Sitting along the impromptu circle, beneath the darkening sky, I had a very difficult decision to make and not too much time.

On one hand, I couldn’t know whether or not to trust these four. They were simply the first people I’d come across in this world. For all I knew, they’d immediately turn around and betray me somehow.

On the other hand, I might not have much choice. Depending on what they asked, it was possible that if I lied I’d be found out and then this conversation would get a lot less chatty real fast. Not to mention the potential skeleton army that was making other things seem a lot less important. In fact, the skeleton army threat might be a blessing in disguise, making it so even if I told them everything they had bigger problems to worry about..

Before I could make a concrete decision either way, Devos had leaned forward and asked the first question already. “Before anything else, where the hells did you come from? I know you said you just woke up in the Silent Swamp, and that you have no idea what’s happening, but where are you from before that?”

I floundered for a moment, before his eyes narrowed. I doubt I could lie to these people anyways… “Look, I’m gonna be brutally honest, and you’re probably not going to believe me..”

My eyes were locked onto Devos’, having identified him as the de facto leader of the group. Out of the corner of my eye though, I could see the others lean forward slightly. “I’m.. not exactly from here. Like, from Aethrum.” He drew in a slow breath and I hurriedly continued before he could speak, “Where I’m from, I.. died.. And then I got sent here, to be a hero or something like that, I don’t really know. All I do know is that since I got here I’ve just been trying to survive!”

I heard the scrape of metal on metal from beside me and my head shot in that direction. Raruk had begun drawing his sword, glaring at me with barely restrained anger. Beside him Verus had grabbed his wrist to stop him, but he didn’t look any happier.

I scrambled back a meter before putting up my hands, “Woah! Woah! What the hell?!”

Raruk opened his mouth in a snarl, but before he could speak Devos’ voice broke over us, “Hold!” As I heard the word, I felt something rushing through me, trying to lock my joints and freeze my muscles. With a supreme effort, I managed to fight through it and it suddenly disappeared. Raruk on the other hand, had frozen in place immediately.

My head shot over to Devos, wanting to know what the hell was happening. More than anything, I didn’t want to fight them, but they appeared to suddenly be fiercely angry towards me. Looking at Devos, I could tell there was an undercurrent of anger coming from him, but also a mix of interest and curiosity.

He quickly continued speaking, “Raruk, Verus, think. He hasn’t attacked us, I think somethings different..” My gaze whipped back to the two brothers, only in time to see Verus’ eyes narrow as he stared at me hard.

I couldn’t stay quiet any longer, “What the hell is happening?!”

A moment later, Verus tilted his head, his expression morphing from anger to confusion. “I.. you’re right.. He’s not attacking and.. What..?” I was searching desperately for someone to explain what was happening. Alissina seemed to be the calmest there, but even she was examining me carefully.

Devos held a hand out to me in a gesture of peace, “Alex, please sit, we’ll explain, I promise. Okay?” I could feel my heartbeat slowing slightly, my eyes flicking to Raruk as he kept glaring at me. IT was obvious now, he wasn’t angry at me, he seemed to suddenly hate me.

Very, very carefully and slowly, I moved back to where I had sat, my eyes moving alternatively between Devos and Raruk, or more accurately, Raruk’s sword. When I finally was back where I was, Devos let out a long sigh.

“You’re… Not from here, and you’re supposed to be some kind of.. Hero?” He asked carefully.

“Yeah, I guess so. It wasn’t very clear to be honest…”

He sighed again before narrowing his eyes at me, this time in curiosity. “Heroes always hunt us,” he said, gesturing between himself and the brothers, “Dark Dwarves and Lizardfolk are killed almost on sight…”

I could feel my eyes widen and my mouth open. “Oh holy shit! What?! Why?!”

