Snapping my eyes open and looking around me, I am once again surrounded by that frightful crowd, waves upon waves of voices and sounds hitting my ears. Suddenly a familiar man appears overhead, and introduces himself as Claude.

'I wonder how many times I am going to have to hear his introduction?'

Some shouts sound out from the crowd, and quickly blood is flying through the air, but the truly horrifying thing to me, is that I realize I am not looking at these limbless squirming bodies on the ground in pure terror anymore, my feelings are now in the progress of being supplanted with only disgust. Shaking my head to get rid of my wandering thoughts, I refocus on Claude's introduction in where he is now berating us, and gifting us our encouragement along with the orbs of light flying towards us holding our boons. One of which once again flies into my hand granting me a familiar but slightly different magic staff, and a new window then appears before me.

Magic Staff of the Determined A magic staff blessed by the powers of fire, given to the one who is determined to overcome all of what he faces. Item Rank: F; Item Growth Limit: C Scales with Intelligence and Wisdom Can be used with all magic, but has 1.25x multiplier when used with fire magic, and a second 1.4x multiplier when used with offensive magic. Soul Capacity: 0/100

Then upon closing it, my personal profile then appears before me, but it is the same as always at the start, so I don't even bother rereading it before closing said profile. While thinking of my plan for reuniting with my team, and how to guarantee their survival, Claude then continues with his speech, before saying the menu's we "shouldn't" access, and disappears with a wave of his hand. Soon after Casimir points his gun at Leon and threatens him to say the "Forbidden Words", and shoots him in the foot after he refuses. I then immediately mutter in as quiet a voice as I can, "Skill Tree", and a window appears in front of me followed shortly after by a second one.

Skill Trees

Skill Points: 2

Congratulations Ryan Mitchel for accessing the skill tree before all others. You shall be rewarded with one random skill and one skill point.

-Admin

I then open my personal profile to see what my new skill is.

Name: Ryan Mitchel Race: Human Age: 23 Sex: Male Level: 0 Stat Points: 0 Gold: 0 Titles: N/A Stats: HP:90/90 HP Regeneration: 1.1% per 5 Minutes SP:120/120 SP Regeneration: 1.1% per 5 Minutes MP: 130/130 MP Regeneration: 1.5% per 5 Minutes Critical Hit Chance: 0% Physical Resistance: 0.11% Magical Resistance: 0.15% Affliction Resistance: 0.35% Vitality: 9 Stamina: 12 Constitution: 11 Intelligence: 13 Wisdom: 15 Luck: 0 Skills: Remote Spell Control Personal Abilities: The Curse of Cronus Afflictions: The Conquerors "Encouragement"

Muttering quietly, I say, "Identify", while looking at my newly acquired skill and its window then pops up.

Remote Spell Control Skill Rank: C Skill Level: 1 A vital skill for magicians when fighting against fast opponents.

Increases mana costs for spells by 20%, but grants remote control of spells with 20 feet of the caster. For example if a fire ball spell is used, the projectile can be remotely controlled by the caster to hit the opponent if said opponent dodges it, or hides behind an obstacle that would prevent the spell from hitting.

Soon after another two windows appear in front of meanwhile still examining what skill I just got.

Congratulations to Casimir Lenoir for creating the first party, La Grande Armée. Members of this party will receive a starting bonus of 10% increased EXP gain for the first 3 weeks of their climb, limited to the first 25 people who join, including the party leader.

-Admin

Congratulations to Leon Beltrán for accessing the Shop before anyone else. You shall receive a 20% discount on the first 10 items you purchase.

-Admin

Casimir then suddenly turns back to Leon after creating his party, and slams the butt of his gun into the side of his face, which causes Leon to clumsily stumble to the ground. Casimir then squats down in front of Leon who just barely sits himself up, and presses the muzzle of the gun onto the center of his forehead. Then coldly staring Leon in the eyes, he pulls the trigger, causing a mix of red and gray to splatter out and onto the ground. He then stands back up and says, "Next time don't take my stuff.", while looking down at Leon's body, followed by him spitting on it.

"So does anyone want join my party?", he then says still standing over Leon's corpse.

Looking around the crowd all I can see are frightened faces staring hesitantly at Casimir, but soon a few step out of the crowd to join him, and Casimir readily accepts them. A white light then surrounds the few individuals standing before Casimir, before disappearing shortly. Soon a few more come to join him as well, then a few more, and then a few more. After more and more are admitted into his group, stopping at around 100 or so, they walk towards the shining red gate and step through it, disappearing in a matter of moments.

Looking back to the crowd it is an endless sea of scrambling people with shining white lights lighting up said sea like the night sky. Within 5 minutes a never ending stream of people are seen heading into the large gate following Casimir's example.

'I should probably learn my skills right about now.', I think to myself before I mutter "Skill Tree" and then "Skill Trees".

Looking at the large graph that floats in front of me, my eyes naturally drift back to the most my most familiar skill, I say "Learn", and then a confirmation pops in front of me.

Would you like to learn the Fire Creation Skill. Upon the learning of a skill information on how to execute and use the skill will be presented to you for a short period of time. The more you comprehend the higher level the skill starts at; the lowest level is level 1. Be warned all skill acquisitions are final, there is no undoing a purchase. Yes/No

I then say "Yes", and a congratulatory message takes it's place immediately after, but I ignore it and open my personal profile and say "Identify", while looking at the skill to see its level.

Fire Creation Skill Rank: F Skill Level: 4 A beginner fire magic skill that forms the base of all fire magic. Function is only limited by the user's imagination and mana capacity.

Can be used to make defensive or offensive spells with low efficiency. For every 2(2.4) mana used, 1.3 damage is inflicted in the case of offensive spells, and 1.3 damage is blocked in the case of defensive spells.

Then looking back at the skill tree I look at another skill and mutter "Learn", while staring at it. The prompt asking if I want to learn the skill flashes in front of me again, but I quickly respond "Yes", and the window disappears just as quickly as it came, and a new one takes it's place, but that one is ignored as well as I glance back at my personal profile and mutter, "Identify".

Multiple Fire Arrows Skill Rank: E Skill Level: 3 A fire magic skill that creates fire arrows based on the amount of mana used in the spell.

Creates fire arrows costing 20 mana each and dealing 17 damage. Maximum of three arrows are created for each chant.

'Now that I've gotten my skills, what do I do to meet back up with Sophie and the rest?', I think while staring at the ground with a hand on my chin.

'What did I do last time... I guess I just did what I am doing now, staring at the ground.'

Soon my head is full of what to do to prevent the party's decimation from occurring, but the answer immediately comes to mind; 'I have to kill the commander slime as quickly as I can.'

After my short train of thought about what to do to survive ends, my mind wanders around, and eventually I start replaying songs from my childhood in my head. After around 15 minutes, just when the climax of my favorite song is about to arrive, a soothing and familiar voice calls out to me.

"Hello there. Would you like to join my party?"

I raise my head upwards and stare into the face of the woman standing above me, and with a slight smile I say, "I would be happy to."