Changing his route, it wasn’t long before Rory came across his destination. This so-called “Player Central”seemed to be much more geared towards those adventurers who traveled throughout the world. At a glance, he could see it was separated into three main sections. There was an area that looked kind of like a big outdoor gymnasium, with field after field of various combat dummies, test courses, and practice simulations to fight against.

As Rory walked past it, he realized this was another place he would need to visit in the future. Though his class didn’t have much direct offense yet, that didn’t mean he shouldn’t be working on his skills. Actually, it kinda meant the opposite… he didn’t have as many options as other people when it came to dealing damage, so he needed to put in even more effort to help out a team and keep himself alive. With the targets that were set up here, this was definitely a good spot to practice throws with his [Draw Four] ability, but overall this was an area he’d return to once he had an actual weapon to train with.

Where that area was focused on the Combat and Survival Classes, the next one seemed to be more about various types of Crafters and Merchants. Obviously there were some sus looking people in the area trying to make a quick buck for their Class, but most of the area seemed to be full of various crafting stations and workshops. Rory already knew that most people didn’t have access to things like that, and the population here was almost a tenth of how many people filled the combat section–but that just made their work even more valuable. There was more to fighting than just natural abilities, after all. Getting some more items and gear under his belt was another thing Rory added to his to-do list.

The final area of this Player Central was what Rory had been looking for the whole time. It was set up like a big library, an area just full of information and little “Tutorials” to help people get their bearings in this world. He was glad to see that most of the higher level people here seemed friendly; there were plenty of people around trying to give pointers and advice to the newbies and lower-leveled players, especially when people shared similar classes.

Rory wasn’t too worried about chatting it up with someone today, so instead of stopping to chat with anyone he simply made his way inside the building. Even on the inside, the long halls of books, computers, and teachers seemed to go on infinitely, with a different section for what seemed to be every category someone could think of. Hmmm… He didn’t want to overload the information he was learning here, so it would probably be smart to try and tackle things in some kind of order. Rory started in the left-most side of the building, stepping into a hall with a large “ANCHORS” sign hung over it.

Rory’s own anchor was finally explained once he reached the MELODY section. MELODY enemies were associated with a darker blue color, and the enemies tended to be casters or mages. The actual classes with MELODY anchors seemed to be similar, either mages or some kind of support role. Comparing it to Rory’s own Chaos Roller class, that definitely checked out.

An interesting thing about the MELODY anchor was that, where GIFTS and SHELTERS had items and places, MELODY was more about incorporeal things like memories or emotions. Rory wasn’t really sure how that applied to the Chaos Roller class; he had been something of a gambler, sure, but in his mind it made more sense for that to be some kind of SHELTER. He could see something more coin-based being a GIFT class… maybe that’s what the elusive [Gold Dollar] class was all about. He wiped a tear from his eye as he moved onto the next section. Maybe one day that class would show up once again…

CONNECTION anchors were the next in the hall. Conceptually, they seemed pretty simple: CONNECTION was based on the connections a person had with another. The information on the subject went on to describe how some connections weren’t with someone a person literally knew, but could be with other things such as their favorite animal, a history figure, or even a fictional character. Evey kind of gave that vibe with her class, but that was neither here nor there.

The way that CONNECTIONS appeared in their abilities seemed to be primary based on summoning or formshifting/empowerment. Yup, that also checked out. DeeDee was the one who immediately came to mind for Rory, an almost text-book example of a CONNECTION based class. In monsters, they tended to have yellow color schemes and be summoners theirselves, such as a hornet that could summon more of its swarm. Pack monsters like wolves that roved together could also be a CONNECTION anchor, interestingly enough, though Rory hadn’t yet ran into anything like that.

Polar opposite to that was the DISSECTION anchor. Where CONNECTION seemed to be about friendship and caring, DISSECTION was about loss and pain. Nyke was a dissection, and he had his fair share of debuffs to inflict. Reading this was a little unsettling though… it really made him hope everything was okay behind the scenes. Debuffers and assassins were the most common monsters of this anchor, and usually had some shade of purple as their color. Just like they were opposite in themes, DISSECTION and CONNECTION were opposed elementally- each were extra effective against their opposite.

Finally finishing his circle around the room, Rory faced the FRAGMENT section. This was by far the smallest section and the one with the least information, and for good reason. Rory couldn’t think of a time when he’d even HEARD of a FRAGMENT anchor, they were so rare! Even the information listed was only about monsters, with almost no actual Classes to compare it to. For monsters, the FRAGMENTS were usually presented as cyan in color, or occasionally even rainbow. They were in a category all of their own, with no anchor that was effective or weak against it.

Rory kept thinking about the FRAGMENTS as he left the Anchor hall. He honestly wouldn’t even think they were real if it wasn’t for the monsters others had fought with that Anchor. With the subject still fresh on his mind, he turned the corner to inter the next section of this Tutorial Hall.

The two previous information hubs had covered information Rory already knew, just from a more detailed perspective. This room, however, was completely new to him. It covered information about Guilds, something he had heard of but never encountered or really needed to know more about before now.

Where Parties were temporary groups of a small amount of players, Guilds were permanent groups that could be much much larger in number. Due to their permanent nature, Guilds had much more and varied bonuses than what a party could provide. Unique synergies and buffs, missions, shops, almost anything imaginable could be done with a Guild… with enough investment, they were almost like their own miniature town!

The part that stuck out the most to Rory, of course, was that Guilds could also generate their own income. He felt a wicked smile cross his face as an idea began to form in his mind, a money scheme to beat all money schemes (and suddenly, he also realized where the MELODY part of his class had come from.) Eager to learn more about this entire Guild system, Rory left this main-introductory hall and went up to a higher level of the building.

Books and computers that filled the area made this look like a much more traditional library. Where the area below went into some details about a subject, this Record Hall had everything. It took him a moment to find the area dedicated to Guilds, but once he did, Rory felt like he had discovered a gold mine.

The Guild Records looked like they had been very meticulously organized, chopped up into even further subsections of information. Crouching down to be sure he read EVERY SINGLE book title to find one he wanted, Rory had a little bit of difficulty at first. Due to the nature of this place having information on everything, much of the info here was about specific player-made guilds and the public information on them. That was nice and all, sure, but not what he needed right now. Running his finger along the spines of the wall, finally he found what he was looking for.

[The Guild Shop: An All-Encompassing Guide to The Guild Shop for a Total Beginner]

Huh. Very specific. As he pulled the book from its shelf. Dust flew up into the air. Yuck… it didn’t seem like anyone had touched this thing since- well, ever! As brushed it off and finally opened the book, Rory groaned when he saw the table of contents. When the title said All-Encompassing, it really meant it. With a heavy sigh, he propped his back against the wall and began reading.