While we were all gushing about all the new and shiny additions to the store that we could now buy we had yet to notice the price tags that came along with said new things. We were all picking through different pages seeing what was new and checking the price came only later.

"What the HELL!" I heard someone say.

We all looked around to find the reason for alarm but found nothing.

"What's with the shouting, there's nothing around." Granddad said.

"Look how expensive everything is." Mark elaborated.

After being prompted to we all looked at the associated price tags of the new additions and couldn't help but gasp. They were expensive. The wall was the most expensive purchase we had made so far and that was 5,000 points and that would be tied for the cheapest option on this new list.

The introductions to all the different professions had different levels of pricing and the cheapest was 5,000. The most expensive was closer to 10,000 and those were the more magically inclined professions like alchemist and enchanter. We still didn't even know if the information packets even gave you the profession. It was assumed that it would but we had no confirmation.

It felt like that information would be included in the introduction to the multiverse information packet but that was the most expensive. It was an egregious 20,000 points. It felt like a rip-off to cost so much just for information and like it was deliberate.

It dangled answers in front of our faces but locked them behind a huge paywall that we couldn't afford. Some game devs were probably jealous of how ruthless it was.

We only had just over 4,000 points to spend after the pitiful upgrade wave and that couldn't buy anything in the information section and we wouldn't be able to get much for a while.

After the next wave, we would be able to buy two of the 5,000-point ones but then there was the choice of which. It would be a waste for everyone to get the same profession and we would need to diversify but that meant we needed to purchase more profession manuals and that meant points spent on that instead of defenses.

Since we were so close to being able to afford one, we decided to all contribute some extra points to see what we were dealing with. The only problem now was to decide on which. Some were immediately eliminated based on price like enchanter and others based on function like farmer and gardener. They were probably fine professions, they just weren't helpful now.

An argument was made to splurge and buy Alchemist at 10,000 points but that would take too many points from everyone. It would take 200 points a person in addition to the points we had saved up to buy that one and some people didn't have that many points to spare.

I had around 700 points personally and wasn't keen on giving up so many of them for a profession I wasn't even going to use. I was saving my points to buy a new skill and felt like a waste to use them now when we would have enough points in a few days after the next wave.

I had already given my missing profession slot a lot of thought and knew that alchemist wasn't going to be my choice. I could do it if I had to, but something else would be better. The one I really wanted was Enchanter but I didn't know if the cost would be justified to purchase it, plus enchanting seemed like an expensive endeavor that wouldn't be worth it during the tutorial.

If it cost an arm and a leg to enchant a sword which only increased its effectiveness marginally, it wasn't worth it. We wouldn't know how effective it would be until we bought it and someone became an enchanter but to get there a lot of points needed to be spent already.

Anyway, the one we decided on was Carpenter. Leatherworker was close but Carpenter beat it. Our armor was in desperate need of repair but the need for houses was greater. We were still living in tents and the only structure in our camp just materialized less than an hour ago. Plus, we thought it would help with making the spikes and traps we were making.

I thought it was kind of weird that certain things were classes and not professions. Being a nurse was a profession before and now being a healer is a class while making traps seems like it should be a profession, but it was a class.

Everyone wanted to see what this new information contained and were all on the edge of our seats as we watched the points cross the threshold and a book materialized into reality. For some reason I was disappointed but it made sense to be a book. I didn't know what else I was thinking it would be but it felt anti-climactic to just be a book.

Opening it revealed information on how to get the carpenter profession along with different things that the profession could do. It was a primer and a step-by-step process on how to become a carpenter.

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It was exactly the information that we needed and the mystery of getting a profession was revealed. It revealed different things a carpenter could do and some of the skills that they would have eventually and everyone got excited.

They had a skill that could cause wooded joints to merge seamlessly along with a ton of different skills used in building. They could sense the wood and strengthen it with skills to make it stronger and more resistant to attack. They could also make it more resistant to the weather and so that water wouldn't be able to get it.

Suffice it to say that it was a great purchase. I still had no interest in becoming a carpenter but others did and a few were re-reading through the steps to start. Scott was the most familiar with it since he built houses for a living and was the first one to give it a go. It involved building something from scratch utilizing specific ways of mana manipulation that you had to do.

