You Have Been Invited to the Watcher Room.

  Teleportation will start immediately. Taking into account your equipment.

  Accept/Decline.

  What is this?

  Rue blinked a tear. He still hasn't made sense of Cel’s death. It was all so quick. But he had instilled hope into the stag, something that was beyond his capability. Looking back, it all sounded empty. But, Rue truly meant it, if by any chance Cel was born to his world…

  He clenched a fist. He would never be able to know…

  “You can,” A voice echoed inside of him. “I can help you.”

  “What?” Rue looked around. Benedict and Yuuki were seated against an ice pillar he had created. Rita was able to stand with a natural balance, unlike the other two.

  “Rue, was it? Are you okay?” Yuuki asked.

  “No, I'm losing my mind.” He massaged his head.

  “Symptom?” Benedict asked.

  “A voice inside my head,” Rue grumbled. He slipped against the slippery ice, landing in a seat of ice. His butt hurt from the force, but the mere cold healed him almost immediately.

  I can get used to this.

  “Rita” Rue called to the HuGoblin. She perked up like she just realized the world is moving. “You’re fine, right?” Rue asked, still hesitant about her.

  “Yes,” Rita muttered. “Yes, Rue, I should be. Thank you. It just… What am I supposed to do now?”

  “Anything you wanted,” Benedict said.

  “Yes, that would be nice,” HuGoblin smiled. Her eyes were still reddened from her earlier tears.

  Accept.

  Teleportation Started.

  “What? Wait, hold on-” a Bright flash consumed Rue's vision. He briefly heard the cries of Rita as she tried to reach him. Rue felt like he hung in the air; everything was blank white. And he snapped into being. Into a completely white, stark room.

  He was seated on a white chair, in front of him was a boring white table, and on the opposite side was well… another white chair.

  “What is happening…” Rue mumbled. This… This felt like…

  Like the first time, he was transported into the camp, straight from his shift. There’s no way he forgot the sensation where everything turned white, and his body puffed into a small cloud.

  So, the system did this?

  Above the table is an array of weapons, neatly laid out, as if they were shown by a blacksmith to sell. His Golden Long Bone, neatly put between normal Long Bone – about six of them. Near the table edge is his black Dancer Sword. And by his feet, resting against the table, is his Frost Shield. And the sixth chest with blue. The Lion scroll rested atop the table near his Longbone handle. And lastly, Elderwood staff lay diagonally on the table.

  Rue stood, gripping his Golden Longbone. He hefted it up and slowly walked through the room. “Anyone here?” He called out.

  “Ah, please pardon me,” A voice sounded behind him. Rue spun to find a cloaked figure. Its body is covered in a dark carapace. His face is a white bone, green eyes shaped like a crescent moon turned upside down. Rue realized that his cloak was not a ‘cloak’ but a part of this creature's body. They flow shimmer like a flame around the creature.

  “What are you?” Rue stepped back, trying to identify the creature.

  (Entam. Lvl ???)

  His heart thumped with repeated beats that sent a chill down his neck. Rue’s sweat froze over as his body worked overclock to find a way out. There’s no door in the room. And why is it question-marked?

  “Greeting,” The creature said courteously to him. His bony, white skeletal arm left its cloak cover as he did. “My name is Ashram. To answer your question, we’re Entam, a race that has chosen to serve as the System's will. To oversimplify our history, let's say our fathers' race, the Srentam, has tried to rebel against the system and failed spectacularly. As punishment, we strip off our beauty to a mere skeleton, and some of us are forced to do what the system wills us to. Hence, here I’m serving as a watcher for the tutorial. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Rue.”

  “Oh,” Rue said, unsure what to say to that. The creature actually answered his question quite sophistically. “The pleasure is mine,” Rue let down his Golden Long Bone.

  “Now, there are reasons why I call you here.” Ashram pulled a chair and sat. He pointed to the other chair. “You will want to sit for this.”

