Small beads of blood drip pool in the shallow bite marks upon Ryan's lips. He is lost in thought, and anxiously continues biting them not just from the excitement of being able to get more skills, but also from a sense of worry that there is a being that can hear all of his thoughts. But he suddenly tastes that metallic taste of blood in his mouth, and snaps out of his daze. He then wipes his mouth with his sleeves, and looks down seeing a faint hint of red staining the originally spotless orange fabric.

'What does this "Admin" want from me?', he thinks to himself after coming back to his own senses.

Ryan then focuses his attention back towards the area ahead of him, half-expecting a message from the admin to appear again, but after a few moments there is still nothing.

'I guess I might've hurt their feelings.'

And again the space in front of Ryan's eyes still remains clear of a blue text box message from the admin.

'I guess I really did hurt their feelings. Alright then...'

'Skill Tree'

-Skill Trees- Mage Warrior Rogue

Ryan looks at the three skill trees available to choose from, looks down at the alien looking staff in his right hand, and then mutters to himself, "Mage skill tree it is."

'Mage.'

Suddenly a skill tree with 7 branches and tens of skills on each, floats in front of him, but a large portion of the skills have their names greyed out, and even more have their names blurred out.

'Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Light, Dark, and Spell Buffs. Well, my staff gives bonuses to fire magic so let's get a fire spell first.'

He then stops for a moment and thinks to himself, 'Now how exactly do I get one?', but he quickly remembers the Commands List, and he quickly opens it up. Ryan soon finds the command word he is looking for, 'Learn', and he quickly tries to put it to use. He immediately inwardly mutters 'Learn', while looking at the skill 'Fire Spear Rain', the highest fire skill he can see, but a window appears in front of him as if to deny his wishful thinking.

You are unable to learn the skill, "Fire Spear Rain", as the prerequisite skills, "Fire Armor" and "Multiple Fire Spears" have not been acquired yet.

'I guess I can't learn any skills with a greyed out name.'

Ryan sighs and then glances back at the fire magic skill tree, and he notices that the only fire spell without it's name blurred out or greyed out is the skill Fire Creation.

He then inwardly mutters, 'Learn', while staring at the skill and a new window appears in front of him, although this time he isn't prevented from learning the skill.

Would you like to learn the skill, "Fire Creation". Upon acquiring the skill, there will be an influx of information into your mind detailing how to use the skill. During this influx of information, you will be able to observe and comprehend the perfect way of executing the skill. The more you comprehend the higher the level the skill will start at; the default level of all skills is level 1. Be warned that all skill acquisitions are final, and there is no undoing one. Yes/No

'Yes.'

Suddenly a large and continuous stream of detailed information streams into Ryan's head, and he falls over clutching his head in intense pain. His eyes squeezed shut with all his might, his teeth clenched almost to the point of cracking, his muscles tensed nearly to the point of snapping, and veins protrude all across his body. His fingers start spasming as he clutches his head and his slightly lengthy nails dig into his scalp, drawing blood. After around 30 seconds, his body deflates in relief as the intense mental pain finally passes, and as he opens his tired eyes, he is greeted to another window.

Congratulations on acquiring the skill, "Fire Creation". The starting level of this skill is level 3.

'I don't think I'm gonna do that again.', he says breathlessly.

Ryan slowly stands back up, still a little wobbly on his feet, and gazes at the window in front of him. He then opens his profile, a slight anticipation visible in his eyes, inwardly mutters "Identify", and within an instant his new skill's information is presented before him.

Fire Creation Skill Rank: F Grants the user the ability to create and mold fire, limited only by the user's imagination. When used to attack, inflicts 1.2 points of damage to the opponents HP for every 2 MP spent. When used to create defensive spells, it will block 1.2 points of damage for every 2 MP spent. A beginner fire magic spell that knows no boundaries in utilization, although it is weaker than the more specialized spells.

Skill Level: 3

'At least that wasn't for nothing.'

