As I realized I was unconscious, I found that the black surrounding me wasn't as suffocating as the moments before I spoke to my mind. This time it was just as if I was sleeping, but fully coherent, which was weird all on its own. Is this what a lucid dream was like? I pushed that thought out of my head when I saw a flicker of blue in the "distance". Really it was there, tiny, but there. if this was the System that F.S. said he made, then it should show me stuff, right?

All of a sudden, a big blue panel showed up in front of me.

CONGRATULATIONS!

YOU HAVE LEVELLED UP!

LEVEL 1 ACHIEVED FOR: [Shielder]

YOU HAVE RECEIVED SKILL(S):

[Judge]

I took a long time to stare at that notification, almost unable to believe my eyes. That was level 0 that entire time? What kind of levelling system is this? I wasn't good with many games, less-so games that had... this kind of system. I'd played some Call of Jobs before and some Elder Moles, but I stopped after a bit. Those was Owen and Joshua's kind of thing, and I stayed away from those for the most part. But my point is I didn't understand how it worked. I killed nine people and I was... only... I didn't even realize until just now, but I just killed people. So many people! I felt sick. Right and truly sick to my core where I was sure I was about to puke. I had to spend a long time thinking of good thoughts, returning to my memories of hanging out with Owen, or going through college with my friends.

I missed everyone...

I stayed on that thought for a bit, reminiscing in the quiet for a long while until I realized there was more to go through. Three blue screens popped up inside my vision below that first notification.

Name Kiera Macguire Title: None Age 27 Traits: - Sex Female - Class Shielder Level: 1 Primary [Shield Vapour] Milestone: Bloody and Unbroken Off-hand [Shield Vapour] Quest: None

PLEASE SELECT A BEGINNING TRAIT FROM

THE OFFERED LIST:

Traits based on your class are shown first!

Lady of Iron Your body is metal, your soul a molten core, your being is that which defends and strikes as one. Protectorate You live to protect. Your body is unbending. Your spirit unbreakable. Your nature leads you to put others before yourself. Shield Dancer Your ability to dance across the battlefield is second to none, and your shields move with the ebb and flow. Shieldmaiden Your mind, your physique, your very being is dedicated to the way of the shield. Your entire existence revolves around using your shields in ways others wouldn't think of. Charismatic Your voice carries more weight than most. Cute Your are far cuter than you were before! Te-he! This can attract all-l-l sorts of baddies! Energetic Yourbodyisabundleofenergyanditssuperhardtostaystill Observant Your eyes are keener than most. Sexy Your body is more sensual, and likely to attract the wrong kind of attention. Youthful You are the picture of youth! TIP: Having a hard time choosing a trait? Let the System Choose! SKILL LIST Shield Strike

[E] When you stab, slice, or otherwise strike a target with the point your shield, there is an increased force behind each hit. Shield Bash

[E] You launch the front face of your shield into your target. Smashing rocks, jaws, or metal will be so much easier. Fight Defensively

[F] Whilst in combat, you can choose to fight defensively, attacking less and focusing on parrying, deflecting, and attempting to sustain as little damage as possible. Guardians Eyes

[F] As a Shielder, your eyes are trained to find out who needs protecting, this can be edited to your specifications! (Percentages, Colours, etc.) Judge

[F]

To judge those who have commit crimes. To sentence the killers and thieves, the abusers and the corrupt, all to their doom. This is your duty.

Judge one enemy guilty of any crime they have commit and deal increased damage.

Cooldown: 1 Day

Duration: 30 Minutes

Aggravate

[F]

This Skill was created You yell, hit your shield, or do something to grab your enemy's attention, directing most, if not all, attention towards you. Shield Dance

[F]

This Skill was created Your entire body works in tandem to move along with your mind as you move. Shields defending and striking together in a gorgeous dance. Shield Charge

[F]

This Skill was created You charge forward like a mother protecting its child, shields pointed forward like a battering ram as you collide into your target. When charging, your shields rebound any physical damage in the direction of your designated enemy. Not Over Until Its Over

[F]

This Skill was created When you're in combat and you reach out to save the innocents, you: Enter a trance; No longer run out of stamina; Have a dulled sense of pain; And fight until you fall, or until your enemies are dead.

Just save one more!

Cooldown: 1 Sleep

Duration: Until combat ends

Drawbacks: Exhaustion Combat Sense

[F]

This Skill was created You're somewhat used to the battlefield and can tell what some people will do during combat.

Cooldown: 5 Seconds.

