Arenya Azural, newest accepted student at Ba’al Cedric’s Academy of Adventurers, grinned as she finished the morning prayers. She gingerly unwrapped the straps from her fingers, then those bound around her forehead. Removing the small cubes - one against her forehead, the other on her forearm - Arenya placed them into their velvet-lined case and closed it, before putting them in her bag with her other valued possessions.

With that complete, she turned to her next obligation: Breakfast. Her azure tail waved as she stabbed her fork into the first pancake in the stack and brought the whole thing to her mouth, taking an enormous bite.

“Ari!” chided her mother. “Don’t forget your manners. You’ll be eating with a crowd starting tonight, you know. It’s one thing to eat too quickly in front of just your father and I, but you don’t want to embarrass yourself in front of all your peers, do you?”

Arenya resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “I know, Mom. It’s just that I won’t get to eat your pancakes again for months, right? I should enjoy them while I still can.”

Alavian looked at her her daughter, brown eyes through brown bangs. “All the more reason to eat slowly and savor them, then.”

“Oh, let her be,” called out a baritone voice from the hall. Arenya's father Talvun, dressed in his finest (and indeed his only) brown suit and tie, walked into the kitchen. “It’s Ari’s last day here.” He sat at his prescribed chair - customized to fit a half-dragon, with a higher back for his muscled figure and shaped to fit his blue wings and tail.

Mom gave Dad her most soul-piercing glare, reserved for when he and she had a parenting dispute. Arenya saw that glare rarely, but like clockwork she knew what came next.

Wait for it… three, two, one…

Both her parents burst out laughing.

“You know,” Mom said, chuckling, “my parents told me not to go out with a half-dragon. It’ll never work out. You’ll disagree on everything. Just stick to humans.”

"Yes, I've heard the story. Two years later you had a daughter together, and twenty-three you're still together." Still, the grin on her face didn't fade. She resisted the urge to flap her wings, knowing they’d simply hit the chair.

The conversation continued as Arenya ate her last breakfast with her family. They laughed at old jokes and old stories, reminiscing about times on the farm (“remember the attack of level 85 beetles? We had to call in a dozen adventurers to get rid of them all to save the harvest!”) and thinking how things would be so much quieter now that Arenya was leaving. For Arenya’s part, she smiled and laughed along, pushing the nervousness to the side.

With breakfast complete and the dishes in the sink, Arenya began to stride up the stairs to change into her nice dress (a waste of time, she felt, but Mom insisted she look proper for for her first day at Cedric’s) when her father asked the question she’d been dreading the most.

“You know, you still haven’t told us. Have you decided a major yet?”

Arenya’s grin vanished as she turned around. “I have, yeah…” She started toying with her hair, twirling it around one finger. “I’m thinking I’m going to dual class.” She took a deep breath, gave her wings a few flaps as she prepared herself. “I’m thinking BladeMage.”

Silence greeted her. I knew this would happen. They won’t approve.

“Honey?” said Mom after an agonizing pause. “You know about BladeMages, right?”

“That they’re the hardest dual class that the Realm has ever discovered? That it’s been two centuries since the last one made it to level 100, and everyone since gave up and switched classes long before that? Yeah, I know. But it speaks to me, and none of the other classes do. Not to mention how powerful it is!” Her eyes sparkled with excitement. “I know it’s a difficult class, and I know I’ll need to do well to keep my scholarship, but I just want to try. I promise that if I think I can’t do it I’ll switch classes right away, not wait until I’ve lost all the scholarships and it’s too late!”

“No way,” muttered Dad. “You won’t do it.”

Her heart sank. I knew they wouldn’t allow it, I just knew it!

“You won’t ever have to switch your class.”

“Huh?” She looked up.

“You’ll go out there and become the greatest BladeMage you can be! And when you’re level 800 and you defeat an entire army of demons on your own, I’ll be at the market telling everyone who’ll listen whose daughter is out there! You understand me, Ari?”

Arenya blinked back tears. “I understand you, Dad.”

Even Alavian couldn’t bear to glare at her husband this time. “Let us know when you’re all packed and ready.”

---

Arenya had to admit as she brought her last suitcase down, her mother’s judgement wasn’t completely lacking. The dress did indeed look nice on her. Not too ornate, just a few floral designs here and there, and the blue matched the azure scales of her wings and tail, while being just a shade darker blue than her hair. She held her hair back in a ponytail (her mother tried to insist on a fancy braid, but Arenya managed at least to convince her that that was an unneeded step too far), and overall she did indeed look like a refined student from a wealthy family of scholars and sorcerers, rather than the farmgirl she was. Well, if you ignored the sun-weathered skin, callouses, and muscled arms, at least. She still felt like it was a waste of time and effort to put on such a fancy outfit, but the result was rather fetching.

As she did, she decided to take a moment to look at her stats. She’d only unlocked them few months ago, on her 21st birthday, and wasn’t used to keeping close attention, but now was a good time to start. Focusing for a moment, the text appeared before her, visible to none but Arenya herself.