Ryan then starts walking down the red dyed road towards that looming gate in the distance. As he travels forward, he weaves in and out of the sparse remnants of people still remaining in this "purgatory" before the tower. After around a half hour, Ryan stands slightly nervous, before the red tinted gate. He then tries to take a step into its slowly swirling murky embrace, but suddenly someone calls out from behind him, asking him to stop for a moment.

HIs foot, still midair, slowly returns to its place on the ground, and Ryan calls back towards the man as he turns around, saying, "What?", a slight annoyance in his voice.

The man who called out to Ryan, a wizened looking eastern man in a green uniform wielding an ancient looking bow, can be seen walking steadily towards him. Upon the man's face are scattered wrinkles evidencing his experience, and upon his head is a top knot with splotches of grey hair spreading outwards from his temples, and a small moustache. Walking a bit behind the man, as if hiding in his shadow, is a youthful looking teenager in a purple uniform with a haircut similar to a bowl cut, except that it has grown long enough to just about cover his eyes. The younger man has similar features to the man in green, but unlike the sense of confidence that exudes from his elder, the younger man's face wears an expression of anxiousness mixed with worry.

He soon stops a few feet away from Ryan, and with a slight pause, he says, "... I thought you might need a team to travel with."

"What is your name?", Ryan asks.

"Lee Seok-jin.", he states.

He then continues on, saying, "And this is my nephew Lee Jae-seong.", while gesturing to the younger man hiding behind him.

"Well Mr. Lee, your help is not necessary, and I would ask that you find someone else to join your little group.", and with that, Ryan turns back towards the gate and steps into it.

Soon tiny motes of light swarm onto Ryan and start streaming him away into the tower, but as this process carries on, he can hear the voice of the older man just outside of the gate's embrace.

"Jae-seong, remember never to reject help if you are unsure of what lies ahead.", the man in purple says lovingly while ruffling the younger man's hair, revealing a black and white swirling symbol on the boy's forehead.

As Ryan continues to be phased into the tower, his mind turns blank and all thought processes stop, with the last thought going through his mind being the loathing towards the uncle and nephew pair.

***

In a wide clearing, surrounded by a plethora of trees, similar to chestnut trees, and a thick forest brush. Within this brush, the squeaking of squirrels can be heard alongside the distant snorts of wild pigs, and the rustling of leaves as a light breeze passes by. On the eastern side of the clearing runs a shallow and clear stream with the infrequent sight of fish darting around within its waters. Alongside this stream runs a pebble-lined bank, housing numerous snails, frogs, and the occasional dragonfly, milling about in peace.

Suddenly a flash of a bright white light illuminates the surrounding area, dying the nearby greenery a similar white color, while simultaneously scaring away the nearby life inhabiting it. After a few moments the light fades away, restoring the newly disturbed area to its previous form, save for the new addition of the body of a man in an orange prison uniform. The man, apparently asleep, lies in an unconscious state for an unknown period of time before he begins to slowly stir. A few of the more courageous animals peek their tiny heads out, curious of the new edition to their home.

After a few more minutes the man's eyes shoot open, and he soon looks around in a frenzy, taking in his current predicament. He heaves a sigh of relief after seeing that he is fine, and his mind goes back to the scene he saw shortly before he entered the tower. A rush of anger surges through Ryan's mind as he delves into fantastical musings about how to get back at the Lee pair for taking him as a fool. After a few moments of daydreaming, Ryan tries taking a deep breath to calm himself down, and as if by magic, his anger is washed clean from his mind.

He takes in another deep breath, and soon begins relishing in the air's pure, almost magical, scent. Now free of his mental distractions, Ryan stands himself up and begins to examine his surroundings in more depth. He starts wandering over to the tree line, and the still curious animals from before quickly hide away from his approach. Upon reaching the tree line, Ryan determines that the trek through the clustered trees and the dense underbrush would be a tough one, and as he contemplates what the best way to go about getting anywhere in this forest is, he suddenly realizes how dry his throat is. He lets out a few short coughs upon this realization, and he starts making his way over to the river on his left.

