"Anyway, besides the dojo and the places in the map, do you think we have another lead?"

"That would be really useful," he says, a bit envious. Being cold resistant enough to go around shirtless in the winter would make his hobbies so much easier. He's not entirely sure what's so distracting about shirtlessness, though; it's not like Gabe has anything he hasn't seen before. Even the abs - Jamie's seen Caine naked plenty of times by now. 

His other questions - about the slavery thing - are both none of his business and still unnerving him in how much it bothers him, so he leads Gabe back into the living room rather than asking. He sets the bowl down on the coffee table, snags a plate and fork from Gabe's pile, serves himself, and settles down on the couch.

"Well," Robin says thoughtfully, "We should take a closer look at Erin's place, I think," he suggests. "We only looked at a few rooms before we came here to talk to Mr Atten about all the weird. But we still found Erin's med tech and that her lizard is now an alien lizard. If her parents are lizard people like she is, who knows what they might have kicking around the house?" 

"And we should see if we can figure out whether Robin's grandma is psychic," she reminds them. 

Gabe grins at Jamie's comment and then serves himself and Henry.

Henry accepts it. "Should we split up to cover more ground? Also, Jamie's family wouldn't provide any leads?"

The teens all trade glances. Jamie grimaces, "Uh," he says, "I'm an orphan - a foundling, in fact - and my foster parents..." he shrugs, "I basically just live with Erin and Caine." 

"We should still check, though," Robin says, slipping an arm around Erin to squeeze Jamie's arm. "If they've turned into evil aliens or something you'll probably want to stop going back for inspections." 

"As for splitting up," Erin says as she fills a plate for herself, "It's probably a good idea. You were saying we should send two of you in particular to check Robin's grandmother, right?" She settles back on the couch so Caine and Robin can get some food, "Then maybe Robin could go with you, and the rest of us could split up to take a look at the dojo and check my house?" 

"Uh..." they can see his cheeks turn a darker gray. "Can't walk around away from me in a foreign country, without a written permission that we didn't have the time to acquire."

"Same plan, but Gabe goes with Henry and Robin. If it turns out that his grandmother is hostile, Felix will be less helpful in a fight than Gabe."

Erin stuffs a forkful of food in Robin's mouth befote he can say anything. The guy clearly doesn't want to talk about it, and nothing Robin has to say is likely to help. 

"Sounds like a plan," she agrees mildly. 

Robin chews mulishly, then grudgingly moves on, "Caine and Erin should go to the dojo, then, and Jamie can come with us. We can meet up at Erin's after." 

"Sounds like a plan."

They can spend the rest of the time eating and talking about classes. Felix can summon a book "The Diviner Mage Guide to The Changed World" from thin air, which various charts and class explanations. Classes have levels and each level increases your health and mana, gives you ten points that you can spend mostly in attributes (like strength) or skills (like being good at using an ax). How efficient a point is at making you better at those things depends on your class, race or "sub-class". For example, a warrior will get more physically strong than a Magus by spending the same amount of points. In the first level and every three levels thereafter you get some sort of class feature, which is usually customizable to some degree, like picking a sub-class (which expands on what your class can do).

It's very D&D.

So it is. Caine leans forward after the initial information has been explained, "And you can teach these abilities to us," he states. He pauses, "Can you tell us more about what the Champion and Saint classes entail, if they don't necessarily involve gods?"

"We can teach some abilities to you, yes. But in practical terms, what we do is give you a few pointers and then you do something that earns your first class level. Champions and Saints embody or at least perform virtues through vows and living up to ideals. Saints in particular also benefit from proselyting or inspiring others."

"How do we do this, then?" Robin asks, "Can you get us started before we leave? And what kind of thing do we have to do to earn our first level, are we talking getting good enough at the skills for that class, or defeating a bunch of enemies, or what?" 

"And, what kind of virtues do you mean? Are there known virtues, or are they whatever the person believes is virtuous?" 

"There is the matter that we would want to get a better sense of you first. Both to see which class you fit, but also if you would be responsible with more powers. On the topic of setting it up. Time varies for setting it up, there has been at least one case where all it took was Gabe shouting some instructions in the middle of a goblin attack. But usually it's a few hours. There is the additional issue that while I can teach anyone any class, you can only teach your own class to others and there is no multi-classing. It's possible to switch classes, but it takes considerable longer. It's possible to earn class levels with only intense training alone, but combat makes it much faster."

"It doesn't have to be to the death. Though, picking up fights in a bar works better than, say, do a wrestling match with a few friends."

"Yeah, that. It's usually much better if you are trying to win in a way related to class skills. You can try convince the hypothetical bar fighters to stop fighting by trying to convert them into being pacifists or something if you want to be a Saint."

"Both kinds of virtue work. It's more about the commitment to the concept."

"So then, real experience is better than mock experience, or theoretical, right?" He confirms. "Makes sense. And I don't blame you for wanting to give it a bit before you hand us magical powers."

Caine hums, "My guess... Well, I don't know all the classes in dungeons and dragons. Only the basics. Even if I did, your classes aren't the same." He pauses, glances around at the other three teens, "Jamie would be a rogue. Erin some kind of cleric." He's not so sure how well she'd suit this 'Saint' class, however. Erin's a healer at heart, but she'd never really be comfortable confined to pacifism. Which shouldn't be a surprise to Fenris, at least, considering the fact that she was holding a shapeshifter at gunpoint when he met them. 

He looks Robin over, thoughtfully, "I suppose Robin might be a druid, or a warlock," he muses. 

He's not sure about himself; ranger? Monk? Fighter? Paladin? 

Probably not Paladin, he admits to himself. 

"Is the Saint class a healer's class, then, if they're meant to be pacifists?"