I could see it. Spirit Home was in sight over the horizon and I beamed. I was never one for really being interested in architecture before all this happened, but looking ahead of me was a city I never thought I'd see. With towering walls that not even Pole-jumpers could cross, the hill the large estate-seeming building was atop looked picturesque.

"Gyqji..." "Pretty..." I couldn't hold myself back from talking. it felt natural to call such a sight pretty - but the word didn't match the absolute splendor of it all. Over the crest of the city, I could see a forest of different pinks and pastels swirling as if they were smoke. They solidified into crystalline formations, before being whisked away back into distant smokestacks. It was indescribably gorgeous. Noticing my enraptured expression ahead of me, one of the twins turned back with a smug look on his face. Which one was this? I could never tell.

"Ubua divima yxre?" "You like me?" I looked at him, though, for less than a second, before I returned my sights to the wall of crystal and smoke. Although it lost much of its splendor due to the irksome twin. Thankfully, the other clonked him on the head with a fist. "Rigöaä växeliji..." "Dog @#^%..." I understood exactly half of that sentence. Something about at dog, though. Horndog, maybe? I didn't get a rush of dopamine, so that wasn't it apparently. The city on the horizon was steadily getting closer, though, and the wall that much more pretty.

As we got closer, I could hear many voices of people, a mix of happy, angry, drunk and many others. The amount of cheer I could hear was insane. At least there weren't stones being thrown at us, which was always pleasant. many different forms of clothing were smattered around the area as well. There was a very rough-looking cloth tunic on one man, while another might have a leather-esque material for a scarf. A woman I saw was wearing pants that were very loose around the thigh, but tight around the ankles while her upper-half was hardly clothed in anything but what could equate to a crop-top of loose fibre.

There was no distinct style among them, which was visually... loud, if that makes sense. There were no bright colours unless it was white or a butter-like yellow in the clothing, the majority of them being either a black, brown, or deep blueish purple. As we neared the front gate, a large metal-grated material that had a small green sheen to its rivets, we were halted by three guards. They wore what seemed to be a mixture of metal and leather, with the leather below and the metal covering places where it didn't need to be flexible. In a word, it was efficient. Leather was used in areas where they would need to bend and curve their body, which was mainly their shoulders, wrists, waists and legs. I liked it. The leather was either naturally or dyed black with stray strands of grey hair on them. It wasn't from the men, though, as they were all covered in brown heads of hair. Huh...

"Ymudete khöpras. Käe ytyorai dewviti." "Knights welcome. You city to enter." Thankfully there wasn't much of that which was unclear. It was a very rough language, still, it seemed. Give it a few centuries to iron out the kinks and maybe it'll be softer. Or maybe not.

Either way, the gate opened faster than I thought it would given its size, just enough for us to not have to duck our heads beneath it as we trot passed. The interior of the walls was much different than I expected, but should have been what I assumed. The infrastructure was terrible. the roads of stone were not kept well, cracks in stone, dirt and mud spread across them like Nutella. Not even the worst part was the fact that I smelt shit around almost every corner. What was definitely the worst part was how I saw a woman tossing a buckets contents into one of those alleys, and the smell of it wafted to my nose, causing me to gag and cover my mouth and nose.

Forgot... no toilets in this world. I hope several architects came to this world... or soon at least. We need toilets...

"Aujalamäa" D'rte spoke to me, but I didn't know what he said, so I stayed silent.

As we strode through the streets, people moved to either side to give us space and we just took it in stride. Several horrendous scents assaulted my nose, but they began to slowly fade away as we moved to a seemingly nicer part of the city. There were less-cracked roads, more pleasant scents, and several storefronts. There was the overbearing scent of perfume in front of one of them though, which assaulted my nose even worse than the feces from before.

We trot through the city wordlessly for half an hour before we arrived at what seemed to be a small alcove in an open space, where a semi-large door of stone tilted back into the beginnings of the hill. The captain, followed by everyone else, began to dismount, so I followed and, thankfully, D'rte helped.

Walking to the door, the captain leaned down and almost tore it off its hinges as he pulled it open. That door looked extremely heavy too - obviously, it was stone - but he made it look almost kind of easy. Way to go!

Soon, the horse-likes were led inside and I followed along. Entering the sloped entryway, I instantly noticed that the place was made to resemble a sort of fortress on the inside. Pillars held up a concave ceiling at intervals of five metres in a T-section, us being at the cross-section between three passages. The twins grabbed the... leashes? Sashes? Whatever it was that allowed them to drag the horses along, they pulled them to the right and were seemingly dismissed, as they yawned and became relaxed as they walked off. I assumed they were bringing the horses to a stable-area in this underground fortress.