Current Class: Farmer (lvl 20)

Other Classes: None

Skills: Basic Reap Crops (lvl 1), Basic Grow Crops (lvl 1)

Spells: None

HP: 20/20

MP: 0/0

She shook her head a little sadly at the lack of MP. That’d change when she formally declared a class, but having none to start with and no augmenters to practice with meant she’d not had any experience spellcasting, while the other students there probably were at least a bit capable of magic. At least I have a higher than average strength stat for my age, she mused as she looked over the countless stats and substats. Time spent farming has at least paid off th-

“Bwa!” she stepped on the hem of her dress and nearly tumbled down the last couple steps, but managed to right herself and keep standing. Right, they say not to open your stats while walking for exactly that reason, don’t they…

Her father hoisted two heavy bags up over his shoulders, while her mother grabbed another. Arenya grabbed her backpack, supplies, and the final suitcase. She stopped for a moment as she passed through the doorway, to run her hand along the mezuzah affixed to the frame, and with that, they were off.

It was a beautiful day. The sun was out, birds chirped, and the plants she and her parents worked so hard to tend to were growing excellently. Arenya resisted the urge to flap her wings and fly around for a few moments (she couldn’t fly for more than a minute or so, for one, not to mention being weighed down by the heavy baggage. And she was in a dress, too, though she wore shorts under it just in case.) The three of them would be walking for a good half hour, so the nice weather was a fantastic boon.

“Did you ever consider going to an academy, Mom, Dad?”

Mom laughed. “I thought about classing into a Rain Mistress when I was your age so we could water the plants more easily, but we couldn’t quite scrounge together the money. You know how hard your father and I worked to save up for your education? My parents never did, so I didn’t get the chance.”

“If I do well,” said Arenya, “I’ll send back some money I get from freelancing and battle pay. It’s never too late, if I can get together the money!”

“You don’t have to send that much money to us, dear. We earn eno-”

“Put your hands up and get back to your residence!” cried a higher-pitched voice, clearly magically amplified to reach the entire farmstead and handful of nearby families. “We’re beginning a demon raid in five minutes, and those caught out will be killed without remorse!”

Arenya sighed. “Oh, for the love of Hashem.” She raised her voice. “Daniel, where are you?”

“What the -” A young man, a few years Arenya’s senior, flashed into being. His clothes were the black and red of a typical demon underling or bandit, and his brown hair was cropped short. With pale skin, dark gray eyes, and thin limbs, he looked frail, but looks could be deceiving. The teleportation, though short range, was proof enough that he had a fair degree of power. He snapped his fingers. “How did you - oh, hi, Arenya!” His voice returned to a normal, unamplified tone. His lips curled in a smile - that, she knew, was genuine.

Dad looked back at Ari. “You know this man?”

“Remember that time last year I stayed out too long during a raid and died while wearing your favorite hat?” Arenya gestured to Daniel. “Daniel’s the one who killed me. Ever since I came back next raid and demanded he give it back he tries to say hello each raid.” Arenya turned back to the demon. “You have teleportation again already? I heard you were killed in a battle just last month!”

Daniel shrugged. “The Flame Bandit group I’m in got in a few skirmishes with an army of Paladins of the Six. We lost pretty hard but I managed to take down a few and got a bunch of levels off that, so I got teleportation back faster than normal. I’m actually one of the highest level bandits so they let me be the announcer this time!”

Arenya flapped her wings, eyes widening. “Whoa, congratulations! You told me you’ve wanted to be an announcer for so long!”

“Yeah, so I’m gonna go back and announce the attack. I was thinking we could duel again, and -”

Mom interrupted. “Ari, we talked about this. No flirting through deadly fights!”

Daniel and Arenya turned and exclaimed at once. “We’re not flirting!”

They both burst out laughing after a moment's pause.

Once the laughter subsided, Arenya said, “I’m actually about to head off to Ba’al Cedric’s. I was finally admitted.” At Daniel’s downcast expression, she said, “We can have a duel there, once I’m ready. I’ll give you an exception so you won’t get attacked on the way, in a few months. It’ll be a better fight anyway, once I have some combat levels and a real class.”

“I’m holding you to that!” Daniel smirked. He then cleared his throat, snapped his fingers, and called out in the magically amplified voice, “The demon raid has been postponed by one hour! You may return to your normal duties!” He turned back to Arenya and her parents. “There, that should give you enough time to get on the train so you aren’t late.”

“Thank you, Daniel!” Arenya ran up and give him a quick hug. “You didn’t have to postpone the raid for me. I’m sure the guardians would have showed up to kick you off so we’d make it by nightfall.”

Cedric flashed a grin. “That’s a favor. When next we meet, I fully expect you to kill me! That’s how you can return it… Ari.” And with that, he teleported away once more, leaving Arenya exasperated at his use of her parents’ pet name for her.

“So, Ari,” asked Mom, “You’re sure that wasn’t flirting?”

Arenya kept her mouth shut - for the first time in a long time, she hadn’t the faintest clue what to say.

“Seems like a nice kid. Let’s keep going.” Dad strode along toward the train station, as though nothing at all had happened.

Arenya silently thanked him for the change of topic and followed along.