in real life.

“Hallo there, my name is Tyler a pleasure to meet you.”

George gave him a hand and introduced himself, for a second he left his guard down and started to chat with the boy about how long ago he had entered Nash and what kind of work he does. The boy had a smile that George had never seen before, he felt like he could trust him even without knowing much about him.

After talking for a while George found out that Tyler had entered Nash only a few weeks before George had and that he was working as a gatherer. After a while, Solomon entered and Tyler went back to his seat.

After Solomon entered the room everyone became quite like a mouse. Everyone had worked hard to earn credit to entered classes and so would try to get the most out of it. Solomon went to the center of the room and put two stones on the table and had the relaxed look on his face like always.

George didn’t know what the stones were for but he could see everyone staring at them like their life depended on it. He could see the excitement, surprise, and sadness on their faces. He felt the tension in the room and knew that this was the time to pay attention.

“Before I start to explain the basics of skills I will introduce the new students here about classes and how it works. Usually, this is a separate subject and you need to pay one credit to take it but I will make an exception today.”

George saw Solomon looking at him when he said that and he wonders if Solomon did this for him, and if yes why was he so kind to him.

“You need two things to succeed in Nash, Willpower and luck. Just like in the real world some people are given advantages and some are given disadvantages. this means that a big part of your future is already decided for you and there is nothing you can do to change it.

When you enter Nash for the first time you have the chance to gain a legacy, this can change your whole future. New players with strong Legacies are taken in by big clans and get the chance to become individuals with great power and wealth.

That is why the annual newcomer competition is held every session year to find new talents and mold them into great warriors. If you can prove yourself, you have a chance of joining on of the three clans and get access to resources that others could only dream about.

But what most newcomers don’t know is that the annual newcomer competition exists out of more than only a fighting competition. The big clans are looking for talented people in many different areas like legacy jobs or people that show great promise with regular jobs. Even though legacy jobs are rare it’s not enough to have one, a prodigy that has the chance to become a master is just as if not more valuable to big clans as people with legacy jobs.

But I’m drifting off, let’s get back to classes and how luck plays a big part in it. But before I go on I want to ask if there is anyone here who has a legacy class?”

Everyone was looking at each other with curiosity, but no one said anything. Not surprised Solomon went on to his lecture.

“You don’t need to be disappointed, legacy classes are very rare and in my eight years of teaching I have only met two students who had a class legacy.”

After Solomon said that a boy in the front of the class raised his hand to ask a question. Solomon liked to interact with his class so he stopped talking and let the boy ask his question.

“Teacher when we all came to Wine village we all had the aptitude test. When I took the test I got a message saying that I don’t have a class so what is the use of this second test?”

Solomon seeing the question coming a mile away was prepared and went on with his story.

“That’s a great question, you all know that you don’t have a class so why the second test? Most new students assume that because they don’t have a class they can decide their class themselves and train in whatever martial art style they like, but that is not the case. When you reach level ten you are given a class and you have no say in what class it is.

What the stone here does is tell you what class you will get when you reach level ten. These stones are borrowed to us by the Trust clan and are really hard to make. There are people who could work their whole life and won’t make enough money to buy one. Even the academy doesn’t have the money to buy on so we have to borrow it from the trust clan.

The reason we do this is to give you a head start. Big clans have a lot of resources and its relative easy for their youth to reach level ten in weeks, but you guys don’t have that luxury and there are students who do as long as a session year to reach it. That’s why we use the stone to identify your class so you can focus on classes that are of use to you. In the old times students would waste money and time on classes they would have no use for after they reached level ten and would get left behind by others students who would be lucky enough to get the class they wanted.

But before we continue I want to talk about a subject that has been discussed for century’s and there are a lot of different theories. The question is, why are we not allowed to pick our own class and why is it given to us after reaching level ten?”

The same boy in the front put up his hands and answered with confidence.

“Teacher, you told us that luck is of great importance, does that not answer both questions?”

Solomon gave a quick smile and nodded his head.

“Luck is the easiest but also the most believed theory. Any other ideas?”

Everyone was thinking but it was a hard question. George had a couple of ideas but decided not to attract any attention to himself. But thinking about all the things Solomon had done for him decided to answer the question.

“Balance.”

Everyone looked at George with a look of confusion. Nobody understood what he meant with the answer.

“explain.” Said Solomon.

George not liking the attention decided to be quick and to the point.

“Everyone can make wine in Wine town but doesn’t have to learn the wine skill, this in itself is a rule made to keep balance. If you try to do any other job in Wine town you need to learn the skill except for winemaking. I think this was done to keep balance just like the beginner wine manual explained.

For the same reason, we are not allowed to pick our own class. This would mean that strong classes would be taken more often and it would disturb the balance.”