After a few short moments, Ryan is already on his knees in front of the river, and scooping its crystal clear waters into his cupped hands. As he raises the water to his face, he examines it with an expression of amazement on his face stemming from how pure it looks. Contrary to the water he is familiar with, it is almost as if it is air resting in his hands, and free from all of the pollution that inhabits all of nature on earth, save for the most isolated of places.

He then raises his hands higher once more, and sips the untainted waters. A feeling of unadulterated satisfaction sweeps along his entire being, and he relishes in the unfamiliar taste that fills his mouth. He quickly repeats this process of cupping the water in his hands and sipping it for a short while, eventually determining that it is too slow, and he then dunks his head directly into the stream, virtually inhaling the water within at a breakneck pace. After a while, Ryan finally regains control over his seemingly insatiable thirst, only after a nauseated feeling spreads across his body. With a constantly reddening face, he lets out a cursory cough to relieve himself of the embarrassment he showed to whatever wildlife was still observing him, hidden from sight, and then he composes himself and stands back up to his feet.

Ryan then starts looking around for at least some vague sense of what to do and where to go, and off in the distance, at what shows signs of being the origin of the stream, lies a blurry shadow of what appears to be a small castle.

'Well I guess I know where I'm going.'

And with that thought, Ryan sets out on his journey to the building in the distance.

***

After around an hour of trekking alongside the river, out of the corner of his eye, Ryan spots a strange looking green orb, standing at about 18 inches high, that is slowly meandering about on the edge of the tree line. He turns his head towards this orb, and after a few moments of observing the orb, he begins walking towards it. Suddenly, when Ryan is about 10 yards away from the orb, a rippling motion occurs across the orb's surface and it starts suddenly rolling towards him. Ryan, surprised by this sudden movement, quickly stumbles back, almost falling to the ground.

'Shit, what is that thing?'

He pulls his staff from one of his belt loops, and starts chanting the words implanted in his head from the spell acquisition.

"Spirits of fire, heed my call. Rise from my mana, and dwell within me. Allow my control over you, and grant me your immense powers. Fire Creation!"

During this chant, tiny motes of various shades of red light dance through the air and stream into the arms of Ryan. They float beneath his skin, and soon the collage of red lights swarm down his arms into the staff wielded in his hands. After the swarm reaches the staff, a red shimmer then travels across its body, and the various lights gather in the large jewel adorned upon its tip. Shortly thereafter, a pillar of billowing flame spurts out from the staff's bejeweled tip, and the hissing sound of steam quickly echoes throughout the surrounding area.

Ryan then stops shooting out the flame after a couple seconds, thinking, 'Whatever that was, isn't there anymore.", but as if to spite his confidence in his assumption, the orb, now a bubbling mass of green goop, teeters towards him, undaunted in its task of reaching him, despite its current wreck of a body.

Now, more panicked than before, Ryan quickly begins and completes the chant for his only spell, and blasts fire at the slime once again, stopping once the only sound that can be heard is the sound of the crinkling of burning grass.

He lets out a deep breath, and wipes away the small sweat buildup on his brow from the heat of the flames, and after a minute or so, the smoke and steam billowing out from the target of the flames, finally subsides, and what is revealed there, is a miniature green orb, slowly wriggling what remains of its body. Seeing this orb still surviving, Ryan once again frightfully blasts flame at it, but after another minute or so, the miniature orb reveals itself once again. Ryan's brow furrows from the mix of emotions he is experiencing and he thinks to himself, 'What is going on here?'

"Hmmm..."

'Oh I should try out that identify command to see if that will help me at all.'

'Identify.'

Slime Core Item Rank: D When consumed, the one who has consumed it has a random chance of experiencing one of three effects: the restoration of 5 HP, the restoration of 1 HP, or experiencing damage equivalent to losing 1 HP. The core of a slime that has been condensed through the imbuing of magic. Has a small chance of dropping, and can only be obtained when a slime is killed through magical means.

'So that was a slime? Huh.', Ryan thinks as he rolls the lukewarm and still wriggling green orb in between his fingers.

'Well I have no doubts that it will be useful at some point in the future, so into the pocket it goes.'

Ryan then contentedly puts the slime core in his shirt pocket, and continues on his way along the side of the river bank.