The captain said something to D'rte that I, again, didn't understand, but he walked down the long hallway ahead of us while D'rte came and pat my shoulder.

"Oyaiauy" "Follow me" He said, and led me down the only hall that wasn't being walked into yet. I shrugged and followed. There wasn't much else I could do at this point, and I had no idea what I was supposed to do either. What could I do, walk around outside, possibly get kidnapped and god knows what else? We followed the hallway, surprisingly well-lit with bioluminescent stones that reminded me of the tree I saw when our journey began to this place. As we continued walking, I noticed there were a bunch of doors, wood this time, on either side of the hall. Rooms, maybe? Were we at the barracks-area?

"Iqe kulmäpa?" "Here we sleep?" Thankfully, D'rte nodded. Alright, barracks. Cool, wonder if it's a shared room or not. Eventually, we came to a door that had a sign on it with two marks on it. He grabbed a dagger at his waist and put a dash through one of the lines. Is this how they told people there was a person living here? "Asuv iqe kul...uy?" "I here to... sleep?" Got a nod, nice. I'm getting better at this! I pumped my fist in celebration before I opened the door and was met with a bare-bones, but no less homey room. Two beds, simple and low to the ground, rest on either side of the room. A bioluminescent flower rest on the ceiling, giving a dim green light to the room. A simple square rug rest in the centre of the rooms floor, somewhat dusty but otherwise fine.

He made a noise to grab my attention before he began walking towards some stairs going down. Alright, tours not done yet apparently. Jogging to catch up, we descended the stairs and were met with a sight of a wide-open area I decided to call the "Why the fuck is this place so big" room. Or the WTFITPSBR for short. The WTFITPSBR was full of people. There was one half of the room covered in those with heavy looking armor and weapons, while the other half was those clad in leathers and dull shortswords, daggers, and blunted arrows. This is the training room apparently. I could count roughly fifty people on either side of the room.

D'rte held my shoulder with one hand and pointed to a door over in the direction of the left-half of the room. "Varikala-Taby. Täwaä. Reymäa" "Knowledge-place. Books. You to learn." Okay, so... books are there, library, basically. I learn... was that the future-tense? Several rushes of dopamine hit me and it was fucking glorio- NO! I bit the inside of my cheek to calm down. Looking to D'rte, I nodded my head once with a thumbs up. Then I wondered...

"Asuv iuaii... Polasi?" "I alone... practice?" Waiting and pondering for a moment, pointed to my shields with one hand with a questioning look, and the door with the other. I lifted and shook my shields as if to confirm his first guess. He shook his head before pointing up. If I wanted to practice alone, I had to do it in my room or outside, then? But... with my shields that would be difficult. Sighing, I nodded my head. I assumed we had to work for our meals, but I asked about food nonetheless.

According to D'rte, for my first month here, I'll have to get my own food somehow, and going through training with a small group I'll find meet the person who will be my roommate, if there is one. After that, I will be given three meals a day which I can have at any time. By the time this month is over, another fifty people from Earth will arrive on this planet. Have any of the first batch died yet? Are they safe? Could I have gotten to them somehow to protect them from death? Too many questions. Did I know anyone who was brought here? I'd have to have someone show me places to go within city, hopefully where I could avoid the stench of shit and get a bite to eat.

I walked upstairs to my room and, trying to commit to memory which room was mine, I practiced walking down the halls to and from my room. Thankfully no one saw me being an idiot and I managed to believe I had it memorized. I took off my shields and rest them at the foot of the bed while I lied down. For now, I'd sleep, see my progress, and if I saw anything special, would work on it.

Closing my eyes, the button to sleep was there, but I shrank it and ignored it. I'd sleep naturally today.

...

......

Once my consciousness was completely gone, I was bombarded with the blue menus, and a much taller skill-list than I remember.

Name Kiera Macguire Title: Foolish Recruit Age 27 Traits: - Shieldmaiden Sex Female - Class Shielder Level: 1 Primary [SHIELD VAPOUR] Milestone: TRAVELLER

...and 9 More Off-hand [SHIELD VAPOUR] Quest: None SKILL LIST Note: Some skills have different descriptions attached to them as well as added details. Shield Strike

[C]

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

Damage based off of the force put behind the strike, but otherwise deals increased damage as if your hand was propelled by the wind itself.

Max Targets: 2 Targets

Distance: Within reach

Shield Bash

[E]

Destroy the wrong-doers in the most vicious way! Break their bones, crush their lungs, shatter their spirit!

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

Max Targets: 2 Targets

Distance: Within reach.

Fight Defensively

[E]

Protect. Fight. Defend those who deserve not the pain inflicted upon them and reflect it all. The innocents will be safe!

