Alice shot him a look with a raised eyebrow. “What about them?”

“Well…”Alex paused, trying to figure out how to word his question. “What are they like? Can you meet them?”

“That’s a controversial topic.” Sky said slowly. “The three of us are biased against them due to…various reasons, but they have done some good.”

“Like the forest purge.” Wind said sarcasm thick on her voice.

As Wind said that, Alex saw a few looks going towards them...well, in truth, even more, the entire time it seemed that they were drawing attention, he had a feeling that the three of them were famous.

“True, but slavery is outlawed due to divine mandate. Even if their enforcement is…lacking.”

“Err…what is this forest purge?”

Wind shook her head. “I think it would be better for us to tell you some other time.”

Alex was beginning to suspect what it was, and decided that it was better not to pry.

“Personally I find the stars more trustworthy, and I don’t understand them half the time.” Alice said. “That aside, for you other question…in theory you can meet them, but in practice it’s…very unlikely.”

“Why did you ask that, anyway?”

“It’s just…gods are quite different in my world, and I was curious what they were like around here.”

Alex did not think there would be a problem telling them about the quest that he received…but he figured that doing so in the middle of the tavern was a bad idea. Sky frowned, but nodded.

At this moment, more food arrived, Alex rushing to devour it, it was frankly delicious, idly, he noticed that he was not the only one taking seconds; Wind was eating a portion twice as large as his in front of him.

Soon, only scraps remained from his meal, he debated asking for more with himself, but decided that it was a tad too overboard.

“So…what was that whole thing that happened?” Alex asked. “Who was that guy?”

“He was a summoner with a grudge against me. He threatened to summon something that he couldn’t put down if I didn’t show up.” Sky said.

Alex stared at them. “He threatened you with suicide if you didn’t appear?”

“Pretty much. My biggest worry was about all of the people that would be caught in whatever happened, so I called a few friends and went after him.”

“Why was that guy so obsessed with killing you to begin with?” He had even killed himself to summon that thing.

“I’m…not sure, to be honest.” Sky said, shrugging. “I don’t even remember his name; I think I foiled his plans or something.”

“So, to you it was Tuesday.”

“Well, it’s not every Tuesday that I fight an extradimensional monster, but it’s fairly accurate, to be honest.”

“I tagged along because Sky tends to make things interesting.” Alice said.

“And I was nearby and didn’t have anything important to do.”

“So the three of you aren’t really a party?”

“Somewhat. I usually tag along with Alice, and it’s not unusual for me to work with Wind, but we have our duties. Except Alice.”

Alex yawned, he was honestly a bit tired after this whole day.

“Do you want to rest?” Sky asked.

Alex shook his head. “Not yet, I want to talk a bit more.” As he said that, he saw Alice grinning.

“I’m curious about some things, what is your world like, Alex? Never heard much about other dimensions.” Alice said.

“It’s…different, but similar. There are only humans, no magic, no monsters, no system, no gods…that we are aware of, at the very least.” Considering that he went to another dimension, it was not entirely impossible that a god did in fact exist back home.

The three of them stared at him, a curious look on their faces.

“That’s…difficult to imagine.” Alice said slowly. “But kinda intriguing.”

“Makes me worried about nature in your world.” Wind said. “No offense to you, but the vast majority of humans don’t give a damn about it.”

“None taken, and that’s pretty accurate. I was honestly a tad worried when I lived there.”

“It sounds kind of of…nice, however. Not having to worry about monsters, I imagine life is a whole lot easier.” Sky said.

“It’s simultaneous much better than you think and much worse than you expect. Anyway, enough about the boring world, I want to know more about yours.”

“I guess that you accepted to come to this world for a reason.” Alice said.

“Yep. Anyway, what’s the deal with classes? How does that fit in with the whole mana thing?”

“Classes are a manifestation of what you are doing. Basically, the mana enhances your body to increase your abilities in things that you are already doing.”

“So…classes give you skills?”

“Yes, but also determine your growth rate.”

“Growth rate?”

“Next to your attributes there is a number that shows your growth rate, which determines how quickly you reach your next attribute rank.”

Alex stared at the witch, confusion clear on his face.

“Attribute rank?”

“Yes. Every attribute has a rank.”

Alex once again looked at his status screen.

“What do you mean a rank?”

“Next to your attribute there should be a number from one to nine.”

This time, Alice was the one to look confused.

“What?”

“I can answer that, actually,” Wind said, a smug grin on her face. “I’ve met a few feral people with status screens that are completely different from ours. That’s because they weren’t taught the ranks.”

“So instead, the status screen shows something that he understands.” Alice said, and then grinned. “Tell me what’s on your attributes.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“I have 100 strength.” Alex said.