Max Targets: 2 People TIP:

As a Unique Class, you forge your abilities from the ground up! The more abilites you craft, the more powerful you can be. So, get to practicing!

I... had a lot to take in. First off, I had a main sheet, with my age, name and stuff - and what did it mean by milestone? All of that was cool, sure, whatever, but hey, I levelled up! Then there was the trait menu; it was a bunch of stuff with descriptions that didn't give me exacts... fun. Finally, and probably of most interest to me, was my skill list. According to my Skill List, there were four skills inherent to the Shielder class and a few "created skills". Shield Strike and Bash, Fight Defensively, and... Guardian Eyes(?) were my main abilities. Reading that skill description for Guardian Eyes I quickly understood that it was what gave me the colour red when I looked at the town. I guess red meant extreme danger? I'd have to try to get used to that until I went to sleep again. Then I'd try to play around with the settings on that.

Shield Strike and Shield Bash are my highest level skills I think, if we're going with the alphabet system, which made sense. I used those two the most; especially when I kept punching that big guy's face. He had to have had a jaw made of metal or something, because it just refused to break. What seemed to be the main ability of my class, Fight Defensively, seemed to be ranked pretty low on the scale of strength. I didn't... really fight with myself in mind, I guess. I kind of just blocked everything else out and tried to get to as many people as I could. Thinking back on it that... was terrifying. Shield Dance said it was a "created" skill. I had no idea what that meant, but I was sure I'd figure it out eventually. If it meant what I think it did, I guess... I could just make abilities? I guess people could try to practice abilities they wanted to use then? Could a swordsman do some weird multi-slash anime stuff if he practiced enough? I didn't know. I was a Shielder, not a Swordsman. Shield Charge was what it said on the tin. Although the description was a bit odd, I could understand it. Mothers with that crazy strength to save their kids and the like.

Not Over Until Its Over was a weird skill, and it gave me the explanation I wanted. That was the reason I just kept on fighting. Just kept on killing. I wanted to cry so badly, I balled up my fists in the darkness, and all I could do was cover my eyes and sob quietly. They were bad men. I'd tell myself. Just think of it like they weren't people.

CONGRATULATIONS!

YOU HAVE EARNED A SKILL WHILE UNCONSCIOUS!

SKILL: DESENSITIZE

You have learned to blot out the pain of killing the guilty. As Judge, Jury, and Executioner, there is no room for emotion. Those who harm the innocent are not people, but rabid dogs that need to be put down.

My heart hurt so bad. I didn't want that! I didn't want to... damnit... I could feel the cold stabbing in my heart lessen somewhat.

I want to go home...

Spending long moments in silence, I soon got over myself. For one, those bandits were going to kill a child. Two were about to rape a woman, one attempted to give a woman a very painful abortion, and then there were those who just killed to kill. Combat Sense probably was what allowed me to dip and dodge between the both Lackey 1 and 2. I... think that would be nice.

I took a quick moment to glance over my main sheet, and noticed that my "Trait", "Quest" and "Title" sections were empty. So since I was given the option, I looked through the options for Traits. I wasn't sure what i wanted. I was pretty positive I wanted a trait that complemented my class, and Sexy and Cute were out of the question. I thought about Energetic for a moment before ruling that out. If I couldn't stand still, I couldn't do what my class screamed at me to do, which was stand in place, like a wall. Well, I didn't do a good job of that now did I?

Observant had its uses, I thought, but ended up sliding it into the back of my mind. No thanks. The debacle with my eyes gave me enough to observe for now. I'd stick to taking the damage for now. Damage tanks be doing damage tank things. Youthful, huh? Nah. For all I know it would make me revert back to a five year old; and I didn't even know how Charismatic worked, so that left Lady of Iron, Protectorate, Shield Dancer, and Shieldmaiden.

Lady of Iron reminded me of the "Iron Maiden" death sentence - torture method - whichever it was. But you can not convince me that was for torture and not death. Anyway, it sounded like a balance between offence and defence, which made sense for the class. I also had a sneaking suspicion I would become actual metal. Protectorate seemed to be based more on defending groups if I had to guess? It probably focused more on the whole shield aspect rather than the shield-attack.

Shield Dancer was definitely something to look at. It was obviously coming from the created "Shield Dance" skill... when did I make that... was that when I was dancing in the forest?! Remembering that just made me embarrassed. But it seemed based on the flowing movements of a dance, or water, as it so obviously stated, thanks brain. And finally was the Shieldmaiden. It definitely wanted to emphasize the whole shield thing, with making my own abilities and the like, which was pretty neat, actually. Going off of what that was offering, I assumed it would make my abilities stronger?