Verus and Devos both seemed more confused and curious than anything, but Raruk’s intense emotion hadn’t shifted in the slightest. With a sudden yank he pulled his arm free from his brother's hand. Just before I went to summon my sword to defend myself, he stood and stepped away from the circle. He snarled at all of us, “I won’t have any part in this, Heroes can’t be trusted, ever!” With that parting line, he marched a ways off into the mists.

With even wider eyes, I watched Verus scramble to his feet, grabbing his staff. “I’ll go make sure he doesn’t get himself killed,” He hesitated and looked back to me, then Devos. “Will you tell me everything later?” He seemed to speak to either of us

Devos nodded and a moment later, I joined him. “Good,” he said simply before hurrying after his brother.

Alissina let out a long sigh, muffled for a moment against her mask before she pulled it down. “I really should have seen that coming..” Glancing at her, I just shook my head, making it clear I had no idea what was happening.

“They.. just, bad history to do with heroes.. That’s all I’ll say.” She said in explanation. While I couldn’t know the specifics, just from what Devos said I guessed that someone they knew had be killed by a Hero, or even multiple people had.

I looked back and forth between her and Devos, “I didn’t know any of this… I don’t even know where I am..” Devos hesitantly patted my shoulder.

“Ah.. Well…” He looked me up and down, “You certainly seem different, that’s for sure…”

I held up hands up helplessly, “I can definitely say right now I am NOT going to attack… Dark Dwarves? Or Lizardfolk on sight,” Devos nodded slowly. “I just want to know what’s happening and where I am…”

Alissina responded before Devos, “We’re currently in the Mist Fields, but more generally we’re in Herion Dynasty.” She paused to see if that meant anything to me, and continued when it was clear it didn’t. “The Dynasty is trapped on this side of the Sky-Reach Mountains, and well.. The majority of peoples here are various types of other races. Dark Dwarves, Lizardfolk, Niacien, Centaurs, and some Drow. There’s some Humans like us but mostly not.”

I nodded slowly, just trying to take that in. She continued regardless, “The other side of the only major pass through the mountains is the Hierarchy of Desmon, an almost entirely Human nation..”

“Oh…” I said quietly, suddenly understanding.

Devos grunted in agreement, “Oh, he says…” He snorted in dark amusement.

It was my turn to sigh then, “I guess racism really is everywhere, huh..” Alissina nodded in agreement, but Devos quickly asked a question.

“So there was something similar where you come from?”

I frowned for a long moment, “Yeah.. Unfortunately.. Where I come from, there’s only humans, and there’s never been anything else, as in, we’ve looked and there’s never been any other intelligent species on Earth.” I wasn’t looking so I couldn’t see their suddenly shocked expressions. “Unfortunately, we just found differences in ourselves to hate instead. So yeah, racism seems to be everywhere…”

I finally looked up and paused as I took in their expressions. “I.. ah.. What was it this time?” I looked between them as they looked at each other and back to me.

Devos spoke tentatively, “I.. Only humans? Nothing else..?” I mouthed a silent, ‘Oh’.

I shrugged and nodded, “Well yeah, there’s no evidence that any intelligent species but humans ever existed, as far as we know on Earth, just us.”

Alissina broke in, “But then how haven’t you freaked out more over seeing Devos and the other two? I’d imagine it’d be quite a shock suddenly seeing the three of them?”

I nodded, “Oh, it was. But not as bad as you, or I, now that I look back on it, think. We had lots and lots of stories back where I’m from that talked about dwarves, elves, centaurs, all sorts of things. Lots and lots of stories and books and all sorts of stuff...” I felt my own voice slow down as I thought. “Huh. Does that mean someone came here and went back? Cause…” I glanced at Devos. “Cause otherwise I have no idea how all the stories match this so well..

He quirked an eyebrow, “Oh?"

“Dwarves are supposed to be smaller than humans, but equally as strong or even stronger, tough, and commonly associated with mining or underground societies. And there are plenty of mentions of different types of dwarf, which I’m assuming is also true, judging by you being a Dark Dwarf..?”