Alice stared at him blankly. “Can you repeat that?”

Alex did so.

“That’s…not translating.”

“What?”

“One other thing that I can answer.” Wind said again, her smug grin getting bigger. “He probably is talking about something that either a: There is no other word in our language, or b: Has different meanings.”

“Thank you for your humble helpfulness.” Alice said with venom thick in her voice.

“I will be humble in accepting your undying gratitude.”

“Well, that’s nice and all, but…it’s a number. How don’t you have that number?”

“I have no clue.”

“I…will try to simplify it. Do you understand the number ten?”

Alice shook her head.

“Nine?”

“Yep.”

“Weird. Anyway, let’s say you have nine apples, you add one, how many apples do you have?”

“I’m having flashbacks to being taught the math…”Alice mumbled. “You have a rank of apples.”

That was weird. The way Alice said that she was taught math was odd, and why did the translator not simply translate ten as rank?

“Right, if you take these…this rank of apples, and add nine other ranks, how many apples do you have?”

“You have a prestige of apples. Wait, you are telling me you have a prestige in a stat?”

“Yes?”

Alice sated at Alex for a few seconds, her eyes literally glowing. “Impossible.”

“I mean, it’s what is in there. I think I am pretty weak, to be honest, especially compared to you guys. But why is this so big a deal?”

“A prestige strength is something that is difficult to achieve. A guy that appeared today to get that would be crazy. Wait, what’s your rank?”

Alex paused for a second, trying to remember what she was asking in the first place…right, his level. “Rank zero?”

“Unranked? That’s…”Alice paused for a second, thinking about something. “Sky, test his strength, please.”

Sky nodded, put their arm in the table and gave Alex an apologetic look. Filled with dread, Alex did the same, arm wrestling with Sky. Or trying to, because he couldn’t make Sky move an inch, he felt like he was trying to move a tower.

“He definitively doesn’t have a prestige in strength.”

“I figured as much. Then that means that…he probably is rank one in strength.” Alice said, and then looked at him. “Do any of your attributes go above a tier…err, nine prestige’s?”

“Nope. By biggest stat is…a prestige and…20, no, 2 ranks.”

He was struggling a bit with their weird math.

“If I had to guess…for you, a prestige is equivalent to a rank. That’s very odd.”

“That’s…confusing. Why didn’t it translate that way?”

Alice shrugged. “The system can be weird sometimes.”

Alex sighed, but felt like he would not be receiving any answers any time soon.

“Anyway, what does that mean? How much is a rank?”

“Roughly speaking, a rank in something means that you are average in it. At least among unranked. A rank two in, say, strength, means that you are twice as strong as the average person.”

That was a bit insane. Since he gained twenty levels, with his growth…that meant that he was thrice as strong as he was back on earth. Or…he should be.

“Wait, why haven’t my stats increased, anyway?”

“Because it takes time for the changes to happen.” Alice said. “Basically, the mana that you received will change your body and soul over time. You could rush it, but…that usually does long-term damage.”

He nodded, that…made some degree of sense, even if it was obnoxious. No sudden rush in power from leveling, it seemed.

“What’s your class, anyway?” Wind asked.

“Defiant. What about yours?”

“That’s pretty rare. I’m a Spellbow”

“You will never guess my class.” Alice said, giving me a grin.

Alex gave her a blank stare. “Alice, the good witch.” His voice was completely dry as he said that.

Alice smirked in answer. “Very difficult to find out.”

“Right, and you, Sky?” I asked, turning towards them.

“What?” They asked, seemingly confused.

Alex had a feeling that they had dozed off a bit, honestly, he couldn’t blame them, he also felt like he was close to that point.

“Are you tired?”

“Sky’s just bored to death with all of this talk.” Alice said shooting them a grin.

“I’m…not the most enthusiastic person when it comes about talking about the system.” They said, slowly.

“Why is that?”

The saint shrugged. “Choose a path, follow it. The details don’t matter too much.”

“There is quite a bit of important info that everyone needs to learn.” Alice said.

“But Sky isn’t wrong, really. That information can be helpful, but if you stick to a path, you will be good in it.” The elf said.

“What is a path to begin with?”

“It’s your actions. How you behave, how you act, how you fight. All of that becomes your path.” Sky said.

“What?”

“Sky is talking about it both literally and metaphorically. You unlock a path through your actions, which gives you skills, perks and generally makes you stronger.”

Alex slowly nodded. “I think I get it, but what If I don’t like the path that I get? Can I change it?”

“Yes, all you have to do is to change how you act, then, a new path will be generated.” Sky said.

“That seems…surprisingly simple. Just do what you want and you get better at it?”

“Correct, that’s why I think that you shouldn’t bother too much with the system, it changes to suit your actions.”