  “Right…” Rue went back to his chair, still not sure what to make of this.

  “The Third Phase. Have you marinated over the information given to you, Rue?”

  “Not really,” Rue said honestly. Heck, he's still curious about all the other phases, too. Especially this Manda world, where they had to eventually cross.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  “Very well, let me explain it to you. Ah, please do excuse me for skipping the Second Phase. But the Third phase is where my race interest in you is. I see you also had plenty of skill options to choose from, and those chests, too. How about this? I shall lead you in all of your skill options. In exchange, I just wanted to ask for your attention.”

  “Yes, that would be… Good,” Rue said, unsure how the creature would even help him. “I also have a question about the tutorial, and my friend does too.”

  “Of course, I shall answer. But First things first. The Third Phase.” Ashram said, he made his priority clear as day, no… As this room. “In the Third Phase, the system shall open access to the multiverse for you. One could argue this is the most important phase of all. A chance to make allies, and trust me, you will need allies. No world can withstand the first invasion on its own.”

  “Invasion? Are you talking about this portal? And half of the humans are not here? On the tutorial”

  “Precisely, currently they’re battling a horde of monsters. These monsters came from their own pocket dimension, which manages to connect to your world. Usually, it took time for these monsters to be able to break through the portals. Perhaps a week or so. Some strong monster will be able to do it in three days.”

  “So currently…”

  “Yes, monsters no doubt are attacking your home planet. Their survival will no doubt be up to you and your fellow tutorial taker. And what your races as a whole decided to do during the Third Phase, especially. Now back to our main point, We Srentam are willing to help your home planet, closing the portals and training you humans up to be strong enough to have a proper foundation to fight off these invaders. And we are even willing to offer some of you our profession”

  Ashram continues. “Ah, a profession is a path you dedicate to a certain job. You will gain various skills and mastery as you go on your path. Each person could only have one profession, so it's important to choose wisely. Of course, there are normal ones such as a builder, a farmer, alchemist. But you, you will not be satisfied with the normal one, right?”

  Rue raised his eyebrow. Ashram's manner of speaking started to drop when they got closer to these professional topics. “Hold on, how do I get a profession?”

  “It will be a reward upon completing the second phase. I merely got you here early to make Srentam offer. We who are bound by the system have a certain advantage, and this is one of them.”

  Ashram stood, his cloak-like body fluttering. He reached inside his cloak and pulled out a tied herb with a yellow color, about a dozen of them tied. “Let me show you what a soul harvester is capable of.”

  Reva Grass (Uncommon) – Grown at the Venim valley, known to have the best fertile land in the multiverse. This herb is an alchemist's dream, a source of many potions one could hope for. The herb alone can be eaten and recover five hundred points of Health and Mana.

  He spread his skeletal arms over the herbs. And Rue could make out that a blue glow started to shimmer across the yellow of the herbs. In a shimmering sizzle, the herbs transform into a glowing blue crystal.

  Soul Crystal Grade E (Uncommon) – imbued with Reva Grass. Break the crystal to earn the effect of Reva grasses.

  “Look at that!” Ashram exclaimed–suddenly straddling Rue–he dropped his earlier salaryman act completely. “Amazing, isn’t it? What a thing of beauty!”

  That’s it? Rue struggled to keep his eyes from twitching and the annoyance from his face.

  “You’re not impressed,” He stated. “Hmm, I really need to impress you here.” The creature muttered. “Very well, let's make an exception. We will go somewhere, and I shall show you why you would regret skipping this over.”

  A familiar bright light enveloped him, along with Ashram. Before Rue could even protest, he suddenly fell on a beach. The coarse sand was brittle against his skin, and the salty taste of the sea already made him imagine the expansive blue sea he would see. He opened his eyes to an endless sea of jade. Not just that, above him is a sky with the color of blood, dappling over the green of the sea in a strange cacophony of deep greenish color.

