Leveling Up My Bow In The Apocalypse

I felt as if I had simply blinked, and suddenly, I found myself in a completely different place. There was no warning, except for the system message, no sensation of being thrown through time and space; I just kind of... moved.

I found myself in a... room? No, that was an understatement. It was much larger than any room I had ever seen. Despite being able to see the ceiling, I could barely make out what seemed to be a wall far away on one of the sides. On the roof, there was a huge circular light that seemed to act as a sun.

I looked from the ceiling to the wall, and everything in that place seemed to have some kind of circular design, like a giant dome. I was standing on what I could only identify as an enormous pillar, one of many that spread in all directions.

Where the floor would be expected, I saw a vast forest stretching in all directions. However, none of the trees even came close to the top of the pillar. Not because the trees were small, some seemed to be over a hundred meters tall, but because the pillar was monstrously tall.

As I began to wonder if the system had forgotten about me or what exactly was happening, the reliable window and voice appeared again.

"Welcome to the tutorial."

I felt a warmth spread throughout my body upon hearing the sound of yet another notification.

Title earned: [Explorer]

A title? One that I assumed everyone would understand, I thought, quickly checking.

[Explorer] – Complete the introduction and enter the tutorial as an Explorer. +3 to all stats. Grants the skill: [Endless Languages of the Races (Unique)].

Three to all stats out of nowhere could only be a welcome thing. Probably also the source of the warm glow earlier. Although I was still far from certain about how exactly this would help. The skill, however, seemed a bit more tangible when I looked at what it did.

[Endless Languages of the Races (Unique)] – Allows you to communicate with the myriad of races throughout the multiverse. A unique skill granted for free to the forerunners of a newly initiated race.

The skill, in some way, allowed me to communicate with other races. Would it only be speech or also writing? More questions arose, and when I tried to focus on the abilities, I didn't get any more results. I even tried using my newly acquired Identify skill, but nothing happened.

Hearing something behind me, I jumped and quickly turned around, only to see that another person had also been transported to the same platform. With a hand on the hilt of his knife, I recognized who it was.

"Lucas?" I asked rhetorically, looking at the man in front of me. Lucas wasn't wearing his suit anymore, but was dressed in chainmail, gauntlets, and what appeared to be leather pants with a pair of sturdy-looking boots, all seeming to have come straight out of a medieval film.

Lucas also seemed perplexed by the whole situation, as it took him a second or two to compose himself before he heard and saw me.

"Alexander!? Oh man, it's good to see you! Have you seen any of the others?" Lucas asked, with his usual energy, in a hopeful voice.

"Nah, I'm just as surprised to see you here. After we got in the elevator, you too—"

But before I had the chance to ask, another flash of light appeared, and once again, before I could see who it was, another flash of light, and then another, until there were a total of 10 people on the platform before the flashes stopped.

I instantly recognized all the people, as five of them had been in the elevator with me, and four were other employees from my company. To my relief, Beatrice was among the newcomers and seemed to be okay, now wearing a white robe with what looked like a small wand at her hip.

"What's going on—"

"Hey, why—"

"Have you seen Noah!?"

"Where is—"

Everyone started talking over each other: all of them confused, but some more than others. I simply stepped back while I tried to process the situation internally, but of course, still listening to the others. After the initial panic passed, everyone calmed down and started assessing the situation. After all, we were all professionals. It had nothing to do with Lucas trying to calm them down. No way.

After a quick round of questions and answers, it seemed that everyone had been transported to their respective interrogation rooms and had gone through pretty much the same ordeal as I had. However, I discovered I had apparently missed some questions, as the others had figured out a few more details. One of them was that new skills could be obtained every 5 levels with our classes.

As we went on, we also counted our different classes. We ended up with 1 light warrior, 2 medium warriors, and 1 heavy variant warrior, 2 Fatal Shooters, 3 conjurers, and 1 healer. Quite balanced, something I suspected the system had done on purpose. Or maybe it was just luck.

My armors and outfits were also very different. No longer were we all wearing our nice dress shirts and "presentable" clothes we used to wear. The light warrior wore leather armor, the medium warriors, like Lucas, wore their chainmail sets, and the heavy warrior wore what looked like a poorly crafted iron armor.

The other Fatal Shooter, whom I recognized as Wyatt from R&D, was wearing the same cloak as me, wielding a wooden bow just like mine. Wyatt was one of the few people I had always gotten along with at work. We had to interact a lot due to what we did, and naturally, we got along. Both of us were fairly introverted and, by coincidence, shared some of the same hobbies. I wasn't sure if I could call him a friend, but at least a close acquaintance. Besides, we were both terrible at anything romantic, which made us kindred spirits in that department.

Abigail was one of the people who panicked the most, with her husband Noah not being among them. She had chosen to be a conjurer, perhaps just because it seemed to be the least physically demanding. Though, thinking about it, she once mentioned that she and her children really enjoyed a certain book about a scarred boy wizard.

I also learned from the conversation that apparently, I could have asked for a different weapon in the Introduction, something I hadn't known. Maybe I could have gotten a modern compound bow... though I doubted it, considering the whole medieval theme going on.

The last two classes were from two other conjurers, all wearing very similar brown robes to the ones I wore, seeming to be much more comfortable, made of a material resembling silk. They all held wooden staffs, something I assumed were wands. And finally, there was our only healer, Beatrice, in her white robe, also looking very similar to silk, with her smaller white wand.

Another topic discussed was, of course, the skills granted. As I expected, everyone received Identify and the translation skill included in the title granted upon entering this supposed tutorial. Class skills were another story, however.

Light warriors had a dual-wielding skill, which gave a boost to wielding two weapons, a throwing weapon skill, and a common rarity skill, the counterpart to the Fatal Shooter's Eye, called Quickstep, allowing the warrior to make quick bursts of speed. In reality, though, the skill only made someone take a step slightly faster than normal, which was completely disappointing in practice.

The medium warrior had five skills, though all with Inferior ranking. They had a skill for one-handed weapons, one for two-handed weapons, one for sword and shield, a throwing weapon skill, and a skill called Balanced Approach, which gave a small bonus to all stat effects while wielding any weapon. It was so small that neither of the two medium warriors even noticed the difference.

The heavy warrior had the same sword and shield skill, a two-handed weapon skill, and a skill called Toughen Up, which allowed the warrior to temporarily increase their resistance. This was also incredibly disappointing, with no visual indication at all. Additionally, Xavier said it still hurt when Lucas struck him, making even the effect questionable.

The Fatal Shooter skills, of course, I already knew.

The conjurers also had three skills, the first being Magical Tools Proficiency, which allowed them to use their wands and other magical items, an attack skill called Mana Bolt, and a defensive skill called Mana Barrier. The barrier was also terrible, being so weak that a casual sword strike could break it, but the Mana Bolt seemed pretty powerful.

The healer class also had three skills, one called Heal, which, unsurprisingly, allowed the healer to heal things, one called Regeneration, which turned out to be a passive aura that allowed the healer's allies to regenerate health faster, and the last skill was the same as the conjurers', allowing them to use magical items. Of these skills, I was particularly interested in the aura, and how exactly it determined who the allies were and who weren't.

Another thing that was determined was that the Identify skill didn't work on other people. It didn't even return a basic message. There was simply no response. It seemed that the rarity of the skill was too low or prohibited for some reason. I looked at Beatrice and decided to ask her about the aura, but I was interrupted before I had any chance.

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