I knocked out Lady of Iron and Protectorate, for now. My sheet offered two slots for traits, so I wasn't too worried about them for now, and so my only options were between Shield Dancer and Shieldmaiden. After what felt like a solid year of choosing, I ended up going for Shieldmaiden. Shield Dancer sounded far too monk-esque and just - I don't know it didn't fit with me. I knew I was a bad dancer, and like hell I could swing two massive slabs of metal around while dancing well.

CONGRATULATIONS!

YOU HAVE RECEIVED A:

TRAIT: SHIELDMAIDEN

TIP: Traits give you passive bonuses and defects, choose carefully! Some can alter your personality and body!

Neat. It gave me a pop-up, with fireworks and cake... HAH! I wish! On another note, I had guessed right. These could change who - or what - I was if I wasn't careful. There was another window going over the parts of the language I figured out before I passed out, which was nice, I guess. I now knew... what.... three things? The worlds name, how to say I like you, and how to say "join me" like a villain. Cool. But I didn't care, and would go over them later. Maybe when I next slept.

Out of nowhere, though, with some sort of magic finality, a pulsing window appeared in front of me.

ARE YOU READY TO WAKE UP?

[YES]

[NO]

Absolutely not. But I will no matter what, I guess.

Once more, I was plunged into darkness before, for the second time in my life, I woke up coughing and wheezing and hoping to whatever god existed that I was still alive. Pain? Yessir. Breathing? Yup - check! Alive? Mayhaps! Good, I was good. For now at least. Unlike the last time I woke up after being knocked out like this though, this time I wasn't feeling totally comfortable upon waking up, nor was I in a hospital. Looking around, resting on one of my arms and by extension one of my shields, I saw the wooden walls, floor and ceiling and couldn't help but moan and flop onto my back at the sudden muscle pain.

"Fuuuuuck!" I heard the clatter of what I assumed was furniture moving after I made myself known and tilted my head to its direction. Grunting, I let my head fall onto the pillow. I think that's good. Green is good, right? With no response to my question, I closed my eyes and smiled. I hate this planet.

As I was lost in my thoughts, I felt a disturbance in the force the covers of the bed I was placed on - which I have to wonder how they moved me. I turn my head slightly and see the little girl that I had thankfully saved. She stared at my face for a long while before she lifted her chin up past the mattress to talk to me.

"Ywji wämeg växeliji?" Her dainty little hands clutched the covers as if she wasn't touching the floor. That thought earned a chuckle from me and I tried to make my point that I didn't understand her by simply speaking English.

"I have no idea what you just said." I told her with a shake of my head. Her eyes went wide as I spoke a language she didn't know, and she dropped down, and scampered into another room. Muffled voices came from behind a wall moments later, and an older man appeared, he looked familiar but the details escaped me. He seemed happy to see me, thou- OH! He was the man who had the kitchen knife and pot. I assumed this was his house, then, but I couldn't really tell from the small room I was in. It was a single bed, hardly big enough to fit maybe two of me, with some basic ammenities next to it. A shelf next to a window, and a night stand next to the bed. I tried to wave to him, but he shook his head and waved my hand down. He spoke in the language I didn't understand again and it became very annoying before I forced myself to sit up.

"I seriously have no idea what you people are saying." I told him while looking in his direction. His eyes went wide for a moment, before scratching his cheek nervously. The man called out to the door:

"Yuöi!" I couldn't even guess what these people were saying without any context. Yesterday I got a few things, but that was because I'd seen movies and read a few books with tropes like that. Then F.S. told us what the planet was. Why was it only the first three people to open the system that got to know the language? Complete bullshit. A woman entered soon after. She was quite pretty and - I narrowed my eyes at her chest, then looked to my own. Completely unfair.

She sat down on the foot of the bed, setting down a plate with a wooden cup - which I missed due to staring at her unfair chest. Today was going to be a long day, I realized, when it dawned on me that I couldn't do anything without help. A far cry from what I was just doing before I fell asleep.

Irritating. Seriously irritating! There was nothing I hated more than not being able to do something by myself unless I needed more than myself. Anger bubbled up for a bit before the young girl noted my face and lifted a stuffed... I don't know what it was but it was cute, stuffed, and very rough. She dropped it in my lap and looked up into my eyes with a sappy, perfected puppy-dog-eyed sad face.

...

I cracked a smile after a bit, picked up the stuffed creature, and bounced it in front of her.