  “Welcome, Rue, to Sancen sea.” Ashram stood before him, and behind him was a rock. A huge rock… that suddenly moved.

  (Eolite. Lvl ?)

  Another question mark. Rue gritted his teeth; it felt like he was thrown away by some godlike figure for playtime. He tried to stand before stepping over his Lion Cloak, and tripped. Ice tried to jump from the sand, but Rue had destroyed them first by falling straight face-first on them.

  “Ashram Behind you!” Rue shouted.

  Ashram merely turned and drew a bronze long sword – so long that he had to hold it in two hands. “This creature is Eolite, native to this place. They had quite an interesting class…” He burst forward, meeting the stone creature, which looked like an overgrown spider of stone. “Ah, and Bronze have great resonance for soul affinity, so us Srentam and Entram mainly use–”

  The Eolite crushed one of its eight legs to where Ashram was. The Entram jumped back, dodging the explosion of sand that followed. He lifted a hand, and on it, crystal materialized. It’s the same crystal from earlier.

  “I'm going to sacrifice this crystal for my sword.” Ashram broke the crystal by crushing it against his bronze sword. A bluish shimmer enveloped it, and Ashram entered a swinging stance with both legs apart and sure on the sand. He cleaved down, and a wave of blue energy followed soon, cutting the stone spider into two parts.

  Sand burst up as the stone body of the spider fell. Rue found himself appreciating the swordsmanship he had seen, although he did not see much of it – yet, it was still a thing of beauty.

  “The crystal, does it trap the soul?” Rue asked.

  “Yes! Precisely, everything has a soul. Plants generally have lesser soul, so they’re easy to convert to crystal for our needs. In my world, these crystals are our currency and way of life.”

  “And you can manipulate it,” Rue hummed. That indeed is powerful.

  “Lesser soul is not the only thing we can catch”, Ashram said. He stepped close to the fallen hulk of the Eolite body and touched it. In a similar pattern to earlier, a blue glow engulfed the whole creature’s dead body. Rue had to shield his eye with his red cloak. As the light lessened, it decompressed slowly into a glowing blue crystal on Ashram’s hand.

  “Hm, a class… I was hoping for a skill, so I let you off with a gift.” Ashram briefly inspected the crystal, and the creature nodded appreciatively. “Catch!”

  Rue almost dropped the crystal; he identified it.

  Stone Bulwark Class Crystal (Rare) – Taken from Eolite, who has existed for over a hundred years. Stone Bulwark is a class that utilizes stone to bring out its most effective use in combat. Break the crystal to gain the Stone Bulwark Class.

  His eye almost bulged at the implication. Just like that? You get a class? “You can get a class like this?”

  “Careful now, you don’t want to break it. If you use Crystal or scroll or even offered directly by the original power holder for classes, you still need to go through shedding first, which means to lose all of your level and class-related abilities. You don’t want that, Rue. But think of what you can do with this power. You can sell these crystals, of course, and oh, you will no doubt be able to offer them to an unpowered one back on your home planet! Although they still needed to go through a tutorial to get the system access.”

  Rue nodded slowly. But something still does bother him. “You will offer me this power, and even help my home planet. What do you get in exchange?”

  “We want you to fight with us,” Ashram said. “Of course, not only you, we’re not going to help your planet just for an individual. We planned to enlist strong ones in our war.”

  “Well, that's honest,” Rue grumbled. Of course, he is not going to get this power just for free. “What war?”

  “On that, will be revealed if you made it through to the Third Phase, along with your friend fate. We will even tour my home planet along with others who got the same offer as you. For now, we just wanted you to consider this above all else. And of course…” The creature smiled. “If you were disappointing during the Second Phase, then you can forget about this profession.”

  Rue let out a thin smile. Nothing is free in this new world, huh?

  “What is it?”

  “No, it just… This is very familiar. Anyway, could you help with my skill and class choices now? Also, my stuff is still in that white room, right?”