The book detailed the various techniques and pointed out that making different things and using different techniques results in different professions and to be careful and adhere to what was written to get the desired profession.

The book said that failure to stick to what was written could result in receiving the builder profession or the woodworking profession instead of the carpenter profession if you weren't careful or other classes depending on what you did.

It didn't come out and say that those professions were bad, just that they were an undesirable outcome if you were attempting to become a carpenter. It went into some detail about why that was but wasn't too deep. All it said was those professions focused on different things and would excel at something different. Woodworkers could still do carpentry work but that wasn't where they excelled and the same went for builder.

It said in the book that it could take a while and since we were learning from a book instead of someone with the profession it would take longer. With nothing else to do but watch Scott and a couple of others work through the different techniques I looked at Austin and motioned with my head toward the forest.

He caught my motion and agreed. It was still early afternoon and wouldn't be dark for a few more hours and we would use that time to gain some more experience. Both of us were close to getting another skill and I could tell that he was as eager as I was to get another skill.

I had given my next skill a lot of thought and still hadn't decided what route I wanted to take. I knew for sure that I didn't want another generic skill like Identify, I wanted something to make me stronger. Meditation was tempting, but all it would do would help me recover faster after a battle and wouldn't help during.

I was either leaning towards another offensive skill like Penetrating Strike or getting another defensive skill like Shield Wall. It was a question of what role I wanted to play in the battles going forward. Austin and I worked well together and we split the attention of the beasts we fought, neither of us tanking it alone.

I could lean toward being the tank while Austin dealt the damage or I could lean toward dealing damage myself. I didn't know what I wanted to do and it had been on my mind for a while.

A magic attack like Mana Bolt or Ice Bolt was an option, but I didn't think it would be as good as something else. I already had one throwing skill for a ranged attack and didn't think getting another would be a good idea.

During the wave where I was surrounded by the weak rodents, an area skill would have been helpful but that wouldn't be as useful during the hunts that I went on where we only faced one monster at a time. There were too many options to choose from and I wanted them all.

I pushed those thoughts from my mind as we walked toward the forest and focused my mind on our surroundings. There wasn't anything this close to our camp but it was good practice to be aware of your surroundings.

Even though we had faced a wave already today -and whatever could be called the one after- we still had the energy to hunt some more. There's no rest for the wicked or so they say and we had no time to relax. We were ahead of the waves in terms of level and were determined to keep it that way.

There was another reason that I wanted to go hunt something but I wasn't going to say it out loud. I felt unsatisfied from the goblin wave. It was a weird feeling to have and it was new but it didn't change the way I felt. It was like a tease of a wave without the satisfaction of a battle.

I was all amped and ready to face down a dangerous wave but instead of a brutal fight, it was a slaughter that was barely worth it. I barely got any experience and a pittance worth of points.

It was worrying to notice how different I felt now from the start of the tutorial and realize that only two weeks ago I would have been considered a psychopath. I had turned from a person whose only battle experience was in video games into someone unsatisfied with an easy fight.

It made me wonder if this was who I was the whole time or if this experience turned me into someone who liked battle. It was infinitely better than being a coward but was something to keep an eye on all the same.

We gathered our gear and spent the time until dark exterminating as many boars as we could find. Neither of us leveled up but we were closer now than we once were and that was the point. We leveled yesterday and this morning so hoping for another was too much.

While we were walking back into camp there was something off in the ambiance. There was this underlying tension that stuck out from the usual cheerfulness that should be going on around this time. We still hadn't gotten back to where we were from before Derek, but this was different, something happened.

I looked myself over to see if there was any evidence of battle to see if it was me who caused it but didn't find anything. Austin looked fine as well so it shouldn't have been us.

It was then that I noticed that people were shooting glances toward the new wooden cabin that was in the middle of the camp like they were trying to see what was going on themselves.

I saw my dad standing nearby and walked over to him.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing's wrong, just unexpected is all." He answered.

"What is it?" I said.

"We have a visitor." He said.