While Alex understood where they were coming from, he couldn’t agree with Sky, simply because he liked to understand the mechanics behind things far too much. Plus, his life was going to be on the line with the system, any advantage that he could find was good.

“All right. Also, you never told me your class.”

“Warrior.”

“That feels…surprisingly generic.”

“It’s what I do, ultimately. No need to get fancy.”

“While Sky simplifies it quite a bit, it’s…not wrong. A class being rare or common doesn’t mean it is any better than other classes.” Alice said.

“It’s about how you use your class.” Sky said.

“What’s the deal with my class, anyway?”

“There is a description which shows up if you think about it.” The witch said.

“Yeah, I saw the description, I’m just kind of…curious about the specifics, I guess what kind of skills I gain.”

“As I said, it’s a pretty rare class, I only saw a couple of people with it.” Wind said. “As for the specifics…from what I know, it varies quite a bit in how it works. It can be very powerful, allowing you to hit above your weight class, but it is very dependent on your own skills, I think. As in, your actual skill in combat”

Alex held back a yawn, he felt his eyelids getting heavier, but he wanted to know more.

“Remind me of what the Defiant class does, please.” Alice said.

“Really? Coming from you?” Wind said, shooting Alice a smug grin.

“I’m not going to remember what every single rare class does, doesn’t matter how much Logic I have.”

Wind sniggered. “It’s a Jack class. It gives you buffs based on how much stronger your opponent is.”

“Can you two explain some of these things? What is logic, and what is a Jack class?”

“One thing at a time, please.” Alice said.

“All right, I think…I should rest soon, but first, tell me about the class, please.”

“Right. Since it gives you buffs against stronger opponents, it means that you will level fairly quickly, but it will be much riskier.” Alice said. “On top of that, actual skill will be very important, since you will not be any stronger than your opponents. Personally, I would recommend you to go for a simpler class.”

Alex wondered how he was supposed to do that, but decided that it was a question for tomorrow.

“On classes, they are classified in types. Killer, defender, helper and jack. Some classes can be a bit complicated with it, since they can do multiple things at once.” Alice said. “A Jack class is one that can perform all other roles.”

“Warrior is a mixed defender and killer, witch a mixed helper and killer while a spellbow is a pure killer class.”

Alex was quite familiar with the subject after spending far too much time playing MMOS.

“I get it, I think. There is something similar back home.”

“That’s weird; didn’t you say there wasn’t any magic in your world?”

“It is…somewhat complicated. These types of roles appears in some games.”

Alice nodded. “Weird coincidence, but all right. For the last question, Logic is a stat, it often is seen as how intelligent someone is, but it’s not entirely true.” Alice said, pausing for a second, as if searching for the right words. “Higher logic lets makes you learn faster, memorize more stuff and improves your memory , but it doesn’t make you more intelligence, because intelligence is something kinda of complex.”

“I get it.” Alex said, getting up, honestly, at this point he had only heard half of what Alice had said. “I really want to continue, but…I’m really tired.”

“I get it; we all had a long day.” Alice said.

“I thought you two would never stop…”Wind said.

“You had your fun acting smug.”

“Perhaps.”

While the two were bickering, he looked around; the inn seemed to be mostly empty at this point, and most of the people whom where left seemed to be a tad drunk.

“Well…where am I staying?” Alex said, then glanced at the others. “I don’t want to impose, but…”

“Don’t worry about it.” Sky said, cutting him off.

“Sky just gave the waitress enough money to buy a tavern out of laziness, don’t worry about monetary problems.” Alice said.

“I just realized that at no point I asked why you three were helping me to begin with.”

“Because it’s the right thing to do. How do you think you would have handled yourself if we didn’t help?” Sky said.

Alex’s thoughts went back to that cultist, and to the fact that he appeared in the middle of nowhere in the middle of winter.

“Very, very badly.”

“No offense, but you need help to survive in this world, and I made it my job to help others.” Sky said, and then smiled.

“T-thank you.”

It was weird, Alex normally would be suspicious of such actions in the past, he had been fooled by seemingly kind people too many times in the past to trust this easily, but well…until now, they had done nothing but help him, and they seemed incredibly sincere, it was…oddly refreshing.

“Sky is too much of a bleeding heart.” Alice said.

“Pretty much, yeah. Far too nice for their own good.” Wind said.

Sky rolled their eyes, and then got up.

“Guess you aren’t the living saint for nothing, huh?”

“I earned that title, yes.”

“How humble” Alex said, a smile spreading across his face.

“I merely state the facts.”

Alex followed Sky as they went to talk to the innkeeper, he didn’t hear what they talked about, but soon was with a key in his hands. Soon, he was in a room, and quickly laid down in it, blacking out almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.