Whilst in combat, you can fight defensively, attacking less and focusing on parrying, deflecting, and attempting to sustain as little damage as possible. Experience increased reaction speed when fighting on the defensive.

Target: Self

Duration: Until deactivated.

Guardians Eyes

[E]

As a Shielder, your eyes are trained to find out who needs protecting. Fight and carry on for them.

Passive:

Your eyes determine what areas require the most direct attention.

Red is immediate danger, blood is shed and life is at risk.

Yellow is possible danger. There is pain and there is a chance for escalation to red.

Green is safe. No danger, or your attention is not needed.

Levels increase the clarity of sight and visual immunities.

Judge

[F]

This Skill is part of a set

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.

Gain insight and Judge one enemy guilty of any crime they have commit and deal increased damage based on its severity.

Cooldown: 1 Day

Duration: 30 Minutes

Max Targets: 1 Target

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.

Cooldown: 5 Minutes

Duration: Instant

Max Targets: 5 Beings

Desensitize

[D]

This Skill was created

Passive:

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.

Effect:

You feel less stress due to murders and killings you have commit.

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 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

Throw

[C]

This Skill was created

Throw your shield to strike at distant evil. For you are the protector, all you do is just.

You've adapted to throwing your shield as a weapon or a defensive measure. Connected to a string bound to your soul, only those who can sense the faintest traces of mana can see it. You control this string as if it was another limb, allowing you to use your shield at range.

Duration: Until recalled, or 2 Minutes pass.

Drawbacks: Overuse causes Nausea

Tip: Some skills require being levelled up to attain bonus information on the skill.

Quite the amount of details were added to this skill list, huh? I sighed and read through everything on the skill list first, making sure nothing was completely botched. On a good note, that was the case! Nothing was broken or so different I had no idea how to use it. On the contrary, some of these details make my skills much clearer, both mentally and figuratively. It feels like I understand how to use any skill that isn't F rank just a little better. I'm also quite amazed that I have two C rank skills. I suppose that I did practice getting used to them on our way here a lot. Not only that, they were the only two skills I felt comfortable practicing in a group. Dancing wasn't possible on a horse, and I didn't want to dance when wearing metal at night, especially since the captain was always awake. Until I had a roommate, I would be able to practice in here, although in a cramped space and likely break several things if I ever brought anything in.

When I was done reviewing everything, no other milestones, no new skills, no new ti-....

Why do I have a title called Foolish Recruit? Are... really? You're kidding! That's my first title?

I wanted to cry. Holding he head in my hands in the infinite void of my unconscious mind, I stared into nothing and suddenly saw something. Could I dream anymore, or have nightmares? I wasn't sure, but right now I was absolutely positive I was having the worst nightmare to ever have been dreamt. In the black void, I saw something. Just for a moment, at the corner of my eye, but it was definitely there. I could feel my heartbeat accelerate, and the sweat was so vivid I wondered if I was really asleep. I had to be, right? There was no other way to describe how I saw the menu - F.S. said that we could only access it when unconscious!

So what in the FUCK was that thing?!

My eyes shook. My breath caught. Existence seemed to mean nothing as I saw the nothing around me warp around whatever I saw. The next thing I knew, there was a tangible blackness in the distance of nothingness. It reminded me of black void when I spoke to my mind and I felt an instinctive need to run.

Breathing. A slow cycle of an uncountable amount of souls wailing quietly in agony. Simply staring at it made me feel like my mind was being spread apart, dissected, and used like a yarn ball. I choke out a scream as both nothing and everything appeared in the same space. An infinite amount of nothing was suddenly swallowed and there was silence. Choking, deafening silence.

YOU'VE ATTRACTED THE ATTENTION OFSOMETHING IMPOSSIBLE.

LIFE HAS NO MEANING IN FRONT OF A DREAMING GOD.

WHISPERS OF ETERNITY WRITHE INTO YOUR MIND.

YOU ARE MARKED.

A light - I clung onto it with all my willpower as I tried to figure out what it said. Reading it I knew I was in for a bad time. Something impossible, a dreaming god...

I screamed. It was all I could do as I was placed in front of a terror I was unaware could even exist. Flashes of images - pains never experienced, eternities replayed in seconds, uncountable voices trying to tear my head apart. I was suddenly brought before a monstrosity. Fear. Joy. Thoughts that weren't mine - that I knew were not mine - circled in my mind for a long. Feelers. Thousands of them - eyes on eyes upon eyes. stacked on one another and melding together like water droplets. Existence meant nothing to it.

And finally I woke up with a burning sensation on my eyes and back which caused me to howl in agony.

The scent of burning leather and flesh filled the air as I felt my cornea's burn. There was no greater pain. If pain had a perfect example, I was experiencing it.