The hallway she stepped into was darker and more imposing than she expected. Bards were usually colorful characters and most of the surroundings were gray stone and dark wood. The only exception was the large desk set in the middle of the entrance hall, on which a banner of red and cyan strips draped over the desk. A man who definitely didn’t look like a bard sat behind the desk. He looked like an archetypical pencil pushing clerk.

“Name and purpose of visit,” he droned as she approached the desk.

“Lucia Fritch, to be tested for bard class.”

He looked through the paperwork on his desk, ”Room 3a, directly to the right off this hallway about 50 meters ahead.”

He didn’t even look up as she went past him. It was as if she wasn’t even worth notice.

3a was clearly marked. She pushed her way into a room that was in total contrast to the dour hallway she had come through. Art filled each wall, much of it more modern in appearance than she would have though belonged in a high fantasy setting. Much of it was abstract. Behind a table at the front the room sat three people and they did look like bards. They were laughing and joking with each other as she entered. She was making an assumption that all three were NPCs that were controlled by the game AI and as always she marveled at how real it could make the characters it controlled. Now that she was thinking on it though, there was no reason that one or more of the three couldn’t be player characters. Just because it seemed like a boring mode of play to her, didn’t mean that others might not enjoy it.

“…and I said, ‘My lady I would never presume to just guess at the color of your undergarments,’” said the one male among the three. They all three bursts into further laughter.

Now that she looked closer at one of the two women, the more she seemed to be transgender. There were more transgender who played bards than any other character class. She couldn’t figure out if that made this one more or less likely to be a player character. The AI was famously adaptable and if it noticed more transgender playing bard, it would likely generate more transgender NPC bards as well. All to better pass the Turing test with the players.

As she came all the way into the room, the laughter ceased and after looking her way just briefly the three suddenly did a spontaneous musical chairs routine. In the back of her mind Lucia was like, “Ok Turing test fail.”

“Welcome my dear,” said the ambiguous one, who was now in the central chair. “I am Elcatrin, and I will be the central grader, for your exam to join the Bards College of Zunike, and through us the Bards Colleges of many of the Western Nations.”

The tone was not unfriendly, just slightly rote, like it had been said hundreds of times before. It also was nearly perfectly gender neutral. No help there. Not that Lucia cared but it was one more clue that she was dealing with NPCs here, not that she had suspected any differently.

“Thank you for the invitation to come audition for you, masters,” Lucia began to bow and then somewhat gracelessly turned it into a curtsy. She noticed Elcatrin’s mouth twitch up on the left side, as if they was trying to stifle a laugh.

“Actually, the only master among us right now is them,” said the man on the right pointing toward Elcatrin. “I’m Milesmith and on the far left is Matriam. Journeyman Bards of this college.”

“I can speak for myself,” said Matriam with some asperity. “What will you be doing for us today my love. Instrument, singing, dancing, or acting?”

“Woodwind ma’am,” replied Lucia.

“Really?” questioned Elcatrin. “With your previous build, I assumed moving into primarily being a dancer bard variant would be a natural progression.”

“I considered it,” admitted Lucia. “But dancers have a…reputation that I didn’t want people to apply to me before they got to know me.”

“Nonsense my dear,” replied Elcatrin. “Eventually you’re going to need to develop all of those fields to a certain extent. Just as you haven’t chosen to develop all the elements of your pathways as a fighter or rogue but still had to gain basic competence, the same will be true here. This is about getting admission, not picking a career path. You should have gone with your strongest possible suit.”

Lucia didn’t know what to say. It was true that her character build depended on a fluid grace and this was enhanced by her real-life dedication to Qi Jong. It would have been smarter to take up some formal dance. Now she stood with her two months of practice in an area she had never had any aptitude for, even with the advanced learning methods she employed.

“Stop being so hard on her E.” said Matriam. “She’s likely to be full of enough nerves. Now love, I’m sure you’ll be fine. Don’t let them bully you. Now what will you be playing?”

“It’s a tune called ‘Nothing Else Matters.’ It was a tune that holds importance to my parents and ancestors.”

Many tunes from the real world were adopted by bards. As long as they could be played on the traditional instruments, it was considered ok. There was some mention that toward endgame that bards needed to start producing original works for their highest ranked spells, and this would be consistent of what she knew about endgame wizards and a number of other classes. It really seemed that endgame was mostly open to those who could create their own spin on the class they played to make it their own.

Other things also kept down the ranks of those at endgame level way down. Although a player got to reincarnate with all their skills and stat bumps intact they would go back to level 1, meaning they would lose all spells and hit points they had built up. It was ridiculously easy to regain the first few levels for anyone who had been playing for a while, but it still took time, and all reputation scores were also reset to zero. While this was a benefit to players who had played as bandits, or other less savory things, it meant time and energy. Also, for many players, this was a chance to reincarnate in another of the seven realms, with full skill set and stat bumps intact. Only players at level fifteen and above could move between Realms at will, and that only after what was supposed to be a heck of a quest that varied for every player.

Lucia noticed Milesmith lean forward a bit at her choice. Maybe he was a player after all. Or maybe the AI had noticed it was something players did in moments like this.

She had ordered a game compliant pipe when she decided to do this. Putting down her controller she picked up the pipe and began to play. The song started out slow before moving into the well-known notes. She could hear the words as she played, “So close no matter how far. Couldn’t be much more from the heart.” The song finally hit its high point before returning to the main lyrics before ending.

“Thank you Lucia,” said Elcatrin. “We’ll need to confer a few minutes.”

The three bards entered into an animated discussion, which gave Lucia a queasy feeling in her gut. If she had easily passed, would they have talked this long.

Finally, they settled down and Elcatrin addressed Lucia, “I’m afraid that we do not find your piping skills to be up to an automatic pass. In your case, however… we might consider an alternative test.”

Lucia stood there, at first dejected, and then with a little hope. The quest alternative was sometimes given to gain many classes. It usually meant that you almost had the prerequisites but not quite. It was usually much more time consuming but also grindable, showing that you actually have the dedication to get better and not fail utterly in the class, bringing it down in the eyes of many.

Straightening her back Lucia asked, “What do I need to do.”