***

A few hours later, and after a couple more slime fights along with picking up another core, Ryan finally determined that the slimes have around 20 HP and needed about 22 mana to beat. He still continues on down the river bank, humming familiar songs to himself quietly, when he is interrupted by the sound of his stomach rumbling, which coincidentally coincides with the slow dimming of the light from above. Seeing the dimming of the light, Ryan glances across the horizon to see if he can find the sun setting to see how much more daylight he has, but just like the other abnormalities he has faced so far, another one once again confronts him.

'There's no sun.'

He starts turning around in circles to see if he missed the sun in some direction, but still no looming ball of light is to be seen in the seemingly infinite distance ahead.

'Then what is supporting the life here? If there is no sun, how are these plants even surviving?', but as if to remind him of something more concerning, his stomach rumbles once again.

'Well I guess I should find something to eat first before it gets dark.'

Ryan turns towards the river in the hopes of finding one of the fish he had seen earlier when he had first arrived, but there is no luck for him there, so he turns towards the forest to forage.

***

Ryan now crouches in front of a small bush which holds three small purplish berries upon its one stem. He carefully plucks off the berries and mutters to himself, "Now what are you?"

'Identify.'

Mana Infused Dewberry Item Rank: C Upon consumption, all feelings of hunger will be relieved from the person who has consumed it; it also has a small chance of giving one stat point as well. A dewberry that has absorbed the power of the mana in the word around it and developed magical functions.

'Well let's try this out then.'

Ryan then grabs one of the berries from his hand, and places it straight into his mouth. After chewing a few times, Ryan's face quickly puckers up, and he whispers aloud, "That's a bit tart.", but the berry is soon swallowed.

A few moments later, Ryan cries out in surprise as feels his stomach, which has now bloated up a bit.

'It feels like I've cleared out a whole buffet. I guess it really does work, but unfortunately no stat point.'

Ryan then looks back towards the sky and sees the sky that has darkened once more, and decides that it is time to find some shelter. He soon dives back into the thick depths of the forest, but this time in search of a place to sleep.

***

About an hour later under the ever-darkening sky, Ryan looks to have given up on his search for a place to rest.

"No caves, no hollows, no nothing."

He lets out a sigh, as he glances past the thick canopy at the near pitch-black sky, when he suddenly has an epiphany.

"Why didn't I think of it before?", he says, jumping back to his feet.

"I can just climb the trees and sleep in them. I'm such an idiot."

He quickly starts trying to climb up a nearby tree from the lowest branch he can find, but he keeps slipping off. His face reddens a bit, and he starts muttering to himself in an attempt to get rid of some shame he felt from the inept actions he had just displayed.

"It's normal that I can't climb this tree, easily at least. After all, I haven't climbed a tree since I was a kid. Yep it's normal, totally normal."

After a couple more tries, Ryan finally gets the hang of climbing up the tree's maze of branches, and he soon reaches the top of the canopy which holds and interwoven net of branches. He tests his weight upon this net to see if it is sturdy enough for him to sleep for the night, and he finds that it does seems to be not too bad.

Ryan then lays himself down on the branches, but he appears to be having a struggle to fall asleep because of some bumpiness beneath him. After reorienting himself a few times, his eyelids finally start to slowly close, and as he fades into unconsciousness, he marvels at the last remnants of light passing through the softly swaying leaves just above him.

***

A crashing noise suddenly echoes throughout the forest, followed by a second one shortly after. Ryan, still splayed out on his "bed", is shaken awake, and his eyes quickly open, startled from what is happening, but the light from above shines directly into his eyes robbing him of his vision for a few seconds, but before he regains his sight, he is shaken by another impact, almost falling from his perch. After a few more moments, he is finally able to see again, and he quickly looks down to see what is causing the trembling, and what he sees brings a deep expression of fear upon his face. A close to four foot tall slime can be seen below constantly ramming into the tree Ryan is sleeping on, dissolving its trunk, and it seems to be almost halfway through.

"Well... Shit.", Ryan weakly mutters.