I slowly regained consciousness. I felt the cold, hard floor beneath me as I opened my eyes and pushed myself up. I glanced around to get my bearings. I seem to be in a cave or something similar to one. I can see a light in the distance that seems to be the cave entrance. I pick up my sword in my right hand before deciding to go towards the light.

As I walk I go through my mind to discover if my class gave me anything new. I have some memories that weren't in my head before. It's a rather simple memory that doesn't seem like an actual memory it's more similar to being something instinctual. It seems to have the very basics for shadow manipulation.

Out of curiosity I decide to try using my new found ability. I raise my hand and attempt to focus. I imagine the shadows moving, sliding, and darkening. The shadows around me seem to grow darker in color, and shift slightly. Subsequently I feel a slight strain on something. It feels as if I'm losing some kind of energy. I try to manipulate the darkened shadows to form a spike. However all I can manage is being able to congregate them in one spot of darkness. The strain grows and I quickly release my control on the shadows.

Kinda like the mana in video games so I'll just call it that for simplicity's sake. Also seems like I could only use this to hide, for now at least... Is there a skills list or something?

I decide to check if something like that exists.

"Skills... Abilities..... Attacks..."

With none of them working I decide to give up on the idea. I continue walking through the cave towards the light.

After about five minutes of walking I arrive at the exit. The light quickly grows in strength as I walk towards the exit. I stop for a second to regain my vision before exiting.

I'm greeted by an awe-inducing landscape. I seem to be rather high up as I have a great view.

There's a large luscious forest to the left that has massive trees. They seem around the same size than the redwoods I had heard about, if not bigger. To my right are rolling plains filled with fresh green grass. The sun rising over the landscape gives it a rather peaceful feeling. However the most obvious feature I can spot are the massive walls I see on the horizon. They seem to be at least 1,000 feet tall if not more and made of some type of stone. They seem to surround this whole place.

The closer I look at the landscape the more lively it seems, with ancient ruins lying around, a strange tower in the distance and what seems to be the decimated remnants of a town quite nearby. The town is on the outskirts of the forest. However the town itself is lying in the plains. I can see some movement in the town, peaking my curiosity.

As there isn't an obvious path to take I decide to head to the destroyed town. It's probably best if I sneak there rather than just waltz in. It could be a bandit hideout or something for all I know.

I make my way towards the town not knowing what to expect. I try to be as aware of my surroundings as possible to prevent myself from dying from something stupid again.

Thirty minutes into this journey I realize I'm rather thirsty. Finding no convenient solution in sight I place my hopes on the town. I mean if there's movement that means there's something alive and if something is alive that means water!

I arrive at the outskirts of the town shortly after. I decide to try and figure out what the movement was while staying hidden to the best of my ability. I don't think it would be a good idea to use the shadow manipulation in this situation as it would probably only attract attention in the daylight.

I head towards where I saw the movement, which was the town square, while hiding to the best of my ability. I sneak around running from wall to wall to hide behind and probably looking quite stupid all the while. The closer I get to the town square the louder it gets. The sounds are rather screechy and painful to listen to. I finally arrive close enough to the town square to get a look. I slowly peak my head around the corner of a collapsed house.

The sight I was greeted with was not a pleasant one. A group of short, green, disgusting looking creatures with pointed ears were in a circle. I decide to just call them goblins as that's what they most closely resemble. The half dressed goblins were surrounding two people. They seem to be chanting something as the two people fought each other desperately. It seems I was witnessing some kind of tournament the goblins held.

The two people in question were both bloodied and bruised but one was much more injured than the other. One of them was a human looking man wielding a club and the other was a woman with bark like skin wielding a similar club. They seem extremely desperate as they fight, the woman completely weeping throughout the whole ordeal.

I watch the spectacle, stuck in a feeling between curiosity and horror. The woman was winning and had substantially less injuries than the bruised and bleeding man. She continued utterly destroying him, making him more and more malformed by the minute. Her weeping never stopped once throughout this rather one sided massacre. Eventually she stopped when the man had stopped standing up. He also seems to have stopped breathing. His body was completely destroyed. Smashed arm, caved in head and blood pooling beneath him. I almost threw up from the sight. I quickly turned away, extremely nauseated.

I sit leaning on the wall of the destroyed house for a minute to catch my breath. The sight of the man getting brutalized would probably be stuck in my dreams for quite some time to come. I close my eyes temporarily to calm myself.

When I reopen them I'm greeted by the sight of a goblin standing directly in front of me and staring at me. It opened its mouth, to presumably shriek for its comrades and I reacted by putting all my strength behind my sword and impaling it through the chest. The blade let out a sickening *shunk* sound as it sunk inside of its chest. A loud, pained shriek echoed from its mouth as it died.

"Shit, shit, shit, SHIT!"

I instantly start sprinting away at top speed. I glance behind me as I sprint only to find a small army of them at my heels. I look back ahead only to find myself at a dead end of an alley. When the hell did I get here?

Seriously.... Well shit this might be game over already..... Guess I'll try and go out fighting....

I turn back around tightly gripping my sword and getting into my best guess of what a fighting stance is. One of the goblins with a dagger charges towards me. I dodge it's initial slash by backstepping and slash down at it's head with my improved reach. As it sinks into it's head I feel a sharp pain coming from my torso. It seems I was stabbed by a dagger.

I quickly kick back the goblin who was the perpetrator and jerk my sword out of the previous goblin's head.

"Damn that hurts like hell..."

I slash towards the goblin that stabbed me in an attempt for revenge only to get stabbed in my left shoulder. I slam the offender with my elbow backing up to the wall of the alley.

The goblins suddenly part way and bow towards a taller and stronger looking goblin. The goblin in question was walking ominously towards me. He's about my height and is wielding a rather large sword with both hands. He arrives before me raising his sword and slashing down before I can attempt to attack him. I try and use my sword to block in desperation. The sword is knocked from my hands due to the force of the impact. Panicking I try and back up even more only to meet the wall once more.

The goblin ominously raises his sword once more causing panic to set in.

I want out, I want out, I want out, I NEED OUT! GET ME OUT!

I grit my teeth and raise my arms to block as the blow whistles towards me. I feel a humongous strain on the energy that I had dubbed mana. The sudden strain causes my mind to overload momentarily as I felt the shadows envelop me. My mind reduces to chaos and confusion as the darkness envelops both my body and my mind. For the third time that day I pass out.