“I got something called solar flames and spear user.”

“I got earth master, air manipulator, and shield techniques.”

“I got lightning magic.”

“You only got one skill? That sucks.”

“Nah it looks like it's a type of magic you can typically only get if you manage to evolve air, water, and light magic at the same time, so I’ll be able to use all those on top of lightning spells.”

“Oh hell, that’s pretty cool.”

When Ben arrived at dinner everyone else had already gathered. It looked like he was delayed from spending so long verifying that this was another world, and they were already discussing the skills and abilities they had received. It seemed like a few were still pretty down to learn that they had died and there was no going back home, but many were at least ignoring that fact for now with the excitement of the situation.

He took a seat between Steph and his pal Will and chatted with them as a priest brought him a plate to eat.

“How is it?” He asked them, looking at the unusual purple mush beside some far too yellow-looking meat.

“Not poison.” Will was quick to say.

“It’s not bad. The taste is a little weird but who knows what it came from so I guess we’ll just have to get used to these sorts of meals from now on.” Steph said a little sadly.

Now that there was food in front of him he was feeling pretty hungry and wanted to dig in, but the looks of it still made him cautious, so he started with a small bite. Steph was right, a little weird but overall not bad. The meat was slightly spicy and the texture was unusual, but he could stomach it. The purple mush with it sort of made him think of berries mixed with mashed potatoes, but not in a bad way. It had a mellow sweetness to it.

As he was working his way through his plate Will popped the question that he was dreading. The question everyone else seemed to be talking about.

“So what skills did you get? I ended up getting unarmed master, tough skin, and advanced enhanced strength, probably because I do some boxing.”

“And I got spacial master, time controller, and high life magic.” Steph chipped in.

“...I got crafting, enchanting, and focus.”

“That suits you to a T.”

“Those skills are super on the ball with you.”

“Thanks guys, but the priest who was talking to me didn’t seem very positive about them at all, not to mention my other stats apparently suck.”

“Well how bad could it be?” Will asked, so Ben pulled out his card to show them both.

“Oof, okay that's pretty bad.”

“Will don’t be so negative, let me see...oh… well your resistances are incredible at least!”

“Yeah, and that stamina is great too, mine’s only four hundred.”

“Thanks for the encouragement guys, but I’ve already been told I’m far from great. Unneeded skills, pretty average attributes, and from what Lehie said, the worst affinities she has ever seen, I’ll just have to see how tomorrow goes.” He then asked to see their cards, thinking that he might as well see how far he falls in comparison after all. They both looked a bit sheepish at the request but they gave him their cards to take a look at.

With the exception of his stamina, they dwarfed him in all of his other attributes with values over 1000, not to mention that they also had high magic affinities.Even Will, without any blessed magic skills, could probably learn magic in a pinch if he felt like it. They also already had some passive and active skills, probably because they had higher forms of their blessed skills automatically. They were definitely the sort of people this world was hoping for when they were brought here. He gave a long sigh and was about to give them back when one thing caught his eye.

“All of your skills are at level 0?”

“Yeah it looks like you at least got lucky with having one level automatically in a couple of yours, from what I was told the skills go from 0 to 9, and if you meet the conditions will evolve at level 10 into a new level 0 skill.” Steph explained to him.

“Well even if I’m not needed at least I can probably enjoy crafting to an extent.”

“Don’t be so down. I was told they were looking for strong fighters, but even if your skills aren’t for combat that doesn’t mean you won’t be of any use, don’t let it get to you.”

“Yeah don’t worry, my skills aren’t really combat oriented either but I was told they should be useful for healing and helping supply troops, I’m sure they could use someone who could do things like make tools or weapons.”

With the motivation of his friends his mood started to improve a bit. Sure his stats weren’t exactly incredible, but there must be some way to use them. He would just have to wait and see how tomorrow would go.

After dinner Lehie led him to a small library at the back of the church. It really gave him a sense of scale for the place as they made his way there. It was large. Ridiculously so. With every wall lined with statues and paintings of different figures, some humanoid, some he would be more inclined to consider monsters.

“What are all these?”

“Representations of the various gods.”

“What? We must have passed a few hundred.”

“Yes, and there are a few thousand total.”

“Why would one world possibly need so many gods?” He asked curiously, a development Lehie seemed pleased with.

“Good question, It all goes back to the founding of the world.” Lehie said, starting her story.

It seemed that this world didn’t start out with thousands of gods, and hundreds of races to go with them, but it happened as a result of circumstance. The threat they had been brought to fight was an ancient one, destroying and conquering hundreds of worlds over the millennia. The gods of those worlds gathered whatever survivors they could and brought them to this far away land, to rebuild with other races whose worlds have been ravaged. In that time the gods joined forces to help strengthen all the residents of this world, and worked together to create the status system. A means for them to grow stronger and for their work to yield greater efforts, all so that when invaders came for their current home they would be ready.

“Wait, and that's what we’re here for? To fight against a force that had destroyed countless worlds, you guys summoned twenty something heroes?”

“Well other locations summoned other heroes from other worlds, but from what I understand reaching beyond the edge of one universe into another is a difficult task, there shouldn’t be more than 200 summoned heroes from various worlds who had been brought to different communal churches throughout the land.”

“Still 200 isn’t a lot, how long until these invaders come?”

“The various prophet gods are in some disagreement on the matter, but the general consensus is between three and twenty years.”

“...Well I guess I’ll hope for twenty then.”