He grunted, looking into the mists for a while, while both Alissina and I were quiet. “Well fuck. As strange as this all is, and as interesting as it is, you really don’t seem like you’re gonna suddenly break out in a killing spree..”

I chuckled nervously, “I really am not gonna do that, that’d be really stupid to do.. And that’s without mentioning that you’re obviously decent people, just from what I’ve seen..”

He shook his head, “I never thought I’d see a friendly Hero..” With finality, he sighed. “More important right now, is the advantage you being a Hero gives us. Heroes always have Heroic classes that are powerful, so what are you?”

I shifted uncomfortably, “I uh.. I don’t think I have one..” He blinked for a moment, before taking in a breath before letting it back out.

“Look, you can’t have cut through the skeletons or beaten the Wight without one, not at your level. So, what is it?”

“I mean it, I don’t have a Heroic class.. I have a powerful one yeah, I guess, but that's more because.. Well.. That’s related to how I got here.. I have an Exotic Solar class.”

Alissina drew in air sharply. “Exotic? Fuck… That explains a lot..” I actually leaned forward at that.

“Actually, where I’m from, there are no classes or any of that, so I’ve been wanting desperately to ask about them…”

Alissina and Devos seemed to freeze in place. A bare moment later, Devos turned his head to look at me, “What.. What do you mean? No classes?”

I shrugged, “The whole system, classes, skills, all that.. Didn’t exist. Closest thing to it was in some games we had.. Which again, makes me think someone came here and went back…” I muttered the last half almost to myself, but I was sure Alissina heard from the way her head twitched.

“But.. How did things work?” Hearing his question, I waved my hand as if waving it away.

“Look, I know that it’s probably very strange for you to hear, but it doesn’t have any effect here right now. But there is a potential skeleton army. So, if one of you could help explain classes and what makes one powerful over others..?”

Devos shook his head before nodding slowly. “Yes, yes you’re right.. But I’m going to want to talk about this later..” I nodded impatiently, wanting to know more now that I had someone who could help explain the system to me.

He thought for a minute before speaking, “Alright.. To begin, you obviously know the rarity system. We know of seven. Basic, Common, Uncommon, Rare, Exotic, Mythical, and Unique.” He paused for a moment as I went through it in my head.

“Basic gives one attribute point every three levels, Common gives one every two, Uncommon is one for one, Rare is two for one, so on and so forth. That’s the first difference between classes.”

I nodded slowly, starting to realize how powerful my Exotic class really was.

“With an Exotic class, you’ll have a lot higher base attributes than most people, which also helps explain how easily you shook off my Hold skill earlier. But in any case, the biggest difference in power is in skills. The more rare your class, the more powerful the abilities tend to be, and the more varied they are.” He shrugged, “I have an Uncommon one myself, but I’m hopeful that my evolution at a hundred will give me a Rare option.”

Suddenly he cursed before speaking again. “You lucky bastard, you have an Exotic before your evolution.. You’re almost guaranteed another exotic, or depending on what you do, maybe even a Mythical… What the hells kind of luck is that!”

For a moment, I wanted to agree with him. But then I remembered what I had to go through to get here. The freezing and burning simultaneously, the horrific pain. Swallowing thickly, I spoke with a distant voice, “No luck at all.. Coming to this world.. Was not a pleasant experience.. That’s all I’ll say, but I earned this class by simply not dying.”

Devos seemed like he wanted to argue, but he saw something in my expression. For a split second, he pulled back from whatever it was he saw. A quiet few seconds followed my quiet statement before he nodded slowly.

“Sorry then..” I quickly shook my head to clear the thoughts, the memories.

“It’s alright, you didn’t know.” I drew a long breath, “Is there anything else you can tell me about classes? Like, what's that evolution you talked about and what about this second class that’s locked?”