"Mr. animal really likes you!" And I let the creatures nose boop theirs, being extremely careful with my shields. I wasn't even sure if I could take them off. If I couldn't then... how would I change clothes? How would I bathe?! Questions I would hold off for now. I heard her giggle before the man - supposedly the father and husband - shoo'd his young daughter along. Or maybe they weren't family and the aftermath of the bandits caused all of this to happen. What would have happened if I wasn't here?

My mind drifted back to the daze of I was in and I couldn't help but shudder mentally. I closed my eyes for three seconds, planting my head against the wall. I wanted to know where I was, or at least guess some words.

Planet: Aiewapa Iriöq

We (the) Chosen Country: Farghal Ibduji

Farghal ---- Izji gävy Peaä rorm Anaä TIP: Learning a language is hard! Take your time, get context clues! And if you can, try and talk to the locals!

Oh, fun, two more words I don't know. From what I could guess, it got narrower in its choice of what to describe. World > Country > Locale? It showed me the last three words when I was inside the... forest? Did Peaä mean forest? I thought if that was the case then -

CONGRATULATIONS!

YOU HAVE LEARNED SOME OF THE LANGUAGE!

Peaä = Forest

Alright now we're getting somewhere! I tried to recollect all I could from my time in there. But to be fair I had my eyes closed most of the time. Uhhh... Squirrel? Green! Sunny! Leaves! Does Anaä mean leaves?

Silence.

Uhh... shit, what were the colours of the trees? Brown? No... Gold - no they weren't gold... they were metallic. Sil...ver? Forest of Silver?

CONGRATULATIONS!

YOU HAVE LEARNED SOME OF THE LANGUAGE!

Anaä = Silver

Rorm = Of

HAH! FUCK YOU F.S.!

I opened my eyes eventually and found that the man and his wife were patiently sitting next to me, he still beside me and she still at my feet. I looked to the man, pat my chest, and pointed to the forest.

"Peaaa rorm Anaaa?" He narrowed his eyes slightly, them darting off to the side before he looked back at me with sudden realization, and corrected me instantly.

"Pea-air rorm Ana-air. Ubu... ovea?" he pointed to his head and made a rotation. Was he asking if I was stupid? I could hear the tingling of a new notification in my head but pushed it back. At least he asked first? I shook my head a few times. It seemed I got that right so I would wing it with body language.

Making a gesture with my hands as if I opened a book, I followed up by crossing my arms over my chest in an X. It took him a bit to parse it together but then he pointed to me "Ubu" then made a small sign of cradling his hands beneath his pecks - cradling a baby? Youth? Baby? "Häro" then he pointed to the forest. "fuion Peaä rorm Anaä?"

You... baby, youth, grow... born? You born in Forest of Silver? The sensation in the back of my head notified me that I learned more of the language without even looking. He seemed to think I was born in the forest. If it was an excuse to know only a few words, then I'd take it. I nodded my head anxiously and he clapped to himself, the wife giggling before standing and bowing.

"Asuv damabte yguxeäuy." Announced the woman. No clue what she said, I turned to the husband for help. He nodded before making several hand gestures. He began with pointing to his wife "Yuöi" next using his hands to cover his eyes as if he was... "yguxeäuy" lookin for something? And finally one more. He used one hand to cup the air below, and the other as if he was eating from the cup, or bowl. "damabte"

Wife... searches, or finds, food? So she said "I will find food"? The sensations were pumping dopamine into my system. I was clearly doing things right!

Another worlds language watch out! Kiera's coming through! And she's learning at the speed of sound!

I mentally cheered myself on for learning some of a new language, and I felt less like I was stuck in a new world and more like I could actually start living. At least a little...

Maybe I should reel it back a bit... I thought, my mind coming back to reality as the smell of... oh my god bacon. THEY HAVE BACON! The man, who I realize I would have to introduce myself to, snickered at my face when he realized I smelt the food and pat my shoulder, getting my attention.

"Gol'amer" He pat his chest with a big hand. Was that his name? He then pointed to me. "Ytre?" That definitely meant name. I said it slow for him because I didn't know if it meant anything in their language.

"Kiera."

He repeated my name to himself once before nodding with his eyes closed. I think he was trying to commit it to memory, which was very sweet. But, something I hadn't noticed until now, the man wasn't even hurt! No scrapes, bruises, or even bandages! I pointed to him, then to where I vividly remember there being stab wounds, and followed up with a movement as if I had a sword in my hands. He simply waved it off, as if telling me not to worry about it.

I wasn't worrying, I was curious!

Speaking of, the broken wounds were the same...