“So uh, do either of you need to do something before heading out?”

Rosha sighs, “Dude, it's almost nighttime. I don’t care how awesome you are, we aren’t ready for a night time romp through the forest.”

James speaks up, “I have to agree with her. At night the real predators come out. Also, while our gear is mostly taken care of at this point because of the newb kit we should make sure our skill layout will work. At the moment I just have a couple passive, one to increase my healing and the other dealing with my dwarven armor.”

An awkward silence follows this. Both Rosha and Jason share a look that clearly says they aren’t really digging this skill sharing idea.

“Since we won't be going out tonight, we should probably get a team suite at the inn. Though speaking of team we should probably form one. I am personally all down for a classic team name like ‘Jason and the Argonauts’ though I can understand if neither of you are quite the history buffs that I am.”

The others groan at the name and James speaks up, “So if I remember the story correctly they didn’t really come to good ends now did they? How about we don’t jinx this quest from the start? Maybe go with something simple like ‘the Odd Ones Out’ as we don’t really fit the general stereotypes.”

Rosha nods in agreement, “Yeah that sounds fine by me. Triple O all the way.”

“Fine, fine, can’t have an intellectual team name. Got to just go with quirky alliterations. [Team Create ‘Odd Ones Out’][Confirm] [Team Invite Rosha][Confirm] [Team Invite James][Confirm]” and as Jason speaks a number of boxes pop up and go away before finally all that is left is for the others to agree.

James raises his eyebrow, “Bit of a quick trigger finger you have there now don’t ya? Well I guess we did all technically agreed so no harm done, [Confirm]” and Rosha nods in agreement with him before ‘confirming’ as well. With the discussion and team making finished the new group leaves Andrews tower while discussing where to stay. Eventually they agree that the ‘salted pig’ was a decent choice, what with being right near the gate they need to leave from while still being cheap.

Soon they are in a group room waiting out the night. At first there is an awkward silence before Jason broaches the subject of skills, “So James, yeah skills. Um, most people probably see it as a bit rude to just ask about them out of the blue. Admittedly we are a bit low level so generally we wouldn’t have anything unique or interesting. But, hmm, I can’t really tell you my only skill. Likely Rosha doesn’t want to tell us her skills or lack of them either. In fact for mine I am actually under a system backed oath not to talk about it even irl.”

Rosha takes it up at this point, “We know you meant well enough and I will admit we should probably pick up some of the more common skills. In fact for those common things we should share if we have them if only because it would be stupid to pay for training in it when you already have the skill. But still, all Jason said very much it true. I don’t know what is up with his skill but I have an inheritance. This isn’t rare, most decent sized families at this point have them and there are native ones just hanging around in ruins but I definitely won't be sharing what mine is.”

At this point James is looking decidedly ashamed. He had clearly not thought through what he had asked. There is also a slight look of embarrassment which likely comes from him realizing he doesn’t have any special skills yet the rest of his team does. Speaking up he says, “Ah, okay. Sorry about that. I guess I just didn’t really think about it. At the dwarven outpost it is a bit different. Everyone gets setup with their skills by the local trainer before they even are let out of the starting building. I don’t know if this is the dwarves in general or the fact it is a military location but that is just how it was. Everyone there knew what the others had. My question meant more along the lines of asking what your starting skills were as I didn’t expect you to have other ones yet. Now I have to ask something else which might seem a bit rude. As you apparently don’t have the normal skills did either you actually meet with the trainers? You do realize you get some free training in basic skills while still on your beginners time, right?”

Jason and Rosha both look away uncomfortably. Clearly neither of them had actually done so. James just sighs at this and then starts going over what they should do tomorrow, “Things might not go how we expected. I have to talk to the trainers to see if they have anything the dwarves didn’t. You both need to canvas what you missed and I am grounding this team until all the basic skills have been learned. Now sleep or log off as you will and we will continue tomorrow.” Neither of the two really want to stick around so they both log off to spend about an hour and half irl to let the night pass.

Pshhhh swoosh, the lid on Jason’s game pod opens up. This is actually the first time he has been out of it in a day or so. Though being out this soon would be seen as odd anyway. Most people tend to end up in the pod for their beginner month and then some. Deciding he wants to eat something real Jason heads out to the kitchen only to find his mother bustling around making some pancakes. A quick check of the time shows this is a breakfast for dinner rather than the morning.

“Hey Mom, got a couple to spare? I have an hour to burn while waiting for morning. The System has me doing a team quest and they don’t want to head out into the forest at night.”

His mother sighs, “Of course THAT would be your problem. I wasn’t expecting to see you for at least an irl month. Good thing someone is looking out for you and your loner tendencies even if it is the System. You better not ruin this. I don’t expect it anytime soon but I want you socializing. If you don’t then I won't ever get any grandchildren. Now of course you can wait as long as you want but for some reason I feel you might not be moving out of my house if it isn’t for a lady.” She grumbles a bit more under her breath while stacking a couple cakes onto his plate.

“Mom, you know I’m not good with that socializing thing. Though feel relieved. It seems the System is actually trying to look out for me. Apparently someone has been researching it and quests, especially early on, tend to try and get people to face their weaknesses.”

Giving him a bit of a glare she counters his claim, “It doesn’t matter how many team quests you get if you don't try. I love you and all but we both know it takes two to tango and you aren’t one for that dance.”

In an overly exaggerated exhausted tone Jason responds, “Fiiiine, I guess I will talk to them. It isn’t like I retreated from the game because of an awkward social situation. Totally not avoiding having to sleep in a room with a girl.” and he winks at his mom.

With a laugh she smacks him on the back of the head, “Don’t you try that one on me. You and I both know the cheap team rooms at the inns don’t allow any such nonsense. Even the most backwater places will have the privacy enchantments on their cheap rooms so ‘special’ clientele have to pay for the good rooms. Now finish your meal and head back to your personal space. No reason to waste this time when you could be looking up stuff on your town and general situation.”

Akhier

Things I wanted to mention but didn’t:

A lot of jobs in this world are done through the pod because of automation and telepresence technology. This doesn’t mean that people are just in the pod forever and ever. The world has actually agreed on a few things to encourage people to go out irl. The first is that every other week on saturday they remove the time compression on the game so if people want to take the day off it isn’t 5 days in-game. The other thing they do is that for special holidays they pause the game world. Actually they pause all game worlds. ‘Oddly’ many people end up being born about 9 months after these holidays.