Alissina took over for this one, “At level one hundred, your class goes through an evolution. It will change name and grow more powerful, and sometimes,” She nodded at Devos, “Sometimes the rarity changes with it. You usually have several options for what it changes into. At the same time, your second class will unlock and you’ll get to choose it. The options for that depend on what things you’ve done and it is definitely affected by your primary class.”

I nodded to myself slowly.. “Okay.. so get to level one hundred fast then?” She stared at me for a moment before her lips curled up into a small smile.

“You have no idea how much I hate you for saying that.” When I blinked in surprise she snorted. “Most people like us, have Uncommon or below classes, we need to work together to level which means we split all experience we gain. Your Exotic class apparently lets you do it all alone, which means you are getting all of the experience, plus you’re probably fighting things above your level so you’re even getting bonus experience!”

I shrugged, feeling slightly guilty about making it sound easy after what she’d told me. She didn’t buy it, “How long have you been here? How long has it taken you to get to thirty-one..”

I thought for a moment, “Umm.. About, six or seven days?”

Devos started chuckling to himself. “Oh that’s.. wow... “ Alissina glared at both of us.

She finally relented before saying, “it’s taken me almost four months to get from ten to twenty-eight..”

My eyes widened. “Ah, yeah.. Sorry about that..” Then a thought occurred to me. “Wait… You were level ten four months ago?”

She nodded, clearly still thinking about how long it took her in comparison to me. “Yeah, humans grow from level zero to level ten as they grow from birth to eighteen.”

I blinked, absolutely sure I must have heard her wrong. “Wait… Wait wait, just wait. You’re only eighteen?!”

She glanced at Devos for a moment before looking back to me, confused. “Well, yes?”

“I’m twenty-seven!” I exclaimed! I looked between the two of them before slumping back. “Oh to hell with it.. Sure.. Why not… It’s not even halfway to the weirdest thing I’ve seen here..”

Devos grinned at that, not understanding but finding it funny anyways. It took me a few long minutes to recover from that revelation. After I sat back up fully, I took a glance at my status before asking the last big question I had. “So, what does it mean that I have a Solar Affinity?”

Devos’ eyes widened at that, staring at me yet again. “You have a Solar Affinity? What quality?” I hesitated before responding, “What quality?!”

“Uh, Perfect?”

Alissina groaned and looked away from me, muttering something that sounded an awful lot like, ‘of course’ under her breath.

Devos snorted, no longer surprised and just finding it humorous. “Affinities are incredibly difficult to get, and equally as powerful. If you have an affinity for your class, it’s like getting a free power boost that others don’t normally have. Not to mention they come in five qualities, Poor, Adequate, Good, Excellent, and Perfect.”

He laughed at me, “So for you to have a Perfect one for an Exotic class…” He just cackled to himself. A minute later he spoke again, “No wonder you’re so stupidly powerful for your level! Hah!”

I had to agree, I did seem to have quite a bit coming together to make me rather more powerful than my flat level would indicate.. After Devos calmed down he shook his head in amusement.

“If you get to high levels, you’re gonna be a monster..” I tried to smile at that, but even I could tell it was forced. Not to mention Alissina only slightly smiled after my attempt, so it didn’t go as well as I might have hoped.

I waited a bit before asking what was starting to be on my mind more and more, “Devos.. What is going to happen with the Skeletal Lord?"

He considered for a long moment, “Well.. If there is one, then our job is to report it, not fight it. A Skeletal Lord typically ranges between levels one hundred and one hundred and fifty. This little group here, cannot fight that. Hell, a group at my level might be able to, but absolutely shouldn’t!” I nodded as he confirmed what I had guessed. “Our only job is to report it, and then let some group over a hundred fight it.”

He shrugged, “After that, most groups will probably get in on the slaughter of the thing’s army. After the Lord’s influence is gone, the skeletons become regular ones again, instead of the soldier variant Lord’s make them into. Once they’re disorganized again.. Then you’ll all probably want in.”I glanced at Alissina, to see an interested expression cross her face momentarily.

Maybe, maybe…