Michael looked over his shoulder to make sure Ramon was gone.  “I didn’t say anything before because I didn’t want to make Ramon feel bad.  But I was a huge gamer as a kid.  I recognized what this was almost on the first day.  So I’ve been ‘playing’ it like a game.  As for skills – I was thinking I could try something cool.  Like enchanting.  Maybe combine it with blacksmithing to make badass armor.” He grinned at the look on Allistor’s face.

“Right on, man!” Allistor gave him a fist-bump. “I’m glad to have another gamer in the group!  You can help me push everyone else in the right directions.  Not with their choices, that’s totally up to them.  But motivate them to get better at whatever path they choose.”

“I can dig that, my friend.” Michael leaned forward, his elbows on the table.  “So what’s your build?  What are you thinking?”

The two of them chatted for another half hour, sharing their stats and talking about possible skill trees.  Neither of them had the first clue how to trigger a skill like Enchanting, though.

Finally, Michael just said, “Maybe I can find a scroll on the market or something.”

The two of them both moved over to the open market trade building and approached the window.  When they did, the windows turned out to be holo-screens with prompts that allowed you to search for items.  There was a setup required with both biometric and retinal scans to confirm identity.

It seemed one could list items on the market and browse using just their interface.  But to purchase something, one had to physically contact the kiosk.  Once a purchase was made, the item would either appear on a shelf behind the display, or a larger door would open and allow the buyer to remove the item (like a car, for instance).

Both men scanned for scrolls.  Allistor took a more general approach, searching for skill training scrolls to get a general idea of availability and cost.  He had a few hundred klax from his various kills, and he was ready to spend them on scrolls.

Michael went with a much narrower search.  He started with beginner enchanting scrolls.  When that turned up nothing, he tried a few other keyword combinations.

Both men were discouraged by the results.  Michael finally found a scroll that would teach him a skill called “Power Infusion” which, best he could tell, was the System’s version of Enchanting.  But the scroll was expensive.  Six hundred klax.  And every gamer knew that Enchanting was one of the most expensive skills to level.  The material costs were generally prohibitive.  If it cost six hundred klax just to learn…