“Hope for twenty but plan for three.” She told him with a gentle smile. “Anyway here we are. You should have no trouble understanding the written systems of this world thanks to your skill, but if you have any issues I’ll be in the corner reading myself to pass the time. Now let's find you something about your skills.”

She took a moment to look amongst the shelves that lined the wall, looking at books and scrolls before pulling out a three to give to him.

“Here we go, books on skills. The first volume is common skills, with information on how to acquire them and level them up, as well as information on what you can do with them. The second is a book on the higher variants of skills, the first book should include some of the names of what different skills can evolve into, so use that to find what you're looking for in the second book. The final one is on rare skills, ones that are either hard to get or the method to acquire it is not certain. Just remember that these books don’t cover everything, I would be surprised if they have even a tenth of all known skills, but they’re a start.”

Ben thanked her and then dug into his pile, reading everything that seemed relevant at first before just trying to find whatever seemed interesting or useful. He was thankfully able to learn more about enchanting, finding out that he could attach not just his skills, but also his aptitudes and resistances to items as well. Although how powerful he could make something was dependent on his skill level. Crafting for its part listed all of the known disciplines that fell into it, as well as how learning the best way to level it up was apparently to use it in such a way that it would train multiple of its sub-abilities at once. That made sense to him, if you challenge yourself you make greater progress.

Focus was the odd one out, he didn't see it when he was flipping through the first book looking for it and didn't find it until he made his way through the book of rare skills. Apparently it wasn’t clear on what one would have to do to develop the skill itself, as plenty of professionals would spend hours of each day focusing on their work, only to never get it. On the plus side, once it was acquired it isn’t too hard to level, the method seems to be just doing work that requires focus is all.

With that done he made a mental note to see if the library had any books more specialized in enchanting when he had time and continued to flip through the books around him, trying to make a list of any skills he may want to try and acquire later. The biggest issue was how cool so many of them sounded until he read the conditions to acquire them. Magic was out automatically, while it was technically possible for him to get certain rare magic skills if he improved his attributes, all of them advised not even trying for affinities ones unless he had an aptitude of at least twenty in the skill he wanted to learn, otherwise it would be all but impossible to acquire.

Even ignoring those though he still didn't have the best options just based on how his attributes worked out. His high intelligence and mana regeneration made him a candidate for an okay mage, but again there was the issue of his affinities as well as low mana. His strength and agility made it clear that even if he could use combat skills he wouldn’t be very good at them, and other skills he just didn’t meet the requirements of completing certain tasks for.

In the end he was only able to find two that he wanted to try and acquire. Dismantling was something that could be gained by stripping monsters for parts, it required some practice and training, but it shouldn’t be too hard, plus it looked like different monster materials could be used as crafting items, it would certainly help him with any future work he may get. As for the other one, well it may be useful as an enchantment to put on items, but he would leave it for later.

He was about to flip through the book again to try and find more when he felt two hands firmly placed on his shoulders.

“Ben, I’m sure this is all very interesting to you and helpful for deciding how you want to study and grow, but you’ve been reading without moving for five hours now. There's one more thing we need to do then get some rest before the representatives arrive tomorrow.” The strength in her grip left no room for arguments and Ben briefly wondered if she had been there with him the entire time before she dragged him off, through the halls and corridor before they came to a brightly illuminated room bathed in moonlight from a skylight above, as well as the glow of a crystal within.

“This is the job change rooms you’ll find in any church or town. Ours is a little more grand than a usual one, but the function is the same. Go place your hands on the crystal and select one of the available Jobs that show up in your mind.”

Not feeling the need to test the safety of everything anymore he did as he was told and placed his hands on the crystal, feeling a strange warmth filling him up. He closed his eyes, excited to see whatever options would present themselves to him.

AVAILABLE JOBS

Apprentice craftsman

...Yeah that tracks.

With no other Jobs available to him he selected apprentice craftsman in his mind.

<ACQUIRED JOB- APPRENTICE CRAFTSMAN LV0>

<BONUSES GRANTED TO IMPROVING STRENGTH, STAMINA, AND INTELLIGENCE>

<ALL CRAFTING RELATED SKILLS WILL RECEIVE A GROWTH BONUS>

“What the hell was that!” he yelled out, surprised to suddenly have a thundering voice yelling in his mind.

Lehie tried to hide a small giggle as she explained. “That was the system itself explaining the benefits of your new job. Getting a job improves attributes and skills related to it, making it an invaluable resource to improving yourself. So what did you pick?”

“Apprentice craftsman.” Seeing a small grimace appear on her face he quickly explained. “I only had the one option, does that mean I’m stuck with this forever or what?”

“No no no, you can change your new job at any time, the only thing is if you don’t get it up to level 99 you won’t be able to take any advanced version of the job in the future, nor will you be able to keep the skill and attribute bonus after you complete it.”

“How long should it take me to complete then?”

“If you work hard on using skills related to the job it shouldn’t take that long, especially since it uses your blessed skills It should only take about a year.”

“That feels like a long time to me?”

“Oh? Is your race particularly short lived?”

“I mean if I’m very lucky I may manage a century.”

“Then you’re fine. With that sort of lifespan you could reasonably expect to get five or six jobs in your time, they will take longer the more advanced they are.”

Well when she put it that way a year wasn’t too bad at all, he would have to just start using his skills and get crafting. Hopefully whoever ended up grabbing him would put him to work under a decent teacher.

With that done for the day Lehie led him back to his room so he could get some rest before meeting the representatives of various nations.