Red with embarrassment, Leon attempted to change the subject. “What class did you get?”

Leon’s mind was so mortified that it started rambling on and on, feeding himself explanations and such. Ultimately, there was only one line of thought that stood out to him. ‘Well, I thought it was cool…’

Recollecting herself, she looked to Leon with a serious face. That serious face being the mental image of if a red balloon about to burst had a face and scrunched its eyes to focus on you.

“I got warrior,” Julia said. She knew what a warrior was at least which had Leon relieved. They went over her class together as she told him what her class said. It seemed like a relatively normal warrior class that he was familiar with. Julia had acquired two skills. One was a type of empowered slash and the other was a stagger of sorts. The stagger was interesting since the end of the skill stated that it …works with shields, granting higher effectiveness. It was basically a sort of universal skill that she could use at any time with anything. At the same time, the skill just sounded like a fancy type of shoving.

Julia wanted to try it out but was abruptly met with a forehead full of pain as she walked into a barrier. “Don’t bother, I already tried.” Leon continued as he chuckled, watching Julia not trust his words and do it again. Jokes aside, he did find it intriguing how his barrier slowed him down as if he was attempting to walk through a soft clay wall while Julia’s just straight up hurt her like walking into a glass door.

Proceeding on, Leon told her how to summon her equipment. Appearing before Julia was three different items. ‘Three?’ Leon thought, feeling slightly jealous. Within the pile was a simple broadsword, a metal chest piece, and a shield. None of them looked particularly outstanding, mostly just simple sheets of metal that Leon could only assume was iron.

Julia said she got a total of eight stat points from the equipment, making Leon slowly start to dislike his class a bit more with every passing moment.

With that said, she started to put on her armor taking after Leon’s example. Struggling to put on the leather-strapped iron chest piece, Julia looked to Leon. “Is it just me or… do you feel like we’re handling this whole sudden situation surprisingly well?” Her head sticking halfway out of the cockeyed armor.

“Yeah… I don’t know how to explain it.” Leon admitted. The two were equally confused. In essence, they had been kidnapped alongside a thousand others, forced to walk onto a weird platform, sent to another weird place and now they had been given classes like a video game. Julia didn’t quite share the excited sentiment that Leon had but she was far from uncomfortable. They hadn’t said it aloud, but they were both fairly certain that whoever was in charge of this whole thing was powerful enough to make everyone there surprisingly calm. ‘Besides that idiot Avalon guy…’ Leon internally scoffed.

What the powerful entity was using to make them all calm… ‘probably magic’ Leon assumed. It’d make sense given all of the other unexplainable things. ‘I guess it does help since the voice seemed to be trying to guide us and explain things. It’d be pretty hard if we were screaming in terror the entire time…’

Leon didn’t pursue the conversation aloud with Julia as he feared the voice would hear, taking it as food for thought instead. ‘Wait, can it hear my thoughts?’ Visibly gulping at the thought. For now, changing the subject seemed like the best idea, and as if his thoughts were heard… Drake came out of his daze.

“Nice outfits,” Drake said, pulling both of their attention. He stood there with two big thumbs up rested to his sides. “Anyway, what classes did you both get? I’m an archer.” All three of them went over their classes with each other. The chosen classes themselves were intriguing. Leon understood why he got support, Drake’s archer class made sense since he was good with his hands as a chef, but Julia… he had no idea. ‘She wasn’t some sort of crazed knife-wielding maniac or sword-fighting champion before this, was she?’

“Hey Julia,” Leon spoke. She turned to him after she finished explaining how to summon his class items to Drake. “Have you ever practiced swordsmanship? Like fencing or Kendo?”

“No… why do you ask?” Clearly deep in thought as she suddenly clapped her hands together. “Oh! It’s about my class, right? Well, let me think… I did take some self-defense classes when I was younger.”

‘Self-defense classes, huh.’ It made sense as they were both melee types but it was a bit of a stretch in Leon’s mind. One practiced defending yourself, normally with no weapons while the other was literally swinging around a sword. Unless Julia took a class of self-defense in medieval combat, he was sure his questioning demeanor was justified. Of course… there was always the stabby stabby option. Looking at Julia he just saw her confused face awaiting his reply. ‘Yeah no. I’m just going to assume it was the closest class for her. Plus, I don’t think it makes for a pleasant atmosphere if I ask her if she was possibly a murderer or something.’

With no plan of attack to successfully continue this potentially awkward conversation he started, his savior came to assist as Drake popped in again. “So, how do I look?”

Drake stood there in a rather plain-looking brown cloak that covered his body. On his back rested a quiver and a bow upon his shoulder. All of which was outshined by the stupid smile stretched across his face as he took a proud pose.

The two complimented the man of such tall stature. Drake appeared to be enjoying the exaggerated pleasantries. It was hard for Leon to tell if Drake was aware of the overly comfortable feeling that Julia and Leon felt but Leon didn’t bother bringing it up. Julia had a similar line of thought as she just carried on. The three talked more about the classes as more people began to wake up. Julia even asked Drake to come over to her to fix his cloak… which quickly led to him being knocked in the forehead by an invisible glass door.

On to slightly less important things, Leon learned about the archer’s skills. Once again, there were only two skills. One was a sort of empowered attack which had the user stand in place and charge up a more powerful shot with the bow, pretty self-explanatory. The other was a stealth skill that quite literally, wait until you hear this, makes you a bit stealthier. Leon did feel a bit petty with his analysis of their skills, but his actions were justified. ‘I got the least stat points and least gear so I must have the best skills, right?’ This was obviously rhetorical as he knew deep down that he had somewhat been ripped off with his class and stats.

“Anyway, do you both know what’s going to hap-” Drake let out, being interrupted soon after by the voice’s exuded aura overtaking the valley once more. ‘The voice truly had impeccable timing.’ A sentiment shared with many people there.

Leon’s eyes wandered as the voice boomed, slightly more used to the overwhelming presence but still unable to move his body. “Congratulations to all of you for taking your first steps into the ever-expanding multiverse. You may be wondering why some have not woken up yet.” This being exactly what Leon saw, at least a hundred or so people stood lifelessly. The voice continued. “In search of one’s path, a person can be misguided… engulfed by another path or simply overwhelmed by their own.”

Momentary silence ensued after, clearly indicating that the voice had no more to say on the matter. Leon couldn’t say it with confidence, yet it was a struggle to think otherwise… these people were dead. A shiver went down his spine, creating genuine fear for the first time being there. Not for the voice but for what they had been dragged into.

“Your galaxy is only one of the millions within your universe. Your world, which I believe you’ve called ‘Earth’ will undergo evolution to be able to withstand the energy of its new position in the multiverse. At this time, you all will be enduring a guiding scenario. I implore you to take this time to grow stronger. This scenario was designed to assist you all in your transition.”

It all felt very overwhelming, most of its words going in one ear and out the other. The only thing the group of the now oddly dressed people understood truly was this: they were being sent somewhere dangerous.

“I will now bestow upon you two gifts from the orchestrator of this guiding scenario.”

Skills acquired: [Adept Tongue (Rare)] [Identify (Inferior)]

Soon after the arrival of the notification, Leon’s vision began to blur. Frantically looking around with his quickly draining energy, the valley filled with panic. The calming aura revealing its disappearance quite painfully. Looking to Drake and Julia, the two were struggling to stand. Words were lipped between the three, but nothing came out. Sweat dripped down Leon’s forehead as he forced himself to remain standing.

“I bid you all good fortune on your journeys, wherever they make take you.” The voice spoke, fading from earshot. At this moment, the world went black.